Ideological Horizons in Media and Citizen Discourses : Theoretical and Methodological Approaches

In which ways does the media discursively make sense of contemporary society? In which ways does the public, through the media, deal with and negotiate ongoing changes in society? How can we study this? Such questions are addressed in this volume. The authors consider societal changes not only as structural, material processes, but also as deeply ideological. They further consider ideologies to be observable in various discursive practices. A new concept, ideological horizon, is introduced, and its theoretical and methodological fruitfulness is developed. The analytical richness of the concept is demonstrated and different methods are suggested for empirically studying ideological horizons in the media and among citizens. Areas of current interests, such as “the global war on terrorism”, drug trafficking, crises events, mental illness and violence, health and healthism, and contemporary working life, are analysed.