Rifts in the Hegemony: Swedish News Journalism on Cannabis Legalization

Abalo, Ernesto

doi:10.1080/1461670x.2018.1533416

Cited by 14 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…They changed the marijuana problem definition and the social context for MM legalisation. As Abalo's (2019) and Månsson's (2014Månsson's ( , 2016 studies suggest, some potential for such claims may also exists in Scandinavia. However, the contingency of discursive processes implies that it is not possible to foresee future developments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Press discourses about marijuana or cannabis have been explored by various authors (Abalo, 2019;Acevedo, 2007;Haines-Saah et al, 2014;Kim & Kim, 2018;Månsson, 2016;McGinty et al, 2016;Olsson, 2008;Park & Holody, 2018;Stringer & Maggard, 2016;Sznitman & Lewis, 2015;Tieberghien, 2014). In a constructionist study, Acevedo (2007) mapped changes in the legal classification of marijuana in the UK.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Defining “the marijuana problem”: An Analysis of the Polish daily press, 2015–2016

Kępski

2020

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

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Aim: This study analyses discourses on marijuana in the Polish daily press and explores ways of defining “the marijuana problem” during a debate about legalisation of medical marijuana. Methods: 384 press articles published in three national newspapers in 2015–2016 were analysed. The method used was discourse analysis. The theoretical background was social constructionism, including Spector and Kitsuse’s four-stage constructionist model of defining social problems. Results: The study shows that marijuana problems were mainly constructed through criminal and politically medical discourses. In addition to celebrity and pop culture discourses, recreational marijuana use discourses and social problems discourses were identified. Discussion: The marijuana problem can be defined differently through various discourses. Definitions pertain to diverse marijuana meanings ranging from a negative marijuana-as-drug, through an ambivalent recreational marijuana up to a positively valued medical marijuana. The research pointed out that, from a discursive standpoint, the marijuana problem may be viewed as a complex network of relations between particular discourses, marijuana meanings, claim-makers and the media. Conclusion: Different definitions of the marijuana problem are constructed through a dynamic discursive and social process. Various claim-makers try to impose their meanings on marijuana. Mass media are not neutral. They also participate in defining the marijuana problem.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining “the marijuana problem”: An Analysis of the Polish daily press, 2015–2016

Kępski

2020

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

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“…The former belongs to the narcotic discourse, while the latter is part of the 'put straight' discourse. This kind of discursive drift (Cameron 1995, 127) in reporting of cannabis may serve 'a less repressive approach to cannabis and other drugs, while […] it could [also] serve liberal drug advocacy in more general terms, which could lead to increased public health risks' (Abalo 2019). We can interpret this drift as a step to re-arranging the dispositive of law by establishing the symbolic boundaries between recreational and medical use of cannabis, and by this excluding the later form the prohibitive function of the law.…”

Section: Who Is At Whose Disposal? Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What we are now observing is not the loss of control over cannabis, but its redefinition. As Abalo (2019Abalo ( :1630 also noticed in his research on the Swedish discourse on cannabis, referring to terminology introduced by Hallin (1989), 'cannabis legalization moves from the sphere of deviance to the sphere of legitimate controversy'. Competing narratives are results of opening the new fields of rationality, and struggle between different epistemic communities.…”

Section: Who Is At Whose Disposal? Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From community of practice to epistemic community – law, discipline and security in the battle for the legalisation of medical cannabis in Poland

Wagner

Polak

Świątkiewicz‐Mośny

2020

Sociology Health & Illness

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Although public debates on cannabis are ongoing in many countries, there are currently no EU-wide rules for either medical or recreational use of cannabis. Numerous studies have illustrated that creating such rules is a complex challenge. The battle over the legalisation of medical use of cannabis in Poland is a good example for analysing the mutual impact of the social practices that various actors perform through and by the discourses in the field of health care: how they discursively create their own roles and take positions and how they shape the coalitions and opposition in trying to achieve their strategic goals. This article aims to reconstruct and explain how different types of knowledge are discursively used to sustain or question power relations in the healthcare field. The dispersed knowledge-power influences social actors, who try to define or redefine social practices and aspire to guide them in the healthcare field. The presented approach allows authors to go beyond the social actors' perception vs institutional regulations and to analyse discursive actions as elements of the complex networks of meanings activating various type of resources. Those dynamic networks, involving the different

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“…There is a growing body of literature on the media representation of cannabis (Acevedo, 2007;Abalo, 2019aAbalo, , 2019bHaines-Saah et al, 2014;Kępski, 2020;Kim & Kim, 2018;Lewis et al, 2015;Månsson, 2016;Tieberghien, 2014;Vickovic & Fradella, 2011). Considering the topic and scope of the current study, two categories of media studies are treated in more detail: studies on the representation of cannabis more generally in a Nordic context, and studies focusing on the representation of medical cannabis.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Between facts and ambiguity: Discourses on medical cannabis in Swedish newspapers

Abalo

2021

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

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Aim: This study examines the discursive construction of medical cannabis in Swedish newspapers, with the aim of understanding how the news media recontextualise the medical potential of cannabis. Design: The study is centred on the concept of recontextualisation, which focuses on how discourses are reinterpreted and reshaped when moving from one context to another, with a special focus on recontextualisation in relation to the media. Methodologically, the study uses critical discourse analysis to qualitatively analyse 134 articles of different subgenres, published in four Swedish newspapers between 2015 and 2020. Results: The study shows that medical cannabis is constructed around myriad topics and contexts, ranging from news that focuses on the medical potential of cannabis to articles where medical cannabis is mentioned in passing and constructed in a more abstract form. The media have difficulties retaining a conceptual boundary between medical and recreational cannabis. Moreover, the study shows that the medical potential of cannabis is discursively constructed using three different discourses: patient discourse, strong science discourse, and weak science discourse. Conclusions: The study suggests that there is a widening of the debate on cannabis in the Swedish public sphere, giving more recognition to the potential medical use of cannabis. The media, however, show difficulties in refining discourses on medical cannabis, which results in an altering between constructions that are strongly connected to science, and those that are not.

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Rifts in the Hegemony: Swedish News Journalism on Cannabis Legalization

Cited by 14 publications

References 33 publications

Defining “the marijuana problem”: An Analysis of the Polish daily press, 2015–2016

Defining “the marijuana problem”: An Analysis of the Polish daily press, 2015–2016

From community of practice to epistemic community – law, discipline and security in the battle for the legalisation of medical cannabis in Poland

Between facts and ambiguity: Discourses on medical cannabis in Swedish newspapers

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