E-böcker och bibliotek
En kritisk diskursanalys av Biblioteksbladet 2005-2011
Electronic booksLibrariesDiscourse analysisLibrary science- SocietiesEtcE-böckerBibliotekDiskursanalysBiblioteksorganisationer - Sverige
The aim of this two years master´s thesis is to examine discourses about electronic books in relation to libraries that occur in the Swedish library journal Biblioteksbladet by using critical discourse analysis (CDA). The thesis also aims to discuss changes in the discourse practice, and discuss the relationship between discourse practice and social practice in the field of library and information science (LIS). A main point of CDA is that language is a form of social practice that helps shape social reality. Furthermore the concept of ideology, as understood with-in CDA, brings understanding to the way discursive events help reproduce and transform social relations of pow-er. The text samples span from 2005 up to and including 2011 and were examined by using Norman Fairclough´s three-dimensional conception of discourse, which allows for interpretation of text on a linguistic, discursive and social level.The result of the analysis showed that there are several different discourses about electronic books and li-braries, none of which can be said to be particularly representative. Electronic books are to some extent portrayed in a deterministic fashion, and there were four particular ways that electronic books were constructed as subject matter, namely by using economic discourse, service discourse, commercial discourse and democratic discourse. Pronounced discursive change was observed with the introduction of the democratic discourse, together with an introduction of pessimistic discourses on electronic books during 2010-2011. When discourses were analyzed in relation to social practices in the field of LIS it was found that the discursive practices in several aspects reflected existing systems of knowledge and belief.