Språkliga subjektskonstruktioner i samtiden: En textanalytisk studie om medias gestaltning av "invandrare"

This thesis examines what content contemporary national Swedish media attributes to the subject “immigrant”. Through a social constructivist perspective, the various conflicting and taken for granted perceptions articulated in the portraying of immigrants are outlined. With consideration to the current right-wing populist ethnonationalism that is sweeping across Europe and Sweden, the identified perceptions are then compared with elements that characterize this political trend. The paper is of descriptive kind and is therefore not intended to investigate concrete causes behind or consequences of the portrayals of immigrants. The analytical framework consists of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory combined with Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and text analytic tools. The material selection has been limited to editorial articles from Sweden’s four largest newspapers during the month of March in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The analysis culminates in two conflicting discourses, portraying immigrants in a positive or negative way. The study finds that the latter of these two possesses a hierarchical position within the media discourse order and, though they are conflicting discourses in several aspects, there is also a discursive consensus between them. Finally, the analysis shows that there is a significant inter-discursivity between right-wing populist ethnonationalism and the examined articles