Ekot från djupaste Afrika : En kritisk diskursanalys av nyhetsprogrammet Ekots gestaltning av konflikten i Goma, Demokratiska Republiken Kongo.

This is a critical discourse analysis of the conformation of the conflict in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, as constructed by Ekot, a news-show on Radio Sweden. The ambition of this bachelor thesis is to examine the production of a Congolese conflict for a Swedish audience and to find out how the construction differences with and without a reporter in the field. To obtain this purpose the narrative is studied as well as the use of voices that define the conflict. The construction of proximity between Swedish audience and the Congolese event and the meaning of sound to stabilize the formation of discourse within foreign news is examined as well. To conform and explain foreign news it must be put in relation to a starting point. In this case Ekot is ideologically and culturally dependent, but at the same time co-creator of the western order of discourse. The authors Virgil Hawkings (2008) and Anna Roosvall (2005) consider media to simplify the conformation of foreign conflict, partly through elaborating the significance of cultural identity. This makes the conflict readily understood by the media, but maybe even more significant, the conflict becomes easier to explain to the audience. The examined material consists of eleven reports concerning the news event in the city Goma broadcasted in late November 2012 by Radio Sweden. The method used to study the material is Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional model for discourse analysis. Five of the reports were produced without a reporter in the field whilst a correspondent in Goma produced the remaining six. Discourse analysis is used to study the relation between language and power with the purpose to examine how texts are constructed to shed light on hidden meaning, opinion and values (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips 2000). The analysis shows that the journalism produced without a reporter in the field has a higher tendency to lack deeper perspective and the journalists take no sophisticated standpoint within the conflict. The material also shows a connection between geographic distance and empathic distance in the conformation of the conflict. It is rather difficult for Swedish individuals to get a balanced understanding of the situation in Goma, and as a result Ekots responsibility in the construction of discourse that define the Congolese conflict is increased beyond following the western order of discourse.