The portrayal of marijuana on vice.com documentaries

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.