The Woman Was Raped - A Critical Discourse Analysis of Swedish News Media Coverage of Rape and Sexual Assault

Departing from the question of how linguistic representations of sexual crime are connected to social practices around sexuality, this discourse analysis looks into 30 news articles on sexual crime to identify discourses around male and female sexuality. As most sexual crimes are committed by men and against women, the analysis focuses on connecting discursive descriptions of men and women in relation to sexual crime, to power relations between men and women in society. It investigates whether the identified discourses contribute to sustaining an unjust power relation between men and women where women are subjugated. The analysis builds on theories on gender constructivism and feminist theory departing from Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler, and discourse theory and theories on the relation between power, discourse and sexuality as formulated by Michel Foucault and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, a method developed and defined by Norman Fairclough and Lilie Chouliaraki, the texts are analysed in relation to their role in social practices. The findings in this analysis are in line with the referenced previous research centred around the theme of how victims and perpetrators of sexual crime are portrayed linguistically in the media, in police reports and court documents. They show that linguistic constructions of sexual crimes, victims and perpetrators in the investigated news texts use discourses around male and female sexuality by centring the criminal activity around the female victim and by using passive form. Several discourses around female sexual behaviour are identified as used in the material to put part of the blame for sexual crimes on the female victim, e.g. responsibility to protect one’s sexual virtue by saying no and by not being intoxicated.This Critical Discourse Analysis of news articles from the two largest (by circulation) broadsheet newspapers in Sweden aims to identify discourses on female and male sexuality in the linguistic construction of sexual assault and rape within the written news genre in Sweden. This is done as a means to connect the linguistic representation of sexual crimes, their victims and perpetrators with the gendered patterns of who performs sexual crimes (men) and against whom these crimes are directed (women). The purpose of showing this connection is to shed some light on the role of linguistic constructions of male and female sexuality in maintaining an unjust power relation between men and women in social practices concerning sexual, and other, behaviour. The analysis departs from a view of social practices, what we do in our daily social lives, as dialectically connected to language use, meaning what we do affects our language and our language affects what we do. Discourse is treated in the analysis as ways of understanding the world that at the same time constitute the world, and they are seen as shaped in and maintained by social processes. These ways of understanding the world are regarded as temporary, they can change with social processes. But discourse is at the same time understood as something that can constitute objectivity by cementing a particular way of understanding something. The purpose of this analysis is therefore to try and see beyond what is seemingly objective, to try and spot discourse on sexuality in how sexual crimes are written about. In this analysis, 30 articles depicting sexual crimes, their victims and perpetrators are analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. Using theories of gender constructivism, where sex and gender are viewed as social constructions that are shaped and maintained in social processes, descriptions of female victims and male perpetrators are investigated in order to spot allusions to female and male sexuality making it seem as though both victim and perpetrator are guilty of the crime. Furthermore, the descriptive words used for the crimes themselves are analysed in the same manner. The results show that in the short descriptions of sexual crimes within the news genre in the two largest Swedish broadsheet newspapers, male perpetrators and female victims are described in ways alluding to stereotypes of female and male sexuality. The female victims are placed in an active linguistic position in the descriptions of the crimes, and properties such as age, actions around the crime, level of intoxication are mentioned in almost every article in the material. The male perpetrators are rarely placed in an active linguistic position in the descriptions of the crimes, and their personal properties, actions before, during or after the crime or levels of intoxication are rarely mentioned. The conclusion of this analysis is that this difference is in line with discourse on male and female sexuality, where female sexuality is more tightly controlled in social processes, leading to women receiving part of the blame for the sexual crimes committed against them

Brave women sound the alarm – representations of men and women in the Swedish media coverage of #MeToo

In autumn 2017 in Sweden, the #MeToo movement and sexual assault became a focus of broad debate. Swedish media coverage of the movement was centred around the many petitions made by anonymous groups of women to illuminate the extent of the problem of sexual assault, as well as a few cases of accusations against well-known and powerful men in both the culture and media industries. In order to elicit common representations of men and their female accusers, this study applies critical discourse analysis (CDA) to news media coverage and Facebook comments of three of those accused men: TV personality Martin Timell, journalist Fredrik Virtanen and culture personality Jean-Claude Arnault. The results indicate that representations of women as both witnesses and heroines work to reinforce notions of female responsibility as a means to halt sexual assault, while representations of men as sexual predators build on demarcations of illegal and mere misogynistic or “bad” behaviour, which in turn reinforce notions of male victimhood. These representations point to legal discourse as hegemonic, as it seems to limit the discussion and only present individual solutions, such as women bearing witness, to the structural problem of sexual assault. Simultaneously, the results indicate that the #MeToo movement and other feminist discourse have also had an effect on news media representations of sexual assault by broadening the concept beyond the consent/rape dichotomy

Motivational Interviewing in an ordinary clinical setting: A controlled clinical trial at the Swedish National Tobacco Quitline

AbstractIntroductionThe present study aimed to assess the effect of adding Motivational Interviewing (MI) to the first session of an effective smoking cessation treatment protocol in an ordinary clinical setting: the Swedish National Tobacco Quitline (SNTQ).MethodThe study was designed as a controlled clinical trial. Between September 2005 and October 2006, 772 clients accepted the invitation to participate in the study and were semi-randomised to either standard treatment (ST) or MI. The primary outcome measures were self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence and 6-month continuous abstinence.ResultsAt 12-month follow-up, the 772 clients were included in an intention to treat analysis. Of the clients allocated to MI, 57/296 (19%) reported 6-month continuous abstinence compared to 66/476 (14%) of the clients allocated to ST (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.00–2.19; P=.047).ConclusionsIntegrating MI into a cognitive behavioural therapy-based smoking cessation counselling in an ordinary clinical setting at a tobacco quitline increased client 6-month continuous abstinence rates by 5%

Selective Pharmacological Targeting of a DEAD Box RNA Helicase

RNA helicases represent a large family of proteins implicated in many biological processes including ribosome biogenesis, splicing, translation and mRNA degradation. However, these proteins have little substrate specificity, making inhibition of selected helicases a challenging problem. The prototypical DEAD box RNA helicase, eIF4A, works in conjunction with other translation factors to prepare mRNA templates for ribosome recruitment during translation initiation. Herein, we provide insight into the selectivity of a small molecule inhibitor of eIF4A, hippuristanol. This coral-derived natural product binds to amino acids adjacent to, and overlapping with, two conserved motifs present in the carboxy-terminal domain of eIF4A. Mutagenesis of amino acids within this region allowed us to alter the hippuristanol-sensitivity of eIF4A and undertake structure/function studies. Our results provide an understanding into how selective targeting of RNA helicases for pharmacological intervention can be achieved

Clinician acquisition and retention of Motivational Interviewing skills: a two-and-a-half-year exploratory study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Motivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, client-centred counselling style aimed at eliciting and strengthening clients' intrinsic motivation to change. There is strong research evidence supporting the efficacy of MI, notably in its application among alcohol and drug abuse populations. MI interventions in smoking cessation may yield modest but significant increases in quitting. The present study sought to assess the acquisition and retention of MI skills in counsellors at the Swedish National Tobacco Quitline.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three audio-recorded sessions from each of three counsellors were assessed using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) Code Version 3.0 over 11 assessment periods at fixed intervals in a two-and-a-half year period during which counsellors received ongoing supervision.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean skill for all counsellors improved throughout the study period in most MITI variables. However, great variations in MI skill between counsellors were observed, as well as fluctuations in performance in counsellors over time.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The present exploratory study covers a longer time period than most evaluations of MI training, and has several advantages with regard to study design. It may provide a basis for (larger sample) replication to test MI skill (as measured by the MITI) in relation to behaviour change in clients, to evaluate MI training, and to assess the acquisition and retention of MI skill over time. Difficulties in acquiring and retaining MI skill may raise the issue of a selection policy for MI training. Moreover, fluctuations in MI skill over time emphasise the greater importance of continuous feedback and supervision over initial MI training, and the need for the use of validated treatment integrity assessment instruments in ordinary clinical implementations of MI.</p

Pharmacogenetic allele nomenclature: International workgroup recommendations for test result reporting

This manuscript provides nomenclature recommendations developed by an international workgroup to increase transparency and standardization of pharmacogenetic (PGx) result reporting. Presently, sequence variants identified by PGx tests are described using different nomenclature systems. In addition, PGx analysis may detect different sets of variants for each gene, which can affect interpretation of results. This practice has caused confusion and may thereby impede the adoption of clinical PGx testing. Standardization is critical to move PGx forward

Increased Level of Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells, Programmed Death Receptor Ligand 1/Programmed Death Receptor 1, and Soluble CD25 in Sokal High Risk Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

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