The way in which media discusses religion has changed over time. Due to the separation of state and church in 2000, the Swedish state to a lesser extent legitimizes its political ruling with references to religious concepts. As a result, a higher tolerance towards religious minorities can be said to have taken place. This is an ambiguous change however, where critique raised towards religious practices and expressions of minorities also occurs to a higher extent. The public debate is in large part conducted through the media, but is also seen to be produced and reproduced through the media?s discourse.

This thesis discusses the attitudes versus methadone assisted rehabilitation ad modum Dole Nyswander in Sweden during the period 1972-2004. This is done by means of a Foucault inspired discourse analysis applied on the directions issued by the Board of Health and Social Affairs. The context in which these directions were created is also described, in which scientific achievements on methadone treatments during the period, and the main actors struggling to establish and define the discourse on narcotics and narcomania, are juxtaposed to the effects of the work of the Board. It is stated that the directions were largely affected not by scientific results and knowledge on methadone, but by the symbolic connotations of narcotics in Sweden established in the discourse already in the mid 1960´s. Also during the end of the studied period, after the occurence of AIDS had begun making methadone more broadly accepted, the findings of this thesis showed that the legacy of the 1970´s symtomtheory and its severe antagonism against methadone, was still present, in effect, in the discourse around methadone and subutex assisted rehabilitation, and so in the directions issued by the Board of Health and Social Affairs..

On the 12:th of April 2011, the Swedish tabloid magazine Expressen publishes a story, claiming that Ola Lindholm, presenter of critically acclaimed TV-show ?Wild Kids? has been suspected and apprehended on cocaine allegations. The serious allegation called for Ola Lindholm to defend himself against the allegations. His only public response was a blog-post where he claimed his innocence, albeit with some reservations.  The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lindholm?s rhetorical defense.

This thesis analyzes contemporary Swedish discourse on Russia, i.e. the ways Russia and Russians are perceived in Sweden today. After a summary of historical Western and Swedish perceptions of Russia, and a discussion about the treatment of these tensions within modern research, contemporary Swedish discourse is reconstructed based upon analytical articles in three major newspapers during the period 1992-2007. It is argued that the prevailing image of Russia contains the reproduction of old stereotypes and prejudices. The five major representations of Russia in contemporary Swedish discourse are: non-Western, unreliable, authoritarian, threatening and eternal, with the last one being a meta-representation functioning both as a representation of its own and a mechanism for the reification of the others.

This study has the purpose to reveal whether gender stereotypes are manifested or challenged in the children comic Bamse - världens starkaste björn based on six different stories widespread over 40 years. The results will be studied in the light of the contemporary gender development in society and emanate from theories about power, discourse, representation, queer and gender. An eclectic analysis based on semiotics and critical discourse analysis will be the method to reveal the underlying gender perspective in Bamse. The conclusion of the study shows an ambiguous perspective in the comic where both men and women occasionally are represented in a manifested as well as a challenged stereotypical role. In some of the stories the gender is erased and all characters are represented based on their individual attributes instead, meanwhile in some stories men are represented as active heroes while women are portrayed as passive nurturer.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how masculinity and femininity are constructed in the magazine Veckorevyn, through a critical discourse analysis of 18 articles from six issues in 2011. This is done by using a variety of theories and previous research results, which is gender theory, the theory of late-modern society and media theory. The analysis shows that Veckorevyn depicts virility and feminine differently. Furthermore, pointing the results from the analysis that a change of manhood and womanhood takes place in the social practice. The selection of articles from the magazine also shows that Veckorevyn seems to promote gender equality. .

Several studies indicate that Swedish men consume more meat than women, more frequently appear in advertisements for meat and more often than women handle the grilling of meat. Production of meat is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse-gas emissions and thereby poses a challenge for ecological sustainability. Several Swedish politicians and authorities have argued that reduced meat consumption is necessary to prevent continued global climate change. To understand and change consumption patterns we need to understand the consumer. This essay uses textual analysis to examine how Swedish men through text and images in three cookbooks use preparation and consumption of meat to construct different masculinities.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate and analyse how the concept of lifelong learning is expressed in political documents concerning public libraries and education and how it can be related to earlier concepts of education within the discourse of public libraries. Focus is the official approach to the concept of lifelong learning and public library. The documents examined contain the political aims for education and culture policy on a national and local level. The theories used in the study concern the background and meaning of the concept of lifelong learning, they describe public libraries and their earlier perspectives of education and they also give a picture of practices of governing within the framework of public libraries. The purpose is to see how the speech in the documents is reflected in discourses of society and public library.

In classic academic social studies of East Europe, terms as Communism and Post-Communism are commonly used to describe the main characteristics of this geographically imagined area. This paper makes a not so frequently seen attempt to apply Post Colonial Theory for the same field. With start point in Post Colonial theoretical writers, the author wants to find a East European Post Colonial version for the internal Europe which will supply tools for a discourse analysis of the European mind map divided into West and East. The material consists of interviews with three Swedish and three Czech officials, all working with European politics in their country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The analysis is carried out with inspiration of Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes Discourse theory.

The idea that I put forward in this thesis concerns the democratic system and the threat from discoursive impact on its core values. I focus my normative analysis on three of these democratic values: transparency, accountability and influence ? and what democratic problems the discoursive impact causes in conflict with them. I have used a critical discourse theory to define discourse and discoursive impact, by focusing on the process of discourse, rather than its nature. I deal with the political structure where I claim that the essential relation between citizen and politician is disrupted, due to lack of information and the imminent problems of the existing network society.

In light of health scandals and intense debate in the media about the elderly, the authors investigates two Swedish newspaper and their depiction of elder care in Sweden. Using Faircloughs three-dimensional model and critical discourse analysis, it is investigated if there is a more prominent discourse and if so the impact of globalization on this discourse concerning swedish elderly care. A sample of a total of ten articles in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter is analyzed. The authors found that older people who are granted home help or place of accommodation rarely make their voices heard. Rarely were also relatives of residents given the opportunity to speak.

In this essay I have studied how the kid?s school start are described in picture books. The studied questions are: How the school is described in these selected picture books; what feeling does the main character have into the school start; how the teachers are described in this selected picture books and how are the power relationship described in these selected picture books?The method I have chosen for this essay is a discourse analysis of seven selected picture books with the meaning of starting school. All books studied are written during the 1990 and forward.

The purpose of this essay is to examine at how to portray characters in the stories and narratives which depicts one of these children's books and if they really have something to ethnicity and its identification to be done.The Research questions is: What are the different identification markers given, to the reading child in the books, which might indicate that the story depicts people of different ethnicities? How are the characters portrayed in the story and which role is assigned to the main character? What story is portrayed and is it relevant to an identifier can occur?The conclusions of the five children's books shows that it is important with identifications markers, to show that there are different ethnicities. For example the analysis revealed the specific features of the illustrations and how the books portrayes someone with a different ethnicity and cultural background as something exotic.In the texts, the analysis showed how it occurred ethnic differences, by explicitly demonstrating differences between the characters. It was found that the characters were produced mostly as good, happy, curious, suspicious and unsympathetic. Common to all the main characters was that they had been placed, in one for them unusual context and that they were trying to assimilate to the new situations.Depictions consisted of realism and fiction.

The aim of this thesis is to study perceptions around the freedom of movement of workers within the EU before and after its enlargement in 2004, both on a Swedish and a European level. I have chosen to conduct my study using a discourse analysis as a structure for my theory and method. Theories based on previous research have also been used. My material consists of Communications from the European Commission, Swedish Command Papers as well as a research report. One of the main findings is that at a Swedish level, there is concern about how the free movement of workers will affect the labour market and welfare system.

This essay has an aim to map out the discourses in the debate around local self government and national equivalence, which are both essential democratic values. The essay is delimited to the area of the comprehensive school. Interviews have been made with key persons in different positions in a selected municipality. I also use material that has been written in the context of Ansvarskommittén. The material is analysed using an integrated discourse analysis.