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Säkra gränsen!

Viléus, Oskar LU and Berlin, Max LU (2025) STVA23 20251
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This thesis examines how the U.S. President Donald Trump utilized the concept of securitization to depict the U.S.-Mexico border, using social media platform X (at the time Twitter). By using the Copenhagen School’s securitization theory the study examines how the President's speech acts were used to frame border security as a matter of national security. With a qualitative textual analysis can we examine Trump’s posts on X under his first term: Jan 20th 2017 to Jan 20th 2021. The study pinpoints repetitive patterns of securitizing moves with key mechanisms like securitizing speech acts, presentation of security threats and appeal to public acceptance. The findings attest that Trump regularly painted migrants as possible criminals and a... (More)
This thesis examines how the U.S. President Donald Trump utilized the concept of securitization to depict the U.S.-Mexico border, using social media platform X (at the time Twitter). By using the Copenhagen School’s securitization theory the study examines how the President's speech acts were used to frame border security as a matter of national security. With a qualitative textual analysis can we examine Trump’s posts on X under his first term: Jan 20th 2017 to Jan 20th 2021. The study pinpoints repetitive patterns of securitizing moves with key mechanisms like securitizing speech acts, presentation of security threats and appeal to public acceptance. The findings attest that Trump regularly painted migrants as possible criminals and a threat to the American ethos, thus justifying extraordinary political maneuvers such as building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The thesis also presents how the structure of X can enhance the impact of securitizing moves by amplifying the spread of the security threat to a wider audience. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Viléus, Oskar LU and Berlin, Max LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVA23 20251
year
type
L2 - 2nd term paper (old degree order)
subject
keywords
securitization, Donald Trump, border
language
Swedish
id
9190718
date added to LUP
2025-08-07 17:07:07
date last changed
2025-08-07 17:07:07
@misc{9190718,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines how the U.S. President Donald Trump utilized the concept of securitization to depict the U.S.-Mexico border, using social media platform X (at the time Twitter). By using the Copenhagen School’s securitization theory the study examines how the President's speech acts were used to frame border security as a matter of national security. With a qualitative textual analysis can we examine Trump’s posts on X under his first term: Jan 20th 2017 to Jan 20th 2021. The study pinpoints repetitive patterns of securitizing moves with key mechanisms like securitizing speech acts, presentation of security threats and appeal to public acceptance. The findings attest that Trump regularly painted migrants as possible criminals and a threat to the American ethos, thus justifying extraordinary political maneuvers such as building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The thesis also presents how the structure of X can enhance the impact of securitizing moves by amplifying the spread of the security threat to a wider audience.}},
  author       = {{Viléus, Oskar and Berlin, Max}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Säkra gränsen!}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}