Uppsatsen undersöker utifrån ett normativt demokratiteoretiskt perspektiv och med hjälp av gestaltningsteoretiska analysverktyg om och hur det har skett en förändring i amerikansk nyhetsmedias gestaltning av abortfrågan mellan åren 2015 och 2021. Detta görs med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av 63 debattartiklar publicerade i Fox News och CNN. Gestaltningarna delas in i tre kategorier, Självstyregestaltningen där kvinnan beskrivs som logisk nog att fatta reproduktiva beslut om sin kropp, Liv- och Moralgestaltningen som beskriver abort som någonting omoraliskt eftersom livet börjar vid befruktning samt Känslogestaltningen där den emotionella kvinnan behöver skyddas från att fatta felaktiga beslut. Resultatet visar att Fox News genomgående använt alla tre gestaltningar, dock syns en viss förskjutning från Liv- och Moralgestaltningen till Känslogestaltningen. CNN har gått från att tidigare gestaltat abortfrågan med samtliga tre kategorier till att enbart innehålla Självstyregestaltningen. Uppsatsens slutsats blir utifrån Dahls demokratikriterium med den upplysta medborgaren att Fox News rapportering av abortfrågan kan anses demokratisk medan CNN:s gestaltning har haft en negativ demokratiutveckling. / The thesis investigates if there has been a notable change during the last six years regarding the framing of abortion in American news media. This is done by conducting a qualitative content analysis of 63 op-ed articles, published by Fox News and CNN, using a theoretical framing analysis tool created by Entman (1993; 2010). This is supplemented by Dahl’s third democracy criterion and theory of democracy (Dahl, 1989). Three categories were constructed by revieews of previous research, which were named the framing of ‘Self-government’, ‘Life- & Moral’ and ‘Emotion’. First, the framing of Self-government frames the woman as someone who is logical enough to make decisions regarding her reproductive health. Second, the framing Life- & Moral describes how life begins at conception, which makes abortion immoral. Last, in the framing of Emotions, the women are narrated as victims and incapable of making their own decisions. Moreover, in the analysis of Fox News the results show us that the framing of Life- & Moral and the framing of Emotions both were prominent in the op-eds. Furthermore, in CNN 2015 all three framings were represented while the opinions in 2021 only were represented by the framing of Self-government. The thesis concludes that Fox News coverage of abortion, could be seen as democratic because of their multilateral way of framing the topic. On the other hand, CNNs coverage of abortion could be seen as a biased and more undemocratic, based on Dahl’s theory of democracy.

The aim of this study is to perform a rhetorical analysis of how motherhood is used as a shared platform for rhetorical agency to discuss the deadly violence that occurs in the urban periphery. The object of study is the theater play Mammorna; a drama that is based on interviews with women of a low socio-economic status that lost their sons to violence. Using a close-reading method, this study seeks to investigate how motherhood is used to create rhetorical agency, as well as how the deadly violence in the urban periphery is articulated in the play. Furthermore, this bachelor thesis discusses the complex relation between the narrative created in Mammorna and the story of real-life people, to understand how the play effects the agency of women living in areas that are exposed to criminality and violence. The theory of this work is based on Campbell’s definition of agency as the capacity to act in a way that will be recognized or heeded by others, in addition to Entman’s framing analysis and Alcoff’s perspective on the problem with speaking for others. The conclusion made is that motherhood could be a useful platform to form a shared identity between women of different race and class to stand together against violence – no matter where it occurs.

Background: Diabetes is a global health issue on the rise. Besides genetics as a cause of diabetes, diet, weight and lifestyle are amongst the main factors. Due to the modernized society, new technology and risks, there has been a shift in responsibility of safety and health. As a part of a health promoting policy development during the last few decades there has also been a natural de-authorization of health knowledge and expertise. Governmental expertise has been decentralized to the society and so has the responsibilities. Traces of this new health paradigm can be seen in the media discourse. It has been seen in studies of the reporting of diabetes in North American press, that societal factors – such as labor market, health care and infrastructure – often get veiled by individuals’ responsibility and guilt due to lifestyle and life choices. This affects how individuals feel about their life situation and how the public perceive them.     Method and material: A quantitative content analysis was performed on 112 articles from six Swedish broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. The articles were coded with variables measuring article theme, dominant framing of diabetes´ causes and whose responsibility, what arguments are used and what agents with dignity can be seen. Excerpts from the articles were also analyzed with qualitative tools as modality and argumentation analysis. Results: Similarities between the Swedish and the North American newspapers were discovered. Societal factors and structures as causes and means of responsibilities were not as prominent as those aiming for the individual. The responsibility of the society was also reported to a much greater extent than society as a factor contributing to cause diabetes. This can be considered a sign of the health promoting strategy and the individualism that is rooted in modernization, industrialization and economic liberalization. Doctors and scientists were given dignity as often as celebrities and private citizens, which indicates the de-authorization of health knowledge and the further use of scientists and doctors as a truth repository in media. Several of the articles concern the critique of the diabetes unawareness and predominant individual responsibility that was the outset of this study. Celebrities and private citizens were frequently given dignity in these cases. In their criticizing, high modality contributed to a strong authority in their knowledge. / Grund för forskningsfrågan: Diabetes av olika slag drabbar ett växande antal människor världen över. Sjukdomen tros främst bero på genetik och omgivande faktorer så som livsstil, vilken påverkas av den omgivande miljön. Det har visat sig i studier av rapportering kring sjukdomen i bland annat nordamerikansk press att samhälleliga faktorer ofta hamnar i skymundan och att skulden och ansvaret för sjukdomen framstår ligga hos individen och dess egenvalda livsstil. Detta kan bero på en hälsofrämjande strategi som setts växa fram under de senaste decennierna, som en reaktion på effekterna av teknisk utveckling, modernisering och marknadskrafter. Strategin har inneburit en naturlig av-auktorisering av hälsokunskapen och individualisering av ansvaret. Detta hälsoparadigm återspeglas i medierna.   Studien: Denna studie undersöker rapporteringen av diabetes i svensk press, genom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av 112 artiklar från sex svenska dags- och kvällstidningar. Materialet kodades med variabler för bland annat artikeltema, dominant gestaltning av orsak samt ansvar för diabetes, vilka argument som förekommer och vilka aktörer som tillskrivs dignitet i sammanhanget. Detta kompletterades med en kvalitativ analys av några textutdrag från materialet, med verktyg och begrepp från och argumentationsanalys samt det lingvistiska begreppet modalitet.   Resultat: Det framträder stora likheter mellan de svenska tidningarna och de nordamerikanska. Samhällsstrukturer som orsak till och ansvar för diabetes framgår inte i samma utsträckning som individens roll. Samhällets ansvar för sjukdomen framgår dock i större utsträckning än dess skuld, vilket går i linje med individualiseringen av hälsoansvaret. Läkare och professorer tillsammans förekommer med dignitet i ungefär lika många artiklar som privatpersoner och kändisar tillsammans, vilket indikerar avauktoriseringen av hälsokunskapen, och den fortsatta användningen av läkare och professorer som ett slags ”sanningsvittnen”. I flera artiklar framträder just den kritik mot okunskap kring sjukdomen och hur individerna själva måste arbeta för att förändra läget, en utgångspunkt för denna studie. Kändisar och privatpersoner fick i dessa fall dignitet. I deras kritiserande av andra uttalanden de inte höll med i, agerade hög modalitet en faktor som gav dem auktoritet i sina uttalanden.