En beslöjad verklighet? : En studie om hur islam och muslimer representeras i Luleås dagstidningar

• Main Author: Lindqvist, Sara
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, SV 2009
• Subjects: Islam; Muslim; representation; discourse; journalism; newspapers; stereotypes; gender; Luleå
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-5504

The aim of this thesis was to examine how Islam and Muslims are represented in the daily newspapers in Luleå, Sweden. How are Muslims and Islam described and which representations appear in the newspapers? How are women represented compared to men? I examined texts from the two daily newspapers in the Swedish city Luleå. The method I used was a qualitative discourse analysis. I mainly looked for aware and unaware constructions of Muslims and Islam. I also looked for discursive themes with similar stories, choice of words, stereotypes and so on. I only examined written texts, not pictures. The result showed that the newspapers rarely write about Islam and Muslims and when they do, they write about them in a negative way. The newspapers represent Muslims as violent, different and evil. Not even one article describes a Muslim weekday or a nice and sane Muslim. There is also a lack of women in the articles, only one text includes a woman and she is represented as a victim in contrast to the men, who are described as evil and violent.