Biståndstagarnas subjektspositioner i kvällspressen : En diskursanalys av den mediala framställningen av mottagare av ekonomiskt bistånd

Sammanfattning: Previous research has shown that welfare recipients are subject to prejudicial attitudes from others while welfare recipients themselves experience feelings of shame related to their need to apply for help for their subsistence. The aim of this study was to analyse how welfare recipients are depicted in Swedish newspaper media in order to better understand the role that the media can potentially play in how welfare recipients are perceived by others and by themselves. The empirical material consists of 74 articles published in two leading Swedish tabloid newspapers - Aftonbladet and Expressen - during the years 2011 and 2017. With Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory, we have been able to identify six discursive subject positions that welfare recipients are offered in the material. Our findings show that these subject positions contribute to creating a picture of “deserving” and “undeserving” welfare recipients with the latter representing a threat to the cornerstones of the Swedish welfare state. This picture, however, is not static and between 2011 and 2017, subject positions that can be seen as “undeserving” have become more dominant in the discourse around welfare recipients.