Slumpens tillförlitlighet; En kvalitativ dokumentstudie om svenska kvällstidningars konstruktioner av spel om pengar

Sammanfattning: How gambling and gambling addiction is understood and constructed as a social phenomenon affects the way we perceive and value gambling as well as gamblers. Therefore, it is important for social workers to be informed on how the constructions of gambling are made in mass media, and in turn how these constructions may affect the gamblers themselves and the social work with the group. The aim of this study was to examine how the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen construct gambling in their articles from the past six months. The study design was qualitative and the material was processed through qualitative content analysis. Articles were obtained through the database Mediearkivet through keywords such as gambling addiction, casino, Bingo and Big Win. The collected material was analysed using Goffman’s Stigma theory and Loseke’s theory of the Claim of a Social Problem and the construction of victims and perpetrators. The results of the study showed that the newspaper articles depicted gambling as a positive and desirable activity when linked to profit and that it was then not presented as a social problem. The randomness of chance was portrayed as reliable through the construction of the gamblers’ profits; gamblers were described as ordinary people and the commonness of loss was omitted from the accounts. Further results showed that the newspapers encouraged their readers to gamble, using the strategies of the interviewees who played or made strategies for harness racing. In contrast, gambling was presented as dangerous and destructive when linked to forfeiture. In this context, gambling was constructed as a social problem and in some of the articles the protagonist was constructed as a victim of gambling or as a perpetrator in the lives of others