Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo criticizes mainstream journalism financed by huge corporations because of its incapacity to represent marginalized citizens such as sexual abused victims. At the same time, he has a strong belief in a pure journalism, and Blomkvist is the characterization of this belief. The character represents Larsson’s faith in the possibility of journalism that works for the people.

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Yasmim R. Silva Pessoa
Professor Missy Molloy
English 1131
31 September 2013
Journalism as a Legitimate Voice in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
A Scandinavian investigative reporter from the famous Millennium magazine made a
mistake that put him in the spotlight of the national press. This mistake led him to trial, jail, and a
life and death experience with a serial killer. He then worked hard to redeemed himself, and a
year later he was back to a good relationship with the national media and to his magazine. That
reporter was Stieg Larsson’s character Mikael Blomkvist, in the Swedish bestseller crime fiction
novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009). The role of journalism in the plot is as relevant as
the subject of the cultural subordination of women by men, and both aspects should be
considered. In Larsson’s novel, journalism showcases the behavior of socially prominent people.
Journalism attends to people and facts considered newsworthy, a set of criteria used to choose
what kind of information is going to be published. The corporate and judicial level of attention
Blomkvist receives from the journalists also contrasts the absolute invisibility of the other
protagonist, the female victim and avenger Lisbeth Salander. Thus, through the character of
Blomkvist, Larsson conveys his frustrations with the popular press, and his hope for its future.
Larsson exposes his criticism of and faith in journalism when Mikael Blomkvist can be
described both as a producer and a subject for the media. Blomkvist specializes in writing and
publishing news about corporate themes in Sweden. One of his stories was proved to be a fallacy
against an established businessman, Hans-Erik Wennerstrom, who prosecuted him. This situation
was widely covered by the newspapers and television news in Sweden. The first chapter of the

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book starts with Blomkvist getting out of his trial, and a countless number of journalists waiting
for him, and trying to get his answers about the prosecution (11). Blomkvist is, therefore, a
producer of journalism, because of his profession, and the subject for the press, caused by his
trial and his magazine’s sudden lack of credibility and sponsors. He also regained attention from
the press by the end of the book, when he could prove that Wennerstrom was actually corrupt
(569 - 577). By closing on the Wennerstrom revelation, Larsson illustrates Blomkvist as the good
and ethical journalist who would not rest until prove he was right.
Unlike Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander, an oppositional character regarding gender, social
status, age, interests, and actions, lacks media representation. She is not news because she does
not fit in the criteria of news value and she is not interested in becoming media subject. She uses
journalism and the contents that are officially released in the press for her investigative work as a
hacker. While Blomkvist works for the world, has a socially systemic job that is part of how the
society deals with information, Salander is removed from this reality. She works independently
and she searches for information through illegal ways. She never conforms to society’s
conventions and expectations of women. Larsson masculinizes her, makes her aggressive,
independent and, as the plot develops, a victim, and a vigilante. As she does not believe in the
legal and official aspects of society, she is constantly trying to push it away and live in its
margins. Salander’s lack of representation makes it clear that Larsson contrasts her role with
Blomkvist, and showcases media as unable to speak for all society’s voices.
Larsson employs Salander’s invisibility to critique the fact that so many marginalized
citizens are not supported by the system. By focusing on the character of Salander as a victim of
misogyny seeking revenge, Priscilla Walton’s article ‘The Girl Who Pays Our Salaries’: Rape
and the Bestselling Millennium Trilogy highlights the reasons why a character like Salander

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exists in the contemporary crime fiction genre. While trying to argue why subversive crime
fictions bring stories of victimized women, Walton criticizes journalism, using the term ‘media’,
for being unable to speak for these women, arguing that “the story of the rape victim, whose
identity is protected, often gets obscured, overlooked, and distorted in the media’s depiction of
such cases.” (21). In the plot, Lisbeth Salander disbelieves the media because of its incapacity to
tell stories that represent abused women, leading to a general disbelief in anything that is socially
established. Salander, therefore, exists to show the need to represent abused women in the media
and give them a legitimate visibility.
Thus, Blomkvist and Salander have different relationships with journalism. While
Salander typifies how a lack of representation can create a need to stand for herself and
eventually to other marginalized voices, Blomkvist symbolizes Larsson’s faith in news potential.
Larsson narrates Salander as an avenger when he affirms her ability to fight for herself when no
one else can.
Even though she was well aware of what a women’s crisis centre was for, it never
occurred to her to turn one herself. Crisis centres existed, in her eyes, for victims,
and she had never regarded herself as a victim. Consequently, her only remaining
option was to do what she had always done – take matters in her own hands and
solve her problems on her own. (237)
On the other hand, because of his work as a journalist, Blomkvist is the perfect representation of
a world that publishes facts that want to be understood as important to society. His actions can
become news because of his social status; and he is also searching for contents that expose public
interest issues. Publishing stories that are considered relevant to the public allows this profession
to be seen as necessary power against people who try to take advantage of the society. An

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affirmation of this thinking can be seen in the book, when Blomkvist answers didactically to a
reporter:
Oh yes, the media has an enormous responsibility. For at least twenty years
many financial reporters have refrained from scrutinising Hans-Erik
Wennerstrom. On the contrary, they have actually helped to build up his
prestige by publishing brainless, idolatrous portraits. If they had been doing
their work properly, we would not find ourselves in this situation today. (575)
Thus, according to Blomkvist, the press might not be working extensively to build a better
informed society, especially if we consider that journalism is also a business, owned by
businessmen who intend to profit through it. However, Blomkvist is the one doing real
journalism with credibility. And his role represents Larsson’s faith in the possibility of an ethical
journalism aiming only at public interests.
Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo subverts the conservative crime fiction
genre. By adding a character like Lisbeth Salander, who is seeking revenge against rape, Stieg
Larsson gives voice and power to a victim of men’s abuse. He also criticizes mainstream
journalism financed by huge corporations because of its incapacity to represent marginalized
citizens such as sexual abused victims. At the same time, he has a strong belief in a pure
journalism, and Blomkvist is the characterization of this belief. The character represents
Larsson’s faith in the possibility of journalism that works for the people against big companies
and dishonest businessmen.

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Works Cited
Larsson, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. New York: Vintage Books, 2009. Print.
Walton, Priscilla. “The Girl Who Pays Our Salaries’: Rape and the Bestselling Millennium
Trilogy”. Rape in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and Beyond: Contemporary
Scandinavian and Anglophone Crime Fiction. Ed. Åström, Berit; Gregersdotter,
Katarina; Horeck, Tanya. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 21. Print.