"Bara, endast och inte mer än..." En rättssociologisk studie om medias framställning av fängelse som straffnorm i det svenska rättsystemet

Sammanfattning: This study aims to examine the media influence on the general public view of the imprisonment. It also aims to examine if there are any other variables that influence how the law is communicated to the society. This study is about how imprisonment is communicated by the media, but not all imprisonments and not all types of media - it addresses the newspapers report of imprisonment for the crime of severe assault. This study is carried out by usage of research methods such as Foucaultian discourse analysis and content analysis. The content analysis made it possible to get an insight in to which information the readers are provided with and how it is provided by the papers whereas the discourse analysis provides information about the underlying meaning of the text, it works as a help to reveal and interpret hidden messages in the text. The theoretical framework is based on symbolic communication, manifest and latent functions of the law and social norms. To examine what type of message the media mediates to the readers, the first page articles has been particularly studied. The result shows that the media has the power to influence the general public view of imprisonment, and also the social norms regarding it, but not to which extent.