The charm of novelty : A text analysis of books based on current media events

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine literature on current media events. We see a close relationship between this literature and the media society where we relate Manuel Castells theory of the network society. In this thesis we have chosen books which give different views on three major media events in Sweden: 1 the assassination of Anna Lindh, the former Swedish Minister for foreign Affairs; 2 the Knutby murder and; 3 the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. These books combine fact and fiction in their writing which in media science is called faction. This form of writing has similarities to genres like new journalism and documentarism and can be problematic for the reader in terms of genre expectations because of the mix of fact and fiction. The aim is to also find characteristics, significant for this literature, and to put these in relation to aspects of identity and meaning. The methodology of this thesis is text analysis inspired by analysis of ideas. This approach analyzes the relationship between society and literature. Through this analysis we have managed to find several features that these books have in common. They can give the reader different genre expectations. They also offer a way to identify with the common man, and to bring meaning to the rapid and fragmented media flow of today. Since all the writers deliver their special points of view on the media events, the books tend to deliver critique of different issues in society. Our investigation shows that this literature co-exists with society today.Uppsatsnivå: