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Between facts and ambiguity: Discourses on medical cannabis in Swedish newspapers
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, HLK, Media and Communication Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9515-4691
2021 (English)In: Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, ISSN 1455-0725, E-ISSN 1458-6126, Vol. 38, no 4, p. 345-360Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

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.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2021. Vol. 38, no 4, p. 345-360
Keywords [en]
cannabis, discourse, drugs, marijuana, media studies, medical cannabis, Sweden
National Category
Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-52185DOI: 10.1177/1455072521996997ISI: 000641543100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85112266948Local ID: POA;;52185OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-52185DiVA, id: diva2:1543723
Available from: 2021-04-13 Created: 2021-04-13 Last updated: 2025-02-11Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf