This study examines the Swedish Public Health Agency’s (PHA) crisis communication regarding the COVID-19 pandemic during the year of 2020. Departing from a synthesis of the frameworks of Image Repair Theory and Bureaucratic Reputation Theory, the PHA’s online press conferences are critically analyzed to map out how the PHA’s representatives react to reputational threats that occur alongside and in connection to its management of the crisis at hand. With reputational threats is meant allegations or incidents that risk shedding a negative light on the organization in question. The aim is to explore the applicability of said frameworks in a new empirical, crisis communicative context, but also to contribute to the understanding of what role reputational concerns play in public organizations’ crisis communication; an aspect that I argue has been overlooked in the crisis communication-literature. Departing from a definition of reputational threats as either criticism (where the PHA have been publicly questioned or criticized) or acts of reversal (where something seemingly changes in the PHA’s approach), five situations and six corresponding press conferences are selected for examination. A rhetorical analysis based on the logic of accusation (kategoria) and defense (apologia) finds several instances of what can be classified as verbal defense-strategies in the PHA’s crisis communication, but also interesting variations depending on what the threat is about or where it comes from. The PHA’s only constant reaction across press conferences is found to be initial silence: to wait until the issue at hand is brought up by someone else (in this case, a journalist participating at the press conference). The insights of this study pose challenges to current scholarly understandings of crisis communication within the public sector and showcase opportunities for future studies of the same.

Research in negative campaigning is growing throughout the years, however, the focus by researchers has been put into negativity’s effects. The present study seeks to address the research void detected in the negative campaigning’s drivers. Using data deriving from a world-wide scale based on more than 1000 experts’ evaluations on more than 300 candidates’ political campaigns, aims on providing answers regarding the reasons political actors go negative while campaigning. The analyses provided have examined how the personality of the candidates matters in the degree of negativity in their campaigns, how the media affect that degree, and which is the role of the dynamics taking place in a broader election context.
The definition of negative campaigning is a difficult task that the academia has been facing and there is an abundance of definitions being used among the literature. In overall, negative campaigning refers to any form of campaigning that attacks a political actor’s opponent, that arises fear, or cynical news. There are many factors affecting the decision of any candidate to go negative. The most prominent ones found in the relevant literature refer to strategic choices, the candidates themselves, or the dynamics being caused by the media.
The present study used data from the Negative Campaigning Comparative Expert Survey Dataset – NEGex which is directed by Alessandro Nai. It is the first large-scale comparative study providing systematic data on the use of negative campaigning on a world-wide scale. The cases included in the study refer to 157 candidates who competed in 64 elections from 56 different countries and have been evaluated by a total of 625 experts. The analysis consists of regression analyses aiming on the estimation of the effect of the candidates’ personality characteristics, the media and the general election context on the degree of negativity in their campaigns.
Results show that the candidates’ personality indeed matters in the degree of negativity that their campaigns have. Candidates holding socially preferable traits are less likely to employ a negative tone, unleash character attacks, or use fear appeals as a part of their campaign. On the other hand, when media is focusing on the sensational aspect of the news and pay attention to negativity, the degree of negativity in the candidates’ campaigns increases. In addition, more competitive elections are causing more negative campaigns. However, another finding of the present study is that the three components of negative campaigning (tone negativity, fear appeals, character attacks) have different predictors, and that

While the concepts of trust and performance often appear together in research,there seems to be little consensus on how they together relate to compliance.
The purpose of this study is to examine this relationship, how it changes over time, and to question the common idea of trust being one of the main predictors of compliance in crisis situations, suggesting that performance evaluations might play a bigger role than often thought. This study argues for the role of performance evaluations in determining compliance and aims to test this argument through quantitative longitudinal analysis.
An extensive literature review is conducted to conclude what is already known on the relationship between trust and compliance, trust and performance
evaluations, and performance evaluations and compliance. Three lines of previous research are recognised; performance evaluations as a type of trust, i.e., confidence, performance evaluations preceding trust through trustworthiness, and performance evaluations as an antecedent of reputation.
The mechanisms of trust and performance evaluations affecting compliance are discussed and two main frameworks are recognised; trust affecting performance evaluations, which then affect compliance, or performance evaluations affecting trust and thus affecting compliance. The different theories are discussed and compared. Hypotheses and a conceptual model are formed based on the previous literature.
Method: A three-wave panel data collected in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 is used to conduct a statistical analysis on the relationship between the independent variables of trust in authorities and performance evaluations, and the dependent variable of compliance. Logistic regression model (n= 4,187) is constructed to analyse the change in variables during the course of the three panel waves. A measure of social distancing is used as the dependent compliance variable, and the relationship is controlled with general trust, sex, age, and education level.

This study examines the news coverage in two different online media outlets, the New York Times and Fox News, in their reporting on two different vaccines, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). It uncovers media frames in the respective outlets in order to evaluate if political divides in attitudes
towards the respective vaccines can be attributed to the media portrayals in these outlets. Using framing theory and qualitative content analysis to uncover media frames, it explores the circumstances in which a left-leaning contra a right-leaning audience is invited to understand the issue of HPV- and MMR vaccination. The study exposes the complexity of the vaccine debate in media discourse. Further, it demonstrates that media discourse is generally dependent on political actors instilling an issue with political meaning for it to be framed in terms of conflicting interests. Findings show that the media discourse on HPV vaccine is no longer politically charged or controversially framed. The framing of the MMR vaccine involves some partisan endorsements and it framed as an issue of competing
values and interest. However, the framing is not deemed politically charged beyond the partisan endorsements in the debate on mandatory vaccination.

This thesis takes its point of departure in the argument that theatre as a medium has largely been overlooked by the field of political communication. The focus of this study is therefore to place attention on theatre from a political communication perspective.
Theatre is here looked at both as a medium with political potential, and as a medium subject to
political decision making. One the one hand there is a need to investigate theatres’ role as communicators of political content, as this seems to have been largely overlooked by other fields than that of theatre and drama studies. On the other hand, as theatre (as well as culture generally) is shaped by its politico-cultural conditions, contemporary theatres’ relationships to cultural and financial policy need to be investigated to understand the context in which their messages are shaped.
This study aims at investigating whether and how political theatre is used in Sweden and whether and
how the field is influenced by the politico-cultural context of funding and cultural policy. This is
looked at through the perspectives of 1) how creative-executive teams at prominent Swedish theatre institutions view (their own and others’) use of political content within the theatre field and 2) how theatre institutions’ work is affected by Swedish cultural policies and funding authorities.
The thesis consists of a qualitative case study of five prominent theatre organizations in Sweden, using interviews with eight of their creative-executive decision-makers. The interviews are contrasted to theory from the fields of political communication, theatre studies, cultural policy and public governance of the arts.
The results show examples of how contemporary Swedish theatres use theatre for political purposes,
of current political themes on Swedish theatre stages and of how financial and political conditions
influence the field. This paints an emergent picture of the mechanisms behind political theatre in
Sweden. The conclusion is that theatre is a medium used for a diversity of political purposes, but with
an openness that makes it uncomparable to more direct political media. It is first and foremost an art form, that can be seen as a political medium when it is used to communicate political ideas or used for political practices, as for example a democratic arena or discursive space. It is also a politically governed medium, which makes it sensitive to influence from political decision-makers, with the arm’s length principle needing to be continuously enforced to keep the art free from political tampering. As this study is based on a small sample, large generalizations can not be made. However, the combination of experiences of informed professionals from the field with current policy and
interdisciplinary theory, offers an emergent picture of a medium and its supporting mechanisms that
can be added as a research topic to the field of political communication.

This thesis takes its point of departure in the investigation of news consumption among ideologically leaning groups. The high choice media environment has led to people turning to multiple media choices and numerous alternative media outlets. Ideologically leaning people who are politically interested turn to alternative media outlets to confirm and deepen their political beliefs and opinions. The consumption of alternative news has been discussed from different perspectives and is often examined from critical angles. The research field lacks a more holistic approach to reviewing ideologically leaning group’s consumption of their news diet as a whole and in a combination of different types of news media content. The conventional groups that have been of interest in the research field have always been left-wing and right-wing people. Apart from these two groups, this thesis attempts to incorporate people with liberal beliefs as alternative media consumers.
Furthermore, this thesis focuses on how and why ideologically leaning people consume mainstream media news separately- and in combination with alternative media sources. This thesis’s theoretical framework consists of three main concepts: the public sphere theory, the conceptualization of trust, and the uses and gratifications theory. These theories underpin the thematical analysis of the empirical result. The chosen method of this thesis is qualitative focus groups. There are three focus groups; one left-wing, one liberal, and one right-wing group (N=9). The results show that the ideologically leaning groups consume mainstream media outlets as a base of news. All the participants showed some distrust towards some specific mainstream media outlets, which is the evening papers. The outlet Aftonbladet was given as an example by all of the participants. However, they still continuously consume the outlet, even though they showed distrust towards it. The groups have different approaches to managing the distrust; the liberal group explained that they carefully double-checked the information by going back to the articles’ primary source of information. The alternative media sources are used as a complement to their daily media diet to read more credible news. For instance, the right-wing group wanted information about criminals’ ethnic background, pictures, and names to build on their already existing world view where different types of immigrants commit different types of crimes found in the right-wing alternative media outlets. Finally, the liberal group showed great distrust and hostile media perceptions when encountered with content, unlike their own opinions and beliefs. This shows the importance of investigating this group in studies regarding media trust and alternative media even further.

Media and social cohesion
There is quite a broad consensus among scholars about the importance of social cohesion. However, the field has often been criticised for the lack of agreement regarding the conceptualisation of social cohesion. Without a consolidated concept, the field has struggled to accumulate empirical data on the phenomenon. In order to conceptualise social cohesion, some authors focus on objective factors in society, such as crime rates and civic engagement, while others conceptualise it as a subjective phenomenon that starts from the individuals’ state of mind and concerns their perceptions of themselves with regards to the society. This study follows the subjective approach to social cohesion, conceptualising the phenomenon as subjective social cohesion. Furthermore, there is a growing concern about the erosion of social cohesion around the world. Media was initially seen as the culprit, argued by the fact that people absorb the overly negative portrayal of everyday life on-screen. However, researchers labelled this explanation as oversimplified, pointing out the individuals who seek attitude-consistent media, which reinforces their attitudes and beliefs. This study aims to investigate whether there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between media use and social cohesion and whether this relationship differs depending on which media type people use. This will be done by using the reinforcing spirals model, in which media use and subjective social cohesion are presented as two variables influencing each other dynamically and continuously. Therefore, the reinforcing spirals model will serve as a theoretical framework for investigating the relationship between subjective social cohesion and media use. This study will use longitudinal panel survey data (N=2254). The results from the cross-lagged panel suggest that the relationship differs greatly depending on the media type in question. On the one hand, overall media exposure was positively associated with subjective social cohesion, and the relationship was found not to be mutually reinforcing. On the other hand, right-wing alternative media was found to have a negative, while left-wing alternative media was found to have a positive mutually reinforcing relationship with subjective social cohesion.

Generalized trust in news media positively associates with the exposure to some of mainstream news media sources (quality newspapers and public broadcasting service TV news programs), but it does not significantly associate with the exposure to tabloids or commercial channel’s TV news. Generalized trust in news media negatively associates with the exposure to online or social media for news and with the intent to avoid the news, while the intent to avoid the news relates to lower exposure to PBS TV news. Generalized trust in news media negatively associates with exposure to attitude-consistent alternative political media among right-wing respondents but does not correlate to exposure to attitude-consistent alternative political media among left-wing respondents. Finally, generalized trust in news media significantly negatively relates to exposure to counter-attitudinal alternative political media among both left-wing and right-wing respondents’ groups.

In academia as well as in mainstream media, people are voicing concern that a fragmented media environment, entailing an immense increase of alternative media, may motivate selective exposure, in turn leading to increasingly polarized perceptions of society among the public. Consulting the theory of reinforcing spirals (RSM), there is ample evidence for a reciprocal relationship between selective media exposure and sociotropic beliefs – potentially sparking polarization dynamics. Gaps in societal perceptions have furthermore been noted between men and women, yet never examined in a RSM context. The purpose of this study is thus to analyse whether news media usage in general – and alternative media usage in particular – can explain gender differences in sociotropic beliefs and polarization over time. To address these questions empirically, this thesis relies on longitudinal panel survey data (N=1,508). Through descriptive analyses, path analyses and cross-lagged panel analyses, it examines gendered perceptions on the issues of climate change, immigration and crime and potential gender differences in belief polarization. The main theoretical contribution of this study is ultimately an increased understanding of the dynamics of alternative media usage and issue perception over time through the synthetization of the RSM and theories of sociotropic belief formation.
Taken together, the key finding of this thesis is that gender indeed matters. The results specifically point towards: (1) substantial and significant gender gaps in sociotropic beliefs over time, (2) that disparity in media usage and interpersonal communication cannot account for these gender differences when controlling for ideology and political interest, (3) signs of reinforcing spirals between alternative media, sociotropic beliefs and interpersonal communication and finally (4) gender contingent differences in tendency of polarization through RSM.

The issue of climate change, as a crisis without borders and the EU as political realm, holds the
potential to unite Europeans under a common fate and mission. As this study applies a social constructionist view, reality is understood as constructed in and through the media. The aim is to
examine if and how mediated communication on climate change reinforces a European identity, and hence creates a European Public Sphere. This is looked at through a comparative framing analysis of news media and social media in Sweden, Spain and Germany in the week after the European Parliament’s climate emergency announcement in 2019. Theories of the European Public Sphere, European Identity, Global Journalism and Social Constructionist Framing build the grounds for this thesis. A systematic reading of mediated communication of climate change, guided by categories of a European Outlook facilitate this qualitative framing analysis. The results of this study do give reason for some speculations about the Europeanization of national discourses happening parallel in Spain and Germany. Swedish news media scarcely showed a European Outlook, whereas an emerging counter-public on Swedish Twitter enables a re-politization of the climate debate. An issue public sphere, or ”European risk community” can be spoken of, rather than a European Public Sphere. Support can be found for a European identity, carried by an ”imagined community” of countries dependent on a strong EU and an identification through the latter. This gives reason to assume, that the global crisis of climate change goes both ways. It does strengthen the Europeanization in some countries, but it weakens it in others.