Representations of Trans People in Swedish Newspapers

Abstract

This article analyses the discursive representations of trans people in 15,901 mainstream Swedish newspaper articles between 2000 and 2017 using topic modelling and critical discourse analysis. Drawing from critical perspectives on gender it was found that the articles to various degree assisted in maintaining heteronormativity. The discursive strategies employed by the journalists included trivialisation of trans expressions as dress-up and incorporation of them within binary stereotypes. Trans people were also excluded and deemed as deviant in some articles through insensitive gender descriptions and descriptions. Through the voices of experts, trans people were silenced and pathologized and while some representations of trans people were meant to empower, and offered a slightly less rigid view on gender, these articles too reinforced heteronormativity through continuous referral to binary gender.

¿Travestismo o transexualidad? Divergencia en la cobertura mediática del asesinato de un hombre travestido

“…Puesto que no se trata de un trabajo longitudinal, el análisis de tendencias excede los resultados de esta aproximación. Sin embargo, la notoriedad mediática que ha adquirido la transexualidad en los últimos años (Åkerlund, 2018;Billard, 2016) hace pensar en un cambio de tendencia en la (con)fusión de estas (trans)identidades.…”

“…La diversidad sexual es noticia. Las representaciones mediáticas sobre estas realidades se han multiplicado en los últimos años, tendencia que a nivel internacional parece especialmente notoria en lo que a las identidades trans(género) se refiere (Åkerlund, 2018;Billard, 2016). Este incremento resulta relevante dado que, según la teoría de la agenda setting (McCombs, 2006), los medios de comunicación han demostrado ser capaces de moldear a largo plazo la opinión pública mediante la cualidad acumulativa de sus efectos cognitivos.…”

“There are only two genders – male and female…” An Analysis of Online Responses to Tasmania Removing ‘Gender’ from Birth Certificates

“…To date, this literature has predominantly focused on how news media (rather than online commentators) represent transgender identity, people, and interests (e.g. Åkerlund 2019;Billard 2016Billard , 2019bCapuzza 2016;Graber 2017;Humphrey 2016). This study is interested in how online commentators characterise and respond to transgender status.…”

Topic Modeling of the Pakistani Economy in English Newspapers via Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)

“…Topic modeling reveals, for example, underlying meaning out of newspaper corpora on a given topic (Uys et al, 2008). Contextual studies from different countries worldwide have been conducted to identify newspapers' discourses (Åkerlund, 2019;Viola & Verheul, 2020). Besides, topic modeling is a way to understand the framing strategies on the media agencies' part (Heidenreich et al, 2019;Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000).…”