Executive summary
The news media has a large hand in how we perceive the world around us, and one sensitive topic which is widely reported on is refugees and asylum seekers. Therefore, there is and has been a great deal of research made on the subject internationally. With the emergence of the Internet and the digitalisation of the world and thereby also the news sources, it is now easier than ever before to acquire and spread information. For that very reason it is incredibly important to make sure that the news sources are not intentionally or unintentionally sending messages to readers which can potentially be harmful to refugees and asylum seekers. Furthermore, research shows differences in how european and non-european refugees and asylum seekers are portrayed in the media. One way in which such
harmful messages might be sent, is through discrepancies in the messages sent through images and written text in articles. That is, if photographs used in news articles send a different message to the audience than that of the written article itself. The purpose of this study is to find out if such discrepancies in messages between images and written word occur in articles published in the tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet, on the topic of refugees and asylum seekers.

The research questions asked in this study are:
1) Are there discrepancies in how Aftonbladet portrays refugees and asylum
seekers between photos and written text?
2) Are there differences in discrepancies between images and written text
regarding different groups of refugees and asylum seekers, for example
european and non-european refugees and asylum seekers?
3) Is it possible, through this study, to find other discrepancies in images and
written text in articles published in Aftonbladet on the topic of refugees and
asylum seekers?

The framing theory discusses how the angle in which something is presented
and reported upon affects the way in which people process the information, and how they feel about the subject. Studies in visual rhetorics and social semiotics among other fields have shown the great power of the image as a medium. It has the innate power to express emotions and complex situations in an instant, whereas a written text, important and powerful as it is, must be read in order for its message to be received. Research has shown that images of refugees and asylum seekers in newspapers often show them as groups of people, without distinguishing features which robs them of their individuality. Often the groups portrayed consist mainly of men and children. There is also often focus on modes of transportation, mainly boats in the photos. These portrayals of refugees and immigrants run the risk of showing
them as a threatening, unidentifiable mass of people, instead of humans in need of help.

Similar effects are also accomplished through the written word. Research has
shown that tabloid newspapers tend to use harsher language than broadsheet newspapers in the reporting on refugees and asylum seekers. A tendency to refer to them as “migrants” is common. This umbrella term risks taking away their need and right to help, and instead portrays them as a faceless mass of people with no claims on assistance. Terms such as “illegal refugee” and its counterpart “legal refugee” cause further harm to the image of refugees and asylum seekers. Research of Swedish newspapers have shown conflicting results on how they are portrayed in Swedish media.

In order to research this phenomenon, this study uses a qualitative method
though multimodal critical discourse analysis, a method which looks at visual and verbal choices made by the text producer. That is, not only is the written text analysed, but also the visual elements, in this case the published photos. In addition, some elements of traditional critical discourse analysis along with questions based on previous research were added to the list of questions asked while analysing the articles.

Aftonbladet was chosen because the wish was to study the articles of a tabloid newspaper, and Aftonbladet is the largest such paper in Sweden. The sample of articles analysed were found through using Retriever provided by the Gothenburg University Library. Articles published between 26 of October 2021 through 26 of April 2022 with the search terms refugee or refugees or asylum seeker or asylum seekers or migrant or migrants in Aftonbladets webb editorial on the subject, finally came to 198 articles. In the end, the final analysed sample came to nine articles. The number of articles analysed was kept undecided until the end, as the quality and depth of each article was seen as more important than the quantity.

The analysis of the photos were conducted before the lexical analysis of the
written text. This was done so that the message of the article would not influence the message interpreted in the image, in order for the analysis to be done from the perspective of the public. The analysis looked at actors and objects shown in the photo, how the actors were portrayed along with what connotations they arouse. Connotations are a semiotic term which refer to an implicit meaning implied by a symbol or a word. These connotations are socially and culturally dependent and the same symbol may carry different connotations in different parts of the world. The lexical analysis of the written texts looked at what themes were presented, which actors were described and how, what actions were being carried out and what words
were used and which could have been used in their place. Afterwards, the results of the analyses were compared. The process was transcribed in order to ensure that all analyses were performed in the same way.

The results of the analyses show that there are indeed discrepancies in
messages sent through images and written texts in articles published by Aftonbladet on the topic of refugees and asylum seekers. Furthermore, there are also differences in these discrepancies between different groups of refugees and asylum seekers, primarily between europeans and non-europeans. The two articles analysed that covered european, ukrainian refugees, showed no discrepancies. The article text presented the refugees as relatable and as people in need of help. They focused on families, women and children. The pictures were photos of the actual people and events presented in the article, and in accordance with the texts they showed the
people as relatable and awoke sympathy. However, the majority of the other articles used archival footage. That is, photos that did not portray the events or people presented in the text, but were rather generic photos loosely related to the subject. The discrepancies found in the five articles that used archival footage, came in the form of either the photo down-playing dramatic events described in the text, or through photos of groups of unidentifiable, faceless people.

One of the articles, on sudanese refugees in Egypt, came with an archival
photo which made them look like criminals being arrested by police. In the article itself, they were presented as victims of racist abuse and wrongful arrest by Egyptian police. Furthermore, the archival photo presented was actually of sudanese refugees “rescued” from a capsized boat by “security personnel”. Another article, which did not use archival photos but pictures of the actual event, described how 600 people, referred to as migrants, had been found in two lorries in Mexico, headed for the US border. The text described them as desperate people; women, children, ill individuals, in need of help. The two photos published showed a large mass of crowded people, and in the other stood a heavily armed, masked police officer wearing a bulletproof vest. The images together give the impression of the people
shown to be a dangerous mass of people in need of surveillance from armed police.

The results thereby show not only that there are discrepancies present in
Aftonbladet’s articles, but that they differ between different groups of refugees. An unexpected finding was that all of the analysed articles, as well as the vast majority of the articles come across during the sample process, were not actually produced by journalists at Aftonbladet, but by Nyhetsbyrån TT. The same articles were found to have been published in several other Swedish newspapers, including Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten. This, along with other factors such as the general shortness of the articles on the topic, indicate that refugees and asylum seekers are not a subject which Aftonbladet prioritises.

The study has laid a foundation for further research, and several possible
research routes are possible. Looking at the possible dangers of people making conclusions from images along with short headlines being shared in social media is a possible future research topic. This alongside looking at discrepancies in messages sent by images together with headlines and article texts. Furthermore, it would be interesting and relevant to interview journalists in order to investigate how they perceive the usage of photos, if they realise the potential dangers of sending unintentional messages through said photos and their general attitudes and methods
when selecting photos.

Executive summary
Gender integration is the Swedish government’s main strategy for achieving gender equality, which means that a gender perspective must be considered in all political decisions that affect people’s conditions, so that all women and men, girls and boys can live equal lives. I believe that it should be profitable to apply this strategy also within an organization; that a gender equality perspective must be considered in all decisions that affect employees. For it to be feasible, communication and communicative leaders are needed. Gender equality is a contributing factor to all individuals being allowed to develop themselves and make the educational and professional choices they want based on their interests and abilities, rather than based on normative notions of what women and men should do and master based on their gender. Through gender equality, the range of talents and abilities increases, and everyone develop according to potential.

The status of communication within an organization is affected by the management’s and managers’ view of and understanding of communication issues. It needs to be clear from the top management and throughout the organization why inclusion is important and that it is a priority that benefits the entire organization. Gender equality should be integrated into
management at all levels, integrated into strategies and implemented through clear measures and through an inclusive culture to achieve impact.

The purpose of the study is to identify and create an understanding of the success factors and challenges managers experience in communicating gender equality internally. The empirical data is taken from four semi-structured interviews with managers within an organization with
approximately 3,000 employees. I have used a strategic selection where I have deliberately hand-picked individuals to get a variation in representation in terms of factors such as gender, experience of leadership and the teams orientation. The focus of the survey has been to seek answers to what conditions and support managers need to successfully integrate gender
equality in the business, how they communicate internal, the group’s importance for the process and in what way opposition is expressed.

There is a wide range regarding how often gender equality is communicated by each manager. In some teams it happens rarely and mainly in connection with clear organizational processes, in other teams it happens so often and is seamlessly integrated into the business, that it is difficult to track down in what format it takes place. The individuals in the team and the climate of conversation are of great importance for the process. Recurring conversations about gender equality are required to remove the anxiety surrounding the subject. The support and prerequisites that managers need to successfully communicate gender equality and succeed in integrating the gender equality perspective into the core business are knowledge, courage and a clear stance from the organization. How the manager interprets and implements the communication has a great impact on the scope and context in which employees receive information internally. I think it becomes even more vulnerable when it comes to value and cultural communication as it is filtered through the manager and becomes dependent on his or
her perception of the importance of this in relation to other issues. A relatively common opposition in the organization is that employees want to focus on concrete tasks related to work instead of talking about gender equality and other value-related issues. If the manager has insight into how opposition can manifest itself in various forms, it is easier to respond to
it. As a result of a successful gender integration and an ongoing dialogue, the organization can gain new perspectives, ideas and collaborations, which benefits the core business.

Executive summary
This study examines how young women experience social media usage today compared to five years ago, before the #metoo-movement, with increased focus on experience related to digital activism, solidarity and political engagement. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eight women who were strategically chosen based on prior
knowledge regarding their social media usage, their prior knowledge of the
#metoo-movement and appropriate age for our purposes. All interviews were conducted in Gothenburg, except for one which was conducted remotely through video call.

The research questions were the following: How do young women experience their consumption, sharing and posting of content on social media? and Do they experience that their usage today differs from before #metoo, and if so, how? Responses from the interviewees were categorized into recurring themes which were then analyzed through and compared to theoretical framework and previous research related to the subject.

Our results show that the interviewed women experience their consumption, sharing and
posting of content on social media somewhat differently. However, all of the women
commonly found activist content as a major part of their consumption experience, and they all
acknowledge its uses in social media. Regarding content that is posted and shared from other
people, the women often reflect upon what is genuine and what is fake. They acknowledged
that many users tend to distribute many types of content solely to convey an idealistic public
image, referring to everyday content as well as activism. Regarding how the women
experience that they are affected by content, they found it hard to describe. However they all
reflect on the content that they consume in varying degrees of activity. The women found it
hard to differentiate between sharing and posting. A possible cause of this, we argue, is that
all women explained a need to be informed and ready to take a stand for the cause while
performing both activities, which through action relates them to each other. However, the
women explained that they found it more comfortable to share another user’s content, rather
than owning up to and sharing their opinions through posting their own content. This is
mainly because of the need to be informed around the content, and the risk of being
questioned or antagonized.

All women shared the opinion that the discourse on social media has changed compared to before #metoo. Some explained that the reception of content has generally become less forgiving, with a larger emphasis on the need to be informed before distributing content and a greater likelihood of opinions being confronted. The women also explained that they have
become more aware of the social rules of social media, and show deeper consideration before sharing or posting content in general. However, some women also expressed that they have become braver and allow themselves to post more personal content now than before. None of the women believed that the #metoo-movement is the sole reason for their contemporary social media user experience. However we suggest that the #metoo-movement could possibly have influenced how women relate to activism-related content in social media today, but we do not exclude the possibility of the contemporary user experience being a result of other
factors. We have only studied Swedish women in a Swedish context. A similar study, conducted in another country could have presented different results. From our findings, further research seeking actual correlations through larger test populations is needed to specify what aspects of #metoo that may have affected the contemporary social media experience.

Executive summary
TikTok is a social media platform centered around short user-produced video clips. It is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world with one billion active users, the majority of which are made up of young people. In Sweden most users are under the age of 24 and most of them are girls. The difference between TikTok and other social media like Instagram and Facebook is that the content is highly personalized based on algorithmic calculations. Previous interaction, such as liking, commenting, or sharing content, presents the user with what new research terms The Algorithmized Self, a reflection of one’s own identity through the algorithm (Bhandari & Bimo, 2022). Furthermore, the app is ripe with sexual content, where sex-ed, nudity, tips about sexual activity and dating are common. Previous research has shown that the media is an influential aspect of young people’s sexual socialization (Shafer m.fl, 2013). Media presents sexual scripts of favorable and unwanted behavior that the young person internalizes and uses in their everyday life, TikTok is no exception. Furthermore, previous research has shown that girls, when discussing their sexuality online, tend to focus
on how to please men (Grisso & Weiss, 2005). Women also tend to accept information about male sexuality more easily since they do not have that experience themselves (Ward & Rivadenyra, 1999).

Interviews were conducted with nine Swedish females in the ages between 16 and 23 performed in groups of two or separate. Through this we hoped to gain insight into young women’s experience of sexual content on TikTok and what it says about their sexual selfconcept. All interviews were conducted with two interviewers and were recorded and transcribed. Theories used in development and analysis of the study were Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) and Sexual Self Concept (Hensel et al. 2010). The choice to
focus on only young women’s sexual self-concept is based on previous research that shows that women’s sexuality long has been a subject surrounded by taboo and controlled by other than the woman herself. Social media has also been found to act as a safe space for women to discuss and discover aspects of their sexuality that they cannot do in real life.

The results of this study show that the interviewees were exposed to several media scripts about how to behave, look and navigate to succeed in romantic relationships and sexual encounters. They were presented with both helpful and truthful as well as misleading information which they either accepted or rejected. The interviewees expressed a concern that this false sexual information could mislead young people without any previous sexual
experience. Previous research has shown that young people more easily accept sexual media messages about things they do not have personal experience of, which we also found signs of in this study. In addition to this, we discovered indications that sexual media messages on TikTok could both weaken and strengthen sexual esteem. Interviewees with strong sexual
esteem stated that they would question themselves in a sexual context when they were confronted with sexual media models or messages they could not identify with. On the other hand, sexual esteem seemed to increase by TikTok enabling normalization of their own sexual desires, act as inspiration and helped them discuss sex with friends and partners.

Our results align with previous research that TikTok’s algorithm reflects identity back to the user. Our findings indicate that the app’s “For You Page” might be used to confirm and reinforce young people’s already existing sexual self-concepts, whether they be positive or negative. This is of importance since research has shown a connection between sexual self concept and young people’s sexual health.

The purpose of this study is to examine how perfume advertising portrays men and women from a gender perspective. This qualitative study uses multimodal critical discourse analysis as a method and theory to analyze how the semiotic resources interact to create meaning. Furthermore, Eriksson and Machins (2019) analysis tools are used together with Goffman’s (1979) analysis tools to include gender. More specifically, this study examines how the male and female gender roles are represented in a commercial from Dior’s campaign ”DIOR HOMME”. Furthermore, it is studied whether the
commercial maintains or opposes the gender norms that exist for men and women based on Hirdman’s gender contract.

The questions were designed to achieve the purpose of the study. Question number one asked how the male and female gender roles are represented in the commercial to see how gender roles are portrayed in the interaction between text, speech and image. The second question asked in what ways the commercial maintains or opposes the gender norms that exist for men and women to see if it corresponds to Hirdman’s (1988) theory of the gender contract based on the discourses identified.

The results from the study show that Dior’s commercial represents the female and male gender role in a stereotypical way. The results from the analysis showed that the commercial contained underlying discourses that indicate a stereotypical portrayal of the woman as subordinate and passive and the man as confident, active and powerful. The study illustrates how this portrayal of men and women contributes to maintaining the gender norms that exist according to Hirdman’s gender contract. Through the use of multimodal critical discourse analysis and other theoretical frameworks, we have been able to identify a problem that otherwise risks being overlooked.

Executive summary
Social media is now part of our everyday life. Most people are either on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube etc – or all of them. These social platforms have developed over time and concepts such as influencers and influencer marketing have occurred. An influencer is a person who uses their profile on social media to reach out to a high amount of followers.
Followers of an influencer are mostly people who share their interests and values, and nonetheless people who find them inspirational. Companies have found that influencers are powerful people who can influence a large audience in an effective way, which they now use in their marketing strategies. In that way influencer marketing has occurred. Influencer
marketing is when companies pay influencers to market their product or services. Influencers post about the company and their products on their account and the advertisement reaches the influencers’ followers. Influencer marketing has lately turned into a controversial subject, and people tend to be critical about the fact that it leads to too much advertisement on social
media. Likewise people think that the high amount of advertisement has an effect on influencers’ followers and their view of the influencer.

Studies show that followers experience a certain bond with influencers, and that they value their relationship as a friend relationship. Therefore followers have trust for influencers, just as they have trust for friends. But would a real friend advertise products to their friends and get paid to do so? Is influencer marketing affecting followers’ trust for influencers? The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how followers’ trust for an influencer is expressed in the
comments on a sponsored post from influencers on Instagram. Therefore the main focus lies on the followers’ perspective. This is examined through a quantitative content analysis where eight different influencers and their sponsored posts with comments serve as a basis, resulting in 401 comments in total which are encoded through 17 different variables.

There are four core issues that the thesis is focusing on. The first issue seeks to examine what
attitudes that are expressed in the comments on a sponsored post from an influencer on
Instagram. Second issue seeks to examine what similarities and differences there are in the
comments depending on which influencers’ post is examined. The third issue seeks to
examine how often influencers and their followers interact in the comments. The fourth and
last issue seeks to develop an understanding of how trust is expressed in the comments on a
sponsored post from influencers on Instagram. All of these issues are answered with empirical
results that are analyzed through previous studies, trust as a concept, the two step flow of
communication and the theory (trans) parasocial interaction/relation.

The result shows that the majority of the comments are expressing a positive attitude, mostly for the influencer and the post in its entirety. Expressing a positive attitude can be equated with expressing trust, therefore the result also shows that the level of trust is high throughout the comments. This shows that even though influencer marketing tends to be a controversial
subject, as mentioned in the beginning, it does not reflect in the comments on a sponsored post. There is little interaction from influencers in the comments, this is regardless of influencer. Though interaction builds relationships which in turn builds trust it does not seem to have a great impact on followers’ trust for the influencer. This is because, as mentioned
earlier, the majority of comments are positive. This also means that there are few differences in the comments between all the influencers, because the majority of comments are positive and there are few that express criticism. Most of the comments are directed toward the influencer or toward the post in its entirety, and very little toward the products that are advertised or the company that is in sponsorship with the influencer. This means that it is not
possible to comment on influencer marketing’s effectiveness, though there seems to be very little criticism of influencers making sponsored posts. With that in mind sponsored posts from influencers on Instagram seems to have very little, nearly non-existent, effect on followers’ trust for influencers. Lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a result based on eight
different sponsored posts with the same company brand, there might be other results if therewere other influencers and companies that were examined.

Executive summary
The morning of February the 24th 2022, the world woke up to the news that Russia had invaded its neighboring country Ukraine. After eight years of low-intensity fighting in the Crimean peninsula, Russia conducted a full-scale invasion. The world quickly responded with criticism, condemnation,
and harsh sanctions against Russia. In traditional media, the debate is conducted by politicians, experts and opinion leaders in more traditional ways. On internet forums, however, the topics and content seem more unconventional. On Reddit, memes about Ukrainian soldiers telling a Russian warship to f*** themselves quickly became popular, and previously unknown Ukrainian farmers became viralinternet sensations after seemingly stealing tanks from the invading army with their tractors.

This thesis is about internet memes concerning the war, and the immediate effects of the war, using quantitative thematic analysis and qualitative rhetoric analysis to determine which subjects are the most common to post memes about, and how these are presented. The combination of methods gives a perspective on which factors contribute to the popularity of a meme.

The selection is based on the most popular memes during the initial month of the war (the 24th of February 2022 to the 24th of march 2022). The material is sourced from the subreddit r/memes on the internet forum Reddit, with over 18 million members. Our findings suggest that the material consists of 25 different themes with memes that (1) ridicule the Russian economy, (2) ridicule Vladimir Putin, (3) celebrate Ukrainians, and (4) concern the world situation in general. Only one of the 127 memes included in the material portrays Russia positively. Using the theoretical framework of rhetorics, semiotics, intertextuality and incongruence – with a perspective on humor and traditional satire, we have found patterns in the material. Our findings suggest that memes that ridicule the Russian economy and Putin are personally targeted showing negative things about them to make a point,
whereas memes that celebrate Ukrainians put them in an opposite relationship to create a hero/villain relationship. Regarding the theme of the world situation in general, the content is generally not aimed at a specific person or object, or takes a political stance.

With this in mind we conclude that the rhetorical function of memes in a crisis is (a) an epideictic form of rhetoric expression, that binds together people who agree on a topic, and (b) a way to process stressful and negative emotions. This connects to the basic functions of traditional satire; to criticize
and entertain, and bring humorous perspectives to political topics. What the popular memes have in common is that they are largely based on intertextuality and incongruence and that the enthymeme is
the most common rhetorical trope.

Memes, which are complex multimodal texts, consist of several layers of meaning-making and can be understood on several levels. We suggest that the rhetorical power of a meme lies in the relationship between the producer and the consumer, and how they make sense together. The rhetorical power is amplified by the reader sharing cultural, political and historical knowledge with the producer; which determines how many layers of intertextuality the consumer can detect. These are factors that possibly
also determine the popularity of a meme. We further suggest that future research should focus on comparing how images portrayed in traditional media relates to images portrayed in memes, and qualitative interview studies to determine people’s attitude towards memes.

Executive summary
Commissioned by JMG, Gothenburg University, this study has taken on the significance and acceptance of advertising. In today’s society everything is based around the internet and social media platforms. Almost every person today uses social media, therefore it is no longer a question of whether companies should use social media platforms in their marketing
communication effort. The question is instead how companies should use them in the best way. In this study, we intended to investigate how marketers should use TikTok in marketing methods, such as influencer marketing.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how expectations on TikTok can affect young
men and women’s view on influencer marketing on the social media platform. To succeed with
this the study was based on three questions: What are the expectations of TikTok, compared to other
media? What are the views on advertising, focusing on influencer marketing? Are the expectations of TikTok
related to the view of influencer marketing on the platform? Six qualitative interviews, with three men and
three women have been performed to answer these three questions. The respondents were all
eighteen, consume TikTok, study the same economic program at two different schools and the
gender knew each other. To analyse the studies result, theories as The Expectation Confirmation
Theory (ECT) and The Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) have been used – these are newer theories
within the Uses and Gratification framework. Through these theories we were able to determine
expectations for TikTok and analyse their role in relation to how respondents prefer influencer
marketing ads.

Why we chose to study this subject was because we saw that there were no previous studies done on expectation of TikTok in combination with the view of influencer marketing. In today’s society, there are fewer companies that do not conduct marketing campaigns that include popular users on platforms such as TikTok. However, companies can find TikTok difficult to navigate. As TikTok has grown rapidly in a short time, it contributes to companies feeling that they do not have enough information about the platform. It is thus considered relevant to add research to a relatively new medium that many consider themselves lacking knowledge about. It is also seen relevant to add research on influencer marketing, because it is a relatively new communication strategy, which today is seen as the most successful marketing method on the market.

In conclusion, the results showed that the main expectation the young men and women had on TikTok was to be entertained, through content with humour. When influencer marketing was entertaining, it was more appreciated by the respondents because of their existing expectation for entertainment on TikTok. Through this qualitative interview study, we have seen that the answer to the question of how companies should best use social media platforms as TikTok, is to include entertainment through influencer marketing at the platform. Mainly in the form of humour.
Humour was considered the best way, regardless of gender, to reach the target audience and satisfy their expectations of TikTok. Because, if a social media platform has a format where the user expects to be entertained, the female and male respondents thought the content on that platform should be in line with that, as they stated that their expectation of the platform was thus satisfied

Executive summary

Internal communication within public organizations is a vital part in making them function and to reach organizational strategic goals, however it is also somewhat forgotten. This is partly due to the glorification of external communication, but also beacuse external communication being easier to measure and its visibility outside of the organization.

Our aim was to explore how first line managers regard their communicative responsibilities and how they view the conditions they are working under to fulfill this responsibility. The questions we’ve aimed to answer are how first line managers’ knowledge and presumptions revolving internal communication and their communicative responsibility, how first line
managers work with internal communication in their operations and if the managers experience any need of support to be able to improve their internal communication.

We have conducted five semi-structured interviews with first line managers in Gothenburg elderly, health, and social care. The main results of the study were that the managers do have quite the understanding of the importance of internal communication although they sometimes struggled to put it into words. They struggled to achieve sensemaking communication in an organization that still clings on to a view of communication as a transfer
of information, especially higher up in the organizational hierarchy. Of course the managers did not provide uniform answers, we believe that factors such as age and years in managerial position affects their view of communication in general and internal communication in particular.

Our results can provide future researchers with a basic understanding of the challenges first line managers face in trying to achieve dialogue and sensemaking communication, and trying to turn the headwind they are sometimes working in into tailwind.

We propose researching how the CVC model might be used to expose the complexity of communication, and if that might contribute to a higher status in the technostructure. Another interesting field of research would be on how to design educations in communication for first line managers in the elderly care.

We can conclude that there is a long way to go until our studied organization truly becomes a communicative organization, but as more and more first line managers climb up in the organizational hierarchy this might change in a not too distant future.

Keywords: Internal communication, communicative organization, first line managers, elderly and social care.

Executive summary

Every day we are exposed to a large amount of advertisements. As social media has become an important part of many people’s lives, advertising on these platforms has also become important for advertisers and major sources of income for the companies behind the social media. The most
common type of ads on Facebook are native ads in the user feed and these ads are in most cases very similar to the posts that the user sees from friends and pages they follow.

In this study, we wanted to examine people’s awareness and attitude to native advertising on Facebook. We have in this study investigated the extent to which our respondents understand which posts that are advertising and which is organic content and whether they have a positive or negative attitude towards advertising on Facebook.

Previous research has shown that the attitude towards ads on Facebook is often ambivalent. This is especially true of the targeted ads that are perceived as positive but also created negative emotions that stem from feeling of surveillance. Ads that are perceived as intrusive and manipulative are the type of ads that are the most likely to arouse negative emotions.

When it comes to awareness of native ads on Facebook, previous research has shown that when
consumers do not perceive sponsored content as advertising, they receive the message as organic.
Consumers who discover and distinguish native ads have a more negative attitude towards the
advertiser. A number of parameters play a role in how consumers perceive native ads as
advertising, but perhaps the most important and clearest of these is the labeling.

As a theoretical framework, we have chosen to use the Persuassion Knowledge Model, which is used to examine awareness of and reaction to persuasion attempts. We also use Reactence theory and Gestalt laws.
Our results were in many cases in line with previous research and we could see that the attitude was often ambivalent. When it came to targeted advertising several respondents were positive about the fact that they were relevant but negative towards the data collection that makes targeted
advertising possible. None of our respondents had a particularly positive attitude towards ads on Facebook, but several saw them as a harmless advertising tool, which they had gotten used to and which has become a natural part of thier Facebook usage. Occasions when the advertisements
aroused negative feelings in respondents were, among other things, when they received advertisements for goods they had already bought, something we in this study link to Reactence Theory.

All respondents were aware of what the labeling of ads looks like on Facebook and thought they could comfortably identify ads from organic content. However, there was a difference in the number of ads respondents thought were in their feed and how many there actually were. This opens up a discussion about the respondents’ actual awareness and also the homogeneity of the feed.