Ungdomars berättelser om Hovsjö : En kvalitativ studie om hur sex ungdomar i åldrarna 21-26 ser på sitt bostadsområde

• Main Author: Aktas, Gabriella
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande 2012
• Subjects: place; identity; ethnicity; culture; Media and Learning; Media and Communication; Prejudice.
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-18518

Background and problems: All that is stated in social media might not always sometimes be right, which has consequences for the individual's view of the described phenomena. The individual interprets and takes in mass media messages, which can lead to that the wrong information makes believed to be is correct one. The news media’s photo illustrations might pictures result in bad images of the suburbs. Hovsjö, residential area in the city of Södertälje, occurs in the media depicted as is a bad place to live due to the high rate of crime there. Purpose and Issues: My main research question is: How do young people view their residential area Hovsjö in comparison with the image they believe consider is given in that the news media gives the area? Further questions of the study are: How do the young people of the district describe their residential area? How do the youth's react to the news media images of Hovsjö? Has the neighborhood helped to form their identity? Method: In my data collection I have chosen a qualitative approach with observation and semistructured interviews. The reason I chose to do interviews is because it gives respondents the opportunity to give their own experiences and feelings of living in Hovsjö. My method has been ethnographic for the reason that I want to describe but also to understand the informants' world. Results: According to the interviews the news media has generalized Hovsjö as poor housing site pointing out mainly negative messages from the area. The informants have a different view on their residential area which does not correspond with the news media's version. They see their neighborhood in a positive way, and they explain that the environment has formed them to be good people. They do not deny the “crime incidents” in Hovsjö but they believe that the news media exaggerate events to depict the residential area as a criminal and dangerous area. As summary, I have come to a conclusion that the respondents have a positive view of their neighborhood which they consider a safe and a social area to live in.