| Summary: | This thesis examines how the discursive construction of parenthood in the news media, during the Husby riots of 2013, was affected by social and economical class. News media contributes to shape our perception of reality, our norms and ideals, and what issues that is to be considered important. The family and the effect of child rearing as a process of shaping children into becoming political subjects has been of interest for political science during a long period of time. Previous research shows that social and economical class has a significant effect on norms, ideals and expectations regarding parenthood and child rearing. It is therefore important to study the representation of class in association to parenthood in the news media. Extraordinary events, such as the Husby riots, generate a vast amount of media attention and material. Also, the riots took place in a neighborhood with low socio-economic standard. I have therefore conducted a Foucauldian discourse analysis on a news material consisting of 46 articles and editorials from four of Sweden's biggest news papers: Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet, in order to analyze how and which subject positions are established, which characteristics they are assigned and how the construction of parenthood is dependent on social and economical class.The results show that the most common subject positions consists of the police, working class youngsters participating in the riots, children as victims of the riots and working class parents. Language and education is given a prominent part in the discourse, both as an explanation to why the riots broke out in the first place and as a solution to how such social unrest can be avoided in the future. Social and economic class is not mentioned explicitly but is an important implicit discursive construction in the portrayal of parents and children. I therefore conclude that social class and language greatly affected the portrayal and representation of parenthood and child rearing during the Husby Riots of 2013.
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