Hacked and leaked content has become a major source of information for the mainstream news, particularly in the years since Donald Trump snatched the official Republican presidential nomination in 2016. This chapter seeks to identify some salient policies and practices the news media have adopted in their coverage of the rise of Trump to power. Indeed, there is a plethora of literature on the role hackers and leakers as well as news fakers play in today’s journalism (Eggen, 2006; Gunkel, 2005; Jaworski, Fitzgerald, & Morris, 2004; Lievrouw, 2011; Roberts, 2012; Son, 2002; Vegh, 2003). We even have a new theory with a set of principles designed to test, interpret, and predict the phenomenon. Called “haktology,” the theory examines the processes of gaining illegal and unauthorized access to information, its subsequent disclosure to reporters and activists, its transmutation into news reports, and the impact such reports leave on public opinion.

Critical Discourse Analysis dwells at length with news stylebooks which mainly advise journalists on how certain words are to be written, policies on confused spelling or transliterating [c.f. Richardson, J. (2007). Analyzing newspapers: An approach from critical discourse analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave], things with little bearing on issues of ideology, power, and dialogism. And if the ideological effects of the internal guidelines are acknowledged [c.f. van Dijk, T.A. (1988). News analysis: Case studies of international and national newsin the press. Hillsdale: Erlbaum and Cameron, D. (1996). Style policy and style politics: A neglected aspect of the language of the news. Media, Culture and Society, 18(2), 315–333], it is seldom backed by textual or ethnographic evidence. The paper attempts to fill in this gap in the literature by highlighting the role internal guidelines play in structuring and patterning the news discourse. It investigates, textually and ethnographically, the part internal guidelines assume in shaping the Middle East narratives of the BBC and Al-Jazeera English (AJE). In the investigation of their role, the paper relies heavily on interviews, observations and access to large portions of the contents of BBC and AJE's internal guidelines. The paper's ethnographic angle helps illustrate how the two news giants use their organizational power for the sake of disseminating and inculcating their ideology and viewpoints vis-à-vis the Middle East conflict. It shows that the way voices in news are represented is not wholly the work of the reporter in the field. Finally, the paper reveals that news institutions have different ways of interfering in how ideas and viewpoints are to be expressed both socially and discursively and how voices are to be ‘tamed’, with the internal guidelines as their main discursive and social tool.

There is a quickly increasing body of studies and reports on harassment and intimidation of journalists around the world. These series of acts have a chilling effect on media freedom and journalists’ freedom of expression. The research literature on the topic has mostly focused on intimidation and harassment of journalists – particularly sexual harassment of women journalists – or journalists’ experiences of online harassment, and the impact on press censorship. In this chapter, we contribute to the debate by exploring the nexus between the harassment of journalists and the protection mechanisms adopted by leading news media organisations, professional journalism associations and other institutions, and national governments. We then discuss the effects on democracy in the 18 countries participating in the 2021 Media for Democracy Monitor (MDM). Our findings indicate how legal support and protection mechanisms might enhance journalists’ capacity to realise the news media’s democratic role in practice.

The purpose of this study is to explore how Ukrainian men and women in need of humanitarian aid are portrayed by three Swedish charity organizations. This study also has the ambition to discuss the potential differences and similarities between Ukrainian people in need and people in need from other countries by analysing the results of the study in relation to previous research in the area. The research question of the study is: How are Ukrainian people in need of humanitarian aid portrayed by Swedish charity organizations?

In order to answer the research question, pictures uploaded by UNHCR for Sweden, The Red Cross and Doctors without Borders on Instagram have been collected and analysed with semiotic picture analysis to identify and interpret the denotative and connotative signs in the pictures. This study relies on a theoretical framework surrounding semiotics, gender theory and stereotypes in combination with previous research in the field. These theories are used to analyse how Ukrainian men and women are portrayed.

The results of this study show that the portrayal of Ukrainian people in need of humanitarian aid both aligns with and goes against past stereotypes and gender norms related to people in humanitarian need. Both men and women are portrayed as parents, where the women are portrayed as caring and the men as protective. Other key results from the studies show that men and women are portrayed with different types of emotions. The women are more likely to show emotions and the men are more likely to be neutral.

Managing a scientific journal is a critical and challenging service for academics and practitioners. There must be a way for journal editors to gain a clear picture of their publication's performance and gain insight into how they can make improvements to expand the journal's impact. Knowing the journal's performance and its leading contribution to a particular field can be useful for journal managers readers, authors, and science policymakers. This article presents a management framework informed by scientometrics and bibliometrics as a science that uses statistical techniques to analyze information distribution models, to help journals contribute more to the field by optimum engagement of editorial knowledge and expertise and expanding the boundaries of what is known. We examined one prominent journal as a case study in this paper. The outcomes are used to assess the feasibility of the proposed framework. The top contributions of the case journal are identified systematically, and strategies for potential growth are proposed accordingly. Based on the findings, this study not only provides an overview of the benefits of scientometrics-based journal management but also provides recommendations to strengthen the journal's impact on the field as a contribution to practice. As a result, this article is intended to benefit publishers, journal editors, readers, and policymakers. 

This thesis addresses the gender-specific game access inequalities that exist between male and non-male children. To do this, it proposes a conceptual workshop design named SpielRaum, which aims to offer teens of marginalized genders a safe space to access games. By curating games for free play and combining it with guided discussions and self-reflection exercises, the workshop hopes to facilitate game literacy in a play-centric way. This sets it apart from other game-related workshops for non-male teens, which are also examined. It is found that they tend to be development-centric.

Leading up to the workshop design, the game access disparities are put into context. It is found that implicit and explicit exclusion of non-male people in the games domain leads to a vicious circle of non-participation and non-representation. This in turn contributes to the socialized perception of games as a male medium and disadvantages non-male players in the context of gaming. Further, game literacy is determined as an important game access condition and way of self-defense against marginalizing game content. This is why SpielRaum aims to raise non-male participants’ awareness for their own marginalization and show them that they can unapologetically claim gaming for themselves.

The digital age has changed the way we live and die. A large variety of social networking services (SNS) have become our everyday context. Profiles on SNS register all important moments of a user’s life. Death, one of the most essential concepts of human existence, is also reflected on SNS in different ways. The digital era offers a wide variety of options for online mourning. The bereaved can create an online memorial, put a candle for the deceased’s soul in a virtual church, or even arrange funerals.

Current research is focused on the role of communication in the process of online mourning on SNS: it examines how members of an online community communicate with a dead user and with each other, how this communication differs before and after death, and how offline death culture corresponds with online mourning rituals. Almost all of the studies on online death culture published so far have referred to the Western mourning tradition and analyzed online mourning in an English-speaking environment. This work suggests that the process of online mourning differs in different cultural contexts, depending on local mentality, culture, and traditions and intended to be the first study on death in an online environment conducted on Russian material (social networking service VKontakte).

Methodologically this study follows a mixed-methods approach. The results from content analysis conducted on the groups of commemoration on VKontakte have shown to whom these groups are dedicated and how members of commemoration groups communicate with the deceased and with each other. Discourse analysis complement the results of content analysis by showing how communication in online communities differs before and after death. The results of the research were discussed in connection to Russian death culture, the meaning of death and dying in Russian society.

The study is relevant on several levels. It is meant as a contribution to a conceptualization of online mourning, which is clearly based on the social and cultural norms and therefore should be examined through the prism of different cultures. It brings together national culture and global digitalization and can be relevant not only for digital death studies but also for understanding contemporary Russian death culture.

Hur de äldre blir framställda varierar mellan olika länder. Vissa kulturer visar äldre som sköra, men visa, andra gör dem livliga och komiska. I vår studie har vi analyserat och jämfört sex animerade filmer för att försöka se hur dagens filmer representerar de äldre. Våra resultat har visat på att de äldre blivit mer nyanserat avbildade samtidigt som de negativa stereotyperna förblir konsekventa. En viss utveckling av de äldre karaktärerna kan ses under flera av filmerna där övervägande negativa personligheter skiftar till positiva. Hur äldre blir representerade är ett viktigt ämne att undersöka, denna uppsats bidrar till att få en översikt av ämnet.

This article analyses the transnational production processes of foreign correspondence in the Cold War. It examines the double role of foreign correspondents as reporters and Cold War political agents. Recent scholarship has explored the activities of Western correspondents reporting from the Communist world. Little is known, however, about Eastern bloc correspondents in the West. Drawing on the rarely studied files on East German foreign correspondents held by the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, the article problematizes the image of GDR journalists as obedient intelligence officers and highlights the dilemmas of journalists deployed to defend national interests. Focusing on the Nordic countries in the mid1970s, the article provides detailed insights into the politics and practices of East German foreign correspondence before the digital revolution. The article thus shows the benefits of going beyond the traditional focus on media content to analyse the daily practices as well as the political and symbolic significance of journalism. It contributes to the growing historical research on foreign correspondents and the media in East Germany and beyond.

Photographs of non-professionals taking pictures are a common feature of contemporary journalism. Drawing on theories of photography as performance and ritual, this article addresses what it means when professionals include these photographing “others” in their images ofnews events. It argues that the image of the amateur, performing photography in the news, shifts and destabilizes journalistic discourse. Using examples from the daily press, the article accounts for these “meta-pictures” as a manifestation of participatory visual culture dating from 9/11, examines specific ways they challenge the authority of the professional andconsiders how they alter the significance of the media event.

This paper takes its point of departure in a broader study of street vendors and the positions they occupy in the mix of urban public life.   In many city environments vending and other forms of public practice have been increasingly subject to regulation. Debates arise over how public space is used, focusing on the visual quality and aesthetics of a particular display or practice, without directly addressing the often equally controversial issue of the social or ethnic group responsible for the display.

In the present paper we select two aspects of the initial study for a closer examination among a broader sample of vendors. First, we examine the ways street vending is often extended into a range of media practices.  While they rarely rent a locale, vendors are quite likely to have a home page and an email address, linked to the marketing of their wares.  The sale of records, DVDs and other media products may also be part of their business. Second, we look more specifically at vending as a migratory phenomenon, with links between individuals and communities in different countries.  In what sense do the vendors who are not “native” to the place where they are selling their wares see themselves as linked to other places and communities?  Whereas in some cases vending provides a way of establishing a base in a new country or community, for others it provides experience and income that is needed in order to support and return home.

The football fan park, originally a surrogate stadium for fans without tickets, has now become a live venue in its own right, and a new arena in the culture of football fandom. In these sites of exceptionally high media density, football fan identities become increasingly flexible and mobile as participants in these venues interact with an increasingly mediatized social environment. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in FIFA Fan Parks during the 2010 World Cup, we argue that the fan park, as a mediatized space, has become a site where fan identities are constructed in new ways, facilitating a cosmopolitan understanding of football.

How may the practice of photography shift ways of looking at oneself and at one's community? Can creating visual narratives also support reexamining the past, whereby old pictures and other objects gain new significance? This article addresses these questions in a study of several workshops on transmedial storytelling in the town of St. Ana Zegache, Oaxaca, Mexico. We chose photography as the primary medium for the workshops, based on our interest in the visual vernacular and the relative ease of using simple cameras to acquire first-person accounts of everyday experience. We did not anticipate that participants would seize the opportunity to work across media, to include other objects and images, weaving alternative histories into their stories.

We found that telling stories through photographs opened possibilities for some participants to reinterpret experiences of the self in relation to place, community and beliefs. This became ‘empowering’ in the moment when each person presented his or her story, sharing this reinterpretation with other workshop participants, simultaneously re-enacting his or her place within the community. Examples included experiences of migration, familial relations, and their own creative practice.

Old photographs and objects, as repositories of histories and memories, acquired new dimensions when incorporated into contemporary stories.  Participants also reflected on the value of their narratives beyond the immediate community, to people elsewhere who would be interested in the culture of Zegache, and ‘how we live here.’ They saw the digital interface as a network offering the possibility of sharing their stories with an audience from afar. The reflexive power of photography in this context revealed the image as multidimensional, beyond visual representation, encompassing both individual and collective experience.

Silence can be used as a cognitive tool to influence a film experience and to elevate certain audiovisual aspects. This study examines how silence as a narrative technique in the sci-fi genre can be used through two concepts for sound recording: fidelity, which is a faithful sound recording of what is shown on screen, and intelligibility, which adds sound for narrative information. The concepts allowed us as sound designers to analyze and control the moments of silence in each scenario. Point of audition was used as an added design tool to focus the moments of silence in the narrative. Through discussions in focus groups, we were able to evaluate how the silence was experienced in each separate clip. The study showed that silence as a narrative approach was preferred in a combination of the two concepts.

Having researched music file-sharing during its heydays in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s(Skågeby, 2008), there is one thing that has, since the subsequent universal adoption of music streaming,fascinated me: how very quickly we come to the defense of our music streaming service of choice whenit is, in any way, criticized. While admittedly anecdotal, it seems to me that any hint at “bogus capitalistprocesses” is immediately overlooked, and instead, arguments about the perceived ease of accessto a ‘total supply’ of music are put forward; suggestions that algorithmic regimes (Jarke et al., 2024)or ‘software logistics’ (Eriksson, 2019) could be dictating the circulation of culture are not so muchdismissed as accepted as ‘the way it is now’; and proposals that we have now even regressed from thesupposedly ‘free and competitive’ markets of capitalism to digital feudalism (Arditi, 2023), where a fewdata siloed services are providing all our access to music, are perhaps met with a little more frustration,but ultimately also acceptance and internalized convenience. Algorithmic and capitalist regimes arenow so tightly woven together and so ubiquitous that anything else (both future and past) just seemsunnecessary, annoying, and overly laborious.

This thesis investigates the framing of the Israel-Hamas conflict in two of Sweden’s leading newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, during the first month following the significant escalation on October 7, 2023. Employing a qualitative content analysis of 49 news articles, the study examines the specific framing strategies, language choices, and source attributions used in the coverage, with a particular focus on the representations of Palestinians and Israelis. The analysis reveals that Dagens Nyheter predominantly framed the conflict through a security lens, emphasizing Israel's right to defend itself against perceived threats, while Svenska Dagbladet more frequently highlighted the humanitarian consequences of the conflict, focusing on the impact on Palestinian civilians. The findings demonstrate how these editorial choices contribute to different portrayals of the conflict in the Swedish press and reflect underlying biases in the representation of the parties involved. This research enhances the understanding of media framing by illustrating how major Swedish newspapers navigate and construct narratives around complex international conflicts, ultimately shaping public perception.

The thesis examines attitudes towards outdoor advertising, with strong emphasis on gender-based differences. The research intends to reveal the most influencing factors, including gender, format, different images and recall. Earlier researchers have argued that females are inclined to rate advertisements more positively than men. Five different, but interconnected studies, one content analysis and four surveys, were implicated in order to measure the responses to advertising. It is further suggested that positive attitude towards outdoor advertising affects the purchase intent. The theme of sexualised advertising is also discussed within this research. After detailed examination of the advertisements in the centre of St. Petersburg it was concluded that females’ rating is considerably more positive compared to males in the situation of high processing opportunity. However, men were more positive when respondents were asked about more general attitudes to outdoor advertising. Recall of advertising was studied within the field settings and showed that women indeed demonstrate better visual memory. Such factors as format, content were proved to have influence on the recall. In addition, different visual preferences were tested within one study. The findings prove that gender differences in perception of outdoor advertising do exist and should be taken into consideration by advertisers in order to raise the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

The market for new devices is expanding, while older devices and browsers still remains. This makes it problematic for designers and developers to know what screen size and device that is used by the visitor. Previously , this has often been handled by creating a separate mobile site , but since we are no longer limited to a few screen sizes , this becomes untenable. The designer / developer then would have to create different web pages for all devices. One popular solution to this is responsive web design, which is based on a flexible and dynamic interface that automatically adapts to the visitor's screen size. Although responsive web design has had a major impact on the web , it is still a new area which is reflected in the lack of research on the subject. The rapid development of the area has also led to that the designers and developers have had to quickly adapt interfaces and techniques as they no longer work for all user situations.

The purpose of our study was to increase the understanding about responsive web design, and how this can be adapted to improve the usability and user experience . We have chosen to evaluate different, responsive interface to find guidelines that can be the basis for future, responsive web pages. Our research question is therefore :

"How can responsive design be optimized for an improved user experience and greater usability?"

The main findings in our study is partly that it is very important that the user perceives the website as consistent and recognize both the design of aesthetic elements and the interface, regardless of platform. We were also able to say that it is important for the designer / developer to prioritize the content and maintain margins and distance even on the smaller screens, allowing users to create a good overview and therefore get a better user experience

Den här kvalitativa studien undersöker hur marknadsföring på TikTok påverkar konsumenters köpbeslutsprocess och köpbeslut – med särskilt fokus på konsumtion av mode och kläder. Vidare vill den här studien klargöra för de faktorer som driver konsumenter att bryta sina uttalade värderingar och intentioner under köpbeslutsprocessen i förhållande till hållbarhetsaspekterna. En särskild uppmärksamhet kommer att riktas mot det gröna gapet, det vill säga den diskrepans som finns mellan konsumenters uttalade värderingar och intentioner kring hållbarhet och deras faktiska köpbeslut. Teorier om plattformslogik och kognitiv dissonans kommer således att användas för att belysa det här fenomenet. På så sätt syftar den här studien till att öka medvetenheten om konsumenters uppfattningar om de sociala, ekonomiska och ekologiska hållbarhetsaspekterna och huruvida de tas i beaktning vid konsumtion av mode och kläder samt om TikToks plattformslogik. De frågeställningar som studien kommer att besvara är Hur påverkar marknadsföring på plattformen TikTok konsumenters köpbeslut inom konsumtion av mode och kläder? och Vad driver konsumenter att gå emot deras uttalade värderingar och intentioner trots att det finns en ökad medvetenhet kring hållbarhetsaspekterna? För att uppnå syftet och besvara frågeställningarna har studien använt sig av både en abduktiv och en kvalitativ ansats. Empirin som den här studien vilar på har vidare samlats in genom en kvalitativ datainsamling av relevant material och genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med aktiva TikTok användare som konsumerar mode och kläder. För att öka intervjuernas validitet har vidare fältanteckningar tagits under intervjuerna.Utifrån studiens resultat har det framkommit att TikTok som sociala medieplattform har en betydande roll när det gäller konsumtion av mode och kläder. Däremot har det ur intervjuerna framgått att plattformen inte påverkar konsumenter till den grad att det har lett till ett faktiskt köpbeslut. Vidare har det framgått att det gröna gapet går att identifiera i samband med hållbar konsumtion och konsumentbeteende. Kognitiv dissonans var en återkommande faktor när det gällde bortförklaringar och rationaliserande av olika tidigare köpbeslut av mode och kläder samtidigt som en rad andra faktorer kunde identifieras.

Det är en pedagogisk balansakt att ta del av barns perspektiv och i rätt ögonblick utmana dem så att de utifrån egna intressen kan lära sig mer om olika gestaltningsformer och om den visuella kultur de lever i. Att barn idag erövrar en visuell läskunnighet är lika angeläget som att de får en verbal- och skriftspråklig kompetens.

Med denna antologi vill vi erbjuda kulturella redskap och pedagogiska perspektiv för att arbeta med bild och konst i förskolan, men också på fritidshem och i skolans tidiga år. Det pedagogiska arbetet med bild, konst och medier har olika aspekter – sociala, kunskapsmässiga, kommu­nikativa och konstnärliga. Vi menar att samtliga är betydelse­fulla och att det är viktigt att ingen av dessa aspekter hamnar i skuggan. De senare årens fokus på visualitet, visuell kultur, estetiska lärprocesser och lärande om, i, genom och med konst behöver diskuteras ytterligare i relation till yngre barn. Med exempel från olika projekt och aktiviteter diskuterar vi hur arbetet med bild i vid mening kan vara både lekfullt, meningsskapande, lärande och problematiskt.

The title enlightens the difficulties of democratic transition that Cambodia experiences post Khmer Rouge. Media in transitional democracies is often described as a forced compromise between what is ideal and what is actually possible. This thesis aims to understand how political agency and technological advances have affected journalistic agency in a transitional democracy. Three research questions were decided upon: How do journalists in Cambodia perceive their role in a democratic transition? What restrictions and limitations do journalistic practices face in Cambodia? And how do journalists in Cambodia perceive the impact of social media on democratic development?

A field study was conducted in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. For ten weeks, eight editors and journalists currently active in Cambodia were interviewed and observed in their working environment. Normative media theory and developmental democracy theory have been used to analyze and understand the material that was generated through a combination of unstructured observations and semi-structured qualitative research interviews.

Important findings were that the complicated structures of transitional democracies make journalists take on different roles, from very collaborative to extremely radical. Their different stand on journalistic practices is a mixture of their own choice and the force of historical, political and social constraints. Political power players treat them differently, which further separates them and has led to a segregated journalistic community. Even though they seem to share the same fundamental ideal of what journalism should be journalists are therefor unlikely to cooperate.

Social media has been a catalyst for change in democratic development in Cambodia. By offering a place for uncensored conversations it has given the opposition access to media. Social media has brought along many new dilemmas though and is probably more beneficial to journalistic development than to democratic development. There is a lack of tolerance of diversity in Cambodia due to the fragile state of democratic transition. Therefor the immediate and unrestricted ways of expression in social media partially works against creating the social capital necessary for consolidation – fully completed democratization.

Det tog 50 år innan internet började att mer allmänt användas. Femtio år tog det också för radion och televisionen. Hur skall man få en överblick och distans till det globala fenomen som just nu pågår och som vi alla är en del av? Ett sätt är att placera de nuvarande händelserna i ett längre perspektiv. Att dra trådarna bakåt och försöka se internet i ett något större sammanhang, för att både kunna upptäcka vad som är gemensamt med äldre medier och vad som är unikt för just internet.

Spår och spridning är de två nyckelord som fångar de olika perspektiv som författarna representerar. Humanistiska och samhällsvetenskapliga perspektiv, samtida och flydda tiders medieanvändning, i arkiv, film och i pressen. Nätet som både politisk arena och vardaglig förströelse. Hur ska vi se på det fenomen som vi kallar internet?

Public service has a duty towards citizens to educate and be accessible to all. Sweden's radio P3 has previously been classified as the "young channel" and has had a tabloid with various program titles spread throughout the day. In January 2020, the Swedish public service radio channel “P3” chose to restructure a tableau where the program titles were removed, and the target group redefined. Through semi-structured interviews with employees at P3 who have been involved in the restructuring, an answer is sought for how P3 views the audience through the restructured tableau, the redefined target group and the view of the audience in the future. In the analysis, the answers are set against theories of public service, digitization, fragmentation, media convergence and the view of the public. In themes that were found among the answers, there is a shared opinion among the interviewees, for example how much the audience has on the content. The results presented in the study include that P3 wants to take its social responsibility in the form of public service companies and that they want to reach the audience who are actually interested in listening to the channel.

In Swedish shops today there are a lot of magazines aimed at teenagers, which fight for young girls’ attention. These teenage-magazines are one of the most important sources for young girls to get information about sex and love-relationships; therefor it’s important how these magazines portray it. 

We have examined how the magazine Frida has portrayed sex and love-relationships from 1991 until today. The way sex and love-relationships are portrayed in Frida’s articles affect the young readers in their process of building an identity. 

Using a combined rhetoric- and discourse analysis we found that the main focus in Frida is for the reader to have a love-relationship with a guy, instead of a physical sex-relationship. Frida uses all the rhetorical tools to convince their readers that what they are telling them is the right way to think and behave. 

This study is a comparative critical discourse analysis between one of Sweden’s biggest newspapers Aftonbladet and one of Sweden’s biggest alternative web newspapers Fria Tider. The comparative analysis will focus on both media outlets coverage of the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan in Stockholm, Sweden on the 7th of April 2017. The terrorist attack on Drottninggatan was one of the biggest of its kind in Swedish history where five people died and over a dozen were severely injured. The attack was performed by an assailant by the name of Rakhmat Akilov who described himself as a Muslim and would later claim to have sympathy for the Islamic State. The attack was widely covered in Sweden by all sorts of media outlets ranging from the more well-established newspapers to social media and alternative media sources. Former researchers have studied different types of alternative media in a variety of ways but there has not been a study on how the news coverage in an alternative media differs from that of the traditional and more well-established media. The material studied in this research are a total of 32 articles gathered from the web archive of Aftonbladet and Fria Tider. All articles were published between the 7th of April and the 12th of April 2017, and they all covered events related to the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan. The articles were analyzed with the help of four predetermined steps of critical discourse analytical criteria that were established beforehand to minimize the risk of our own presuppositions interfering with the reliability of the study. The purpose of the study was to analyze the ways in which the coverage of the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan differed between a right leaning alternative media and one of the biggest newspapers in Sweden. This was achieved with the theoretical basis of theories of alternative media, othering, framing theory, hegemonic theories, and orientalism. The results of the study show that there are both a lot of similarities between the news coverage between both media outlets but also a lot of stark differences. The similarities occur when the factual basis of the text does not leave things open to interpretation. Where the differences lie between Aftonbladet and Fria Tider are in the construction of certain events and in the construction of the assailant Rakhmat Akilov. This occurs when the opportunity presents itself for Fria Tider to apply their political and societal beliefs. 

This study explores photojournalistic practices by investigating how spaces of (forced) migration, as well as the people and objects moving in and across them, appeared in Swedish newspapers in 2015.

Photographs are unique objects of study, as the presence of people in certain spaces becomes directly observable through them. By considering photographs as agentic entities resulting from the many encounters between people involved in the event of photojournalism, the focus is on the social and political relations that emerge from these encounters, which opens up for an examination of questions of citizenship and visibility in relation to photography.

The inquiry scrutinises the traditional ontological framework for discussing photographs and the act of photography related to people in flight, which generally is limited to the content visible within the frame, implying that photographs are the products of one stable point of view – that of the photographer. This thesis offers insights into mediated and mediating ways of seeing and their implications by: (1) examining photojournalism and photographs as a combination of content, practice, and place-making that produces events of photojournalism; (2) linking these to the notion of spaces of appearance and the potential for political action that ensues; (3) providing a specific account of photojournalism as a practice that enables modes of self-presentation; and, (4) reflecting on encounters that unfold in the event of photojournalism due to the fact that photographs, as shareable stories, are reproduced and circulated in time and space.

The analysis draws upon a primarily qualitative, multi-method approach, combining an interview study with photojournalists and a visual analysis of photographs published in four Swedish newspapers in 2015. Through an approach of watching photography, the study examines the spatial and temporal dimensions of photographs beyond the stillness imposed by the frame and offers an analysis centred on movement and place. Employing Arendt’s notion of appearance in terms of both photojournalists in spaces of (forced) migration and others who are moving in and across these spaces, the results indicate that photojournalism, as a space of appearance, potentially stretches beyond the moment of photography. The findings further show that photojournalism practices do not only visualise events of (forced) migration, but they facilitate the appearance of, and encounters with, people in flight. The event of photojournalism offers a space which recognises fleeing as an action. By appearing in photographs, people in flight regain part of the spontaneity that they have been deprived of as stateless individuals, giving them an opportunity to reappear before others as subjects of rights. The thesis concludes that photographs should not merely be construed as representations, but rather as presentations anew, with people’s appearance in photographs being testimony to their ability to self-present.

Using affective methodologies in visual research

While journalism is commonly “understood as the site for impartial, rational-critical discussion of matters of common concern”, journalistic practice has always been emotional (Wahl-Jorgensen, 2019, p. 31). Photographs, imagined as cultural texts, can be considered what Cvetkovich calls archives of feelings: that is as “repositories of feelings and emotions, which are encoded not only with the content of the text [photographs] themselves, but in the practices that surround their production and reception.” (2003, p. 7). Departing from challenges that I have encountered in developing a methodological framework for my doctoral thesis, this paper addresses the lack of affective engagement with photojournalistic practice and photographs within journalism studies. It further discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that arise when approaching visual research through a lens of affectivity and emotionality, specifically focusing on photojournalistic practice and visual reporting in Swedish newspapers. 

Empirically, I explore conditions set by newspapers for collectively receiving and interpreting visual reporting on refugee migration, focusing on photojournalistic practices and photographs published in four Swedish newspapers during the so-called “refugee crisis” in 2015. Through interviews with photojournalists, photo editors and others involved in visual reporting, I aim to understand the ideals, practices and routines that drive them in their work. Departing from their own experience, I consider the norms and ideals that guide them, the roles that they take in relation to different factors that set the conditions for their practice, as well as the approaches they take in photographic encounters with individuals in precarious situations. To further contextualise the accounts of the interviewees, I use content analysis to collect and analyse photographs published in Swedish newspapers to understand how refugees were visually reported. While the content analysis is useful to systematically approach the material, and allows for a descriptive analysis, it lacks ways to make meaning beyond descriptive levels. Researchers need to engage with emotions, not as a way of dealing with bias or the possible influences on our research, but rather to engage emotions into theoretical explorations (Jaggar in Harding & Pribam, 2009). Photographs, I argue, work beyond verbal and visual language, at the level of emotion and affect, as “affective-discursive practice” (Wetherell, 2013). I use (visual) affective- discourse analysis, not only to address the lack of affective engagement with photojournalistic practice within journalism studies, but because, as argued by Åhäll, applying affective dissonance as a methodological tool offers ways to identify the political in the affective-discursive because affect in itself generates questions of how the world works (2018). 

This article aims to understand the distinctive mechanisms of digital media use, seen in relation to cultural practices at large. The empirical material is a survey study of university students at the Business Administration, Media and Communication Stud-ies, Political Science and Philosophy departments at Södertörn University, Sweden. The empirical analysis deals with the students’ digital media use and preferences, and how these are related to their broader cultural practices and preferences. Spe-cific attention is paid to the webpages the students mention in the survey, and how these are distributed among the groups. By showing detailed information on these areas, the mechanisms of difference of digital media use are revealed.

The growing governance of algorithms and the rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ‘Internet of Things’, has intensified discussions about the relationship between humans and machines, and the ethics of everyday life with technologies. It raises questions such as: How should we live with technologies? Can humans still make decisions? The earlier taken for granted authority of humans is clearly debatable, and sometimes also dismissed, particularly within Actor Network Theory (ANT). In this paper, I look into the basic premises of the ethics of ANT, explore suggested ethical perspectives within ANT such as ‘disclosive’ ethics, and continue by penetrating the relation between agency and ethics, as well as between morality and ethics in ANT. ANT is further discussed as on the one hand a sociological perspective and on the other hand an ethical approach. Based on this analysis I propose the anthropological perspective of an ‘ethics of the ordinary’ as a possible way to learn from the basic premises of ANT while maintaining a human notion of ethics in a technology‐conflated culture.

Title: From inspectors to guides: how citizen journalism and participatory culture

affect the professional identity of Swedish journalists (Swedish title: Från granskare

till guide: om medborgarjournalistikens och deltagarkulturens påverkan på svenska

journalisters professionella identitet).

Number of pages: 44 (48 including enclosures).

Authors: Towe Bengtsson and Matilda Källén.

Tutor: Amelie Hössjer.

Course: Media and Communication Studies C.

Period: Fall 2011.

University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Informatics and

Media, Uppsala University.

Purpose/Aim: The goal of this paper was to answer how citizen journalism and

participatory journalism as well as an increasing range of information today have

affected the professional identity and professional lives of journalists. In addition to

this, study how journalists today respond to these changes.

Material/Method: The study is based on Deuze’s theories about journalistic ideals,

Jenkins’ theories about convergence culture, and on theories about professionalization

and de-professionalization based on Nygren, Wiik and Torstendahl’s theories. The

study is based on eight interviews with professional journalists, four employed

journalists and four freelance journalists. The results are analysed based on a broad

theoretical framework.

Main results: The results of this survey show that the role of the professional

journalist is extremely complex, with a strong ideological basis that fundamentally

influences the journalist's view of the profession and of him- or herself. The survey

shows that the journalist role is changing and how important the identification as a

journalist still is. Furthermore, the survey shows that the role is being redefined. The

role consists of two levels, an ideological level and a more practical level. The survey

shows how these two levels are in harmony, but also on a collision course, and how

journalists seek to clarify their ideology to distinguish themselves from others, but

also how they actually adapt the ideals on a more practical level.

In summary, despite a de-professionalization of the profession, the journalists keep

the journalistic ideals very high, although they constantly redefine their role, as well

as the ideals. They see their role as an aid to guide the readers, rather than a traditional

journalist, although they still cling to a traditional perception of the ideal journalist.

Modern populärkultur verkar under de senaste åren ha framfört en trend i att gestalta sina antagonister som flerdimensionella. Men är komplexitet det enda sättet att göra en antagonist intressant på? I denna fallstudie undersöks antagonisterna i BioShock och Heathers: The Musical, för att förstå den tematiska funktionen av en komplex och en enkel antagonist. Det sker med ett scenurval som identifierar berättelsernas tematik och förtydligar antagonisternas karaktärsdrag. Scenerna förtydligar om antagonisterna är runda eller platta, hur de bedöms inom moral och makt samt framför vad de har för funktion i berättelsernas tematiska mål. Resultatet visar att den enkla antagonisten förespråkar en ytlig ideologi som den sprider och ger komplexitet till andra karaktärer, medan den komplexa antagonisten ger tillfälle till reflektion inom moralen av sin egen ideologi. Slutsatsen av studien blir att de två antagonisttyperna fyller användbara funktioner beroende på hur djupgående en berättelse är villig att utforska ett problem eller ideologi.

The purpose of this study is to analyze female gender representations in three of Swedish Armed Forces’ recruiting campaigns between 2018-2021. Using a qualitative approach, the empirical material was analyzed using semiotics as a method. The aim was to contribute to a deeper understanding of female gender stereotypical representations, whether and if so, in what ways they are made visible and if conflicting notions linked to gender emerge in the recruitment films.

Using the theory of denotation and connotation we can conclude that the Swedish Armed Forces’ recruiting campaigns between 2018-2021 use traditional gender stereotypical representations to convey an advertising message. The Swedish Armed Forces’ challenge traditional gender stereotypes of young women by representing them as active and independent in their recruiting films. They reflect a new more modern version of young women that is closer to reality today. However, while using traditional gender stereotypes as rhetorical figures to build their advertising messages, they continue to reproduce traditional gender stereotypes by making them visible. 

Keywords: gender, stereotype, semiotics, advertising, representation, masculine, femininity

Based on semi-structured interviews with journalists in six European countries, this article examines the extent to which the findings of recent literature about the representation of migrants in European media content are reflected in the perceptions of journalists themselves about the way in which migrants are represented in the media discourses produced by their outlets. It finds that the four key findings of the literature were by and large confirmed, namely inaccurate group labelling and designation, negative or victimised representation, underrepresentation of migrants in quotations, and the scarce reference to a wider European context. Finally, the article discusses media professionals’ self-reported awareness about general professional ethics versus diversity-specific ethics, and about the way in which their outlets cover news involving ‘‘new’’ immigrants, i.e. nationals of non-European Union countries residing in the European Union, and examines the differences between media practices and perceptions in ‘‘old’’ and ‘‘new’’ immigration countries.

For a full explanation of the methodology of the research project, please see the introduction in this themed section: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2012.740213.

Based on semi-structured interviews with journalists in six European countries, this article examines the extent to which the findings of recent literature about the representation of migrants in European media content are reflected in the perceptions of journalists themselves about the way in which migrants are represented in the media discourses produced by their outlets. It finds that the four key findings of the literature were by and large confirmed, namely inaccurate group labelling and designation, negative or victimised representation, underrepresentation of migrants in quotations, and the scarce reference to a wider European context. Finally, the article discusses media professionals’ self-reported awareness about general professional ethics versus diversity-specific ethics, and about the way in which their outlets cover news involving ‘‘new’’ immigrants, i.e. nationals of non-European Union countries residing in the European Union, and examines the differences between media practices and perceptions in ‘‘old’’ and ‘‘new’’ immigration countries.

For a full explanation of the methodology of the research project, please see the introduction in this themed section: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2012.740213.

This study examines how a user centered approach can develop the learning management system Canvas, based on how it is perceived by students with ADHD/ADD. By conducting interviews and observations data has been collected about the students interaction with Canvas and what they experience as problems with the platform. Based on the students experiences and guidelines that can be found in the theory, an alternative interface has since been created. This interface has since been tested by the students to gather additional information about what can be improved, and to test whether the changes that have been made are well met. In order to develop a product that work for all users, it is important to take those with disabilities into account at an early stage in the design process, and by doing so a digitally accessible product can be developed. Data from this study provides valuable insights into what students with ADHD/ADD experience as problematic with learning management systems. 

Videogames have a long, and complex, relationship with “non-Western” countries. Game narratives and ludic symbols are fraught with implicit, or explicit, imperialist history and ideologies. In some games, such as Sid Meier’s Colonization, the connection is fairly obvious. But a game doesn’t have to be about colonization to present a colonialist narrative. Souvik Mukherjee is a game researcher at the front of a growing discussion on this topic. In his work, he analyses games from different perspective (media analysis, philosophy, and sociology) to present a holistic understanding of the way games represent, and constructs, different cultures, people, political systems, ethics, and societal issues. This chapter is an edited transcript of an interview with Souvik, where we talked about everything from his academic work, to how he modded Age of Empires in his childhood.