10-åring spårlöst borta : En studie om hur försvunna barn konstrueras i svensk press

Sammanfattning: The purpose of our study was to examine how missing children are portrayed in media. We wanted to see if there are any recurring story patterns and characters in the texts. We also wanted to examine how the relationship between children and adults are framed and which comprehensive view of children is mediated in journalistic texts.Our questions were: how do Swedish newspapers write about missing children? Which narrative pattern are there in the texts? How are children and adults represented in the texts? What relationship between children and adults are made visible in the texts? What a comprehensive approach to children is constructed in the texts?For this study, we used the media discourse, theories of representation, stereotypes and characters. And theories of narrative, dramatic turns and opposites.We chose to make three case studies in which children suddenly disappeared, the case of Bobby Äikiä, the case of Engla Höglund and the case of Sebastian Hedman. We analyzed 93 news articles from Swedish newspapers, which were published in connection with the events. Our method was discourse analysis. We examined the characters and relationships between them, and looked at the dramaturgical construction of the articles.In our conclusion we established that the children are portrayed as helpless and weak in contrary to the adults, who are portrayed as strong and as they who are in power. The mothers of these children all play a major part in these articles while their fathers are made invisible. These texts contribute to a discourse about the vulnerability for the children.  The texts construction of children mediates an image that says that children are helpless, innocent and unprotected. Children are represented as an inferior group to adults, and without authority in the society.