| Summary: | The aim of this study was to examine how Abbas Rezai, the first male victim of honor- related violence that received media attention in Sweden, was portrayed in swedish news journalism. The questions examined were: How was Abbas Rezai and the perpetrators portrayed in swedish news journalism and how did the portrayal of the characters change over time. We made a critical discourse analysis with Faircloughs model as a base. We examined fourteen articles from a morning paper and a tabloid, during a period of six years. The result showed that Abbas Rezai was portrayed as a honest, considerate and innocent victim, which makes him relatable to the western world. But regardless of the good portrayal noted, however, that he is all this despite the fact that he is an "Afghan asylum seeker". Which makes the news reporting ambiguous, and leaves Abbas Rezai on the borderline between “us” and “them”. When it comes to the perpetrators they are portrayed as heartless, brutal and uneducated. Which by the reporting manifests itself in their cultural and religious background. During the six-years-period that we studied, we noticed that the reporting of one of the perpetrators changed remarkably. He goes from a coldblooded murderer to a victim of his own culture. Which has its explanation in the constant flow of new information. The biggest difference we found between the morning paper and the tabloid was how they selected their sources. The morning paper focused on confirmed fact from the police and the court, meanwhile the tabloid more often choose unconfirmed sources. Our study overall shows that news reporting are producing and re-creating stereotypes and preconceptions.
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