Through their coverage in the mass media transgender people and the trans rights movement have only recently stepped into the public eye. Because this emergence is so recent, it has not been widely studied within the field of linguistics. This thesis aims to explore the representation of transgender people in newspapers using an approach informed by corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. Using collocation and concordance line analysis it identifies and discusses what semantic prosodies exist surrounding transgender people in The Daily Mail and The Guardian during 2015–2017. Many different semantic prosodies were found, and most of them were neither clearly negative nor positive towards transgender people. The prosodies were found to sometimes overlap and reinforce each other, and dominant news stories surrounding transgender people seemed to have great staying power. The overall conclusion is that transgender language in newspapers is still in its formative years and that additional research in this field is necessary. / <p>2018-08-21</p>

Through Critical Discourse analysis, this thesis examined the discursive construction of terrorism related events and finds out the common definiens of terrorism in the editorials of two Bangladeshi English-medium newspaper. The Daily Star &amp; Dhaka Tribune, both the newspapers covered terrorism related events in their editorials throughout the year of 2015. This thesis finds out the discrepancies in the produced expression and in the use of other common definiens of terrorism in the editorials. The newspapers were different in producing expressions against terrorism while sympathetic in portraying the victims and usually supported the victims. Both the newspapers represented perpetrators from ideological perspective, while distancing the ideologies from religious teachings. The newspapers identify terrorism as a serious threat both to security, social stability and perceives terrorist attacks as a threat to many crucial democratic values. In light of the problem, the newspapers suggested various policy recommendation, criticized the law enforcement for failures and emphasized on the engagement of religious clerics to curb terrorism from a Bangladeshi perspective, while stressing on the promotion of secular values of the country and its society.

This study examined how the conflict in Yemen is framed by Althawarah and SabaNews newspapers concerning the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in the recent war. Using the critical discourse analysis, this thesis analyzed how each newspaper identifies and labels the different warring sides and the action at large based on the classification of "us" and "them," and "blame game." The study also examined and analyzed the texts in order to see if there is an approach towards peaceful resolution or motive of war. The findings, mainly based on CDA of 10 articles from each newspaper, indicate that each newspaper news framing strategies communicate different ideologies and social practices that explicitly reveal each newspaper’s attitude towards the conflict and their individual affiliation with the different warring sides. Both newspapers have a strong war journalism framing, and the contradiction in the narratives, furthermore, represents a subconscious conflict in the national media of Yemen.

This paper analyse how two agreements can be understood to facilitate the normative power (NP) of the EU by illuminating how they can enable four different NP mechanisms and thus influence and shape Ukraine’s notions and norms concerning energy security (ES). The study it draws on information from two agreements, i.e. Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Energy Partnership of 2016 (MoU) and the treaty establishing the Energy Community (TEC). If we understand NP as the ability to define what passes for normal and that NP suggests that the EU exerts influence by shaping the values and behaviour of other actors by redefining international norms in their own image. Then these two agreements are interesting as they constitute a nexus between the EU and Ukraine which could potentially enable that power as they can proliferate norms and notions of the EU concerning ES. Considering how the TEC has the goal to extend their principle and rule of the EU and how the MoU is created with the EU´s energy union as reference point the agreements might enable that influence This paper combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) with an ideal type analysis where the four NP mechanism constitute the analytical tool. The study reveals how the agreements can enable the EU´s NP by facilitating the NP mechanism, as they manage to proliferate the norms and notion of the EU. However, the aptitude of the different NP mechanism differ between the two agreements. Additionally, the study also reveals how the application of this ideal type is more suitable for examining organisation rather than agreements alone, as the full spectrum of the NP mechanisms potential cannot be illuminated. Although, the study reveal how agreements could be understood as potential tools, even if they don’t enable all NP mechanism equally.

The aim of this paper is to uncover how travestis are being represented in one of Brazil’s biggest online journals; Jornal O Globo. O Globo’s words reach millions everyday and are therefore a major discursive stakeholder. I have used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Queer theory to expose the main existing discourses in Jornal O Globo that relates to travestis. The study revealed how O Globo uses an active/passive discourse that limits the performativity of travestis; one expression of this discourse was the modification of the Portuguese language according to other rules than those of grammar. The performativity of travestis that linguisticly requests the usage of female pronouns was to a greater extent respected by journalists when the travesti acted passive/feminine as in becoming victim of unprovoked violence, told a story of financial or artisitic success, or if LGBT activists participated in the news coverage. In summary the active/passive discourse epitomizes a conventional Brazilian gender binarism that consists of two genders that is man and non-man. From a queer theoretical perspective I argue that O Globo’s representations of travestis continuously hinder the performativity of these individuals through their linguistic and discursive practice, which contributes to societal ostracism toward travestis.

This qualitative study intends to identify how the military profession is represented on the Swedish Armed Forces’ Instagram account from March 1 to September 1 2017. The method used is Multimodal CDA, which enables the investigation of both linguistic and visual elements. Ten Instagram posts are analyzed in order to examine how representations are formed linguistically and visually, as well as how language and images interact to form the picture of the Swedish soldier. The study focuses on concepts such as power and ideology, but strategic narrative also plays an important part in the analysis. The results show that the Swedish Armed Forces mainly tells a story in which values such as collectivity, functionality, challenges and personal growth are highlighted. Meanwhile, stories of combat, conflict and war are absent.

This Master Thesis studies the power relationship between NGOs, politics and the society by performing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on NGO press releases concerning the case of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the USA. Interactions between mass media and NGOs are rising, hence the organizations are contributing to shape the ‘reality’ and the public’s perception. As CDA has a special interest in social representation and power relations, this thesis examines furthermore the representation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the light of the theory of victimization. The Indigenous communities refused the construction near tribal reservations because the Pipeline threatens the public health, the Tribe’s water supply, existing Treaties and cultural resources. Especially with the Presidential election in late 2016 and President Trump’s signing of an executive order to advance the Pipeline construction aggravated the situation. To meet the requirements of a CDA, I transfer the concepts of a micro- and macro-level Analysis in the way of Teun A. Van Dijk and connect it in the end with the socio-cultural context. I draw on the concepts of power/knowledge as well as on the concepts of media logic to explain the power relations but also the social representations in the 28 press releases of Amnesty International USA and Greenpeace USA. I conclude with the findings that the Indigenous people are represented as the powerless victims, the NGOs use their press releases to raise awareness but also to serve their self-interests and that the NGO press releases complied the media logics.

Following the death of Mao Zedong the new Chinese leadership attempted to avoid some of theproblems associated with the concentration of personal political power, and Deng Xiaoping,though still playing a paramount political role, sought to rule through a leadership collective.Starting with Jiang Zemin, it has become a new norm in Chinese politics that the General Secretaryof the Central Committee of the CCP also serves as President of the PRC.This reemergence of (official) leadership concentration around a single person leads to thequestion of how transitions of leadership are presented within Chinese politics, and to what extentthey are indicative of new directions of policy and ideology. An inaugural speech is designed toset the tone for new beginnings when a new officeholder assumes responsibilities. This thesis usesinaugural speeches and speeches given in connection with inaugurations to the two officesmentioned above as research material to address this question. Drawing inspiration from aMaster’s Thesis by Tawfic and Fattah (2015), perspectives from critical discourse analysis areemployed to examine the relationships between language, power and discourse in the speeches.Focus is placed on the use of two discourse strategies: group orientation and group representation.This thesis assesses to what extent Jiang, Hu and Xi differ in their employment of these discoursestrategies, and if differences or similarities can be explained by correlation with changes in policydirection or the sociopolitical background of the speeches.

Bakgrund: Skolverket ställer i kursplanen i Svenska som andraspråk 3 tydliga krav på att skönlitteraturen i kursen ska vara skriven av både kvinnor och män och komma från olika kulturer och tider. Eftersom majoriteten av lärarna i Svenska som andraspråk enligt Skolverket inte är behöriga i ämnet, alternativt inte har läst litteraturvetenskap, ställer detta höga krav på att läroböckerna erbjuder skönlitteratur med en stor diversitet för att nå upp till kraven i kursplanen. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte har varit att undersöka om de skönlitterära utdrag samt de skönlitterära texter som förekommer i sin helhet i aktuella läroböcker i Svenska som andraspråk 3 motsvarar kraven på skönlitteratur i kursplanen. Metod: Den metod som använts i uppsatsen är kritisk närläsning, där materialet har kvantifierats samt kodats i olika variabler för att kunna analyseras. Resultat: Resultatet visade att läroböcker i Svenska som andraspråk 3 reproducerar en manlig och västerländsk diskurs och hegemoni med få inslag av kvinnliga författare och ännu färre inslag av författare från länder som inte tillhör västvärlden. Det såg inte likadant ut i alla fyra analyserade läroböcker, men i tre av fyra var kvinnor kraftigt underrepresenterade och i samtliga läroböcker var en övervägande majoritet av författarna från västvärlden. Invandrarförfattare var enbart representerade i två av läroböckerna, och författare från nationella minoritetsgrupper enbart i en. De läroböcker som hade ett större fokus på litteraturhistoria hade en lägre skönlitterär diversitet.

The current Finnish development policy, published in 2016, follows the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 sustainable development goals. With the help of a few tools from corpus linguistics, this study conducts a critical discourse analysis of the policy, using Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional method for CDA as its methodologicalframework and post-development theory as its main theoretical background. The study focuses on the definitions of development and its implementation as put forward by the policy, and how the policy text relates to its production and consumption as well as to the social and political context in which it is situated. Rather than working toward cooperation and participation which it promises, the policy reinforces the image of top-down aid dictated by institutions of the global North. It juxtaposes Finland as a giver and saviour with countries in the global South as vulnerable receivers of aid, granting little agency for the institutions,let alone the people of its development partners.