Unga och psykisk (o)hälsa : En kritisk diskursanalys av hur psykiskt mående bland unga framställs i svensk nyhetsmedia

This thesis aims to investigate how Swedish news media portrays mental health and mental illness amongst youths through a critical discourse analysis. The topic has been heavily featured in news media the last years, contributing to the construction of discourses that impacts societal decisions. While there has been previous research within the area, this study focuses on a relatively unexamined age group - teenagers and young adults. With the use of 30 articles from the news channels SVT, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen, a qualitative content analysis has been made. A thematic analysis was conducted initially, identifying following themes: social media as a contributing factor to mental illness, society as responsible for treating young people's mental health, normalization and acceptance of mental illness and outsiders commenting on young people's health. Five of the articles were then selected for an in-depth analysis with the help of the three dimensional model by Fairclough. The findings were analyzed using Hall’s representation theory and Pickering’s stereotyping theory. The results revealed that “mental illness” (psykisk ohälsa) is far more prevalent than “mental health” (psykisk hälsa) in the articles, and the depiction mainly reproduces negative stereotypes. Young people suffering from mental illness are often depicted as socially isolated, easily triggered and vulnerable. Several discourses emerged from the analysis, and the most prominent was the collective discourse emphasizing societal responsibility to support young people with mental health issues. In conclusion, Swedish news media often portray young people's mental health by reproducing generalizations, stereotypes and power relations.