Smartphone Panopticon and the Securitized Plurality: A study of the relationship between the Islamic State, Media and Power

Abstract

The events caused by the Islamic State can be read close-to-daily in Swedish newspapers. Since the Islamic State came under the scope of the four major Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet in 2014, the reporting about the group’s actions has grown exponentially. The aim of this study is to examine how the reporting influenced the news consumers’ discourses and identities, and consequently what role the media has in reproducing certain power structures in society. By using a mixed method this study both mapped and analyzed the language use and discourses of the newspapers in order to fulfill its purpose. The study showed how negative connotations in the reporting of the Islamic State reproduce a discourse of the group as evil and dangerous, whereas the own (Western) states should be seen as good and protectors. This cause a securitization move and identity shift called the Securitized Plurality that manifests legitimacy to the states sanctions against the Islamic State. At the same time, the discourses also reproduces power structures that discipline the consumers in their living, which is metaphorically called the Smartphone Panopticon as the potential, existential threat of the Islamic State immediately can reach the consumers through electronic versions of the news.