| dc.description.abstract | This study analyzes public discourses on immigrants and racialized minorities that have prevailed in the public sphere during the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway, and examines if and how these discourses have constructed different outgroups during the pandemic. The thesis is therefore mainly concerned with discourses that are characterized by emphasizing "Us" vs. "Them" rhetoric, and how Norwegian politicians, journalists and public health authorities have written and talked about the spreading of COVID-19 in the media in the period from January 2020 to June 2021. In this period, two prevailing discourses have been identified; the "Face mask" debate and the "Immigrant infection" debate. These discourses are approached by critically studying text and talk, and by examining how discourse constructs social reality. The thesis questions are therefore analyzed by utilizing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and the analysis is based on Teun van Dijk's framework of CDA. Dijk's sociocognitive approach has a specific focus on ideology and reproduction of worldviews the context of elite discourse, and how the majority constructs the minority through discourse. Because the thesis is especially concerned with the construction of "the Other", the main concept of the thesis is Othering. Within this concept the thesis is mainly concerned with two types of Othering. The first is the Othering of people through processes of racialization, and the second is the Othering of knowledge coming from other countries than the "West". The thesis draws on a decolonial perspective, recognizing that current global inequalities we have seen during the pandemic have roots stemming from the colonial era, and that these power structures are reinforced during the pandemic. | |