In the Nordic countries, alternative methods of how to finance public service broadcasting are now being discussed. A number of alternatives have been suggested as alternatives to maintaining the traditional license fee system, the main alternative being to replace it with a tax or with a so called media charge. This study concentrates on the debate in Sweden in comparison to the other Nordic countries. In Sweden a new public service-committee of inquiry was appointed 2011, with the task of considering the psb-financing system.

The study is a qualitative text analysis of Swedish news reporting on the Terror attack in Paris 2015 and the train bombing in Madrid in 2004. The analysis is based on articles published by Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter. The purpose of the study is to investigate how Swedish news reporting looked at the terrorist attacks in Paris 2015 and Madrid in 2004. By examining articles from Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, we investigate how media logic narrator techniques apply to news reporting and whether the criteria for news evaluation are used. The study also aims to investigate whether there are any differences between news reports 2004 versus 2015. The articles are analyzed on the basis of various themes consisting of: perpetrator, victim, event, media logic and theory of news values. The results showed that 2015 news reporting was more comprehensive than news reporting 2004. 2015 reporting gave more space to the event than 2004’s news reporting did. The news reporting of Madrid's train bombing tended to focus on whether the Basque separatist movement ETA or the al-Qaida terrorist network were guilty. In connection with the terrorist attack in Paris, the perpetrators are described in more detail.

Background: Photography is more popular than ever. The number of sold single-lens reflex cameras increases every year. Canon and Nikon are the two leading brands when it comes to this type of camera. Many of their buyers are considered as being very loyal to their respective brand, and thus they cannot imagine switching to the competiting brand. The preference for a certain brand does seem somewhat strange as the products that the two giants offer do not differ a lot.

Aim: The aim of the study is to describe possible differences concerning loyalty among Canon’s and Nikon’s non professional photographers in Sweden. Also, the purpose of the study is to investigate why these differences exist even though the products are so much alike.

Demarcations: The study has been carried out first and foremost from a consumer perspective. Hence, the producers’ perspective has not been taken into consideration.

Method: A questionnaire based on the three main variables individual, group and brand was formed and sent to more than 850 students that have taken the distance course Digital Image Editing at the School of Education and Communication in Jönköping.

Result: Loyalty towards a specific brand turned out to be fairly similar among Canon’s and Nikon’s photographers. Yet the tendency that the loyalty of those who use Nikon is in general more extreme was discernible; their behaviour and their attitudes generate both stronger loyalty as well as stronger hyper loyalty. The study also shows that the three different variables individual, group and brand act jointly as foundation stones in the brand loyalty; this process has been summarized in a model. Furthermore, we suggest that present loyalty theories should focus more on one of the variables, namely the group.

The Videoletters Project was a high-profile case of international media assistance to the Western Balkans launched in 2005 with British and Dutch support. Its explicit goal was to promote large-scale reconciliation among ordinary citizens of the former Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the region's breakup. The project was welcomed internationally: reported on by the press, spotlighted and prized in documentary film festivals, and referred to in scholarly work and policy forums. This was despite the fact that its promise that it would mediate reconciliation via the making and broadcasting of a documentary was barely fulfilled. Based on a qualitative study of the project’s uses of communication to do good and to look good, this chapter considers how an international intervention that harnessed media for do-gooding shifted towards communicating the goodness of aid to donors’ own constituencies. It moreover raises questions for the future research of donors’ dual deployment of communication to do good and to look good.

This paper considers how the discourses of global governance institutions about the power of digital technologies to save the world frame the operations of Western human rights organizations (Chakravartty, 2006; Kleine, 2013; Wildermuth & Ngomba, 2016). Starting from a qualitative text analysis of recent World Bank and OECD reports -"Digital Dividends" (WB, 2016) and "The Sustainable Development Goals as Business Opportunities" (OECD, 2016)- I demonstrate the fit between these institutional discourses, the business-driven digitalization of international intervention, and human rights work via a case study of the Natalia Project. Launched in 2013 by a Swedish non-governmental organization funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the project equips selected human rights activists at risk with a digitally-driven alarm system, and acts as convenor of an online network of the activists’ supporters via Facebook and Twitter under the motto “Your attention can save lives”. Based on the triangulation of project documentation and interviews to participating human rights as well as NGO staff, the paper interrogates the complex links between four inter-linked elements: a) the dangerous labour of local activists in countries where human rights are subject to violation, b) the donor-driven intervention at a distance of the Swedish NGO with the stated goal to protect these activists, c) the uncritical emphasis on the power of loose networks to gather protective response via social media, and d) the pilot-testing of surveillance gadgets by private business companies for market purposes in the context of a humanitarian intervention.

This conference presentation considers how the discourses of global governance institutions about the power of digital technologies to save the world frame the operations of Western human rights organizations (Chakravartty, 2006; Kleine, 2013; Wildermuth & Ngomba, 2016). Starting from a qualitative text analysis of recent World Bank and OECD reports -"Digital Dividends" (WB, 2016) and "The Sustainable Development Goals as Business Opportunities" (OECD, 2016)- I demonstrate the fit between these institutional discourses, the business-driven digitalization of international intervention, and human rights work via a case study of the Natalia Project. Launched in 2013 by a Swedish non-governmental organization funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the project equips selected human rights activists at risk with a digitally-driven alarm system, and acts as convenor of an online network of the activists’ supporters via Facebook and Twitter under the motto “Your attention can save lives”.

Based on the triangulation of project documentation and interviews to participating human rights as well as NGO staff, the paper interrogates the complex links between four inter-linked elements: a) the dangerous labour of local activists in countries where human rights are subject to violation, b) the donor-driven intervention at a distance of the Swedish NGO with the stated goal to protect these activists, c) the uncritical emphasis on the power of loose networks to gather protective response via social media, and d) the pilot-testing of surveillance gadgets by private business companies for market purposes in the context of a humanitarian intervention.

 In March 2020, the World Health organization declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic and the government of Argentina established a compulsory quarantine. During the pandemic, women’s situation in Argentina, which was already precarious, worsened even more: they were responsible for most domestic chores and unpaid caregiving, they were especially affected by unemployment, and gender violence increased. In this context, which were these women’s everyday communicational practices? How did those practices differ from those displayed during pre-pandemic everyday life? Which obstacles did they face? And what do these practices have to do with gender (in)justice? Based on an online qualitative survey conducted in 2021, in this text I introduce findings regarding the everyday communicational practices mobilized by women in Argentina during the pandemic.

Las mujeres constituyen aproximadamente el 53 % de la población argentina. Si bien tanto la constitución nacional como legislación específica garantizan la protección de sus derechos, en la práctica la pobreza, la violencia y la discriminación las afectan de manera desproporcionada (Dirección Nacional de Economía, Igualdad y Género, 2020; INDEC, 2022). Durante la pandemia de COVID-19 declarada en marzo de 2020, su situación, que ya era precaria, se degradó más aún: llevaron adelante la abrumadora mayoría de las tareas domésticas y de cuidado no remuneradas, se vieron especialmente afectadas por la pérdida de empleo formal y trabajo informal, y la violencia de género aumentó y se agravó aún más (FUNDEPS, 2020; Maceira et al, 2020). El aislamiento obligatorio implementado por el gobierno argentino como medida preventiva obstaculizó la organización de las movilizaciones en espacios públicos típicas de las luchas feministas lideradas por el movimiento #NiUnaMenos desde el 2015. También hubo obstáculos en el ciberespacio. Las expresiones públicas en redes sociales de mujeres dedicadas al periodismo, el activismo feminista y la política estuvieron sujetas a agresiones y abusos machistas (Amnesty International, 2021; Cuellar & Chaer, 2020). El sistema de medios de comunicación argentino operó durante la pandemia en el marco de un desmantelamiento de los organismos y mecanismos estatales destinados a promover o salvaguardar la igualdad de género, y las trabajadoras del sector experimentaron formas específicas de inequidad, violencia laboral y precarización (Albornoz Saroff, 2021).

En este contexto, ¿de qué maneras se informaron las mujeres en Argentina durante el aislamiento obligatorio y en el período inmediatamente posterior, cuando las restricciones se fueron dejando paulatinamente sin efecto? A partir de una encuesta cualitativa en línea realizada en julio y agosto de 2021 (N=157), y de entrevistas semi-estructuradas realizadas en persona entre septiembre de 2021 y septiembre de 2022 (en CABA, provincia de Bs.As., Rosario, Resistencia y Trelew), en esta ponencia contribuyo a responder esa pregunta. La encuesta aporta datos sobre los usos de televisión, radio y redes sociales, y sobre las maneras de informarse preferidas por las mujeres. Las entrevistas aportan detalle cualitativo acerca de qué motiva a las mujeres a adoptar o descartar ciertas maneras de informarse, e ilustran qué estrategias ponen en práctica en sus vidas cotidianas para mantenerse al tanto de los problemas que las afectan. La descripción y el análisis preliminar de los hallazgos derivados de la encuesta y las entrevistas contribuyen a entender de qué maneras se posicionan las mujeres frente a un ecosistema de medios en transformación y un acceso desigual a los servicios de conectividad.