Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The Hidden Population: A qualitative discourse analysis on media coverage of the homeless population in Ireland.

Kaverma, Ella LU (2019) UTVK03 20191
Sociology
Abstract
Homelessness in Europe, especially Ireland, has been a growing issue ever since the recession of 2008. In addition to struggling with finding safe spaces and everyday tasks such as access to food, showers and grooming, the homeless are met with stigma and stereotypes. This thesis aims to explore how the homeless are portrayed in the Irish Times. Twenty articles from October 2018 were chosen and analysed through two theoretical frameworks, framing theory and stigma. Previous research has identified two distinct discourses on homelessness, which were strongly present in the Irish case as well. The individual and structural blame frame were identified in the analysed articles, and used to explain the results. Individual blame focuses on the... (More)
Homelessness in Europe, especially Ireland, has been a growing issue ever since the recession of 2008. In addition to struggling with finding safe spaces and everyday tasks such as access to food, showers and grooming, the homeless are met with stigma and stereotypes. This thesis aims to explore how the homeless are portrayed in the Irish Times. Twenty articles from October 2018 were chosen and analysed through two theoretical frameworks, framing theory and stigma. Previous research has identified two distinct discourses on homelessness, which were strongly present in the Irish case as well. The individual and structural blame frame were identified in the analysed articles, and used to explain the results. Individual blame focuses on the individual’s potential shortcomings, such as addiction and mental health, that led them to the path of homelessness. Meanwhile the structural blame focuses on how, for instance, the market, policies and the government are lacking the will and knowledge to alleviate the homelessness crisis. The background of each frame is explored to provide an understanding of why it is a point of interest. The ultimate objective of this study is to identify the two ideal-type discourses the Irish Times uses for homelessness. This will provide better understanding of how the media works in the portrayal of the homeless, which is detrimental in influencing the public opinion of stigmatised groups of people. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Kaverma, Ella LU
supervisor
organization
course
UTVK03 20191
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
homelessness, media, stigma, housing, Ireland
language
English
id
8988476
date added to LUP
2019-06-27 08:48:07
date last changed
2019-06-27 08:48:07
@misc{8988476,
  abstract     = {{Homelessness in Europe, especially Ireland, has been a growing issue ever since the recession of 2008. In addition to struggling with finding safe spaces and everyday tasks such as access to food, showers and grooming, the homeless are met with stigma and stereotypes. This thesis aims to explore how the homeless are portrayed in the Irish Times. Twenty articles from October 2018 were chosen and analysed through two theoretical frameworks, framing theory and stigma. Previous research has identified two distinct discourses on homelessness, which were strongly present in the Irish case as well. The individual and structural blame frame were identified in the analysed articles, and used to explain the results. Individual blame focuses on the individual’s potential shortcomings, such as addiction and mental health, that led them to the path of homelessness. Meanwhile the structural blame focuses on how, for instance, the market, policies and the government are lacking the will and knowledge to alleviate the homelessness crisis. The background of each frame is explored to provide an understanding of why it is a point of interest. The ultimate objective of this study is to identify the two ideal-type discourses the Irish Times uses for homelessness. This will provide better understanding of how the media works in the portrayal of the homeless, which is detrimental in influencing the public opinion of stigmatised groups of people.}},
  author       = {{Kaverma, Ella}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Hidden Population: A qualitative discourse analysis on media coverage of the homeless population in Ireland.}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}