A Woman Did That?! En undersökning av terroristers gestaltning i media och säkerhetspolitiska dokument

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to study the representation of female and male terrorists in two daily media sources to see if a gendered portrayal is present. Its aim is also to see what portrayal is present in documents regarding counter-terrorism. Feminist theories within the study of International Relations are used together with theories regarding media’s framing effect on policy makers. The country that serves as object of analysis is England. Four male and four female terrorists and the Prevent strand of England’s International Counter-Terrorism Strategy from 2006, 2009 and 2011 have been analysed. Two different methods are used, a frequency analysis and a discourse analysis. The results for both methods show that there is a clear gendered aspect present in both the media’s portrayal and in the policy documents regarding counter-terrorism. Female terrorists are mainly portrayed without a political and religious agenda behind the crimes committed and they are more often portrayed by use of traditional female qualities. Male terrorist’s motives are assumed to be politically and/or religiously motivated and they are described with traditionally male characteristics. The characteristics found in the counter-terrorism documents are similar to the ones found in media’s coverage of male terrorists.