National Swedish television and radio news broadcasts that are often produced in Stockholm have historically preferred commentators who speak what is seen as rikssvenska, but that has gradually been relaxed.
The definition of högsvenska (literally "High Swedish") was formerly the same as for rikssvenska, the most prestigious dialect spoken in (the capital of) Sweden.
Since the 1970s, both domestic languages have been mandatory subjects for all Finnish pupils in primary and secondary schools, but the requirement to include Swedish in the upper-secondary final examination ("studentexamen") was dropped in 2004.
Several dialects occur in broadcast media in Sweden, but the Central Swedish variant dominates and is often perceived as more "standardized" and more neutral than the others.
[1] The issue of whether Swedish should be declared the official language has been raised in the past, and the parliament voted on the matter in 2005 but the proposal narrowly failed.
Standard Swedish evolved from the high prestige dialects of the Mälaren Valley region around Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
The people were taught Swedish hymns and prayers but with a phonology that remained largely Danish or Norwegian.
In reaction, Swedish-speaking Finns renewed their cultural and linguistic connections with Sweden and a Högsvenska, based on the current variety spoken by educated mainland Swedes, emerged.
That resulted in a relation between Standard Swedish as spoken in Western Finland as opposed to Southern Finland, which mainly echoed the relation between Standard Swedish as spoken in Central Sweden, as opposed to Southern Sweden.