Thesis advisor: Alyssa Goldman / This study analyzes the narratives that emerged in the news media’s coverage of violent crimes against women during the #MeToo Movement. Additionally, it seeks to uncover if and how news media crime coverage differed based on the race of defendants. I conduct a content analysis of the news media coverage of the criminal cases State of Michigan v. Lawrence Gerard Nassar and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William Henry Cosby, Jr. during the #MeToo Movement. I find that news media coverage of violent crimes against women typically exhibits an inverse relationship in which supportive portrayals of victims predict unsupportive portrayals of defendants, and vice versa. I also find some evidence to suggest that Black male defendants receive more lenient news media coverage than white male defendants. The results of this study demonstrate the power of social movements in influencing criminal justice outcomes and the news media’s role in shaping public opinion on criminal cases. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

This study aims to investigate if there has been a shift over the last 25 years in the discourses on how trade unions are being discussed in Swedish print news media. More specifically, I will investigate whether a social change and change in power relations of trade unions can be detected in the discourses. The questions that guide this study are (1) How have discourses and discursive practices around news media reporting on unions and their role in society changed over the last 25 years? And (2) What kind of power relations can be detected in these discourses? 52 articles from four different print newspapers within the period of 1995–2019 and six semi-structured narrative interviews with union representatives, labor market reporters and think tank representatives compose the study’s material. From the material, three central themes could be extracted and analyzed with the theories of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and power resource theory (PRT). These themes are (1) the coverage of trade unions’ abilities and agencies, where union initiatives rarely are covered and unions, in general, have faded into more of a commentating role. (2) The discourse of the Swedish model serves as a discourse of power and highlights the alliance of unions and employers’ organizations. And lastly (3) how the reporting has moved away from a collective focus to a focus on the individual in the labor market. Conclusively, the study highlights the relational aspects of power and question whether the Swedish model is contra-productive on the part of labor, as the lack of conflicts fails to draw attention and thereby also fails to create a widespread and collective understanding of what unions are and do. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka det skett en förändring i hur man talar om facket i svenska tryckta nyhetsmedier under de senaste 25 åren. Mer specifikt kommer jag att undersöka om en social förändring och förändring av maktförhållanden kring fackförbunden kan utläsas ur diskurserna. Frågorna som leder denna studie är (1) Hur har diskurser och diskursiva praktiker kring nyhetsmediernas rapportering om fackförbund och deras roll i samhället förändrats under de senaste 25 åren? Och (2) Vilken typ av maktförhållanden kan utläsas i dessa diskurser? 52 artiklar från fyra olika tidningar inom tidsperioden 1995–2019 och sex semistrukturerade narrativa intervjuer med medarbetare på fackförbund, arbetsgivareorganisationer och tankesmedjor samt arbetsmarknadsreportrar utgör studiens material. Från materialet kunde tre centrala teman extraheras och analyseras med teorierna kritisk diskursanalys och maktresursteori. Dessa teman är (1) rapporteringen av fackförbundens agens och förmåga. Fackliga initiativ rapporteras det alltmer sällan om de har i allmänhet fått en mer kommenterande roll än en agerande roll. (2) Diskursen kring den svenska modellen som fungerar som en maktdiskurs och underbygger alliansen mellan fackförbund och arbetsgivarorganisationer och legitimerar deras maktposition på svensk arbetsmarknad. Och slutligen (3) hur rapporteringen har skiftat från ett kollektivt fokus till ett fokus på individen på arbetsmarknaden. Sammanfattningsvis belyser studien de relationella aspekterna av makt och lyfter frågan om huruvida den svenska modellen skulle kunna vara kontraproduktiv för fackförbundens räkning. Detta eftersom bristen på konflikter leder till mindre mediauppmärksamhet och därmed inte bidrar en utbredd och kollektiv förståelse kring vad fackföreningar är och gör.

Previous research demonstrated the phenomenon of moral panics on “dangerous” games mostly from Western perspectives, regarding media violence and deviant behaviour. With the development of media technology, the term “media panic” has evolved from moral panic, representing the debates and fearful emotion from the public when a new media technology has been created. Digital games as a form of media technology have been developed to be widely played on various platforms in recent decades, which have not only brought concerns to the Western but also to Chinese society. The present study will introduce media panic on digital games in China by analyzing news reports from three Chinese mainstream news media: People’s Daily, Xinhua Daily Telegraph and Wen Wei Po (Shanghai). Content analysis will be adopted as the main method to process the news data (N = 445) which are collected from five periods between 2002 and 2020 (2002-2004, 2007-2009, 2012-2014, 2017-2019, 2020). Different phases and features of the panic will be analyzed through the classical moral panic theories of Cohen, Goode and Ben-Yehuda, and the media panic theory of Drotner. Topics of game addiction, Internet cafes, policies on the game industry, cultural innovation, development of esports will be explored when investigating the changing media attitudes toward digital games in the Chinese context.

The diploma thesis offers a concept of emotional paradigm of news. Characteristic features of contemporary news are emotional content, afectivity, and themes of violent and sexual nature. The phenomena are interpreted as a result of proliferation of emotional paradigm, i.e. a way of creating news which aims to arouse spectators. Emotional paradigm is manifested in a number of aspects - in the discourse, on a visual and auditive level or in a choice of news topics. An account of relevant psychological and neurobiological theories is also included. The thesis reviews possible implications of functioning of the paradigm. Hence, it offers an alternative interpretational frame from the media studies branch.

Representations have a significant part in our everyday lives as they shape our understanding of the world and are related to the construction of knowledge and the formation of social relations between different cultural groups. Previous studies have questioned the objectivity of news media and representations and argued that representations are not as objective as they often claim to be. Conscious and unconscious choices such as what is to be emphasized, included, excluded, choices of words, examples, metaphors, the journalist's background and more are examples of what makes the neutrality and objectivity of news reporting questionable. This argument is further strengthened by emphasizing that news production and its consumption is neither isolated nor independent and is influenced by different levels of power. The production of news is therefore a complex interaction between different stakeholders that influence what is interesting and newsworthy to be published because in the end, news is a product to be sold. This study examines the geographical representation of North Korea in the news media with a frame perspective. Framing has in this study been interpreted as a way of representing and is understood as a framework that frames a news subject and sets the tone on how the news subject can be interpreted and understood by the receiver. The empirical data, collected from two Swedish and two South Korean digital newspapers from two time periods, April 2017 and April 2018, were analyzed using a combination of a frame analysis and a content analysis. The conclusion of this study is that there are to some extent differences on how the news media in Sweden and South Korea choose to frame North Korea. During the two time periods, the Swedish news medias makes generally a more negative representation of North Korea compared to the South Korean news medias. But overall are the frames used by the news media in both countries reflected by the situation in North Korea and the world.

Necessitated by a heightened focus on global migration and its impact on educational realities across the globe, this study examined how educational experiences of students with refugee backgrounds are characterized in US educational news outlets. 385 articles from three online education news sites in the US were examined using a narrative-discursive approach. Analysis demonstrated how mutually dependent narrative patterns constructed students as resilient survivors, while schools were positioned as safe havens designed to support them. We show how these narrative patterns were accomplished through the use of common discursive features, positioning refugee student populations and the institutional responsibility of schools in bounded ways. We consider these findings in light of how broader discourses visible in news media narratives shape and reflect the reality of refugee-background students’ educational experiences in the US.

The ability of media to create powerful images, which shape how readers understand certain issues, is very important, especially when linked to questions regarding the attitude towards the Other. This study focuses on a problem which has not been sufficiently addressed by researchers so far – how unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan are constructed in Swedish media. Using Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis in combination with postcolonial theory, eight news pieces were selected from two of Sweden’s leading newspapers; Aftonbladet and Expressen, in order to provide a deeper understanding of the discourses underpinning these constructions. Thus, this paper finds that the media coverage of the group is often negative and conflict-centered, framing the unaccompanied minors as either suspected liars or criminals which further contributes to the polarization between “Us” and “Them” in the Swedish society. Framing unaccompanied minors in this way, Aftonbladet and Expressen can contribute to the (re)production of stereotypes, affect public opinion and influence political decision and action regarding the group.

No description available.

I den här fallstudien undersöks fenomenet representation i nyhetsmedier genom att analysera hur kvinnliga våldtäktsoffer framställs i tryckt kvällspress i Sverige, ur ett kritiskt diskursanalytiskt perspektiv. Norman Faircloughs tredimensionella modell används för att genomföra analysen för att slutligen kunna besvara fallstudiens frågeställningar: Med hjälp av vilka lexikala val konstrueras kvinnliga våldtäktsoffer i Aftonbladet? samt, På vilket sätt utmanas eller reproduceras så kallade våldtäktsmyter i Aftonbladets rapportering om våldtäkter? Analysen lutar sig mot ett ramverk för att förstå de underliggande meningarna i texten. Ramverket består av gestaltningsteorin, genusforskning och våldtäktsmyter. Analysen genomförs på tre analysnivåer utifrån Faircloughs modell, med hjälp av två analysverktyg: lexikala val och aktörens konstruktion. Fallstudien analyserar de lingvistiska valen som gjorts, ur ett kritiskt synsätt, för att se de implicita betydelserna i texten.  I analysen av fallstudiens första frågeställning identifierades ett antal kategorier som delas in i tre olika teman: förövarens narrativ, svag och beskyllande. Resultatet visar att det kvinnliga våldtäktsoffret benämns minimalt i många av artiklarna och är snarare en del av förövarens historia. Det empiriska materialet visar hur olika stereotypa könsroller upprätthålls genom Aftonbladets framställningar av det kvinnliga våldtäktsoffret som rädd, hjälplös och som faller offer för den överordnade mannen. Genom rapporteringen skuldbeläggs hon till viss del för våldtäkten, både explicit och implicit. Fallstudiens andra frågeställning besvaras med hjälp av resultatet från den första frågeställning tillsammans med en djupare analys på en tredje analysnivå. Resultatet visar att Aftonbladets representation av våldtäkter och kvinnliga våldtäktsoffer har möjlighet att reproducera våldtäktsmyter genom deras rapportering.    Fallstudien lyfter mediernas potentiella inflytande över den samhälleliga förståelsen för fenomenet. Vidare diskuteras det huruvida Aftonbladet, och nyhetsmedier, potentiellt har möjlighet att påverka och forma diskurser i samhället om våldtäkter, offer och kön. / This case study examines the phenomenon of representation in the news media by analyzing how female rape victims are represented in the printed evening press in Sweden, from a critical discourse analysis perspective. Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model is used to conduct the analysis in order to answer the case study's questions: “What lexical choices are used to construct female rape victims in Aftonbladet?” and “In what way are so-called rape myths challenged or reproduced in Aftonbladet's reporting on rape?” The analysis uses a framework to understand the underlying meanings of the text. The framework consists of framing theory, gender research and rape myths. The analysis is conducted on three levels of analysis based on Fairclough's model, using two analytical tools: use of lexical choices and the construction of the actor. The case study analyzes the linguistic choices made from a critical point of view to see the implicit meanings in the text.    When analyzing the first question of the case study, a number of categories were identified and then divided into three different themes: perpetrator's narrative, weak and blaming. In many articles, the female rape victim is minimally referred to and she is rather part of the perpetrator's story. The empirical material shows how the stereotypical gender roles are maintained through Aftonbladet's portrayal of the female rape victim as afraid, helpless and a victim of the superior man. Through the reporting, the woman is to some extent blamed for the rape, both explicitly and implicitly. The second question of the case study is answered using the results from the first question together with a deeper analysis on a third level. The results show that Aftonbladet's representation of rape and female rape victims has the potential to reproduce rape myths through their reporting.    The case study highlights the potential influence the media has on the societal understanding of the phenomenon. Furthermore, it discusses whether Aftonbladet, and news media, have the potential to influence and shape discourses in society about rape, victims and gender.

During recent years a subculture of people who live in “involuntarily celibacy”, so called incels, has received attention in the mainstream media. The definition of an incel has since the 1990s changed from meaning any person who is alone, to being an online-community of hateful, angry and lonely men. The popularity of the term “incel” in the current media debate can be explained by a number of mass murders and violent crimes that have been committed by men who are a part of that community. As of today, no incel-related crimes have occurred in Sweden, however the term is still heavily discussed in the media. The conversation peaked in 2021, when the Swedish psychiatrist and author Stefan Krakowski released a book based on in-depth interviews with Swedish incels. During the same time period, TV4 made a documentary on the subject of incels that contained conversations with three men who fall into the incel spectrum. The purpose of this study is therefore to do a thematic analysis on how incels were portrayed in Swedish news media during 2021, and analyze the result with help of two theories; news values- and framing theory. From this specific time period, 15 articles were selected for analysis. The results showed that there are some themes that dominate the media, for instance the perception of incels as violent or incels as sad and lonely. This study can be scientifically relevant to show a nuanced picture of how incels are portrayed and what frames that can lead to in society. It can bring new perspectives to the discussion about incels and by that further develop the research field of journalism as well as alternative subcultures.