When death strikes in the local community : A critical discourse analysis of how the local newspaper and the tabloids portrays the local community after a murder

The aim of this study is to examine how the local newspapers (Barometern, Falu-kuriren, Hudiksvalls tidning, Skaraborgs Allehanda) and the tabloid (Aftonbladet) portray the local community in a village after a murder occured and how it affects the image of the village over time. In this study we therefore studied four different murders that occured in small swedish villages. We analysed how the newspapers construct the imagined community after the murder and what similarities and differences they have. In this study we applied the critical discourse analysis and in total we investigated twelve articles that all had social constructions and therefore were relevant for the study. The results show that both the local newspapers and the tabloid Aftonbladet portrayed that the murders had a huge impact on the community. The safe place that they once knew is gone and therefore they seek support in each other and stand united. The victim gets more space in the articles than the perpetrator. We also discovered that you don’t have to live in the village to be a part of the community as long as you show compassion. The difference showed that the local newspapers only included the locals to mourn while the evening paper included the whole nation to be a part of the imagined community