Det nye sociale problem? Danske unges forbrug af illegale opioider - en kritisk ddiskursanalyse af opioiddebatten i udvalgte nationale nyhedsmedier

Abstract

Abstract This thesis is a critical discourse analysis of national news coverage the use of illegal opioids in youth segment and a theoretical discussion of the expected consequence thereof. The thesis is to be regarded as an attempt to nuance the existing debate about young people’s use of illegal drugs especially opioids. The analysis shows a development of the discursive understanding of young people and opioids over a period of five years. The thesis’s empirical evidence consists of nine handpicked Danish national news articles From a social constructionist perspective, the thesis has tried to take a critical view of the national news media’s descriptions of the opioids and the young people who use them. As well as which practices have an impact of these descriptions. The news media have changed the discursive understanding of opioids, medicine to drugs and young people from addicts to ordinary young people who are victims of the opioids. The descriptions are characterized by strong word choices, which are considered part of the news genre to which the articles belong, to attract the reader’s attention. The understanding of opioids and young people in recent years is considered to be directed oppositely from each other. This can be explained by the fact that the discursive understanding of young people and opioids follow the development of professionals from the drug administration who claim that young people’s consumption is a problematic state in Danish society. The construction of the opioids as the “villains” in which the young people fall victim of is a strategy in the ongoing process to get the use of illegal opioids by young people recognized as a social problem Another strategy in the construction seen in the articles is personal accounts and the understanding of opioid use is widespread among Danish youth, which appeals to the readers’ sense of need for action. This in order to be able to pressure the public bodies to recognize the use of illegal opioids by young people as a social problem that requires action. It is to be expected that this discursive understanding of opioids as drugs will have negative consequences for the young people who use them. Although in the construction of the social problem they are the victims but then they must deal with the stigma of a drug addict. Thus, it is to be expected that the young people will experience a degree of stigmatization by the discursive understanding. The fear of being stigmatized by some young people could lead to increased dissatisfaction.

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A master thesis from Aalborg University

Det nye sociale problem? Danske unges forbrug af illegale opioider - en kritisk ddiskursanalyse af opioiddebatten i udvalgte nationale nyhedsmedier

[The new social problems? Danish young people's use of illegale opioids - a critical discourse analysis of the opioiddebat in selected national newsmedia]