Gängkriminalitet – hur framställs det i tidningsmedia? : En Foucault inspirerad diskursanalys

A frequent news feature today deals with gang crime. The problem of gang crime has emerged as one of the biggest societal challenges to deal with in modern times. News reporting can many times be received by the recipient casually without questioning the content of what is presented. The purpose of this study is to study how gang crime and the areas associated with it are presented in the newspaper media, as well as what effects this may have for residents in the areas that are often associated with gang crime. In this study, the newspaper media will be represented by Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. The research questions answered in the study are "How is gang crime presented in Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet?" and "How are identities for areas and residents reproduced through this representation?". In order to answer the questions, discourse analysis has been used as a method for the study's approach. Discourse analysis has also been used as a theoretical approach together with the concepts of stigma and stereotypes. The study is based on Michael Foucault's (1993) view of discourse analysis.A majority of the newspaper articles that write about the phenomenon of gang crime showed a strong connection between drug trafficking, violence and shootings, as well as the relationship between gang crime and socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Power is expressed in several different ways, in this study the portrayal of gang crime in the media has contributed to a stereotypical image of gang criminals and gang crime that spreads like rings on the water to others around who look or talk a certain way, or live in a certain area. The results of the study show that stigmatization of criminals and crime contributes to people of a certain ethnicity, gender and age who come from socio-economically vulnerable areas often being associated with gang criminals and gang crime. This is done through the mass media's creation and recreation of stereotypical images that come with news reporting which the majority of people accept without question