“I often had bruised legs from when he dragged me around the apartment” : - A Discourse analysis of how Swedish Newspapers portrait Mens Intimate Partner Violence against Women

Men's violence against women is a major societal problem that can manifest itself in many different ways. The purpose of this study was to see how Sweden's three largest news magazines portray the problem of men's intimate partner violence against women, how different subject-positions are presented and to investigate whether the public's view of the problem is affected by media reporting. To do this, a qualitative discourse analysis has been done with 41 articles on the subject. The articles analyzed are taken from the newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen. The study is based on a social constructionist perspective, where the focus is on language and how it constructs our understanding of the world and different phenomena. In addition to the social constructionist perspective, the study is based on three theoretical themes; Gender, media influence and discourse. The articles include, among other things, many women's own stories about the violence in their relationship. How they gradually broke down and how the violence, whether physical, mental, or both, has had devastating consequences for the women. A clear result is that there is a great deal of uncertainty and a lack of knowledge regarding men's intimate partner violence against women. And that it ́s not prioritized within the police and judiciary. The consequence is that few reports leads to prosecution and even fewer to actual convictions, which is problematic as the bleak picture that the media paints can affect others in a similar situation from seeking help