By using critical discourse analysis this study aims to understand the asylum process in Sweden through the experiences of the denied asylum seekers as they are expressed in their narratives published online. The study also aims to explore how the applicants influence the asylum process and if the applicants perform any resistance. By adopting the power perspective and presenting the denied applicants‟ experiences of the asylum process through the perspective of discipline power, sovereign power and biopower, the study shows that applicants experience positioning which is imposed on them by Swedish Migration Agency. This research supports findings of the previous studies yet it presents the asylum seekers in a contrasting way, namely as acting subjects who resist and negotiate their position during the asylum process. The denied applicants do not just accept the assigned positions, namely the subject who can be denied, be deported and the unwanted subject, rather negotiate them in various ways including attempt to mobilization through the social medias and digital technologies. The study also shows how the family unit is used as a resource in this negotiation both by the applicants and the Migration Agency.

What is ‘legitimacy’? Is legitimation possible through non-linguistic modes? These are the key theoretical questions with which this study is concerned. It explores them in conjunction with an analysis of American political spot advertisements. These ads are situated at the nexus between legitimation and multimodality, and their relevance to contemporary politics on the world stage is reflected in the immense financial and skilled resources which have been — and continue to be — devoted to them. A historical perspective into legitimation, multimodality and the attendant concepts of rationality and irrationality is given, followed by a discussion challenging the assumed rational role accorded to language. So challenged, the discussion moves to looking at the pairing of multimodality and politics; first from a historical viewpoint, and then from a more contemporary one. The role of myth, in the form of the American Dream, is investigated, leading to discussion of political appropriation, branding, tangibility, affordances and the (im)possibility of restricting interpretation. Spot ads are analysed with a specific focus: first on modal salience, and secondly on how the semiotic richness of the concept of nature is exploited for purposes of legitimation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female protagonists in video games are portrayed. The material analysed consist of two game series of ten games each, which means a total empirical material of 20 games. The game series chosen for analysis are Metroid with its protagonist Samus Aran and Tomb Raider with Lara Croft as its protagonist. These game franchises were chosen because they have the bestselling video game heroines. The method used for this study has been a critical discourse analysis and the results show both a validated and contradicted result. The theories and the result from the analysis can confirm that female video game characters and especially protagonists are visually portrayed in an objectified sexualised manner. The contradiction is shown in the descriptions of the two female leads where they are both depicted as strong, confident and independent women in their fields of expertise.

In this study I have examined how Swedish artists are portrayed in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. I have been using a critical discourse analysis to analyze twelve articles, whereof six interviews with female performing artists and six with male performing artists. The main findings show that the journalist mostly describes the artists in ways that can be seen as normative for the female and male gender. The female artists are described  as strong and caring about relationships, while the majority of the male artists are described as brave and tough. Both the female and male performing artists are described as outreach and people who are not affraid to express themselves.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

<p>This research paper aims to show how racism, power, social representations and identity are created and reproduced through the media. The research paper will analyse newspaper articles presented about <em>Cronulla</em><em> riot </em>in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, CDA, as a theory and method. The research paper aims to demonstrate how inequality in the Australian society is reproduced by the media through the use stereotypes and certain social representations and how knowledge and awareness about this is relevant to social work of today.</p>

Though the field of Spanish heritage language (SHL) studies has seen a boom in research, such research has not yet addressed the materials available for SHL classes. This dissertation fills a gap in previous research by addressing the representation of US Latinos and US varieties of Spanish in the SHL context. The current study involves a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the presentation of both culture and language in intermediate level university SHL textbooks, in order to show how such texts present US Spanish-speaking people’s culture and their language varieties. Previous research on both history and Spanish as a foreign language textbooks show that US Latino populations in such texts are frequently reduced to numbers, faceless statistics or stereotypes (Arizpe & Aguirre, 1987; Cruz, 1994; Elissondo, 2001; Ramírez and Hall, 1990; Rodríguez and Ruiz, 2005; and van Dijk, 2004a; 2004b). Additionally, previous analyses of the presentation of Spanish in Spanish foreign language (SFL) textbooks show SFL texts provide “…varying or misleading intuitions about dialects of Spanish” (Wieczorek 1992, p.34; see also Fonseca-Greber & Waugh, 2003). This dissertation corroborates these findings in the SHL context and presents suggestions for improving the quality of materials used in the SHL context. The results of the current study clearly parallel those found by van Dijk (2004b); though the texts present “factual” information, it is the selective presentation of this information that culminates in an overall negative representation of immigrant and minority cultures, which is rooted in a metonymical understanding of what it means to be immigrant. Additionally, all the texts continue to promote a pseudo-Castilian variety of Spanish, while delegating student varieties of the language to appropriate home contexts. This bidialectal treatment of US varieties of Spanish excludes critical based dialect awareness altogether. This dissertation addresses the need to both improve and develop “…pedagogically sound textbooks and new technology materials designed to meet the Hispanic bilingual student’s linguistic needs” (Roca, 1997, pp.37-43). It is only through critical discourse analysis that we can assure that textbooks are indeed presenting a positive image of US Latinos and their language to students enrolled in university SHL classes.

This research paper takes departure from the contradictions of understandings regarding the purpose of operation EUNAVFOR Med, which operates in the Mediterranean aiming at disrupting the business model of human smugglers. The alteration of opinions concerns the question(s) regarding, to what extent the operation should be considered a securitization, and if so, of what? Research has consequently been drawn from the Copenhagen’s School theory of securitization, looking deeper into the involvement of the main actors in the operation, the EU, the human smugglers and the migrants, in order to identify if this operation could indeed be considered a securitization act. By placing the main actors of the operation in the center of the theoretical framework this research has been able to identify how this operation can be understood from a securitization theory and also what has been securitized. The methodological approach is based upon Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, framing both the structure and the analytical apparatus of the research paper, enabling an even broader understanding of the case. The result showed that there are indeed indicators demonstrating that operation EUNAVFOR Med could be considered a successful securitization of human smugglers. Also, in line with this operation, there are several indicators that shows how the EU has managed to pull a securitization move of migration, arguing that the migrants has formed an ‘uncontrolled problem’ for the EU.

This master thesis aims to examine texts of an international tourism promotional magazine Gotland 2016 to figure out whether it will help or on the contrary hinder sustainable development. Though promoters and writers held the beliefs to sustain tourism by prolonging tourism seasons and attracting international tourists, to our bewilderment, they not only failed to stick to its point as such but also expressed the opposite thoughts and notions among the texts. During the process of the analysis, the author found out that in Gotland 2016, the images of Visby, oceans scenes, summer, nature / tourist scenes and exoticism are strengthened while the opposite of these images are inevitably weakened simultaneously, which obstruct the extension of tourism seasons as well as lowering expectations for international tourists. This, in the long run, will hinder continuous development of local area in economic, environment and social sense. Particularly in this master thesis, social sustainability is discussed with priority since it is always likely to be overlooked and seen as less important than other aspects of sustainable tourism. In consequence, it is suggested that the wellbeing of local communities is equally important as environment protection and economic growth when promoting tourism development.

The issue of the Mapuches conflict has received different reactions from stakeholders and most important, government in the countries where they exist. This issue has gained much attention in Chile, where the Mapuche form the largest ratio of the indigenous group. The issue started more than seven centuries ago when neighboring groups started to invade the mapuches land, the aggressors where mainly Inka. And the reason for invading was that the mapuche land had dense forests and were rich in minerals. The fight for the mapuches rights on these resources culminated with the entry of the Spanish. The Mapuche were involved in a war with the Spanish for about three and a half decades. When the Spanish eventually took over the territory, they divided it between Chile and Argentina to facilitate smooth governance. The Spaniards who succeeded in overcoming the Mapuche had seceded from Spain and had become permanent residents of South America under the new name “Chile”. This meant that they laid claim on the resources and territory in the mapuches land. While the Argentine Mapuche have experienced relative peace, except for the Argentine war of extermination in the 19th Century, their counterparts in Chile have had a poor relationship with most government. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relations between the Mapuche and the Chilean government over four decades. The study will examine the presidential discourse on the issue of the Mapuche conflict under six governments, during the periods between 1970 and 2010. I am interested in understanding the factors that led to the change of narrative from referring to the Mapuche as peasants/farmers entitled to resources as part of their cultural heritage to finally being labeled as terrorists by the Chilean Government. In meeting the research aims, I will examine the historical development of the Mapuche and the factors that have defined their attitude and perception of various laws, policies and government actions on them. The study will employ Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis method where I will carry out text analysis, processing analysis and eventually the social analysis of the discourse simultaneously.