The War on Drugs : En analys av The New York Times nyhetsrapportering

Sammanfattning: On the 14th of July 1969 president Richard Nixon informed the United States Congress, how drugs had become a serious threat to the nation’s wellbeing. He called for a new drug policy that would be applied to both state and federal levels. This would be the start of a political campaign that has resulted in new legislation, mass incarceration and in recent year an overwhelming criticism. This essay intends to review the newspaper New York Times reporting of this political campaign. The purpose is to study the role of language in the political discourse, this through a rhetorical analysis. The thesis intends to identify the discursive process framed by the selected news articles at hand. How the magazine’s approach has changed in 20 years will not only be examined by its explicit reporting, but also through the shaping and reflecting function of language. In my analysis, I identify key themes in the general metaphorics and a reproduction of a certain role distribution that leaves the reader with a certain understanding of its contemporary time. I have also come to the conclusion that the idea of American identity is central to the war on drugs as a linguistic domain.