The aim of this study was to examine how Abbas Rezai, the first male victim of honor- related violence that received media attention in Sweden, was portrayed in swedish news journalism. The questions examined were: How was Abbas Rezai and the perpetrators portrayed in swedish news journalism and how did the portrayal of the characters change over time. We made a critical discourse analysis with Faircloughs model as a base. We examined fourteen articles from a morning paper and a tabloid, during a period of six years. The result showed that Abbas Rezai was portrayed as a honest, considerate and innocent victim, which makes him relatable to the western world. But regardless of the good portrayal noted, however, that he is all this despite the fact that he is an "Afghan asylum seeker". Which makes the news reporting ambiguous, and leaves Abbas Rezai on the borderline between “us” and “them”. When it comes to the perpetrators they are portrayed as heartless, brutal and uneducated. Which by the reporting manifests itself in their cultural and religious background. During the six-years-period that we studied, we noticed that the reporting of one of the perpetrators changed remarkably. He goes from a coldblooded murderer to a victim of his own culture. Which has its explanation in the constant flow of new information. The biggest difference we found between the morning paper and the tabloid was how they selected their sources. The morning paper focused on confirmed fact from the police and the court, meanwhile the tabloid more often choose unconfirmed sources. Our study overall shows that news reporting are producing and re-creating stereotypes and preconceptions.

Internationally recognized for and culturally self-identifying as a gender equality advocate, Sweden has seen a recent uptick in popular support among women voters for its far-right nationalist political party, the Sweden Democrats (SD). While nationalist movements are primarily distinguished by their nativist political rhetoric, academic study has consistently shown that nationalism also consistently promotes a traditional gender duality while denouncing feminism and gender equality practices. Likewise, SD also consistently opposes feminist and gender equality practices in stark contrast with mainstream Swedish political parties. This qualitative discourse analysis collected, categorized, and analyzed recent Facebook posts circulated by the Sweden Democrat Women's Association (Sverigedemokraterna kvinnoförbund) leadership to identify why women (ostensibly) served by Swedish state feminism vote for and even join SD in a leadership capacity. By utilizing constructivist theoretical frameworks of social and cultural identity with a post-structural analytical methodology focusing on problem conception, representation and dissemination, the resulting analysis shows that the dominating discursive theme is practically summarized as: "(in)security." In short, SD women perceive Sweden's (equality) feminism as unrelatable, irrelevant and/or intrusive in an "everyday" existence framed by a rapidly changing Swedish society due to record immigration, increased economic insecurity, and a weakening welfare state. In closing, three prime research areas are identified for future study: image-based content analysis of SD's political messaging, increased incorporation of security frameworks in investigative writing, as well as broadened research into how Swedish equality feminism can best include two consistently detached societal clusters: native-Swedish conservative and non-Western immigrant women.

As the United States prepares to elect a new president, immigration continues to be one of the most controversial topics on the national agenda. While Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president with the intent to build a wall along the border with Mexico, the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has opted, instead to push for comprehensive immigration reform. The difference in approach is symptomatic of the divisiveness within the immigration debate. To explore this divide in depth, the dissertation’s research question is: What does the discourse on undocumented immigration in the United States in the 2000s reveal about the most salient drivers of conflict related to immigration. Using qualitative discourse analysis, the dissertation investigated coverage of the discourse on undocumented immigration in the mainstream news media, hoping to break the discourse into parts that can be examined to gain a deeper understanding of sources of conflict. Through the use of qualitative data analysis software, coding categories determined through identified sources of tension in the discourse spawned themes and topics that helped to analyze points of conflict. Through analyses of these themes, the research uncovered elements in the discourse that facilitated intergroup conflict through negative constructions of the out-group by the in-group. In order to mitigate conflict, the discourse on undocumented immigrants in the United States needs to be reconstructed in a way that untangles immigration issues from security issues and addresses the racialization and criminalization of immigration. In-depth media coverage of immigration stories with context can help facilitate a more constructive discourse.

Title: Values, Desirability and Ideology in CNN Travel -- a Discourse Analysis on Travel Stories Author: Emmi Laine Course: Journalistikvetenskap, Kandidatkurs, H13 J Kand (Bachelor of Journalism, Fall 2013), JMK, Stockholm University, Sweden Aim: The aim is to examine which values and ideologies CNN Travel fulfills in their stories. Method: Qualitative discourse analysis. Summary: This Bachelor ́s thesis asks what is desirable, which are the values of CNN Travel, the major U.S. news corporation CNN ́s online travel site. The question has been answered through a qualitative discourse analysis on 20 chosen travel stories, picked by their relevancy, diversity, and their expressive tone. Due to the limited space and the specific textual method, the analysis was restricted to the editorial texts of these stories. The chosen method was discourse analyst Norman Fairclough ́s model of evaluation, which revealed the explicit and implicit ways the media texts suggest desired characteristics. These linguistic devices took the readers ́ agreement for granted, as they imposed a shared cultural ground with common values, which is a base for a mutual understanding. After identifying the explicit and implicit evaluations, they were organized according to some major discursive themes found in the texts, and finally analyzed in order to expose their underlying values. The results showed how these certain values brought forth certain ideologies, to some extent in keeping with recent research of tourism and travel journalism. As the study has been put into a larger context of related research, the following pages will first explain some larger concepts of discourse analysis, such as representation, cultural stereotypes, ideology and power. A cross-section from older to more contemporary theories in culture studies has been utilized; moving from Edward Said ́s postcolonial classic Orientalism, an example of cultural stereotyping, to the more recent topics of ‘promotion culture’ and consumerism, and tourism researcher John Urry ́s ideas about the consumption of places and the ‘tourist gaze.’ In the end, the study considers what kind of power does travel journalism possess over the represented tourism destinations. Finally, when questioning the travel journalists ́ legitimacy and power to represent the travel destinations, poststructuralist Michel Foucault ́s theory about the ‘regime of truth,’ as well as Antonio Gramsci ́s ideas of ‘hegemony,’ theory of dominance through consent, were discussed and confirmed.

CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Institute of International Studies Elisabeth Anna Hobl Changing the interpretation of monuments for the purpose of influencing the Czechoslovak collective identity through Rudé Právo and presidential speeches (1948-1957) Masters thesis Prague 2015 Abstract The Communist Party of Czechoslovak (KSČ) tried self-servingly to shape the interpretation of Czechoslovak history. National identity can theoretically change over time by adapting amongst others collective memory. As collective memory also consists of several components the thesis focuses on early attempts to influence Czechoslovak national identity by altering the meaning of certain historical events represented by specific monuments in the period 1948- 1957. A monument's meaning derives from discourse and traditions. The analysis shows that Rudé Právo articles and Presidential speeches were part of a discourse used to influence the meaning of monuments. The case studies: Bethlehem Chapel was to symbolize the historical Hussite legacy continued by the KSČ; the Monument of National Liberation was to commemorate World War Two soldiers and important communists; the Monument of the Soviet Tank Drivers was to commemorate the Red Army as Czechoslovakia's sole liberator. These interpretations were meant...