In this study, we have analyzed Warner Bros. Games communication regarding their recently published video game, Hogwarts Legacy, in relation to the controversial backlash the author of the fictional universe, J.K. Rowling, has received. We have arrived at two research questions to study the subject: What discourse can we identify that has been formed through the excerpts we’ve found from Warner Bros. Games external communication, about and in Hogwarts Legacy regarding the controversies that have circulated the game? and How does this discourse illustrate Warner Bros. Games’ external communicative management of the situation, and how can we interpret this from a critical perspective?  Our study is based mainly on Faircloughs (1989) three-dimensional model within the Critical Discourse Analysis tradition, with help from Beck (1997) and his theories on the modern society with his term sub-politics. We have used these frameworks to analyze a total of seven artifacts from Warner Bros. Games and their related organizations. Our collected material has been limited, but our results we’ve gathered from it show that the communication of Warner Bros. Games and their related organizations within the same brand has been ambiguous and tentative. This leads to a series of problems, both ethically, for those affected by the situation, and operationally, for Warner Bros. Games as an organization.  Our study contributes to the field of organizational communication by showing an example of how affected modern organizations are by their surroundings, including parts that do not directly relate to their operations. It also demonstrates the influential position individual celebrities carry over certain brands and organizations, which can result in critical issues. More research is required on the subject, to help us understand the phenomena and give us tools to work with them. Hopefully, our study is an example of such research.

Feminist and Educational research on schoolbooks in the Greek educational context has discussed the ways in which gender or nationality or religion are being portrayed but has failed to touch upon sexuality and race (and other categories) and deploy an intersectional feminist perspective in their approaches, focusing only on one category. This thesis aims to fill the gap identified in the literature and investigate the portrayal and intersection of gender, sexuality, race, nationality, and religion in the discourses of selected texts of the Political Education schoolbook used in the first grade of highschool and the ways in which this portrayal and intersection challenges or reinforces hegemonic exclusionary discourses, power dynamics and hierarchies. From an intersectional feminist standpoint and a post-structuralist epistemological view, I used Critical Discourse Analysis as a method to achieve this goal, critically engage with the selected texts and uncover/deconstruct the ideologies and power dynamics created by the texts’ discourses. The findings reveal that nationality and religion are explicit in the texts, while gender, sexuality, and race are constructed in more subtle ways. The texts portray nationality as rigid and unchangeable, intersecting with Orthodox Christianity maintaining hegemonic nationalist discourses on“Greekness”. The absence of race and the implied whiteness as the default perpetuate racial hierarchies. Moreover, the portrayal and intersection of religion with gender and sexuality echo elements of gender binarism, compulsory heterosexuality, biological determinism, and cis/heteronormativity, reinforcing the dominant gender/sexual system and leaving no space for those who do not fit into it.

Due to its status and reach, media discourse can shape its reader's perspective on social actors and events, for good and for worse. This thesis investigates 100 headlines retrieved via searches in the NOW corpus, of which 50 portray killings of police officers by civilians and 50 portray the opposite, killings of civilians by police officers. The US headlines were exposed to transitivity analysis with a focus on agency in order to discover potential differences in portrayal when comparing the two groups. The results show that the killing agents are placed similarly, that the civilian as the killing agent is named to a slightly higher extent and that the police officer as the killing agent is presented in plural or as a group to a much higher extent. All of these choices may have different motives. The descriptions of the participants and the circumstances seem to be the most significant in comparison, where the police officers and their actions are mainly neutrally described and the civilians and their actions are often negatively described, even when they are the victim. The study highlights and discusses the imbalanced relationship between journalists and police, which perhaps needs to be addressed more often publicly in order for news media's portrayals of mishaps by police officers to be understood critically.

The first part of this study examines how Sámi as a social construction was shaped by the outside world from 98 CE to the mid-19th century. Ancient texts, medieval letters and literature that indicate change in discourse are used as primary sources in a historico-critical analysis. The sources are discussed with the help of secondary literature based on a constructionist approach, where language and discourse are at the core of shaping our objective reality and knowledge. The analysis of the historical sources helps us to understand our philosophical a priori, the unconscious imprint that is our worldview, our conceptual world, our boundaries, and our colonial heritage. The second part of the study analyses how the construction appears in the contemporary issue of the repatriation of Sámi remains in Swedish news articles between 1999 and 2022. The approach used in the second part is critical discourse analysis, a desktop method suitable for studying existing texts from the outside without disturbing the indigenous population. The contemporary article texts can be used to highlight the discourse and its intertextuality with the earliest writings on the Sámi. Together they can illustrate the hidden oppression of the Sámi.

Aim: To examine how the New York Times portrays Melania Trump in her role as First Lady. Methodology: A qualitative discourse analysis of newspaper articles from the New York Time’s online publication. The main theoretical and methodological foundation is Fairclough’s concept of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Yvonne Hirdman’s theories about gender system and gender contract. Main results: The main results of the analysis is that Melania Trump is depicted as absent, non-traditional, irresponsible, unhappy, greedy, non-supportive, illiterate, that she is mimicking other First Ladies, responsible for her husband’s actions, that she prioritizes motherhood over the First Lady role, and that she is compared to other women in a negative light.

No description available.

Kommuner är en institution som agerar på lokal nivå, nära medborgarna och till vilka medborgare kan vända sig när det uppstår problem i vardagen. De har ett ansvar gentemot sina invånare att genomföra det som ligger inom deras ansvarsområden. Men då kommunerna själva kan informera om sina ansvarsområden och vad de gör har de även makt att till- och avskriva aktörer ansvar genom språkliga strategier. Syftet med denna studie har varit att blottlägga hur ansvar fördelas i kommuners informativa texter. Detta har gjorts genom att analysera vilka som förekommer som förstadeltagare och i vilka kontexter dessa förekommer. Det material som undersökts har varit nio texter från olika kommuner i Region Gävleborg som behandlar ämnet vinterväghållning. Genom att tillämpa en transitivitetsanalys och deltagaranalys, med vissa inslag av grammatiska metaforer och modalitet, inom ramen för systemisk-funktionell grammatik och kritisk diskursanalys har detta mål uppnåtts. Resultatet visar att icke-mänskliga aktörer såsom händelser eller nominaliseringar var vanligast förekommande som förstadeltagare. Sällan tillskrevs kommunerna ansvar som förstadeltagare i negativa kontexter som outfört arbete eller plogskador. Detta liknar tidigare undersökningar om myndighetsdiskurs där myndigheten eller kommunen sällan intog deltagarroller när negativa ämnen behandlades. Därmed skulle även kommuntexter gällande vinterväghållning kunna placera sig inom denna myndighetsdiskurs där myndigheten eller kommunen själv avskriver sig ansvaret genom olikaspråkliga strategier.

<p>Immigration is a complex process that involves multiple social, economic and political challenges. Immigrants face numerous structural barriers throughout the settlement process including “stress, underemployment, downward mobility, discrimination, poor housing, lack of access to services, and inadequate social support” (Simich, Beiser, Stewart and Mwakarimba, 2010, p. 260) that contribute to their status as a marginalized social group. The discourse of ‘culture’ is a prevalent paradigm to explain the integration outcomes of immigrants in our society. From a critical perspective, the discourse of acculturation can be used to perpetuate social power imbalances by universalizing dominant culture, obscuring the effects of social power imbalances and essentializing immigrant identities.</p> <p>This research examines the social justice implications of the public discourse on immigrant families through a critical discourse analysis of three popular culture films with the central theme of immigrant family conflict. Analysis of the films reveals that the discourse of immigrant family pathology is present in the narrative structure of all three films. At the same time, all of the films also represent counter narratives that highlight the complexity and fluidity of contemporary immigrant identities. It is argued that the films represent the protagonists engaging in the process of challenging both mainstream and traditional essentialized cultural identities. This process, termed ‘the third space’ by Bhabha (1990), is argued to have emancipatory potential for immigrant communities and for the pursuit of social justice.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

As a result of the war in Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians are in a position as refugees. Sweden has for decadesbeen an immigrant country and received refugees from many different war-torn countries. Previous researchshows that the media influence public opinion towards ethnic minorities. The purpose of the essay is to findout how in the Swedish context in discourse a distinction is made between refugees depending on wherethey are from. The focus is on what representations refugees are attributed to and how refugees are portrayedin the mass media in the Swedish context. This is done with the theory and method of critical discourseanalysis as well as postcolonial theory. From postcolonial theory, racialization processes are used as toolsof analysis and "us and them" as a discursive tool. The analysis indicates that there is a difference in thediscourse on refugee immigration. Refugees are divided into European and non-European refugees. Refugeegroups are attributed to various representations that can be based on the essentialist view of humanity. Arefugee group is attributed to representations such as criminality, honor oppression and considered to be inessence different. At the same time, the other refugee group is attributed to portrayals as culturally equal andessentialistically good. This, in turn, creates different discourses about different refugee groups. One that iswelcome and one that is rejected. The results are important because discourse in say is constituted by thesocial practice.

The purpose with this essay is to, through societal discussion via different media, analyze how citizenship and legitimacy is constructed and negotiated through the discourses surrounding two vulnerable groups in the swedish society, the roma people and the syrian refugees. By analyzing different types of texts from two local newspapers and also from new media such as blogs and archived chats it is possible to see how certain groups are stigmatized and objects of discrimination.  The material in the analyze is coded by which type of text it belongs to but it is also categorized by how official the pespective of the writer is, and it is argued that the role of the traditional media still is very important in terms of educating the public about issues and groups in society which they would likely meet and interact with themselves.  The analysis also focus on which geographical perspective the writer has since this could show if an issue, theme or discourse is contextualized with bigger issues and globalization.  The theoretical and methodical frame work of this analyze is critical discourse analysis with the focus on discursive construction of national identity by Wodak. Theories about citizenship and legitimacy according to Lister also applies to the study.  Keywords: Discourse analysis, CDA, citizenship, legitimacy, roma, syria, migrants, refugees