In a world where risks against climate, humanity and life is arising, we get anxious to act against it. The problem thou, is different viewpoints and interests in how to solve our global issues. In this paper the coffee industry is being investigated as part of a bigger structure in the community. The aim is to investigate how four of Sweden’s most popular coffee brands, Arvid Nordquist, Gevalia, Löfbergs and Zoégas, is communicating themselves as sustainable alternatives for the climate and society on their Swedish websites. To get another point of view the paper also examines how discourses, produced in four reports by the NGO SwedWatch, could challenge the four brands communicated identity. Using the method critical discourse analysis (CDA), by Norman Fairclough, made it possible to reveal different identities and ideologies that the coffee brands versus SwedWatch produced of the coffee brands. CDA includes three different levels, the first one analyzing the text level, the second one analyzing genres and the third one puts the two first levels into a societal level with help from the theoretical frame. The theoretical frame stretches from the meaning of discourse and language to Fairclough’s theories about ideology, values and critics. To answer the investigation questions, how the brands create themselves as sustainable and trustworthy, and which identities the coffee brands is having, it was necessary to use theories that treat building of brands and identity. The study also relies on theories about company responsibility, NGO-partnership and self-references as instruments for companies to create trustworthiness as sustainable. The analysis of the webpages and the reports showed that the coffee brands communicate themselves as good citizens and as teachers of sustainability for both coffee farmers and society. SwedWatch on the other hand produced discourses that made it possible to interpret the coffee brands as false in their marketing as sustainable. This made it interesting to discuss greenwash and different signs of it. It also led into discussing if NGO-partnerships really creates trustworthiness for the company and the importance of critical voices in the society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-115426 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Winter, Johanna |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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