Mångfald eller bortfall? : En kvalitativ studie om hur ras framställs i Försvarsmaktens reklamfilmer

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to study how race is represented in four of Försvarsmakten’s video commercials published between 2016 and 2020. Försvarsmakten is a Swedish authority that in recent years has focused on increasing gender and ethnic equality within the organization, which interests us to examine if and how their efforts are transformed in their marketing communication. Considering media’s influence on the ideals and norms that exist in our society, media representations make an interesting and important area to critically study and question. Especially as previous research has shown that ethnic minorities are underrepresented or portrayed in a stereotypical or negative way that upholds racial discrimination, both in media and in reality. The aim of this essay is therefore to study if there is a difference in the representation of white people and people of color (POC) in the selected video commercials, as well as to interpret potential underlying messages and ideologies. The theory and method that will be applied is postcolonial theory and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA). A positive tendency is shown in the final results with both white people and POC acting in leading roles and background roles. However, there is no interaction between whites and POC in any scene, and in most cases they are represented in homogeneous groups which can indicate segregation. Further on we can distinguish a difference among the roles that the characters play. Whereas POC are portrayed as civilians in all commercials, white people are portrayed as soldiers in two of the commercials. The commercials are seen as inclusive to some extent, but they don’t fully represent an integrated and equal society from a multicultural perspective. Rather, they give the impression of focusing more on gender equality within the organization as women frequently are pictured in the commercials, even as soldiers