This thesis aims to explore the video game medium in depth, to relate it to the stories foundon Internet communities about users’ gameplay experiences during burdensome moments inlife. To achieve that, the phenomena is explored through the lenses of Uses & Gratificationstheory by means of a netnography on the ‘/Persona 5’ official subReddit; interpreting, codingand analyzing all narratives that fit the criteria with the help of a proposed ‘USE’ system. Themodel is in charge of classifying the information into explicit displays of ‘Dissatisfaction’,‘Motivation’, ‘Immersion’ and ‘Emersion’. The resulting codification enabled the creation ofeight different types of reports among a sample of one-hundred threads, all in correlation withthe varied aspects of the game that act as categories. The data derived from the conclusions ofthis study shows that players are not motivated to use the video game for any other purposesthan mere entertainment. Yet, the immersive potential of the virtual world addressed theirdissatisfactions and made them emerge back to reality with, mostly, not-sought gratifications. Still, not all players were able to control their video game uses to regulate their emotions,further implying the importance to continue researching cases of media immersion toestablish guidelines of ethical design and appropriate production and consumption practices. 

As museums face conflicting demands on maintaining and caringfor their collections, opening for visitor engagement, and beingmore inclusive in their practice, new approaches are needed tomuseum work. This article introduces a democratic and inclusiveapproach focusing on the relational properties of the artefact–the Method of the Thing (Tigenes Metode). We use interviewswith different museum professionals in Sweden. The methodallows knowledge to emerge from the convergence of differentactors within and outside the museum who negotiate theirexpertise, (professional) roles and technical infrastructure of themuseum by foregrounding the object rather than the curators’story. We use the encoding/decoding model to discuss thestrengths and weaknesses of the method where centring theobject allows for a process of democratisation and polyvocality totake shape, thus allowing divergent narratives to emerge.

The Arabic cultural scene in Sweden is characterized by its richness and diversity, encompassing various forms of cultural expressions such as books, artistic events, films, and online platforms. These productions reflect a synthesis of values derived from both the host society and the longstanding Arabic cultural heritage. However, despite the abundance of cultural content, there exists a significant knowledge gap concerning their creation and development, necessitating further investigation. To gain a comprehensive understanding of this landscape, it is crucial to explore the social networks of Arabic-speaking writers. This entails examining the nature of their production, their geographical distribution, literary genres, and the dynamics of their interactions within postmigration contexts. The main objective of this research is to explore the efficacy of Arabic-speaking social networks in facilitating the movement of writing and creativity within the postmigration context in Sweden. The theoretical frameworks of Postmigration and Social Networks are applied to inform the research design, which incorporates a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods including surveys and semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal the capacity of Arabic-speaking writers to establish extensive networks that transcend both their countries of origin and the host country. These networks encompass various domains such as geographic connections, publishing networks, and professional associations. Furthermore, the professionalization of the Swedish language has created opportunities for writers to forge new networks within Swedish society. This study serves as a foundation for future research endeavors that seek to delve deeper into the Arabic-speaking cultural productions. Moreover, it contributes to the broader discourse on postmigration research that explores the intersections of art, literature, and cultural expressions.

Kommunikation i sociala nätverk runt barn och ungdomar med stora kommunikationssvårigheter Lotta Anderson Bakgrund Kommunikation och språk utvecklas mellan människor i samspel och en fungerande kommunikation är grundläggande för annan utveckling. Detta till trots är det många kommunikativa möten i vardagen som av olika skäl inte vidareutvecklas i positiv riktning. I den närmaste omgivningen, dvs. familj, släkt och vänner, förskola, skola och kamrater, skapas utvecklingsmöjligheter genom att personerna kommunicerar och berikar varandra på olika sätt. För att barn och ungdomar med stora kommunikationssvårigheter ska kunna utveckla sin kommunikation och sitt språk krävs kunskap och kompetens hos personer i det sociala nätverket (Blackstone & Hunt, 2002; Anderson, 2002). Projektets relevans och målgrupp Projektet består av två delar; där den första omfattar en enkätundersökning medan den andra inriktas på kommunikationsutveckling hos åtta familjer och deras sociala nätverk. Projektet förväntas belysa processen i det gemensamma lärandet då betydelsefulla närpersoner som finns omkring barn/unga med stora kommunikationssvårigheter samtalar kring bl a funktionshinder, kommunikation, delaktighet, faktorer som underlättar eller hindrar, lärandemiljöer, samtalspartnerns roll och kompetens (Light & Binger, 1998; WHO, 2004). Målgruppen är barn och ungdomar med stora kommunikationssvårigheter i åldern 5-25 år. Stora kommunikationssvårigheter innebär att kommunicera med någon form av symboler, men dessa räcker inte till för att göra sig förstådd eller att förstå i vardagen. Syfte Projektets första del syftar till att kartlägga och analysera föräldrars och yrkesverksammas uppfattningar Frågeställningarna handlar om kommunikation och dess tillämpning, samtalspartnerns roll, samverkansformer och kompetens samt vilka uttalade behov av stöd som finns och hur dessa kan tillgodoses. Den andra delen av projektet handlar om familjens sociala nätverk, dvs. i detta fall bestämmer familjen vilka som ska ingå i nätverket runt barnet/ungdomen. Åtta sociala nätverk är aktuella. Arbetet i dessa kommer att pågå i 1½ år och inriktas på att under handledning/utbildning som inkluderar videobaserad vägledningsinsats över tid, reflektion och dokumentation i syfte att utveckla förmågan som kommunikationspartner i relation till barnet/ungdomen. Metod För att få frågorna besvarade i projektets första del har postenkäter skickats till föräldrar och yrkesverksamma inom förskola/skola, habilitering, daglig verksamhet och fritidsverksamhet. Kartläggningen genomfördes nationellt. Resultat del ett Om barn och ungdomar. Alla de aktuella åldrarna finns representerade, men med en övervikt för åldrarna 8-14. Pojkarna är fler än flickorna. Kommunikationssätten är varierande och oftast kombinerade i form av tecken, bild och kroppsspråk men också i huvudsak teckenspråk eller tal. En dryg tredjedel av barn/ungdomar har någon form av kommunikationshjälpmedel, oftast till följd av motoriska svårigheter snarare än andra funktionsnedsättningar. Flertalet 2 barn/ungdomar har någon form av diagnos som grund till olika svårigheter, 19 olika diagnoser, som enda eller i flera kombinationer, förekommer. Flertalet har också habiliteringskontakt som bedöms som mer eller mindre tillfredsställande av föräldrarna. Nästan 2/3 av barnen/ungdomarna har en plan med mål som handlar om kommunikation/språk . Men det finns också små barn som inte har någon individuell plan, vilket kan betraktas som märkligt. De mål som beskrivs är ibland så generella att det kan ifrågasättas hur de kan genomföras och utvärderas och man träffas mestadels på de yrkesverksammas villkor. Om det finns en plan, oavsett vad den kallas, beror det i mindre utsträckning på hörselproblem (signifikant skillnad) än andra svårigheter (motorik, koncentration, syn)! Barn och ungdomar kommunicerar bäst i strukturerade situationer och mest i situationer som är motiverade, lustfyllda, har ett barn/ungdomsfokus och tillsammans med en partner som är engagerad, har fantasi, inger förtroende, är stresstålig eller m.a.o. är en kommunikativ "naturbegåvning" eller medvetet kunnig. För att ställa frågor, berätta, protestera, "hålla igång" ett samtal måste barn/ungdomar veta hur de ska gå till väga, vilket inte alltid är fallet. De strategier som används och hur framgångsrika de blir är ofta kopplade till barn och ungas personlighet, språklig- och kommunikativ utvecklingsnivå men också till omgivningens kompetens och form av respons. Föräldrar menar också att deras barn har mycket mer att uttrycka än de har uttrycksformer för. Om föräldrarnas uppfattningar: Mestadels är det mammorna som svarat på frågorna. Flertalet familjer är med i någon intresseförening, företrädesvis FUB, men också DHB. Ofta är de med i flera olika föreningar med koppling till någon av barnets funktionsnedsättningar och synpunkterna varierar från mycket stöd och gemenskap med föräldrar liknande situationer och olika utbud till inget stöd alls med avseende på kommunikation. Den som svarar på frågorna menar sig förstå barnet i något större utsträckning än övriga familjen. Kommunikationen försvåras med avståndet, dvs. släkt, vänner, grannar, kamrater förstår i mindre utsträckning. Än mer tydligt blir detta när man inte har någon gemensam referens, dvs. när budskapet är mer eller mindre okänt för kommunikationspartnern. Men föräldrar förlitar sig mer på andra vuxnas kompetens än jämnåriga runt barnet. Föräldrar menar att de i mycket liten utsträckning erbjudits att pröva alternativa kommunikationsutbud. Om de yrkesverksammas uppfattningar: De yrkesverksamma arbetar mestadels som lärare och specialpedagoger inom olika skolformer och logopeder inom habilitering. De anser, precis som föräldrar, att de förstår sina elever eller de barn/ungdomar som de arbetar med i större utsträckning än vad andra uppfattas göra. Men inte helt oväntat lika övertygade för egen del som föräldrar är. De yrkesverksamma (i skolan) menar å ena sidan att barn/ungdomar kan ses som "ensamma öar", som nästan aldrig kommunicerar med varandra. De menar också att det behövs vuxenstöd för att de ska "komma igång" med sin kommunikation. Men å andra sidan menar de att de skapar tillfällen så att kamrater kan samspela med varandra och att de vet vad som motiverar till kommunikation och samspel. De anser att det kan vara svårt att anpassa sig till barn/ungas tempo och intresse oftast till följd av att eleverna i grupperna har så varierande förutsättningar och behov. De största problemen med att arbeta med barn/unga med stora kommunikationssvårigheter är, menar de, att fånga alla i omgivningen - det finns en tröghet i systemet, den kommunikativa kompetensen, attityderna och förhållningssätt hos andra inom verksamheten skulle kunna vara mycket bättre. Det finns också kommunikationstillfällen som leder till missförstånd eller som 3 lämnas oförstådda och detta leder till stor frustration samtidigt som de menar att de i hög grad behärskar det kommunikationssätt som eleven använder. Likheter och skillnader: En del svar tyder på att föräldrar och yrkesverksamma har uppfattningar "om den andre" som inte sammanfaller när man tittar på varje grupp för sig. Uppfattningar som skulle kunna vara underlag för gemensamma diskussioner och leda till större tillfredsställelse. De yrkesverksamma menar att föräldrar har inflytande över insatser och utformning av planer. Föräldrar å sin sida anser att information om hjälp för att kunna kommunicera med sitt barn eller att få gehör för sina synpunkter inte varit tillräckliga. Således en fråga om delaktighet och att ge och få inflytande över företeelser som berör. De yrkesverksamma kan skriva såhär: "När man gör planer så krävs det att föräldrar vet vad de vill och vad barnet behöver", eller "det finns föräldrar som har svårt att acceptera sitt barns behov av teckenspråk", men också att "föräldrarna är stommen runt barnet - personal står för det pedagogiska kunnandet". Dessa uttalanden handlar om att inta olika roller men också att lägga över "bördan" på någon annan. De yrkesverksamma anser att elevernas behov mestadels tillgodoses. Föräldrarna (40 %) menar att de kommunikationsinsatser som erbjudits barnet och familjen inte varit meningsfulla. Detta formulerar de som att: "alla kring barnet kan tecken och kan avläsa", "logopeden tror oss inte när vi berättar", "skolan famlar mycket", "många tips men inget genomförande" men också "det vi fått har varit bra men för lite". Uttalandena handlar om kompetens, ansvar och trovärdighet. De yrkesverksamma anser att deras egna och föräldrarnas uppfattningar om barnets kommunikationsbehov stämmer överens och föräldrarna menar samtidigt att de ges möjlighet att diskutera barnets kommunikation med dem som regelbundet arbetar med barnet. Både föräldrar och yrkesverksamma har uppmanats att beskriva egna behov av insatser och stöd och kompetensutveckling och hur detta skulle kunna utformas. Vad gäller de yrkesverksamma så finns det ett önskemål som överskuggar allt annat - utbildning om och i tecken som alternativ och kompletterande kommunikation och teckenspråk. Föräldrarnas önskemål är mer mångfacetterade, ligger på olika nivåer, och riktar blicken mot organisation, struktur och innehåll. De kan sammanfattas med följande ord: regelbundenhet, samverkan, förståelse, empati, likvärdighet, kunskap, lust och glädje. Reflektioner: Resultatet ger en mängd intressant information, men där fortfarande mycket återstår att bearbeta. Men så här långt kan några punkter lyftas fram. • Den vanligaste kommunikationspartnern till barn/ungdomar, oavsett deras ålder, är en vuxen. Vad får det för konsekvenser när vi vet att samspel och kommunikation med jämnåriga också är centralt för utvecklingen. • Barn/ungdomar kommunicerar som mest när upplevelsen är gemensam och väcker intresse och utmaning. • Både de yrkesverksamma och föräldrarna har föreställningar om "den andre". • Samverkan sker med och mellan många parter och där hänsyn måste tas till delaktighet, inflytande, begriplighet, meningsfullhet och ansvar. 4 • Alla uttalar ett stort behov av kunskap och kompetens om kommunikation och samspel. • Varje familjs behov är unika och måste tillgodoses genom ömsesidighet och respekt. Projektet finansieras av Allmänna arvsfonden, Sunnerdahls handikappfond och Tysta skolan. Nyckelord: kommunikation, kommunikationssvårigheter, samtalspartner, sociala nätverk Referenser Anderson, L. (2002). Interpersonell kommunikation: En studie av elever med hörselnedsättning i särskolan. Malmö: Lärarhögskolan. Blackstone, S. & Hunt-Berg, M. (2003). Social Networks: Augmentative Communicators and their Communication Partners, http://www.augcominc.com/socialnetworks.html Light, J. & Binger, C. (1998). Building Communicative Competence with Individuals Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. WHO (2004). Klassifikation av funktionstillstånd, funktionshinder och hälsa, ICF-CY. Stockholm: Socialstyrelsen.

This project investigates how youth in San Salvador, El Salvador define and participate in the co-creation of safety in their neighborhoods. For many years, El Salvador topped the rankings of most dangerous countries because of street gang violence and homicides. As the homicide rates have fallen in recent years, due to mass incarceration of street gang members, trust in state authority to effectively participate in the co-creation of safety has empowered young Salvadorans to also participate in that co-creation through reclaiming space. By painting over gang graffiti, the youth are participating in discourse in a public sphere, making claims to safety in their communities. Feelings and understanding of safety are also influenced by the representation and reputation of a place, thus this project included the creation of a participatory documentary for the youth to be a part of the representation of their country and communities. The documentary shows the painting over of gang graffiti and includes participant responses to questions about safety and representation. The video along with the interview responses show that the youth’s feelings of safety are tied to their physical environment, including the presence of gang graffiti, and that they are eager for their country to overcome the historical representation of being a dangerous place.

The aim of this paper is to examine how European development intervention in Africa iscommunicated in the documentary “Sweet Poison.” For many decades there have beenprojects that were developed in Africa in order to support civilization in the poorest areas.This paper explores how the three projects in Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Mali werecreated and developed, but not fully completed. These had various consequences overtime. With a reflection of representations, narratives and documentary story-telling, thestudy will use Teun Van Dijk's framework (2004) to analyze the film. The importance ofcritical discourse analysis techniques is well-known and provides an effective strategy toanalyze ideology as well as power in the language. In particular, the dichotomy of in-groupfavoritism vs. out-group derogation seems to be efficient in analytical discursive practices.A semi-structured interview was made with the author of the film to collect important datafor the analysis.

In this paper we aim to gain understanding about football fans' own experiences during the increasing mediatization, a process that has been accelerated during the ongoing pandemic. We have through ethnographic methods, where semi structured interviews and ethnographic observations have been central, tried to gain knowledge about how individual experiences and commitments changed during a time of increased mediatization. By applying Schulz (2004) four aspects of mediatization to our gained material, we could see that the fan culture in football has actually changed as a result of the mediatization and pandemic. This change means that new forms of fan cultures have been able to emerge and have changed fans' experiences of football and their opportunities for commitment. We could see that the changes that meditization has brought about has taken on different expressions depending on whether you were a fan of a local or international team. For the majority of the local fans, the empty stands have meant a reduced interest in their own team but an increased interest in football in general, where the big international leagues and teams have received the most attention. For the international fans, the increased mediatization has meant an increased media interest in other international teams and players than their own. We could also see that many of the feelings we traditionally associated with football fans have changed as a result of the change in interest.

This paper focuses on the topic of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) – forms of violence and abuse perpetrated against individuals on the basis of gender in online spaces or through technological means.

It is a recent and highly pervasive issue that the activist, academic and development worlds are working to define. Those working on the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) have begun to re-frame the issue of harassment and abuse experienced online or through technology as a form of violence by placing it on a continuum of violence. By furthermore noting its gendered nature, they have situated it as a form of gender-based violence. While a variety of terminology has been employed to describe how such violence is committed, who is targeted and how they experience it the field of GBV is still working towards a discursive consensus. 

This paper takes the stance that the language we use to define and frame social issues is of critical importance because it can influence wider social change. Accordingly, critical discourse analysis will be employed to consider to what extent the discourse of technology figures into the wider discourse on gender-based violence. So as to narrow the focus of the analysis, this paper will look at the discourse around GBV produced by actors in the international development field, considering that social norms change is a primary focus within programming and activities around gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence. For this, the analysis will consider the 2021 iteration of the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence movement and campaign, looking at social media content posted during the core campaign period (25 November - 10 December 2021). 

The advancement of digitalization continually progresses, and the integration of digital tools in education is nothing new. Podcasts have surged in popularity over the past 15 years, with a plethora of media now aiming to be used within higher education. This study aims to expand current knowledge regarding podcasts in education. It focuses on examining students' and teachers' attitudes and experiences with podcasts within academia. Building upon previous research and conducting our investigations, we seek to understand the impact of the podcast format as a supplementary learning tool on students' learning processes and motivation. The qualitative research methods employed in this study involved semi-structured interviews with both teachers and students in the field of media technology at Malmö University. The aim of the method was to gather insights from both teachers and students regarding their attitudes and experiences with podcasts in the educational environment. Through interviewing both teachers and students, we have explored the advantages, disadvantages, and attitudes towards the use of podcasts in education. The results suggest that respondents' inclination towards incorporating podcasts in the classroom may also be influenced by their everyday relationship with podcasts. Discussions also address the risks associated with this implementation, which are linked to previous theory. Some concerns are expressed among respondents that podcasts may replace established teaching methods once students are provided with a learning tool that offers them freedom and flexibility beyond the classroom. Nevertheless, respondents generally exhibit a positive disposition towards exploring the use of podcasts in education, emphasizing the importance of using them as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, traditional teaching methods.

Participatory methodologies offer an alternative approach to widespread

conventional methods of education adopted in Thailand. With the latter failing to

provide adequate educational outcomes according to international standards,

alternative education could represent a valid response to this long-lasting national

problem. Concurrently, the paper engages with Thai socio-cultural factors to

advance solutions to students’ lack of motivation and interest in learning. Exploring

the unique approach of Mosaic Learning Center, an international school in Thailand,

this qualitative study offers first-hand insight into adopting participatory

methodologies in the classroom. Analysing data collected through semi-structured

interviews, the research aims to explore the effects of promoting student-centred,

holistic, and self-directed learning, while framing participatory approaches in

education within the interdisciplinary field of Communication for Development.

Bridging pedagogical studies with the thematic of development and social change,

the research addresses cultural questions of structural social injustice,

emancipation, and children’s rights in Thailand, by advocating for liberating

pedagogies based on inclusion and participation.

Public trust in vaccines has shifted over time and at different rates based on vaccine and contextual factors. Despite the known benefit for public health, recent studies across many countries have indicated a perceived ‘hesitancy’ toward vaccines, namely those for the prevention of COVID-19. The decision to vaccinate can be complex, involving psychological and socio-cultural factors that can cause vaccination barriers. Trust or confidence, both in a vaccine and the people behind the vaccine, has been identified as a core element impacting people’s willingness to vaccinate, particularly if a vaccine is new. 

Community engagement (CE) methodologies have been recommended in previous reports as strategies to improve trust among populations in health services such as vaccinations. The following study evaluates the applicability of CE strategies, such as the community health worker model, in addressing factors of vaccine hesitancy (VH) by leveraging trusted relationships. The study looks at the approach of a model used to address health inequalities among the Traveller Population in Ireland as a case study of community engagement methodologies within an ethnic minority population. 

Using the Primary Healthcare for Travellers Projects (PHCTP) as a case, this study evaluates how trust as a by-product of community engagement can play a role in improving vaccine confidence. The study examines elements of CE strategies that can be applied to the Irish Traveller context to address any potential COVID-19 vaccine confidence issues. Interviews with several stakeholders uncover perspectives on the PHTCP model and CE strategies generally and their impact on vaccine decision-making. These stakeholders include primary health workers of the PHCTP teams in Dublin, and ‘expert’ stakeholders consisting of public health specialists with experience in the field of VH. The study shows that the PHCTPs have built up significant trust levels with the Traveller community and may be effective in improving vaccine confidence in a COVID-19 vaccine in the future.

This thesis uses Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis to investigate the newly ratified EU directive Empowering the Consumers for a Green Transition (ECGT). By using the fundamental philosophical assumptions of discourse analysis, framing theory, and active audience theory, the thesis investigates how the notions of greenwashing and consumers are discursively constructed in the directive. As well as how solutions to combating greenwashing are discursively constructed. The thesis finds that greenwashing is mainly constructed as a communication-related phenomenon using misleading explicit claims in corporate and organizational communication. Furthermore, greenwashing is constituted as a misleading communication and unfair market practice rather than being related to environmental aspects. When it comes to consumers, they are attributed a key role in driving the green transition of the EU region. However, as an audience, they also lack empowerment due to their lack of inability to assess environmental claims in media texts critically. Moreover, the proposed solutions and strategies for combating greenwashing should be implemented so that it does not affect the current market mechanism. While greenwashing communication should be prohibited according to the directive, the document does not address how identified negative consumption patterns should be altered. However, the directive leaves out several greenwashing communication strategies currently being used on the market. Leaving a potential loophole for latent and more sophisticated greenwashing practices to continue. Thus implicating the EU’s explicit goal to achieve a green transition and the reduction of misleading communication practices related to the environment in the region. 

Remote work is a phenomenon that was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but nevertheless it has changed the landscape os communications whether we embrace it or not. This study is about remote work and the impact that it has had on communications, social engagement, and productivity. This thesis focuses on the benefits and challenges of nonprofits using digital technology to work remotely, whether it increases or decreases productivity and social engagement, and if there are inequities between the Global North and the South when it comes to telework. This study aims to find the main variables for remote work to be sustainable in order to connect and engage with others digitally for many years to come without barriers. Through this thesis, I will also make recommendations to strengthen our capacity to do our jobs well while working remotely. This paper explores two key research questions: RQ1: What are the main challenges the Gloval North and the Global South face when it comes to remote work? and RQ2: How are digital tools being used by nonprofits in terms of outreach? Methodology: The research methods used for this study are survey research and interviews. Using survey data from 212 nonprofit remote workers and interview feedback from two nonprofit organizations, I was able to gather information about the different aspects of nonprofit remote work globally and locally. The data collection from the survey componenet allowed me to see measurable differences in responses from different demographical and geographical populations while the semi-structured interviews from organizations provided meaningful feedback about the overall shift to working remotely which gave me a deeper understanding about their working conditions and outreach efforts. Findings: Results indicate that the challenges nonprofit teleworkers from around the world vary by locality. Remote workers from the Global North confront social isolation while remote workers from the Global South face challenges that have to do with the lack of ICT access. Outreach has been impacted by advances in technology but also by the Covid-19 pandemic in which many nonprofits had to use many of these digital tols for outreach. Originality / Value: Currently, there are not many studies that focus on remote work and nonprofit operations. It is my hope to bring new perspectives about remote work and to crystallize the ways we can optimize digital tools to enable nonprofit work to be more equitable, productive, and healthier so that nonprofits can serve and engage with our communities as we all go through a phase of innovation. 

This research studies how participatory theatre (PT) as a communication tool can promote development and social change in the city. Using a project developed in Johannesburg (SA) that engages the city’s socio-spatial concerns through performance, the paper analyses the participatory creative process utilised and in which ways it opened a space for debate and critical thinking. The objects of the study are the medium (the theatre), the context (the urban) and the creative stakeholders (the participants) and how they influence each other when creating the fictional space of the performance. 

The findings suggest that, after participating in the performance’s making process, stakeholders have enhanced their ability to connect their lived experiences with the social-spatial issues of the city and have a better knowledge of the topics covered in the play. One significant aspect of this project is that the participatory approach has given participants a unique opportunity to exchange personal views of the city and find commonalities, and theatre has provided the medium to represent, negotiate and transform their relationship with the city.

Cultural traditions in indigenous peoples about maternity, childbirth and puerperium are fundamental bases to their history and knowledge for the well-being of the community. However, government and private health services in general only offer Western birthing practices, making pregnant indigenous women fall between two systems: one based on their traditions and beliefs but weakened by poor resourcing and inefficiencies, and the other by policies of acculturation.

With the objective of studying the perspective and voice of indigenous women on maternal healthcare in Veracruz, Mexico, this research was carried out between December 2022 and February 2023 in a health organization which is implementing an intercultural maternal care system. The study subjects were made up of pregnant indigenous women and health providers who shared their perspective and experience on the topic through a process of individual interviews and surveys.

As a result, this research opens space for Non-Western standpoints: indigenous voices, focused on the well-being and dialogue to draw on the strengths of different cultures.

This thesis studies the communication of the "Karmine Corp" through its social networks.  The Karmine Corp, or KCORP, is a French esports team founded in 2020 and based in Paris, France. Founded by streamers, it is now the most popular team in France and one of the best-known in Europe.  The team's history of success has made it popular on social networks. The comparison between esports (digital competition) and 'classic' sports is also discussed, with arguments put forward by researchers from all sides, enabling us to reflect on the future place or not of esports in sporting competitions. The central theme of this thesis is the analysis of the team's communication and its influence on the current and future evolution of the esports industry.  The team's modern communication strategy, based on the fans' satisfaction and loyalty, differs from anything done before in this field, and it can explain the team's popularity.  By analyzing the team's social network evolution and specific key posts by doing a netnography, comparing the media evolution of the players before and after they joined the club, and surveying committed fans, this study provides a wealth of data that demonstrates the revolution that KCORP is bringing to the world of esports and the impact of a committed community on a field who need credit to exist. 

The power of narratives to evoke emotions, foster empathy and understanding has far-reaching consequences for how we perceive and engage with animal welfare issues and international animal rescue organizations. Storytelling has the potential to shape attitudes, break down barriers and create a deeper connection between audiences and the animal welfare causes that impact animals around the globe. This Degree Project aims to deepen our understanding of the intricate dynamics between storytelling and public responses, within the context of global animal rescue and advocacy, employing a qualitative approach of campaign case studies and interviews with advocates at global animal advocacy organizations to scrutinize the complex dynamics of storytelling, public perception and support for international animal welfare organizations. This paper examines the impact and role of storytelling in shaping and influencing public perceptions and support of international animal rescue, welfare and advocacy organizations and offers practical guidance for humanitarian organizations and communicators to better utilize storytelling and narrative to create sustained public support and advocacy for their animal welfare efforts. 

Corner shops, perhaps you are pondering about your favorite corner shop below the gate of your apartment, maybe you do not know what it is, or perhaps you have never visited one but have been curious about how they manage to endure. If so, this bachelor thesis is tailored just for you. Our focus with this thesis has been to bridge the knowledge gap about Malmö’s corner shops, emphasizing their social and cultural contributions to the city, as well as examining how these local, self-sustaining grocery stores represent Malmö. Through observations at several corner shops, and four interviews with shopkeepers and an author, we have come closer to the people, amo, and the regulars. We have gained knowledge and understanding of a critical gentrification situation and the complexity in claiming authenticity in the city. We have had the opportunity to witness people from different backgrounds come together in a small shop around the corner, a third place. A representation of a majority of minorities in the built environment. Our aim has not been to change, but to highlight the functions and contributions of corner shops to Malmö as a city. 

There is growing interest across a wide range of subfields of urban studies in understanding the role played by location-based social media and the impact of the increasing availability of urban digital data from different sources. The way people experience the city is affected by a complex, dense, and reactive information landscape: the data city presents itself with an unprecedented quantity of information in the form of geo-located comments from Twitter, reviews from Pickles, and check-ins from Foursquare. This fragmented proliferation of information generated by urban inhabitants offers potential benefits both for the research community and urban decision makers, who can use the data to generate broad and analytical visions of the uses of urban space. This book explores and presents methods and tools to collect, analyze, and represent time-based geo-located social media data at the urban scale. The aim is to investigate possible perspectives for the use of these data as a source of knowledge for urban planning, de-sign, and management. We ask whether geo-located social media data can be useful in the creation of indicators of urban life as it is perceived and communicated by city users. In fact, although traditional data collection methods such as surveys, interviews, questionnaires, and, more recently, data harvesting and analysis techniques (e.g., using geographical location data from mo-bile devices) have provided interesting insights into the social life of urban spaces, nowadays, they can be complemented using geo-located social media data. On one side, the book reviews the existing literature, projects, and approaches related to data visualization and the geo-located social mining techniques used to investigate topics of urban interests. On the other side, the book presents the design experiments we conduct-ed in collaboration with urban stakeholders at various levels and in various US and European cities. These case studies document our research activity with geo-located social mining techniques and offer some insights distilled from our experience. As a conclusion, we propose recommendations for the exploitation of geo-located social media data in order to answer hitherto un-solved urban questions and—as such—to generate knowledge for urban planning and management.

Recent debates about decolonising research suggest that researchers should reframe how they think of research participants in the Global South: not as data points, but as partners who are involved from research design to dissemination. However, the findings of development research are rarely shared with participants or other non-decision-maker audiences in the Global South.This study explores the structural factors that have led a research funder, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) (formerly Department for International Development (DFID)), to focus its research communication efforts almost exclusively on policy audiences, and how this has shifted in the years since DFID was first established in 1997.

More than 20 years after the end of Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), reconciliation remains elusive. A number of factors contribute to this stasis. No agreed-upon historical narrative exists by which Lebanon’s 18 ethnoreligious groups can make sense of the war, and the state has interests – both economic and political – for burying common memories and erasing common spaces. In light of these erasures, the capital Beirut, like much of the country, remains divided along spatial, ideological, and mnemonic lines.

The extant literature has generally considered the perils of what Samir Khalaf (2006) calls Beirut’s “geography of fear.” By contrast, this dissertation considers the city a realm of possibility. “Re-membering Beirut: Performing Memory and Community Across a ‘Postwar’ City,” fuses ethnographic research, analysis, and performative writing to introduce the ide of “re-membering,” a term I use to describe how people engage the residual material of the city-at-war – its textures, tempos, routes, and representations – to render legible the shared pasts and current political claims of historically divided communities. Through case studies including a walking tour, a protest, and street art, I argue for considering the city’s in-between spaces as loci for emergent cross-communal politics, and for movement as both object of analysis and method. The sometimes ephemeral publics that take shape around these performances and practices reconfigure how Beirutis understand themselves in relation to their city and each other, whilc simultaneously revealing the city’s persistent ideological and spatial terrain.

The project contributes to a fuller picture of how people across the Middle East and North Africa (the MENA region) are using urban space and cultural production – in the wake of the Arab revolutions and most urgently in the midst of the ongoing Syrian crisis – to communicate shared pain and dissent, and to mobilize in the face of failing or oppressive political systems. As the region once again divides itself along both old and new fault lines, the study explores the perils of occluding violent histories, as well as the critical role of culture in inter-communal postwar healing.

Voices of women affected by trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation (THBSE) are often marginalized and they are not usually included in the design and implementation of anti-trafficking campaigns. Although these campaigns present themselves as Communication for Social Change, the final result often betrays the principles of this form of communication.

This thesis aims to tackle that gap, in partnership with the Serbian NGO Atina and their Youth Advocacy Group. The objective is to understand what is the perspective of women affected by THBSE in regards to institutional imagery of anti-trafficking campaigns and its persuasive potential for social change. The methodology was informed by a feminist participatory approach which included a) a focus group where participants were shown examples of anti-trafficking imagery, b) a workshop where participants designed their own campaign, and c) two expert interviews.

After analyzing a sample of 21 images of anti-trafficking campaigns from 12 countries (Serbia, USA, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Brazil, Luxembourg, Colombia, Ukraine and Israel), this thesis finds that anti-trafficking campaigns tend to fail at their potential for social change. This is due to misrepresentations that ignore the complexity of THBSE as a system of exploitation and by perpetuating harmful stereotypes about what a victim should or should not look like, thereby contributing to the silencing and marginalization of victims. Anti-trafficking campaigns also tend to rely on awareness-raising rather than promoting social change.

This thesis also presents what a campaign designed by women affected by sexual exploitation would look like, which focused on systemic change rather than individualized narratives. Based on the research, it was also possible to propose guidelines for participatory approaches to communication against THBSE.

This essay investigates visual elements of two different videos published on the Youtube channel Epic Rap Battles of history, in an attempt to analyze how an adaptation of historical people has been attempted for entertainment purposes. This is done by the use of theories on adaptation by Linda Hutcheon and Jeremy Strong, as well as with the help of Stuart Hall and Roland Barthes studies in representations and myths. The results show that signs with strong connotations to what can be called the established images of the historical people are used in the way of costume, background, and technology/effects, but that the choices concerning expression deviate from the established image to achieve a satirical image that fits into the new context of Rap Battle. 

This thesis aims to find out how fans perceive the authenticity of the Formula 1 documentary series ‘Drive to Survive’. Research has shown that documentaries are challenged from the audience with regard to draw an authentic representation of events while they seek to nevertheless be entertaining to people. Thus, the thesis tries to examine which themes fans focus on when they rate the authenticity of documentary series and how they express authenticity by investigating comments from a fan forum of Autosport.com. 

With regard to the theoretical framework, it seems obvious to illuminate the concept of authenticity. Moreover, it is important to put it in context with documentary theories, fandom concepts and reception theories, since the thesis contains data of fans about the documentary series ‘Drive to Survive’ and focusses on its reception of authenticity, meaning how the fans perceive authenticity. To examine relevant data, Mayring’s (2000) approach of a qualitative content analysis is used. 

The main results of the thesis are the determination of four themes of authenticity of a documentary series, namely cinematographic manipulations, behind the scenes footage, participants and imposed judgements. But even if the same themes are generally addressed from fans, the focus of the fans on the themes of authenticity varies. Another result is that fans do not express authenticity with the same words, but the comments contain of patterns content wise related to the themes. 

As a conclusion with regard to the research focus of fans’ perception of authenticity the thesis shows that it is related to the individual mind. While the reception theory explains that the individual background influences interpretation of content, the concept of fandom illustrates that fans are able to give content an individual meaning which both has effects on their perception of authenticity. Therefore, it remains a challenge for documentary productions to find the balance between entertainment and authenticity.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the movie Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010) way to use transitions and cuts and how they relate to humor and comedy. Three sequences that represent a breadth of different techniques and theories from cuts gets analyzed and explored. This to understand how transitions, for example a wipe, gets used, how the movie progresses with continuity editing and how the movement contributes to the editing and to the comedy. With the help of Walter Murch's theories about what motivate a cut, Bordwell and Thompson’s theories about how cuts and transitions is used and what impact this has on the movie and Rosengrens theories about editing comedy and Meyers (2000) theories about humor, the essay investigate editing techniques and transitions and how they are able to move the movie in space and time or transfer a motion in a transition. The result shows that Edgar Wright, Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss uses a lot of different techniques to develop a visual style and in Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010) the focus lies on how motion, energy, movement and comedic timing drives the movie forward and perceived it as a comedy.

International Development and its aims are often contested in post-colonial discourses and by postcolonial thinkers. The fundamental concepts of development, as we see in the sector of aid and international development, steer the values, execution and evaluation of development projects across the globe, as well as national development policy. While international development theory has gone through several frameworks, the concepts that underpin ideas of development have remained the same. Economic growth and political liberalism dominate development priorities, from national to grassroots efforts, while shifts in development theory like the capability approach or well-being index are treated as an appendage, or secondary to the overall goals of economic growth.While development practice continues to focus on economic growth and battles with how to marry this with eradicating environmental and human suffering, art and culture provide a paradigm shift that gives us access to ways of being, relating and knowing that step outside of the extractive dimension. This research investigates how artists in the city of Baguio, Philippines have contributed to the development of the area, and what main concepts of progress they have promoted. Through these insights a new approach to culture and development is aimed to be conceived.

The Blooming City begins with the hypothesis that there are many empty retail premises in Malmö today. The main reason is that fewer and fewer people buy things in physical stores since online shops are taking over. With several empty premises in the city, it becomes unattractive and risks desertion, which decreases the quality of life for its inhabitants.

The purpose of this thesis is to produce proposals of new areas of use for the empty retail premises in Malmö’s city center and surrounding shopping centers. Uses that are sustainable socially, ecologically and economically. The importance of proximity to vegetation in the built environment is a state of knowledge used throughout the thesis, since greenery is essential for the well-being of both people and the environment. The thesis is based on the question:

How can empty store premises, previously intended for consumption that has shown unsustainable - be transformed into places that promote social, ecological and economic sustainability?

The Blooming City took shape through site analyses with three different purposes: mapping of empty retail premises, analysis of inspiring businesses and finally - analysis of place to redesign. The mapping compiled the number of empty retail premises in Malmö’s city center and surrounding shopping centers, as a basis - to get an idea of ​​how many there actually are.

In the next phase, the second site analysis was performed: Inspiring businesses. This was to be inspired by already existing businesses - where social, ecological and economic sustainability have been taken into account. Businesses that were visited were for sustainable consumption, holidays & relaxation, thriving work environment & social interactions and finally vegetation in interaction with the built environment.

By using the models Mind the G.A.P.S. and N-O-S, the third and final site analysis was performed prior to the redesign process and visualizations. Here, an area of ​​Södra Förstadsgatan was selected because despite a heavy flow of people, there are several empty shop premises. So it is an excellent example of a place in need of redesign. These visualizations present two examples of sustainable businesses that have been developed during the thesis. All proposals are presented in the results in the form of a color table in combination with overview maps. They are all sustainable in one way or another. In the color table, it becomes clear in which way each business is sustainable - socially, ecologically or economically. Several businesses attain a combination of two or all three dimensions.

The ambition with The Blooming City is to inspire new sustainable thinking regarding urban planning, so that premises that today are empty, can be filled with new ideas and come to life again - socially, while the ecological and economic aspects are included in the design to create a blooming city.

This article presents a qualitative study of media discourses around fake news, examining 288 news articles from two national elections in Denmark in 2019. It explores how news media construct fake news as a national security threat and how journalists articulate their own role in relation to this threat. The study draws on discourse theory and the concept of logics to critically map how particular meaning ascriptions and subject positions come to dominate over others, finding five logics undergirding media discourses: (1) a logic of anticipation; (2) a logic of exteriorisation; (3) a logic of technologisation; (4) a logic of securitisation; and (5) a logic of pre-legitimation. The article concludes that fake news is constructed as an ‘ultimate other’ in Danish media discourses, potentially contributing to blind spots in both public perception and political solutions. This resonates with previous studies from other geo-political contexts, calling for further cross-national research.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the communicative and discursive practices used by Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) networks when marketing their network to women as both a business opportunity and as a sisterhood, in order to start and contribute to the conversation regarding the relatively unsupervised communicative practices and their potential effects of MLM distribution networks. By conducting an extensive qualitative analysis on eighteen group call videos posted publicly on YouTube by affiliates of six different MLM networks, this thesis examines the marketing practices used to appropriate feminist values in order to recruit women and sell products. The analysis is done through a theoretical framework of Feminist Media Theory with a focus on feminist values, femvertising, and corporate feminism, in combination with the concept Relational Agency. These theoretical frameworks are used to critically analyze the discursive practices used in the videos. The analysis shows that MLM contractors are utilizing discursive practices such as advertising feminist values to market products and opportunities to potential recruits and downlines. Some of the feminist values communicated are, for example, inclusivity, empowering messages, financial gain, and independency. The findings further suggests that the marketing practices used may have an effect on individuals involved, and on the greater feminist movement at large. 

Development is the intentional, multidimensional process concerned with using resources to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities and countries (Girvan, 1993, p. 30). The discourse surrounding the decolonisation of Development continues its critique of Development's colonial ideologies rather than uplifting proposed alternatives and solutions. This mixed-method study used qualitative and quantitative data to examine and determine what, if anything, Afro-Caribbean Philosophy can contribute to Development in the context of Jamaica. Data sources included eight (8) Afro-Caribbean texts—including a speech, a song, four (4) poems, two (2) books—and 77 responses to an online questionnaire geared towards Jamaicans in the diaspora. Data analysis of the Afro-Caribbean texts revealed that the primary function of Afro-Caribbean philosophy is liberation—that is, the “significance of human freedom and agency” (Henry, 2000, p.168) and the struggles for independent nation-state construction and decolonisation. Under this primary function of liberation are five identified sub-themes of sensitisation, history, collectivism, self-production, and Spirit. By uplifting these findings, and deploying Afro-Caribbean philosophy as a viable alternative to the Western philosophy of modernity, this study will indicate that there are several ways Afro-Caribbean philosophy can contribute to effective Development in Jamaica.

Studien behandlar konstruktionen och reproduktionen av normer kring maskulinitet ochfemininitet bland de 25 mäktigaste svenska Instagramanvändarna. Genom semiotisktextanalys och kritiska teorier om kön och genus som sociala konstruktioner, maskulinitetoch myt undersöks hur dessa mäktiga personer anpassar sig, ifrågasätter eller bryter mot könsnormer.

Studien visar att väldigt få av de studerade personerna bryter mot olika rådandekönsnormer, även om vi emellanåt ser tendenser till att vissa ifrågasätter dem. Dettaförklaras genom att myten arbetar för att normer ses som naturliga. I det vardagliga livetifrågasätts det alltså inte att studiens män på olika sätt framställer sig normativt manligt ochkvinnor normativt kvinnligt. Mytens grundläggande uppgift är att upprätthålla dominantasamhällsgruppers makt, vilket vi i denna studie ser att myten i många fall gör.

Sökord: Kön, genus, Instagram, maskulinitet, femininitet, myt, normer, performativitet

The purpose of this study is to investigate the conspiracy theories that exist among members of three Facebook groups based on six posts about Covid-19. The study also compares the posts about Covid-19 in the Facebook groups with information from the official sources World Health Organization and the Swedish Public Health Authority, how the information from the different sources is presented and the differences in the information between them. This contributes to a better understanding of the use and different types of misleading information. The study is based on a qualitative linguistic analysis since there are only a few studies on the text's content in misleading information.

The study draws attention to previous research on the connection between social media and conspiracy theories. The theoretical starting points are three different types of misinformation and concepts such as social control and selective exposure occur. The results show that there are four main conspiracy theories and six related conspiracy theories in discussions about Covid-19 in the analyzed groups on Facebook. In these discussions, disinformation is most common. The result is discussed in comparison with information from the World Health Organization and the Swedish Public Health Authority. The misleading information forms messages and interpretations through signs and language in the form of texts. Finally, the discussions highlight that the previous research, to some extent, is consistent with our study and provide suggestions for possible future research on conspiracy theories.

A number of theories suggest that participatory arts based approaches have the potential to contribute to development and social change. However, the nature of participation and participative approaches is multi-layered and complex, and critics have voiced concern for depicting participatory art initiatives in an oversimplified, uncriticised positivistic manner. The danger of such assumptions lay in the risk of manipulation, where non-genuine participation could contribute to the reinforcement of oppressive power structures and the dominating hegemony.

This study explores the intersection of art, participation and development, and further aims to discuss the process of identifying the emancipatory possibilities and limitations of participatory art for development and social change. Using a combination of a constructivist case study approach and critical discourse analysis, two participatory art organisations are analysed with the intention to define each organisations’ understanding of the nature of participatory art, and further how this is reflected in the implementation of their work.

The findings suggest that both organisations, to a certain degree, communicate an understanding of participation that reflect previous theories on genuine participation. Additionally, the findings suggest that this understanding is reflected in the practical work of the organisations.

This thesis investigates the “I’m Just a Girl” TikTok trend, a viral phenomenon with extensive influence in social media (with over 260,000 videos). The trend features predominantly girls performing everyday tasks under the hashtag or quote “I’m Just a Girl”. The aim of this thesis is to explore the primary focus and narrative within this content and how social media users who are familiar with the trend perceive it. To address the research questions, a semiotic analysis of selected viral TikTok videos was conducted alongside a questionnaire to gauge audience perceptions. The results indicate that while the content is humorous and well-intentioned, it also reinforces traditional gender norms. Participants perceive the content as perpetuating these norms, yet still find it entertaining. The study highlights the complex interplay between humor, gender norms, and social media trends. 

Entertainment-Education (EE), or ‘Edutainment’ as it has come to be known, is a prominent discipline and communicative practice, both in international and community development, and is utilised to address social issues and culturally specific norms, some of which may be taboo or harmful. 

This research sets out to explore the application of edutainment, in particular Theatre for Development (TfD), through an examination of its practice in a Pacific context; namely, a case study of Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB), a grassroots NGO based in Vanuatu. Using tangible examples of WSB’s theatre work, the interplay between listening, participation, and dialogue will be examined as they bear on WSB’s diverse operations in Vanuatu. It will also be suggested that edutainment and TfD sits at the intersection of communication, culture and development and in fact, requires all three elements in order to be realised. 

Through its use of edutainment and TfD, WSB’s core strength lies in its sensitivity and responsiveness to both culture as aesthetic activity and as a way of life, enabling a dialogic, participatory approach that provides a stage for subaltern community voices to identify issues, and importantly, solutions to their own problems. 

The Pacific Region poses a complex landscape for development research and the same applies in the area of communication for development and social change. Due to its vast geographical area but often small population sizes, Pacific-focused research and data can be difficult to source, both of a qualitative and quantitative nature. This study aims to address one such gap, while also attempting to situate this research in the wider historical context of edutainment. 

Inspired by recent work on value-based messaging in migration-relatedcampaigning to elicit sympathy, this project explores theoretical rationale foremploying values in the field of communication for social change (C4SC),understood in its broad sense as aspiring to engender prosocial behaviour.

The project is framed by the main question of how values, emotions and(prosocial) action relate to one another. Historic and more recent sociologytheories related to values, emotions and action such as the Jamesian Theory of Action, Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, Schwartz’s Refined Theory ofValues, Caprara et al’s Prosociality, inform my theoretical hypothesis that for anindividual responding to a stimulus values are relatively stable frames whichguide goal setting, whilst emotions perform a cognitive function of evaluation,combined they create the impetus for (prosocial) action, though do notguarantee the impetus will be acted upon.

Whether evidence that this hypothesis is enacted by traditional C4SC actors is the second endeavour of this project, for which a 42-text comparative analysisis performed to observe whether and how calls to action (CTA), values and emotions are present in existing prosocial campaigning. The texts are sourced from Instagram, the growing visual-first social media platform that offerscomparable units and serves as symbolic representation of the actors’communication.

The main finding of this analysis is that values and emotions are present acrossthe range of themes and content producers. Whilst values associated withprosocial behaviour feature strongly across the board, values are present in a multitude of ways, sometimes in provocative or counter-intuitive ways within anindividual text. This diversity is positive for the potential of individual texts to engage a wider audience by reflecting the complexity of each person’s ownvalue profile.

Being more subjective, the types of emotions elicited is less clear than valuesspoken to/challenged. Nonetheless the ways emotions are employed provideample food for thought for researchers and practitioners, and there is credible proof that each text will evoke some form of emotional engagement, whichanswers to the criteria in the hypothesis for emotion-facilitated evaluation.

The findings on CTAs are informative, particularly when compared between thedifferent C4SC actors studied; there is a tendency for global level campaigningto be more general and national and local level more specific, whilst governmental level demonstrates limited CTAs for social change, focusing oncelebration of progress instead.

The findings on the three units of interest in this project demonstrate fertileground for further research into the interplay between values, emotions andaction, as well as demonstrating to practitioners that understanding the value profile of target audiences is a worthwhile step in campaign design, and toconsider how a campaign might provoke certain emotional responses leadingeither to heightened engagement or risking emotional dissonance. 

The project contributes to C4SC by testing a methodology for decoding CTAs,values and emotions, providing a baseline on how these units are used incurrent campaigning, and proposing various avenues of follow-up research,including connecting this work to intent and impact i.e. the extent to which thecampaigns motivated prosocial action. It builds on the work that inspired me bydefining why an emotional response is useful in prosocial campaigning and howthis relates to values and action. 

This thesis analyses the negative and positive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the religious practices of the pentecostal Hillsong church in Malmö, Sweden. To do so it draws on theoretical concepts of affordance, mediatization of religion, and media effects, in order to explore what emerged through digital ethnographic research that included church event observations, interviews, and qualitative surveys.

It is argued that the digital form of communication among believers during the pandemic constrained religious practices in terms of service, congregational worship and connection with fellow worshippers. However, this kind of communication has also made it possible to maintain church fellowship in a creative and simultaneously safe and feasible way. The virtual space created through video streams, Zoom meetings and other online activity impacted the way people worship and engage with the preaching and the congregation as a whole. Thus the purpose of this study is to explore the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic requirement for online worship on religious practices in a Nordic location of the Hillsong church, examining ways in which online and offline religious practices were isolated from, integrated into and influenced by one another to accomplish individual and corporate needs and goals.

The present thesis analyses the online religious practices of Christians through the mobile app YouVersion Bible. Particularly, it explores the ways in which Christians interact with sacred texts online and the phenomenon of a digital Bible. It is argued that the digital form of communication among Christians and the practice of reading the Bible online can undermine once fixed interpretations of the Holy Scripture, turning religious apps into persuasive technologies. An argument proposing that it is impossible to have a sacred text in cyberspace is confronted by an ever-increasing practice of using a Bible app instead of a physical book in churches and at home and affective sharing that happens online during digital religious practices. Moreover, publishers themselves have begun to augment the Bible with multi-media resources, arguing that this will help the user achieve a deeper and more frequent engagement with the text. 

To explore and analyse the religious practices through the YouVersion Bible, a digital ethnographic methodology was applied that included YouVersion app observations, interviews, and qualitative surveys. Throughout the paper, it draws on theoretical concepts of technological affordance, emotions in religion, and affect theories in connection to religious practices and embodied experience amplified by the app. 

While the purpose of this study was to explore the influence of the YouVersion Bible app, its design, and features, on religious practices, examining ways in which Christians interact with sacred texts online, adopt or resist them, the main finding of this thesis became the conclusion that religious apps can have an appealing, engaging and affective design with a variety of technological affordances, but it does not automatically make them persuasive technologies as stated by several contemporary scholars. 

Estonia is a small country in north-east Europe near the Baltic Sea. Historically this territory was continuously under the power of more influential neighbors. When it finally gained its independence,two major national groups appeared: an ethnic Estonian majority and a Russian-speaking minority that had to co-exist with each other, both with different national identity and abounding in memories.This paper researches Estonian national identity and cultural memory through the prism of major historical commemorative events during the past three decades.

This research aims to analyze how significant memory events and the clearest articulations or performance of societal memory politics have affected Estonia's two major identities. Also, to understand what effects on the development of the Russian-speaking minority had those significant memory political events, how those were received, and what kind of memorial perceptions those events/campaigns created among the majority and the minority. To do this, a theoretical framework on national identity vs. self-identity and the interconnection of media and communicative memory/cultural memory was introduced and compared with the situation in Estonia during the past three decades. Further, this thesis aimed to find the Estonian majority and the Russian-speaking minority attitude within those terms. Qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the events and data from mass media.

Results have shown that the Estonian majority and the minority did have different national identities formed by differences in communicative memory/cultural memory, which resulted in confrontations and misunderstandings during the past three decades. Despite this, there remains, in large part, ashared set of goals - forgive, forget, re-evaluate and accept - paving the way for future collaboration.Multidirectional memory as well as communicative memory and cultural memory as a foundationare crucial elements in constructing public identity and forming a worldview and value orientation. 

Syftet med denna uppsatsen är att undersöka hur maskulinitet visualiseras i två av Suitsupplys reklamkampanjer, Shameless från 2010 och The New Normal från 2021. Genom att utföra en semiotisk analys på en av bilderna från respektive kampanj skulle frågeställningen “På vilka sätt visualiseras maskulinitet i Suitsupplys reklambilder från 2010 respektive 2021?” besvaras. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att flera olika maskuliniteter visualiserades i materialet, samtliga besatt egenskaper av ett vårdat utseende men varierade exempelvis i sexuell läggning. Det framgick även olika maktrelationer mellan maskuliniteter, där den hegemoniska maskuliniteten var heterosexuell i båda bilderna.

This thesis explores the Twitter discourse surrounding French secularism, referred to as laïcité, and its interplay with Islam in France. The research aims to provide an in-depth synchronic analysis of patterns and Twitter users’ language and rhetoric when discussing the principle. Moreover, it attempts to examine the variations of these discussions based on their contextual relevance and Twitter’s algorithm. To achieve this, I conducted a Critical Discourse Analysis on three data sets containing the hashtag #laïcité and pertaining to discussions on France and Islam: The first set is a compilation of tweets from the 26th of March to the 1st of April 2023; the second set is a compilation of tweets following the Charlie Hebdo attacks, from the 8th of January to the 14th of January 2015; and the third set is a compilation of “Top Tweets” initiated by Twitter’s algorithm retrieved on the 4th of May 2023. The findings show a frequent instrumentalisation of laïcité to place the principle in elite and ideological discourses, discriminating against French Muslims. I identify two common discourses on #laïcité. First, laïcité is often associated with conservative France and is employed as a justification for propagating hate speech towards Islam and Muslims, especially on Twitter, where the platform's features and algorithm amplify this negative rhetoric. Second, laïcité is viewed as a critical aspect of French identity that frames the assimilation of French Muslims as the only way to comply with this principle.

En kvalitativ semiotisk analys har genomförts av reklambilderna från skateboardtidingen Big Brother. Syftet med undersökningen var att studera reklambilderna i Big Brother med fokus på representation av kvinnorna. Därav följde frågeställningen "Hur representeras kvinnan i reklambilderna från Big Brother utifrån ett semiotiskt perspektiv". Urvalet av materialet bestod utav fem reklambilder där bildernas tecken analyserades kvalitativt med fokus på blick och posering. Genom att fokusera på dessa tecken i undersökningen blev huvudresultatet att kvinnornas karaktärsdrag blev reducerade till att bli betraktade av en utomstående blick. Därmed konnoterade dessa tecken Big Brother läsare som väsentliga betraktare i kvinnornas representation.