The purpose of this essay is to investigate if the agenda-setting theory is applicable as an explanation for the development of Swedes’ support for the European Union. To do so, this essay investigates five important events in Swedish integration into the European Union, namely the Swedish referendum about the EU membership, the protest during the EU summit 2001, the financial crisis, Sweden’s second presidency of the Council of the European Union and the British referendum about their EU membership. A qualitative content analysis was used as method and agenda-setting theory was used as a tool to analyze the development of the public opinion of the Swedish integration process into the European Union. 

The results show that the media has had an effect on how the public opinion for the EU has progressed over time. There is a correlation between Media’s positive coverage and the positive progress of the public opinion towards an EU membership. One of my conclusions is that the agenda-setting theory is able to aid the explanation of the change in public opinion, in a long-term perspective, rather than its short-term effects that have been previously proven.