Paper long abstract:

In this paper we present an analysis from a discourse perspective of one week of articles on surveillance in Scandinavian news media. Our analysis of this material is currently ongoing. As a first step in the analysis, we have looked at what surveillance is called in various contexts and to what extent the journalists, editors, letter-to-the-editor authors express trust in surveillance. A tentative finding, as of abstract deadline, is that how surveillance is signified varies with how the activity is evaluated. Articles that use the word "surveillance" (övervakning, overvåking, overvågning), tend to be critical of the surveillance activity in question. Articles supportive of surveillance activities tend to use synonyms (or, given this finding, perhaps we should call them euphemisms) such as "mapping", "investigation", "screening". The subject under surveillance and the purpose of the surveillance play key roles in this negotiation of trust and other values and norms.