Title: The democratic ideals among the Palestinian journalists Number of pages: 72+4 (appendix) Author: Mats Tiborn Tutor: Jenny Wiik Course: Master essay, Media and Communication Period: Spring 2011 University: Dept. of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg Purpose/ Aim: This essay studies the democracy-supportive journalistic ideals among the Palestinian journalists and compare them with earlier studies on journalistic ideals. The essay also studies what shapes these ideals and what holds them back in the journalist’s work. Material/ Method: The essay is based upon semi-structured deep-interviews with twelve Palestinian journalists that work for different kinds of media, with different background and in different ages. The interviews are based on theories about journalistic ideals and the relationship between democracy and journalism. Main results: The journalists have great knowledge about the democratic functions within journalism. They are driven by idealism and they work for change in the society. The Palestinian cause weighs the most when the ideal of objectivity is put to the test. A well spread self-censorship is inhibiting the democracy-supportive journalistic ideals from fully work. Though the journalists show an impressive strength to keep up the work in a very dangerous situation.

Title You play, we’ll watch – a study about e-sport consumption and community Author Simon Karlsson Semester Spring 2012 Tutor Malin Sveningsson Number of pages 67 (1 appendix) Aim The study aims to explore the motivations and needs behind e-sport consumption and the possible identity construction it entails. Method Qualitative methods: interviews and participant observations. Material Ten interviews with individuals from the barcraft community in Gothenburg, Sweden. Ethnography studies from four locations in total for the e-sport tournament GBG E-sport Open: three from qualifiers and one from the finals. Main results E-sport consumption proved to fill a variety of needs. Affective: To be entertained and experience emotional satisfaction. Social integrative: to connect with friends and other viewers. This proved also to enhance the affective need. Cognitive: better understanding of the game, which then later can be used while playing to enhance ones rank within the ladder. Tension release: to relax from a stressful day. E-sport consumption is preferably done with friends. This consumption with others also leads to a sense of belonging and identity. Outsiders might have a negative opinion about e-sports which also binds the consumers closer together and forms a subculture.

This thesis was written by order of Rud Pedersen Public Affairs Company, a PR- consultancy firm located in Gothenburg. The assignment was to investigate social media in Pr- activities. The thesis is formed by three main categories: _ What is social media? _ Who are using social media? _ How can you use social media in public relations? The information which is being presented in this thesis is based on academic reports, interviews and research on social media blogs and lectures. It is a qualitative approach since the purpose is to get a deeper understanding for the subject in question. Since the principal is especially focusing on political Pr, there are several parts of this thesis which analyses social media in politics. However, most of the analyses are focused on marketing because there is a larger amount of information concerning social media in marketing PR. All through the thesis there is a comparison between Sweden and the United States since social media is well-developed both within American politics and Pr- activities. Summary of findings Social media is the collective name of a number of conversation -focused services on the web such as blogs, social networks and communities. When it comes to field of application, most users use social media for personal reasons but professional networking through social media is becoming more common, especially among men in the ages of 25-40 during the peak of their careers. Women do more frequently visit and use blogs and social networks for personal reasons, and is the dominating group of bloggers in Sweden. When using social media for both political and marketing purposes, one has to be aware of the transparency of social media as well as understanding that social media is not yet another channel for commercials. What social media is all about is basically: _ Dialogue between producer and consumer _ Personal in tone _ The producer is no longer in complete control of his/her published information Companies who have succeeded in their social media marketing have understood the importance of having a personal and honest conversation with their customers. Social media is a long-term relationship building and companies with highly engaged customers are most likely to succeed with social media. Keywords: social media, marketing, politics, PR

Title The User Created Fire – Risks and Opportunities with Crisis Communication in Social Network Sites Author Charbel Sader Course Master Thesis in Media‐ and Communication Studies, Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Gothenburg Semester Spring semester of 2013 Tutor Nicklas Håkansson Number of pages 75 Purpose To find a deeper understanding of the digital media’s role in Swedish society in relation to crisis communication. Method Qualitative approach using focus group interviews Material Semi structured focus group interviews with a total of 18 participants in five groups. The focus group sessions were made during February, March and April 2012. Main results The main findings in this study are that users expect the communication flow in social network sites (SNS) during a crisis is to be a shortcut to information without a detour through organizations or traditional media. Although we find personal gratification, like interpersonal communication, quick information and sharing feelings and experience with others by using SNS during a crisis, users also tend to be hesitant about the credibility of the shared information. Alongside the user created content, we look to professional media experts and organizations as a guarantee for the veracity of the shared information. Users are at the same time increasingly disappointed when mainstream media in several cases has used social network sites as the main source for their news about various crisis situations conveying false images and rumors rather than facts.

Title White Supremacy – A study of Racial Representation in Brazilian Television News Media Author Malin Håkansson Teles Course Master Thesis in Media- and Communication Studies, Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Gothenburg Semester Spring semester of 2013 Tutor Malin Sveningson Number of pages 58 Purpose To examine how different races are represented in the television news program Jornal Nacional Method Quantitative content analysis and qualitative content analysis Material 52 episodes (one per week) of the Brazilian television news program Jornal Nacional, between 05.04.2012 and 01.04.2013. Main results Whites are gravely overrepresented as a race, while Browns are underrepresented and Blacks are marginally underrepresented (compared to the real population). Asians and Indigenous have statistically uncertain results. Whites tend to be represented in contexts and roles associated with power. Blacks and Browns however, tend to be represented in contexts and roles not associated with power. We can also note that certain roles appear to have a stronger connection to Offenders are associated with Browns and Blacks while Law Defenders are associated with Whites.

This thesis examines the articulation of marketized philanthropy within the discourse of nonprofit fundraising. The objective is to find out how fundraising works as a discursive practice – how is the world constructed, who and whom are participants in this world, and why should the presumed donor get involved? It does so from a critical approach, connecting the business of fundraising to theories of subpolitics, individualization, consumer power, and the argument that market logics serves a depoliticizing function within this context. The research is done by analyzing the fundraising communication of six major nonprofit organizations in Sweden, working both with national as well as international efforts, through their respective official website. This is done through a discourse analytic approach, initially concentrating on the texts of the websites as communicative events and analyzing them from a predestined set of analytical questions. The analysis is then developed further, on the level of the order of discourse, in four separate but intertwining themes derived from the initial result. The research shows that market logics and language is prominent in the organizational communication, both as discourse of efficiency and individual responsibility, as well as as technique for fundraising. Fundraising efforts and messages are mainly configured around international aid and recipients, as opposed to the national social services that some of the organizations provide. In this context, lack of resources is defined as the root of the problem, but this lack is often referred to in a circle-reasoning fashion where one lack is both the cause and the result of another. The act of giving, or donating, is predominantly constructed as a form of transaction, where the donor buys a commodified version of the idea or efforts of the organization. In this way, the donation becomes a form of political consumerism that situates the donor in a role as a consumer rather than citizen. Freedom of choice and simplicity are traits that are highlighted and promoted in this context. The thesis argues that this development, even though it entails positive re-thinking about agency and power of ‘those in need’, contains problematic aspects when it comes to the way political power relations are constructed. Where individualization serves as a detaching force between participants, and political participation is constructed in such a way that it takes the form of shopping for change, it is hard to find room for perspectives and voices that question the structural problems of capitalist society.

Titel: Identitetsskapande hos unga kvinnor genom sociala medier – med välbefinnandet i fokus Författare: Ester Fardell Kurs: Masteruppsats inom medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap Termin: Vårterminen 2013 Handledare: Annika Bergström Antal ord: 19 897 Denna studie undersöker vad unga kvinnor har för uppfattningar om identitetsskapande i sociala medier och om de anser att det påverkar deras psykiska välbefinnande. Forskningsfrågorna avser att etablera hur unga kvinnor generellt ser på användningen av sociala medier, följt av vad de har för uppfattningar kring hur unga kvinnor skapar sig identitet(er) via sociala medier. Slutligen undersöker studien om de anser att identitetsskapande genom sociala medier har någon koppling till deras välbefinnande. Studien behandlar olika infallsvinklar där påverkansfaktorer i samhället, generella teorier kring socialt umgänge utanför och i sociala medier och hur det är att vara ung kvinna idag från ett feministiskt perspektiv i samband med kärnbegreppen för studien: Sociala medier, identitetsskapande och välbefinnande. Sociala medier klassas i denna uppsats utefter Nordicoms definition där sociala nätverk, communities, chattgrupper/diskussionsforum och bloggar ingår. En av de grundläggande teorier som har använts som utgångspunkt för identitetsbegreppet är Eriksons teori om identitet som en process där både tillhörighet och differentiering till andra människor är viktigt. Hall är också ett viktigt namn i sammanhanget; han teoretiserar identiteten som en del av nuläget, där historia, kultur och makt också har stor betydelse för identitetsskapandet. Definitionen på begreppet välbefinnande innefattar bland annat Dieners förklaring som sammanfattar välbefinnande som all påverkan på psykologiska, motiverande, beteendemässiga och kognitiva komponenter. Bordieus teori kring socialt kapital hör också hit, eftersom det går att koppla till välbefinnandet och identitetsskapandet genom det sociala kapitalet. Vad gäller unga kvinnor och identitetsskapande, utgår jag både ifrån Giddens som talar om identitetsskapande och utseende som väldigt nära sammanlänkat, men även ifrån Frost som utvecklar Giddens teori och menar att unga kvinnor tenderar att bli starkt påverkade av samhället och därmed är extra utsatta när det kommer till att skapa en identitet. Metoden som har använts för att ta reda på hur unga kvinnor uppfattar problematiken är av kvalitativ karaktär, där det är tankemönster och känslor hos de unga kvinnorna som eftersöks. För att urskilja detta har fyra gruppintervjuer genomförts bestående av ett mindre antal deltagare, två till tre personer, i varje grupp. Elva kvinnor i åldrarna 17-25 år deltog. De hade olika vanor av sociala medier, både gällande frekvens och vilka typer av sociala medier de använde. Detta undersöktes innan gruppintervjuerna hölls, då en grupp unga kvinnor som eventuellt skulle delta fick fylla i en enkät angående vanor och frekvens av sociala medier. Därefter valdes slutligen deltagarna ut. Deltagarna är både hög- och lågutbildade och kommer ifrån olika delar av Storgöteborg, det vill säga både från förorter och från stadskärnan. Denna information hade dock ingen betydelse för rekryteringsprocessen. Efter att en genomgång av tidigare forskning sammanställts, gjordes även ett antagande vilket var att det psykiska välbefinnandet hos unga kvinnor kan tänkas påverkas negativt av att hur de uttrycker sina identiteter genom text och bild och samtidigt tar del av andras via sociala medier. Detta bekräftades till viss del sedan av resultatet, då studien visar att det psykiska välbefinnandet hos unga kvinnor kan påverkas negativt. Dock fann det även positiva effekter. Trots att de unga kvinnorna i gruppintervjuerna uttrycker att det många gånger kan kännas stressande att överhuvudtaget figurera i sociala medier, visar det sig att de väljer att stanna kvar i dem istället för att gå ur eller avsäga sig medlemskap på olika sajter. Istället försöker de anpassa sin användning och aktivitet i sociala medier så att välbefinnandet inte påverkas negativt och så att de istället får bekräftelse. Det är dock svårt att styra hur andra använder de olika sociala medierna och även har de svårt att distansera sig de trender som dominerar där, vilka trender de känner sig tvingade att följa. Detta påverkar många gånger deras psykiska välbefinnande negativt enligt deras egen utsago, detta eftersom de tar del av oerhört mycket information via text och bild som berör kroppsideal eller sociala ideal om hur man som kvinna bör se ut eller vara. De unga kvinnorna i denna studie uttrycker det bland annat som att det pågår en tävling i sociala medier, där den som är snyggast och har mest spännande liv vinner. Fler detaljer angående de unga kvinnornas uppfattningar följer under resultatavsnittet, där vi får ta del av vad de unga kvinnor i denna studie har för uppfattningar om hur sociala medier, identitetsskapande och psykiskt välbefinnande hänger ihop.

se PDF

Title Greenlighted employees – The internal value of Schenker’s environmental work. Author David Fridner. Course Master thesis in Science of Media and Communication. Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Gothenburg. Semester Spring semester 2009. Tutor Professor Monika Djerf-Pierre. Number of pages 55 (appendix 23). Aim The aim is to study the internal value of Schenker’s environmental work. Method Qualitative and quantitative method. Material 20 interviews from four workgroups: managers (4), sales (5), customer-services (4) and truck drivers (7). 148 websurveys from two workgroups: sales (106) and customer-services (42). Main result Schenker is perceived as an environmentally friendly enterprise. Much due to the fact that the company’s impact on nature only has little to do with how the staff evaluate its “greenness”. The study reveals a customer oriented organizational culture focused on profitability. The environmental project ought to be designed with that in mind.