In the Eyes of Media: Discourses on the Idea of Children in News Reporting on Youth Prisons in Sweden

Abstract

This thesis aims to dissect how the idea of children is discursively constructed in the news reporting on youth prisons in Sweden, and to demonstrate how seemingly objective discourses on children are constructed and ideological. The study is conducted by doing a discourse analysis on 28 news articles on youth prisons from five of the most read newspapers in Sweden. A theoretical framework consisting of discourse theory, intersectionality and two liberal citizenship models are applied to the analysis. The study finds that the idea of children is assigned meaning in contradicting ways, although mainly as criminals or soon-to-be criminals through the voices of adults. Children are on the one hand constructed as children and victims to criminality in need of protection. On the other hand, children are constructed as a threat to society and equalized to adults, requiring urgent legal measures focusing on punishing Children in the form of youth prisons and other repressive measures.