Deprived neighborhoods and the stigmatized discourse : How deprived neighborhhoods are being portrayed by the media

Areas that are considered to be deprived neighborhoods have become an increasingly debated subject within the public debate in Sweden, which has led to the uprising of political issues concerning migration in the Swedish society. This leads to the interest of examining how deprived neighborhoods are portrayed by the media in news articles. By analyzing this, the purpose is to receive a further understanding of what the discourse looks like within the public debate and what consequences that arise from this. Through the use of a discourse analysis and a qualitative text analysis media’s representation of deprived neighborhoods has been investigated. The results found shows that the discourse is critical and negative which creates a stigmatization within the debate. These neighborhoods are described as criminalized and segregated areas that have been created by immigrants through cultural and religious values imposed from other countries. This construct the perception of “we and the others” which divide people into two groups where one group constitutes “the normal” and the other group is perceived as deviant. The consequences of the stigmatized discourse are further that a group of people, which in this context are immigrants, are being blamed as the reasons behind the problems surrounding deprived neighborhoods. They are through the discourse discriminated against and perceived as a threat towards the Swedish society. This representation within the media can be explained by post colonialism and social constructivism as colonial perceptions still being present in the Swedish society which creates norms and truths that construct a reality that is not accurate with the actual society. The discourse thus displays existing societal norms and perceptions through the use of language that discriminates and stigmatizes some people in society.