Homelessness and homeless people is something that is described and explained in different ways over time. Since the 1950s, two discourses about homelessness and its causes has been competing with each other. One discourse hold the meaning that homelessness is caused by housing shortage and the other focus on individual shortcomings that make homeless to unsuitable tenants. In the media, homelessness and homeless often is associated with crime, addiction and mental illness, this reinforce the public perception of homeless people as deviants, which separates the homeless from society even more. The purpose of this study is to examine whether media representations of homeless and homelessness in an evening paper and a morning paper, has changed in the 2000s, and if these representations are consistent with those found in the reports of homelessness from The National Board of Wealth and Welfare. In order to achieve the purpose of the study and answer our research questions, the authors have used a discourse analytical approach using some key analytical tools from both critical discourse analysis and discourse theory in the analysis of the empirical material. The material consists of articles from two of the largest newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, and the reports from The National Board of Wealth and Welfare. The result of the study shows that in year 2000 the image of homeless as substance abusers and mentally ill middle-aged men who are roughsleepers is dominating in both Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter and in the report from The National Board of Wealth and Welfare. In year 2012 this representation of homeless remains but is no longer the dominant, when new homeless groups are presented in our material. Our results also indicates that homelessness discourse changed in the 2000s from a antisocial discourse to a discourse that focus on right. The study also shows that the discourse on homeless women has not changed in the 2000s.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-27121 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Ovesson, Anna, Fransson, Erik |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för socialt arbete (SA) |
| 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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