Who is really in power here : A critical discourse analysis on the Facebook discussion concerning the media representation of Greekazo in Malou Efter Tio

Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to investigate the confrontation of the Facebook group that was developed in response to the interview with the rap artist Greekazo in Malou Efter Tio. The study investigates the research questions: How is the discursive practice of Facebook utilized to challenge a mainstream television production? How are the stereotypes of contemporary marginalized rap artists reproduced in the Swedish news media? Our key interest lies in the moment of conflict between a section of the public and a mainstream media organization where we discuss how the media representation of a Swedish contemporary rap subculture is confronted by a minority of people online. To support the research questions, the study relies on two additional working questions: How do resistance and group formations develop in terms of dynamics within the Facebook comment section of Malou Efter Tio? Why are the stereotypes of contemporary marginalized rap artists reproduced this way in the Swedish news media? The focus is to analyze how the discursive formation of Facebook presents alternative viewpoints to challenge the mainstream media.  The theoretical framework of the essay is constituted by the theory of social discourse in which we have embarked on the critical discourse theory (CDA) by Norman Fairclough (1993). This approach uses theories and methods to theoretically problematize and investigate the relationship between the text, the discursive practice, and the sociocultural dimension (Fairclough, 1993; Winther Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000). The notion of media representation has been approached from two perspectives: The Agenda Setting theory and the Framing Theory, here we have particularly emphasized the idea of moral panic in which we have investigated how Malou Efter Tio was speaking about moral panic fears concerning the contemporary rap subculture in Sweden.  Previous research includes Djerf-Pierre and Shehata (2017) in which they applied the Agenda Setting theory in a Swedish news media environment, Nilsson (2009) who investigated the media representation in Swedish television, Lindholm (2014) who researched the notion of self-presentation in Swedish rap music, and Johnen, M., Jungblut, M. & Ziegele, M. (2018) who investigated what incites participation in online discussions.  In the analysis, we distinguished three prominent themes: social injustice, responsibility, and solidarity. These themes were established from the selection process in which 19 Facebook comments were collected and analyzed through the critical discourse analysis. The study showed how the Facebook discourse was utilized as a space for resistance of which the dispute betokened an abruption in ideology. This abruption was consequently challenged by the Facebook users in which they collectively built authority throughout the affordances of the Facebook discourse. The study will end with a discussion concerning the role of Facebook in a wider context in which the democratic space of the platform is contextualized from a societal and political point of view.