published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

In 2018, most news articles are consumed online from a digitally native news outlet and it is therefore appropriate to examine the presence of linguistic sexism in the digitally native news site Buzzfeed News. The material is made up of 159 articles collected from Buzzfeed News. Selected features at the lexical and discourse levels are analysed using a quantitative method with qualitative elements. The selected features at the lexical level include generic pronouns and nouns, focused on the affix -man- and naming practices for females and males. At the discourse level, the selected features include how females and males are described in terms of their relationships, appearance and age-related words. Linguistic sexism is found to be expressed at both the lexical and discourse levels in the material. It is mainly expressed in naming practices, the use of relationship words and age-related words. / Dagens nyhetskonsument får, enligt studier, de flesta av sina nyheter från källor online och då främst från digitalt inhemska nyhetskällor, också känt som digitally native news outlets. Detta innebär att det därför är lämpligt att undersöka närvaron av språklig sexism i den digitally native news outlet Buzzfeed News. Materialet i studien består av 159 artiklar insamlade från Buzzfeed News. Utvalda språkliga markörer på ord- och diskursnivå är analyserade med hjälp av en kvantitativ metod med kvalitativa element. De utvalda markörerna på ordnivå inkluderar generiska pronomen och substantiv med fokus på affixet -man- och hur kvinnor och män namnges. De utvalda markörerna på diskursnivå som studeras inkluderarar hur kvinnor och män beskrivs vad gäller deras relationer till andra, utseende och åldersrelaterade ord. Språklig sexism finns uttryckt både på ord- och diskursnivå i materialet och det är huvudsakligen uttryckt i hur kvinnor och män namnges, användandet av relationsord och åldersrelaterade ord.

The aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence of sexist language-use in the British online newspaper The Daily Mail. The material consists of 162 articles that were analysed by using feminist stylistics. The scope of the study was limited to selected features from feminist stylistics at word- and discourse-level. The features of linguistic sexism analysed were the use of gendered generic words, naming of females and males and how female and male characters are described. The gender of the journalists was also analysed to examine if it affected the language-use in terms of sexism. The results show that linguistic sexism is expressed to some extent at both word-level and discourse-level. At word-level linguistic sexism is expressed inthe generic use of some masculine words, the difference of how first name and surname are used to refer to women and men and in the use of titles. At the level of discourse linguistic sexism is expressed in the difference of how women and men are referred to in terms of their relationship to others and in terms of appearance. The gender of the journalist did not show any significance for the language-use in terms of sexism. Considering the limited material of the study, the results might not be suitable for generalisations. The results are nonetheless interesting and it can be concluded that the toolkit of feminist stylistic is relevant to this day and that linguistic sexism exists to some extent in the online version of The Daily Mail.

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