The purpose of the paper is to investigate how different religious groups such as Muslims and Christians are presented in the digital magazine Samtiden. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate whether and how different religions differ in their presentation and whether there is a clear agenda related to emerging beliefs.  The actual selection I chose to start from is the year 2018 where articles in relation to my keywords and delimitations have been shown. They have then been analyzed through a qualitative text analysis with the ambition to be able to answer my questions and the purpose of investigating how different religious groups such as Muslims and Christians are portrayed in the digital magazine Samtiden. By starting from my theoretical starting points about postcolonial theory, anti-emigration, post-secular theory and gender perspective, I, along with methodological approaches, have got tools to be able to analyze the material in a successful way.  My results show how the representation of religions is manifested and what distinguishes them from where it appears that stereotypical categorizations such as Muslims are cruel, violent and perceived as a threat while Christians appear to be victims of Muslim aggression. The Christian and "Swedish" appear to be intertwined and constitute "we" while Muslims are portrayed as "them".

This article is to scrutinize Western media on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa by looking more closely at the largest Swedish newspapers. It is to investigate the otherization of Africa and the African, more specifically, whether there are Orientalist features within the media reporting that can construct an Africanness, the Africanization of Africa, as well as the reinforcement of West's own identity, the de-Africanization of the West, portarying it as non-African, and more importantly whether the Ebola disease has undergone this de-Africanization process. Thus, also investigating whether Orientalism is applicable on Africa. Mainly Edward Saïd's Orientalist theory is used as theoretical framework along with other scholars representing ideas that can support the Orientalist claim. What will be concluded is that there are certain news articles that can be interpreted in a way that reinforces the Orientalist discourse, but that these are well hidden and in some cases only implicitly understood due to the selective reporting on certain incidents.

The purpose of this essay is to analyse how Samí history is portrayed in six digital teaching materials. The six teaching materials are intended for both primary school and secondary school. This comparative study aims to investigate whether Samí history is portrayed, and as well to present differences and similarities between the presentations of what that mainly represent Samí history. Therefore, a qualitative content analysis has been used to achieve the purpose of the study. The information regarding Samí history in the digital teaching materials has been divided into three categories, History, Politics and community, and Identity. Thereafter, the categories have been analysed one by one, through six converted theoretical perspectives of orientalistic stereotypifications. The study shows that the stereotypification of Samí history is mostly portrayed as ‘passive’ and ‘undeveloped/outdated’. That means, for example, that only two publishers of the teaching materials present facts about the minority group, as a resisting group to the colonization. The same number of publishers portray Samí history as ‘undeveloped/outdated’. The result is based on that the Samí perspective is mainly reduced and instead is the Swedish state, colonizers, the normative perspective.  The study also shows that the teaching materials have a similar way of generalizing the content, especially regarding the how Samí people wore affected of the colonization. The difference though is the approach angle, and the unequal variety of supplying the readers with further detailed facts of certain historical decisions or events in Samí history.

According to the orthodox priest John Meyendorff, the Byzantine dream consisted of the establishment of a universal Christian empire spiritually and politically governed by the emperor of Constantinople. This essay intends to shed light on the topic of Byzantine religious and political expansion in the context of Byzantine view on Barbaricum and the barbarians inhabiting it. The fundamental question asked is: how do the Byzantines view the barbarians outside the Byzantine Empire and in what sense, if any, does this view have implications for the Byzantine dream? To answer the question the essay examines four 6th century historians, namely: Procopius of Caesarea, Johannes Malalas, Menander Protector and Agathias of Myrina. The method being used is a hermeneutical method and the theoretical framework is made up of Edward Said’s Orientalism. The results indicate that the barbarians in Barbaricum were viewed upon with great distrust. The Byzantines considered the barbarians to be ontologically different from themselves. Furthermore, the Byzantines regarded the barbarians behaviour as uncivilized. The typical barbarian was deemed to be wild, cruel, irrational, mostly religiously backwards, lacking in education and, more often than not, displaying arrogance and boasting. At the same time they were mystified, and thought of as physically impressive beings capable of unnatural strength. Consequently, the barbarians were viewed upon as creatures of lust and physicality rather than, like the Byzantines, beings of rationality and sense. The conclusion can be made that the Byzantines regarded Barbaricum in much the same manner as the postcolonial powers regarded the Orient – through the construction of a dichotomy between the self and the other. Concerning the Byzantine adherence to the Byzantine dream as expressed by John Meyendorff, to spread the Byzantine Empire beyond its borders and consume Barbaricum by political and religious means, the results indicate that there are reasons to question Meyendorff’s assumption. It’s plausible that there indeed were Byzantine inclinations to transform Barbaricum. Furthermore, the results indicate that the Byzantine view of the barbarians played some part in shaping that inclination. It’s, however, also plausible that while the Byzantines may have strived to transform Barbaricum, it doesn’t neccessarily follow that it had to succumb to Byzantine imperial authority. The investigated sources seem to suggest that the primary Byzantine goal was solely to transform Barbaricum religiously and politically into something that resembled the Byzantine Empire but wasn’t necessarily a full fledged part of it.

The aim of this study was to examine how social workers relate to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, regarding their cultural background and potential social issues. In order to achieve a more profound and comprehensive view of the social workers views regarding the separated children, we selected to execute semi structured interviews with social workers. These interviews were aimed at those social workers who performed assessments and investigations concerning unaccompanied children. We completed nine interviews which we recorded and transcribed in a strict manor. When we analyzed the empirical material, certain themes where identified as more protuberant and thus we our selection was based on what we regarded as the most relevant topics, in accordance to the aim of the study. Furthermore, our focus was set upon the social workers views regarding cultural differences between unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and Swedish children. We also decided to focus on which views these social workers portrayed, regarding the unaccompanied asylum-seeking child’s cultural background and how social issues could affect the social workers frame, their assets and formulation of their interventions, concerning separated children. We learned during our study that the social workers are enduring a heavy workload, especially since the numbers of arriving separated children are rapidly increasing. Furthermore, the economical recourses, in forms of personnel, are not increasing the same pace. In recent years, societal attitudes have altered and more negative and separative views regarding separated children are apparent. However, the social workers have applied a more universalistic approach towards the children to show the resemblances rather than differences between unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and Swedish children. Our study makes evident, that underneath this universalistic policy, culturalization of the children took form and this development also affected how the interventions were framed. Conclusively, this study displays how culturalization of the interventions affected the care of the children negatively and resulted in a declining standard of care, as well as differentiation of care.

Syftet med denna kritiska diskursanalys är att öka förståelsen för diskursen om den så kallade “flyktingkrisen” i svensk tidningsmedia under september och oktober 2015. Denna specifika och aktuella diskurs har, som vi vet, ännu inte studerats med vetenskapliga metoder då tidigare forskning främst behandlar tidigare flyktingmigrationer i Sverige och i andra länder. Det finns således en kunskapslucka inom detta område som vi skulle vilja medverka i att fylla. Undersökningen fokuserar på hur ”flyktingmigrationen” och ”flyktingarna” samt den ”svenska nationen” och ”svenskar” framställs i diskursen utifrån en figurationell och maktkritisk utgångspunkt. Norbert Elias och John L. Scotsons teori om etablerade och outsiders, Ulrich Becks teori om risksamhället samt Edward Saids teori om orientalism används som orienterande bakgrundsteorier för att studera relationen mellan ”etablerade svenskar” och flyktingar såsom den uttrycks i tidningsmedia. Som metod har vi valt att använda oss av Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys, då denna kan användas i studerandet av konkret text såsom tidningsartiklar samt kan kombineras med en sociologisk analys. Resultaten visar att flyktingmigrationen samt flyktingarna framställs som ett omfattande hot mot samhället. Flyktingarna porträtteras ofta på ett avhumaniserande sätt, exempelvis som okontrollerbara vattenmassor. I ett fåtal fall är framställningen mer human och personlig, dock präglas dessa utsagor av flyktingen som den stereotype andre. I motsats till detta porträtteras Sverige och svensken som moraliskt överlägsna, goda, och icke-rasister. Den sociala relationen mellan dessa grupper kan på så sätt ses som en illustration av figurationen etablerade och outsiders, där spänningarna mellan grupperna verkar öka då flyktingarna uppfattas som ett hot mot samhälls- och maktordningen. / The aim of this critical discourse analysis is to create a broader understanding of the refugee discourse in Swedish national newspapers during the months of September and October of 2015. The main reason for this study is a perceived knowledge gap in this specific area of discourse, since extant studies focus on earlier refugee discourses in Sweden and in other countries. This essay attempts to understand how the social identities of the refugees and the Swedish population can be upheld in the media and how the relationship between these groups can be perceived. Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson’s theory of the established and the outsiders, Ulrich Becks theory regarding the risk society and Edward Saids theory of orientalism are used as orienting concepts in the analysis. The overall method is inspired by Faircloughs critical discourse analysis, since it enables the study of tangible texts such as newspaper articles as well as the use of sociological analysis. Our results show that the refugees are depicted as a considerable threat to society as a whole. The refugees themselves are often spoken of in a dehumanizing fashion, for example in metaphors of uncontrollable waves. In a few cases the refugees are portrayed in a more personal fashion. These are however unbalanced and stereotypical. In contrast, Sweden and its people are depicted as morally superior and good Samaritans. We have thus concluded that the relationship between these groups can be seen in the light of the established and the outsiders, and that the tension between them seems to be growing as the refugees are seen as a threat to the social order and power balance in Sweden.

Syfte med den här studien analyserar hur svenska historieböcker framställer Östasien, östasiater och deras historia. Studien inramas inom de postkolonialistiska studierna med särskilt referens till begreppet Orientalism som definierades av forskaren Edward W. Said. Studien använder innehållsanalys och Foucaults maktdiskursanalys som metoder för att framhäva eurocentriska dramaturgi och orientalistiska begrepp och framställningar som används i historieböckerna. Resultatet visar att orientalismen är fortfarande närvarande i historieböckerna, även om inte i samma utsträckning i alla serier och i mindre utsträckning i nyare publikationer. / The purpose of this study is to analyse how Swedish history books portray East Asia, East Asians and their history. The study is framed within post-colonial studies with particular reference to the concept of Orientalism as defined by the researcher Edward W. Said. The study uses content analysis and Foucault´s power of discourse as methods to highlight Eurocentric dramaturgy and Orientalist concepts and representations used in the history books. The result shows that Orientalism is still present in the history books, although not to the same extent in all series and to a lesser extent in more recent publications.

The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the visual representation of the crisis in Iran on Instagram by Swedish and the Persian news accounts. The study analyzes the images through semiotic images analysis and includes 20 images, 10 of which are from two Swedish news accounts and the other 10 are from a Persian news account. The study draws on postcolonial theory, specifically the concept orientalism. The findings of the study reveal notable disparities in the reporting of the crisis between the Swedish and Persian news accounts. Notably, the Swedish visual reporting predominantly portrays women as the sole victims of the crisis, while the Persian news media has highlighted both male and female victims of the crisis. Consequently, the crisis in Iran is portrayed in the Swedish news media as a "women's revolution," implying that only women lack their human rights. Additionally, the results  have shown that the Swedish news media has visually reported the crisis in a way that reinforces the stereotyping of "the other", which has shown to be consistent with previous research.

Title: What is a refugee, crisis & disaster? A comparative discourse analyses of SVT:s and Avpixlats reporting about refugees. The war in Syria, refugees and ISIS have been on the news agenda for a while. The perspective have been shifting throw different happenings about refugees, crisis, disaster and terrorism on one side. On the other side is what kind of newsagent that is reporting and there standing in society. Public service like SVT have there place on how to inform the public about different events around the world and then you have smaller news-agents thats growing in readers like Avpixlat who call themselves alternative journalism. They have less rules and regulations to follow in there news reporting and can therefor frame and angle information in a more free way. The purpose in this study is to compare how the image of refugees are created by reports from SVT and Avpixlat and how it relates to xenophobia of different kinds. The method that is used is discourse analysis and more precise Chantal Laclau och Ernesto Mouffes discourse theory. The specifik theories for the framework are ”orientalism", ”whiteness”, ”islamofobia”, ”myths”, earlier studies whit the theory of ”communitarian figures” and statistik misrepresentation of muslims as terrorists in news channels. Two different discourses where found in the material, ”refugee-crises” and refugee-crieses whiteout situation marks. The first one origins från Avpixlat and build on that there are no crises alongside the war in Syria, ISIS and refugees that flee from these factors. Refugees are fake, they are immigrants that come whit economic and potential terrorist purpose to other parts around the globe, with Europe in mind and especially Sweden. Refugees where seen as ”the other” in negativ terms, high rates if islamofobia were found, Sweden represent ”the good moral” and Syria represent the ”worst moral” in terms on symbolic witness. Europe and mostly Sweden portrays as the victim rather than refugees, SVT portrays the other way around and a drowned boy symbols refugee disasters around Mediterranean.

The aim of this paper is to examine how Ethiopia, Egypt, and Liberia are portrayed in Swedish encyclopedias. Specifically, it investigates the thematic elements that emerge in older Swedish encyclopedias, written between 1876 and 1959, regarding descriptions of the countries' populations and histories. As method the essay uses “conventional qualitative content analysis”, and the theoretical framework constitutes of Edward Said’s theory of orientalism.  The findings indicate that the populations of these countries are categorized and ranked according to value. The encyclopedias depict the populations of these countries as inferior and distinctly different. The older histories of these countries are portrayed as grandiose, but with a loss of prestige over time. The historical narratives often suggest that these countries are inferior to European powers and require domination in order to develop, either through European instructors or through European control over the state.