TV-spel och folkbibliotek - nya medier, mediepanik och biblioteksdiskurser

The aim of this master's thesis is to study what attitude public libraries in Sweden show towards video games. By using critical discourse analysis as both theory and method we analyse several texts emerging from a debate mainly discussed in blogs. Main topics in the debate are video games in the library, the purpose of the public library and Library 2.0. Our analysis focus on views expressed concerning the work and purpose of the public library, the librarian and the library user - and to identify the main visible discourses in the discussion. Our findings consist of two discourses representing two different views in the debate. We call these two discourses the general educational discourse and the interactive discourse. The first one represents a traditional view of the library, the librarian, the library user, the quality in selection, and culture. The latter has a more user-centred view of the library's work and purpose, a will to include video games in the public library and the cultural arena, and a somewhat more post-modern, circumstantial view of quality. We detect a power struggle between these two discourses where the different parties seek to define concepts central to the understandings of the public library, culture and literature. There is also a pattern here to be seen when new media is introduced to the society in general, which is reflected in the library practice as well. Usually a debate emerges concerning the moral and cultural aspects of the new media, which habitually leads to a moral panic. By pointing out the reoccurring reactions this paper identifies the circular discussions that arise in the public library when a new media, such as the video game in our case, is presented