The portrayal of marijuana on vice.com documentaries
Author
Özsu, Gökçe
Advisor
Çaplı, Bülent
Date
2017-09Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This thesis aims to examine the representational attitude of vice.com (or
VICE) documentaries covering marijuana, in the context of normalization. In
this respect, this thesis mainly descriptively analyses three VICE
documentaries covering marijuana in the setting of recreation, medicine and
industry. VICE is a United States based media outlet which uses hybrid form
of journalism combining conventional form of media operations and new
media techniques. Normalization is a sociological concept for describing the
the scale of social acceptance as a norm which was disseminated from the margins of the society towards mainstream scale. To implement descriptive
analysis on vice.com documentaries, normalization and drug representation
in the United States media has been evaluated in the socio-historical setting,
and examined. As a major finding, even though vice.com documentaries
represent marijuana as normal, the normative references of normalization of
marijuana is not clear. In this respect, in the conclusion, the determiners and
normative background of normalization of marijuana are tried to be
discussed.