Smal till varje pris? : En diskursanalys om hur människokroppen framställs i kvällspress

Sammanfattning: The bachelor dissertation Thin at every cost? is a discourse analysis of how the human body is portrayed in the two Swedish evening tabloid newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen. The study aims to investigate how the ideal body is portrayed, which qualities that we associate with the ideal body and also where the focal point is.   The investigation has been conducted by the implementation of Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse analysis as both a theoretical framework and analysis tool, and uses agenda-setting theory, consumerist culture and weight, health and body ideal research to form a scientific base for the analysis.   The result of the study shows that the ideal body is thin. To achieve a thin body you must exercise and diet, because being in possession of an overweight body suggests that you are lazy and lack self-control. To promote a thin body most of the researched articles uses health as a concept. To achieve a thin body you must therefore “consume” health. Body image has become a marketing tool and something to buy and sell. If you consume body image and/or health, you will often find yourself being drawn back into the “void”, because the diets and exercises that the articles use to promote weight-loss are often short-term and therefore make you as a reader have to return for another diet, i.e. you have to consume more. The articles often use a big element of control to promote the thin body, but at the same time try to use a positive language to set the tone of the article. Body shaming also occurred, and articles that dealt with the negative aspects of weight loss were also researched and reinforced that the overweight body is often a subject of course language and judgement.