Psykisk ohälsa bland unga - en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av medias framställning

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study is to analyze how mental illness among young people is represented as a social problem in newspapers. A qualitative method has been utilized to analyze 63 different articles published within the period of 2019-01-01 to 2019-06-30 in three of Sweden’s largest newspapers. Additionally, the theoretical framework that has been applied is the theory of claims-making. Furthermore, in the study, three different perspectives on how media portrays mental illness among young people have been found. The result highlights that mental illness among young people is constructed differently, depending on what claims are made and by who. In the newspaper articles where, young people were claim-makers, the problem was defined in terms of health and suicide while solutions were regarded in terms of openness and talking about mental illness. On the other hand, when professionals and scientists were the claims-makers, mental illness among young people was described as a result of a failing society. The solutions that were described were mainly about improvements in society's institutions. Finally, the study also found that politicians made few claims, but when they did, it was mainly solutions about mental illness among young people.