This thesis explores the ideological role of metaphor in British governmental discourses on ¿social exclusion¿. A hybrid methodology, combining approaches from Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and cognitive theories of metaphor, is used to address how social exclusion and other metaphors are deployed to create an ideologically vested representation of society. The data consists of linguistic metaphors identified from a 400,000+ word machine-readable corpus of British governmental texts on social exclusion covering a ten year period (1997- 2007). From these surface level features of text, underlying systematic and conceptual metaphors are then inferred. The analysis reveals how the interrelation between social exclusion and a range of other metaphors creates a dichotomous representation of society in which social problems are discursively placed outside society, glossing inequalities within the included mainstream and placing the blame for exclusion on the cultural deficiencies of the excluded. The solution to the problem of exclusion is implicit within the logic of its conceptual structure and involves moving the excluded across the ¿boundary¿ to join the ¿insiders¿. The welfare state has a key role to play in this and is underpinned by a range of metaphors which anticipate movement on the part of the excluded away from a position of dependence on the state. This expectation of movement is itself metaphorically structured by the notion of a social contract in which the socially excluded have a responsibility to try and include themselves in society in return for the right of (temporary) state support. Key systematic metaphors are explained by reference to a discourse-historical view of ideological change in processes of political party transformation. / BISA and CSV

The aim of this paper is to examine whether or not current textbooks in social sciences for the Swedish Gymnasium follow the criteria set up in the new subject area Sexuality, consent, and relationships (Sexualitet, samtycke och relationer), which was brought into the current curriculum for the Swedish Gymnasium at the start of the autumn semester 2022. The study is performed by examining what content related to Sexuality, consent, and relationships is presented in the textbooks, in what way, which discourses are influencing the books, and what effect this can have on the socio-cultural practice in the form of consequences for the teaching process. The paper uses a combination of gender and queer theory, together with discourse theory as a foundation to interpret both the textbooks and the criteria of the curriculum. The used method is an adaptation of Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, as modified by textbook researcher Lina Spjut. The material consists of three social sciences textbooks made for the class Samhällskunskap 1b at the Swedish Gymnasium School level.  The analysis revealed that two of the textbooks still contained and reproduced harmful heteronormative and binary norms, and lacked the norm-critical thinking required by the updated curriculum, showing influence of risk-emphasized silence discourse with elements of tolerance discourse. The third book was found to be more aligned with the criteria of the curriculum, having a high degree of norm-critical thinking, showing influence of a balanced-emphasized norm-critical discourse. All books were however lacking specific elements required that were added to the new curriculum, such as critical approach to pornography and information about honour-related violence and oppression.

As one of the world's most equal countries, gender equality holds significant importance in Sweden. This thesis examines how Sweden formulates its gender equality policy accordingly. From a post-structural feminist perspective, this thesis conducts a critical discourse analysis of the Gender Equality Policy in Sweden. The central objective of this thesis is to examine whether the policy contributes to the reproduction and perpetuation of gender norms that sustain hegemonic female and male identities within the context of a heteronormative framework. The concluding remark emphasises that by acknowledging non-heteronormative rights in the discourse, the Gender Equality Policy in Sweden can foster a more transformative perspective on gender equality that questions and dismantles the normative assumptions that uphold heteronormativity. By changing its discursive and linguistic practises, Sweden could become a more equitable society where all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, have equal opportunities, rights and protection.

Äldre personer, det vill säga personer som är 65 år eller äldre, är en relativt bortglömd grupp inom medias rapportering. Gruppen syns sällan i mediesammanhang, och kommer mycket sällan till tals. Detta blir mest tydligt när det gäller frågor som rör äldre personer, då äldres röster lyser med sin frånvaro. Denna studie har till syfte att undersöka hur äldre personer framställs i media idag. Med hjälp av den kritiska diskursanalysen analyseras 20 artiklar från de två största dagstidningarna i Sverige: Aftonbladet och Expressen. Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys samt Laclaus och Mouffes diskursteori används för att bidra till ökad förståelse för hur diskurser kring äldre personer kommer till uttryck i media. / Elderly people, meaning people who are 65 years of age or older, is a relatively forgotten group within the media covering. The group is rarely seen within the media, and they rarely get an opportunity to speak their mind. This is mostly visible when questions regarding older people are discussed, since older people will rarely be involved. This study aims to investigate how older people are portrayed in media today. Using the critical discourse analysis, 20 articles from the two biggest daily newspapers in Sweden: Aftonbladet and Expressen will be analyzed. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory are used to contribute to increased understanding of how the situation of how discourses regarding older people is presented by the media.

The following thesis aims to examine the social media use of the Weight Watchers, during a limited amount of time. The interest of losing weight seems to increase every year, after Christmas and New Years celebrations. This year, the Weight Watchers have been very active in advertising themselves during this period of time. In a time where a large portion of the world’s population is overweight or obese, health and healthy lifestyles are becoming more important, and the Weight Watchers could potentially be one small part in the solution for this problem. Through a multimodal critical discourse analysis, six social media posts have been analysed to see how the Weight Watchers are communicating with their followers and to examine whether or not the Weight Watchers are communicating any sort of ideology to their followers.

This study aims to examine and compare the representations of the colonial era in history textbooks from Uganda and Sweden to broaden the understanding of colonial discourses. Utilizing critical discourse analysis (CDA), it seeks to uncover and emphasize the variations in colonial discourse between the two countries. Findings reveal a nuanced portrayal of colonial history in Ugandan textbooks, characterized by complex and conflicting relationships between colonizers and the colonized, yet heavily patriarchal and overlooking women’s experiences. On the other hand, Swedish textbooks present a stereotypical and dualistic portrayal of colonizers’ cruelty and colonized inferiority. A potential implication from the analysis is that these different representations could impact students’ perspectives and identities, at both individual and societal levels.

No description available.

Transparency International published its annual corruption perceptions index in 2022, where Sweden obtained the highest measured level of perceived corruption in eleven years. At about the same time, an investigation into corruption and undue influence was discarded by the newly appointed government. The purpose of this thesis is to examine two current political debates about corruption through Norman Faircloughs model for critical discourse analysis. In more detail, the objectives are to study which discourses that can be distinguished, the characteristics of the discursive struggle and which discourse that dominates the Swedish corruption debate. In this thesis, political debates are considered as usable contexts to illustrate both contradiction and consensus regarding the corruption in Sweden. By using critical discourse analysis as an approach, the ambition is to visualize how politicians construct the image of the increased corruption and to examine how certain statements are presented as more evident or true than others. This study shows that there are four discourses that can be distinguished in the two political debates on corruption: privatization, increasing crime rate, accountability and openness and trust. The observed discursive struggle generally has high interdiscursivity, a few cases of intertextuality, and seems to be open to changes. The discourse that dominates the order of discourse is "the increasing crime rate". The results indicate that current societal problems, that are mainly highlighted by the ruling politicians, appear to have an impact on the political discussion about corruption in Sweden.

Public policies are often driven by a combination of factors, such as the elected government's political profile and the public opinion and pressure.  Media plays a vital role in documenting and educating public opinion on relevant issues, and that is not different for the feminist and LGBTQIA+ demands. This study analyses the Brazilian media representation of feminist movements through qualitative textual and visual analyses of selected news material from the two most prominent national newspapers ranging between 2010 and 2022. The study critically examines how the media has portrayed feminist movements in Brazil and therefore sheds light on the challenges faced by feminist activists in bringing these movements to the forefront of public discourse and driving public opinion in their favour. Overall, this thesis provides important insights into the role of the media in shaping public opinion and influencing policy outcomes. It also highlights the importance of media literacy in shaping public opinion and advancing social justice movements.

Due to its status and reach, media discourse can shape its reader's perspective on social actors and events, for good and for worse. This thesis investigates 100 headlines retrieved via searches in the NOW corpus, of which 50 portray killings of police officers by civilians and 50 portray the opposite, killings of civilians by police officers. The US headlines were exposed to transitivity analysis with a focus on agency in order to discover potential differences in portrayal when comparing the two groups. The results show that the killing agents are placed similarly, that the civilian as the killing agent is named to a slightly higher extent and that the police officer as the killing agent is presented in plural or as a group to a much higher extent. All of these choices may have different motives. The descriptions of the participants and the circumstances seem to be the most significant in comparison, where the police officers and their actions are mainly neutrally described and the civilians and their actions are often negatively described, even when they are the victim. The study highlights and discusses the imbalanced relationship between journalists and police, which perhaps needs to be addressed more often publicly in order for news media's portrayals of mishaps by police officers to be understood critically.