Språkliga mediekonstruktioner av gängkriminalitet

Sammanfattning: Using van Dijks’ critical discourse analysis as a theoretical and methodological point of departure, this paper strives to analyze the ways in which gang-related crime is illustrated in the Swedish media. This study seeks to outline how the media portrays the problems, causes and proposed solutions of gang-related crime. This thesis is descriptive in nature, and does not intend to argue or investigate various media portrayals of gang-related crime but rather focus on the frequency and information provided within such portrayals. The material used in this thesis has been limited to editorial articles from the four largest newspapers in Sweden; focusing primarily on articles from August to December 2020. The analysis concludes that even across various media outlets, gang-related crime is depicted uniformly and with alarming regularity. The two most widely accepted causes are consistently lack of government intervention and immigration. The most prevalent solution to the problem, as depicted by the media, advocates tougher state punishments for gang-related crime.