Formation of a region: Source strategies and media images of the Sweden-Danish Oresund Region

The research applies media discourse analysis and late modernity theory to the social construction of the transnational Oresund Region between the South of Sweden and East of Denmark. Based on interviews with PR sources and journalists, analysis of newspaper texts and opinion polls, the study found that despite trans-national aims the region is mainly constructed through Swedish or Danish national perspectives. It was also found that as a news management strategy, the factual strategy, emphasizing logical arguments and the production of reports, surveys, analysis, books and seminars aimed towards opinion elites, has been most successful. The communicated region is dominated by a national growth discourse where regional political-economical elites support local and national growth prior to other values. The media formation of the Oresund Region is dominated by elite actors and has an auto-communicative character.