Using a qualitative content analysis, the thesis "Framing of Islam in the Czech News" examines the framing of Islam and Muslims in the Czech daily newspapers Mladá fronta DNES and Právo before and after the terrorist attacks in Paris (7-8 January 2015). Its theoretical framework views Islam both from the perspective of Czech society and the Czech media, the study of the latter aspect drawing on Czech as well as foreign theoretical works and research focused on Islam in the media. The thesis also considers the concept of media framing. The qualitative analysis aims to identify a set of frames specific to the media construction of Islam and Muslims. The extent to which framing is influenced by location (Islam and Muslims in the Czech Republic and abroad) and the Paris events (the development of framing over time - before and after the attacks) is also explored. Finally, the research looks at the role played in writings on the subject by stereotypes, orientalism, new racism (namely islamophobia) and van Dijk's ideological square.

This thesis uses critical discourse analysis to examine how the English-speaking press in Hong Kong constructs the conflict between the political movement Occupy Central and the Chinese central government. The empirical material consists of ten articles from the region’s two largest English-speaking newspapers, Hong Kong’s oldest newspaper, the South China Morning Post, and China’s only national English-speaking newspaper, the China Daily. Building on the works of Teun van Dijk, Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak and John E. Richardson it examines what political ideologies that are favoured by the press and what attitude the press shows for democratic development. The study reveals which different political ideologies and attitudes were communicated in the two newspapers. In this conflict the China Daily has been favouring the dominating political ideology and the South China Morning Post has been favouring the pan-democratic political ideologies. The results show that the South China Morning Post also was favouring the pan-democratic political ideologies in articles that were critical of the Occupy Central movement. All of the examined material from the China Daily has been unilaterally critical of the Occupy Central movement and has favoured the hegemonic communist ideology. / Denna uppsats använder kritisk diskursanalys för att undersöka hur den engelskspråkiga pressen i Hongkong konstruerar konflikten mellan den politiska rörelsen Occupy Central och den kinesiska staten. Det empiriska materialet består av tio artiklar från regionens två största engelskspråkiga tidningar, Hongkongs äldsta dagstidning, the South China Morning Post, och Kinas enda nationella engelskspråkiga tidning, the China Daily. Med utgångspunkt i forskning av Teun van Dijk, Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak och John E. Richardson undersöker arbetet vilka politiska ideologier som gynnas av pressen och vilken attityd pressen visar för demokratisk utveckling. Studien visar vilka olika politiska ideologier och attityder som har kommunicerats i de två dagstidningarna. I denna konflikt har the China Daily visats gynna den dominerande politiska ideologin och the South China Morning Post har gynnat utmanande pan-demokratiska politiska ideologier. Resultaten visar att the South China Morning Post har gynnat pan-demokratiska politiska ideologier även i artiklar som varit kritiska mot Occupy Central-rörelsen. Det undersökta materialet från the China Daily har varit ensidigt kritisk mot Occupy Central-rörelsen och har gynnat den hegemoniska kommunistiska ideologin.

Swedish upper secondary schools are assigned the responsibility to promote cultural diversity and foster democratic global citizens according to Läroplanen för gymnasieskolan (Skolverket, 2022). Naturally, as English textbooks try to incorporate this, the potentially problematic outcome arises of the depictions of the Westerner and the non-Westerner. The present research examines to what extent and how the four dimensions of Western-centric ideologies through the analytical lens of Van Dijk’s ideological square are manifested in Blueprint A 3.0 (2017) and Solid Gold 1 (2014) for English 5 upper secondary schools. How the Western-centric ideologies are manifested is discussed through the theory of Orientalism (Said, 2003) and its complementary linguistic theories problematizing Native-speakerism (Holliday, 2006) and Euro-English (Philipson, 2003). The findings of the present study highlight how the majority of the texts placed in the ideological square are about the Western “Us” and that the West is portrayed as superior through depictions of being developed and progressive while the non-West “Them” is depicted as undeveloped, oppressed as well as stagnant and timeless. Thus, the findings are in accordance with the theories of the literature and previous research where the implied superiority of the West is found. Based on these findings, it can perhaps be argued that the textbooks Blueprint A 3.0 (2017) and Solid Gold 1 (2014) do not fulfill the expectations of Läroplanen för gymnasieskolan (Skolverket, 2022), leading to the pedagogical implications of this present study where teachers are encouraged to create complementary material or address the Western-centric ideologies of the respective textbooks.