| 1. |
- Rübsamen, Michael
(författare)
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Om Kändisjournalistik
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis approaches the research question of how journalistic practices facilitate the construction of celebrity status. Theoretically, celebrity is conceptualised as a particularly fluid form of social status based on mediatized attention and engagement. Journalism is studied as an invitation to shareexperiences, organised through media logics and narrative structures. The empirical cases studied in the thesis are two multifaceted Swedish celebrities: The singer, dancer, actor and host Måns Zelmerlöw and the equally multi-faceted painter, designer, author, actor, singer, and glamour model CarolinaGynning. The study follows their individual careers, as they represent two archetypes of celebrities: the potentialist and the craftsman respectively. These types were constructed based on Richard Sennett’s work on capitalism in late modernity. The thesis investigates how journalists build inviting narratives forthe audience and thereby facilitate parasocial relationships in the process. The study finds that the distinguishing features of the genre of celebrity journalism come from the genre’s function to both report about and construct celebrities. The genre defines its own reality by employing a distinct melodramaticstyle, mixing strong emotions and a strict journalistic reporting style, borrowing stylistic elements from both hard and soft news. The journalistic reporting tends to focus its stories on how celebrities approach and overcome obstacles. It further shows how journalists employ the melodramatic genre conventions when presenting the media event to make them into engaging rallying points by portraying it through the eyes of the celebrity. The event becomes a challenge to conquer for the celebrity. Further on, by investigating how each journalistic text acts as a mediated micro-interaction between the celebrity and the audience, the thesis shows how the different texts link each other into an ongoingmeta-narrative that locks the celebrity and audience into a parasocial relationship. Finally, the study shows how mediatized arenas influence the career logics of celebrities by offering different opportunitites for celebrity performance and journalistic portrayals. In conclusion, the thesis argues that celebrification is the by-product of journalistic practices in which celebrities manage their emotions in order to facilitate engagement for individuals and the contexts they appear in. By portraying them as extraordinary actors with a desire to accomplish and overcome obstacles to fulfill a dramatic conflict, journalists create an appealing and engaging narrative, inviting the audience to engage and participatein the mediated everyday lives of celebrities.
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| 2. |
- Askanius, Tina
(författare)
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Radical Online Video : YouTube, video activism and social movement media practices
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores contemporary modes of video activism for a radical politics of the Left. It offers an analytical contribution to media and communication that promotes an understanding of radical online video as modes of political engagement in contemporary online environments. By focusing on YouTube as one of the most prevalent spaces in which radical video is screened and experienced today, the platform is considered emblematic of an ongoing reorganisation of political space and mediated modes of political engagement in contemporary liberal democracies. As an empirical entry point, YouTube provides a window onto examining the radical video practices emerging in relation to three recent political mobilisations in Europe: 1. The European Social Forum in Malmoe in 2008 2. The alternative COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 3. The G20 counter-summit in London in 2009 As three distinct, yet related protest events, these cases provide significant examples of the broad social movement mobilisations that over the past decade have sought to render the consequences of neoliberal politics and governance a visible social problem, and put Left alternatives on the political and public agenda. Through six articles based on the three case studies, this compilation thesis examines the dualities and tensions that characterise video activism on this political vector today. It describes and highlights the texts and contexts of video activism, in a time when the longstanding tradition of working with the power of the image in political portrayal and argument is increasingly reallocated to the mechanisms of social networking and corporate control in contemporary online environments. Part I of this thesis sets the scene by establishing the terrain of the research. As an initial analytical effort, this chapter proposes a typology for understanding radical online video as ‘political mash-up genres’, emerging in the context of an increasingly complex set of media practices and circuits across intertwined and hybrid communication networks. This chapter further extends the terms of analysis by offering an account of the history of video activism and suggests how an analysis of historical modes of video activism may help contextualise and understand social movement media practices today. The six empirical articles account for Part II of the thesis. Each on its own terms, the articles offer empirical contributions that promote an understanding of the various ways ‘the political’ is on display and radical politics are being forged on YouTube. In a dual vein of analytical enquiry, the articles examine radical online video as a range of media forms for political argument and portrayal and interrogate the possibilities and constraints offered by the ‘architecture of participation’ on YouTube to the specific groups and struggles represented in the three case studies. In doing so, the articles identify and analyse a set of tensions and dualities that characterise the ways in which individual and collective actors engage in radical video practice, through media forms that straddle the discursive registers of fact and fiction, art and document, information and entertainment, politics and popular culture. Together, the articles give shape to a range of social movement media practices across a historical, technological, political and aesthetic-discursive range. In the concluding considerations of Part III, I return to the issue of historical contexts to illustrate how close comparative attention to historical modes of video activism can help us understand the complexities and contingencies of online video recruited for radical politics today. The analysis exhibits how contemporary modes of video activism are characterised by practices in which the old and the new, the past and the present, clearly overlap. While we may recognise the incentives and dynamics behind contemporary video activism as well known to the trajectory of Left thinking and action, these insights are suggestive of how such media practices are re-organised and refocused in keeping with the emergence of new means of, and arenas for, political engagement.
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| 3. |
- Habibi, Zaki
(författare)
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Creative voices of the city : Articulating media, space and cultural identities by creative collectives in Southeast Asia
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates the lived cultures of the individuals within collectives who are part of creative cities in Southeast Asia. Such individuals and their creative collectives are all too often rendered silent and unnoticed within the official narratives of creative city branding. This monograph thesis examines the articulation of creative collectives in two cities: the creative city of Bandung in Indonesia and the creative, heritage city of George Town in Malaysia. The research draws upon the intersections between media and cultural studies, everyday life studies and urban cultures, to understand how the tactics of individuals within the creative collectives disrupt, or counteract, official narratives and the top-down strategies of Bandung and George Town as UNESCO cities. This thesis gives priority to the voices of the city dwellers from a bottom-up approach, enriching academic discussions on everyday life, culture and creative cities within the field of urban media and communication. Methodologically, this research combines ethnography and visual methodology, providing a situated and nuanced context for street-level analysis of Bandung and George Town, in particular analysing how spatial and visual contexts are significant aspects of urban creative collectives.The analysis illuminates the creative politics of space and placemaking in local settings, highlighting how the collectives in this study form alternative spaces to live and work, developing an organic and dynamic interplay between the physical, social and digitally mediated spaces of creative cities. A key argument concerns the articulation of alternative voices through the form of ‘subtle resistance’ by creative collectives, signposting small, micro level tactics as a form of cultural resistance to creative city branding and top-down narratives of creative economies in Southeast Asia. Through an analysis of themes related to spatial practice in the city, cultural memory and cultural identity, the ethnographic and visual research offers a lens within which to understand and value everyday creative practices such as inventiveness and resourcefulness. The articulation of various identities, as urban dwellers, artists, craftspeople and creative collectives, offers a powerful alternative understanding of what it means to live and make do in the local streets, creative hubs and residential neighbourhoods of Southeast Asian creative cities.
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| 4. |
- Hamqvist, Sara, 1975-
(författare)
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Dagspress, sport och doping : medieskandaler i ett samtida Sverige
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study analyses how the Swedish press dealt with doping and transgressions of the doping rules within international professional sports between 1996 and 2004. The empirical material consists of articles on nineteen cases of doping from 1996 to 2004. A quantitative content analysis of 969 articles is used to study media coverage during the first fourteen days after each doping case came to light. Five of the cases are considered media scandals and 121 articles about these cases are studied in two other text analyses focusing mainly on themes and intertextuality.The analysis shows that the daily press primarily write about doping transgressions on the sports pages and that these offenses are mostly handled as occurrences within the sports domain. It is very common for the actors in the texts to represent different areas of the sports domain. Many more men than women feature in the texts, both as actors and as writers.The transgression is described as cheating, as something shameful and as something that damages the transgressor’s career and reputation. Doping is seen as something that is hurtful to sports in several ways. Doping is also treated as an unwelcome but realistic part of professional sports today. The transgressior is sometimes described as a fallen star and the whole story is sometimes deconstructed and described as a “good story”. The audience is mostly portrayed as deceived by the transgressor. Doping is sometimes seen as an expression of segments of society that are liberal on drugs and as an expression of a sports culture in certain countries. It is not so common to describe doping as a threat to human identity.The explanations given as reasons for doping reveal five common themes. First, it is explained as an expression of today’s society with segments that are liberal on drugs, biochemical developments and an honouring of achievements. Secondly, it is also seen as an expression of the premise that elite sports are characterized by financial interests and a demand for achievements. Third, doping is described as a part of the morality of elite sports and is sometimes seen as an expression of a doping culture within a sports culture in specific countries. Four, doping is seen as something that athletes resort to in order to stage a comeback or to be able to continue to perform at top level at the end of their sports careers. Fifth, the sportification is sometimes seen as lacking. Actions taken against doping are said to be insufficient and the rules against doping are described as unclear. Other less common themes featured include medicine, psychology, gender, media and the lack of nurturing in sport.The ideas mentioned as solutions to occurrences of doping reveal four common themes. First, there is support for the sportification process, which involves support for actions against doping and for an intensification of these actions. Second, clearer rules against doping are sought. The most commonly held view is that doping should continue to be forbidden. Third, the penalty for breaking the rules against doping is discussed. The most commonly heald view is that doping should continue to be forbidden and that it should result in some sort of penalty within the sports domain. Fourth, the issue of responsibility is discussed. The transgressor and other actors involved are seen to be responsible for their acts, but the texts also reveal ideas that the responsibility taken should be broadened and involve other actors as well. Another, less common, theme concern finances. There are suggestions that the allotment of money within sports should be changed and that transgressions of the doping rules should result in financial penalties.Some of the articles have certain inner structural aspects. First, three types of intertextual characteristics in particular can be found in the texts. The texts are related to other media texts, to other arenas and to other athletes that are associated with doping. Second, some concepts are introduced in the thesis to describe techniques to extend the texts and to describe how the transgressor is positioned in relation to other transgressors.Media scandals are useful when investigating norms since they can be seen as an occasion when socially constructed public morality might be intensified, negotiated or challenged. By studying media scandals we can gain in-depth insights into our society.
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| 5. |
- Heide, Mats
(författare)
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Intranät : En ny arena för kommunikation och lärande
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the 1990s, communication and learning attracted heightened attention in organizational contexts. Generally speaking, there is great faith in the significance of ICT for people’s learning. One form of technology which has had a great impact on Swedish organizations is the intranet. Within the course of a few years, intranets have been implemented in just over half of all Swedish organizations. The aim of this dissertation is threefold. The first, introductory, aim is to provide a theoretical framework which shows the close relationship between communication and learning. It is hoped that this theoretical framework can contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between intranets and organizational learning. The second aim is to try to give a better understanding of how intranets are perceived and used in practice. The third aim is to study how intranets can be understood as a tool for information dissemination and learning in a knowledge-intensive company. The study is based on qualitative interviews with members of an organization at Ericsson Mobile Communications in Lund. The information that is published on the intranet has given the members a chance to have better insight into and grasp of the organization and its processes. The increased and more accessible information on the intranet is also part of the new arena for learning offered by intranets. The pull model which follows with the use of intranets is something that was felt to be generally positive by those whom I interviewed. I have, however, found a number of obstacles which make it more difficult for members of the organization to assimilate the content on the intranet, which thereby impedes the prospects for organizational learning. What is often forgotten in the discussions of organizational learning and knowledge management is the need for the production of new knowledge, which require communication among the members. I have found that e-mail is the digital medium with clearly the most important function for communication and organizational learning within the company. A conclusion that I have drawn is that the digital media are primarily suitable for spreading information, but less suitable for the production of new knowledge, unless the users have the occasional opportunity to meet eye-to-eye. If the members of a community meet in person now and then, digital media can function as an important complement to other media in the continuous formation of knowledge.
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| 6. |
- Karlsson, Michael
(författare)
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Nätjournalistik : En explorativ fallstudie av digitala mediers karaktärsdrag på fyra nyhetssajter
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last decade the Internet has become a widely used source of information for the average person and also a publishing tool for media corporations. The transition of journalism from one medium to another is one with important implications as the world wide public consumption of online news grows. This dissertation puts focus on how journalistic content changes when it's published on the World Wide Web compared to the traditional newspaper. The explicit aim of this dissertation is to explore and theoretically test the net-based characteristics of interaction, convergence and, continuous flow of information in the context of the user interface of four major Swedish news websites and to explore how these characteristics could influence journalistic values, norms and media logics. The theoretical framework is composed of two basic perspectives. The first is based on the theoretical core assumption that the introduction and spread of communication technology transforms the symbolic content and the patterns of communication compared to the previous dominant cultural medium of communication. The second theoretical perspective is based on the current western liberal norms, ideals, and practices of journalism. In essence, In essence, this has to do with the normative views surrounding journalistic objectivity whereby news publishers are supposed to deliver true and fair journalistic content to citizens so they can make informed decisions as members of the deliberative democracy. The study is based on an experimental non-probability selection content analysis of websites. The empirical material has been collected during 2004-2005 from the major Swedish websites aftonbladet.se, expressen.se, dn.se and svd.se. The results of the study shows a number of important things. Interaction is widely present in the form of hyperlinks and e-mailing opportunities, but it does not take the form of public conversational interaction. There is not one single instance in the study where readers and publishers meet in a public dialogue about news content. This shows that it is still the producers that are heard in the news, although the technical means allow consumers to be heard. Very few news items, less then five percent, features any form of convergent elements like moving image or sounds along with text. The study of continuing flow of information confirms the assumption that websites have moved toward a less predictable publishing rhythm. In print newspapers, content changes once every 24 hours and all at once. This is not the case on websites. This study clearly shows that news items disappear from the first page within 24 hours, but not all news items disappear within those 24 hours. In the material studied here, the news cycle seems to be shorter than 24 hours and there is more than one top news story every day. The study of the continuing flow of information also shows that the news items themselves changes during the course of a day. Eight different indicators of how the news material changes was found: 1) The news is updated often 2) The news is updated without readers being aware 3) The author of the article change 4) Sources come and go 5) The meaning of the news changes 6) News stories disappear from the website 7) Pictures and graphics are changed or removed 8) Information that is promised is not delivered. The non transparent and coming-out-of-a-black-box-tendency of the print medium gives the news in traditional newspapers a monolithic appearance. If people follow news on the Internet, over time they are likely to discover that news stories are rather more like works in progress than they are finished products. Parts, but not all, of both the gathering and the processing of news material are visible to the audience. Rather then being delivered as the only and true version of reality, news stories on the Internet have more of a provisory multi-meaning characteristic to them. If this is practised in most online journalism, we may stand on a brink of a new kind of journalism and journalistic norms.
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| 7. |
- Larsson, Inger
(författare)
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Att bygga broar över kulturgränser : Om svenskars kommunikation med icke-svenskar vid arbete utanför Sverige
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Globalization creates a need for increased communication competence among Swedes working on the global arena. This study is based on reports of communication processes used by Swedes when interacting professionally with non-Swedes. The reports are derived from interviews. The study focuses on three areas. The communication strategies developed by the respondents for intercultural communication. The relationship beween the choice of communication strategies and the cultural backgrounds of the respondents - understood in terms of their personal and professional experiences. The basic theoretical frameworks suitable for the analysis and interpretation of the intercultural communication processes in the described context and for the field more generally. The study also addresses questions concerning language use, cultural training, and gender aspects.Further, wih a point of departure in a review of relevant communication theories, ealier research within intercultural communication both in Sweden and abroad, two principal theoretical approaches are discussed. Social constructionism is used to critically analyse the traditional concepts of "national culture", "culture", and "Swedishness". The other approach is a return to mainstream communication theory as a conceptual cornerstone in studying intercultural communication. The empirical data consist of 30 qualitative interviews, including 10 international businessmen, 10 Swedish Red Cross delegates, and 10 researchers connected with universities in Sweden, all with wide international experience. Those respondents are all Swedish-born and Sweden-educated. The interviews reveal five basic communication strategies, a wide selection of tactics, and many insightful observations. All the strategies and tactics can be used in professional communication/negotiations with non-Swedes. The choice of strategies differs greatly according to the professional cultures of those interviewed, while Swedish identity only rarely plays a part in the choice of strategies and the attitudes expressed in regard to working with non-Swedes. While many of the respondents admitted they lack both a deeper knowledge and understanding of the English language as well as a background in intercultural communication, they deny the need for more support and traning in these areas. The women respondents discussed gender difficulties, and they gave a number of examples of prejudicial behaviour they had experienced or heard about when working abroad. It is clear that a mobilisation of selected traditions within mainstream communication theory would be fruitful for the analysis and theory-building of intercultural communication. In particular, the theoretical horizons of Erving Goffman and Jürgen Habemas serve as useful analytic tools in interpreting the experiences told by members of the different professional cultures. In this context, the conceptual foundation of "national cultures" associated with Geert Hofstede and other researchers are found inadequate. The thesis concludes with the proposal to replace this notion with a renewed approach to intercultural communication that builds upon a combination of social constructionism and mainstream communication theory.
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| 8. |
- Linderholm, Inger
(författare)
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Målgruppen och budskapet : En modell för målgruppsanpassning av trafiksäkerhetsbudskap till unga manliga trafikanter
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The empirical work rests on two separate theoretical foundations: theories that form the basis for analyzing the different target groups and theories dealing with persuasion. Theories of the first sort concern life-style, individual values, perceived risk, individual characteristics and self-image. Earlier research on young car drivers is also relevant in this context. Theories on attitudes and attitude change and on persuasion and persuasive strategies, in turn, constitute the theoretical basis for work on how messages concerning traffic safety should be presented to different audiences. A series of closely related investigations were carried out, three of more central importance than the others. The first – a qualitative analysis of different target groups – involved fifty conversational interviews conducted with young men and women 18-24 years old. In the later quantitative study some 900 persons completed questionnaires. This sample consisted entirely young men, age 18-24. The third empirical study investigated how different messages appeal to different target groups. The main result of these studies was the classification of young male road-users in four target groups. These correspond to the four cells in a typology, the dimensions of which are attitude toward speeding and view regarding the primary source of risk. The four ideal types that the groups represent were those termed: adventure seekers, risk takers, responsibility takers and security seekers. The categorization ended in a quantitative measurement instrument for the classification of traffic participants. The thesis ends up in some recommendations how messages to different target groups could be presented.
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| 9. |
- Magnusson, Susanna
(författare)
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Att säkerställa att vi är välkomna : Om organisationers strategiska kommunikation och förtroendeskapande arbete i det mångkulturella samhället
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a society increasingly characterized by cultural heterogeneity and where trust issues are becoming ever more important, new demands and dilemmas arise related to organizations’ strategic communication. This study investigates the struggles of contemporary organizations to achieve credibility and strengthen their social legitimacy as actors in Sweden’s multicultural society. The empirical case concerns the rescue services – Räddningstjänsten Syd – in southern Sweden, and the trust-building efforts the organization carries out in residential areas that tend to be described as “multicultural”. The efforts were a response to several years of social unrest, hostile treatment and communicative clashes between firefighters and local residents. The organization made a strategic shift towards a more proactive and community-engaged approach. A key group in the preventative and relationship building activities were the so called fire-hosts, who were given the role of link-workers. Through their “multicultural competence”, perceived cultural barriers would be overcome. By focusing on the rhetorical and communicative aspects of the trust-building efforts, this study targets the special challenges created by the multicultural condition. It also tries to determine those rhetorical/communicative processes which seem to lead to increased trust and improved relations between the organization and multicultural communities. The study has a discursive approach to the concept of culture, highlighting the social consequences caused by the framing of problems and of the solutions to problems in cultural terms.The empirical material includes 33 qualitative interviews, about 30 hours of observation of the rhetorical practices of the fire-hosts, as well as approximately 25 hours of film material. Theoretically, mainly rhetorical terminology is applied to analyze the trust-building communication. The concept of ethos (appeals based on credibility) is central. Other rhetorical concepts such as phronesis (practical wisdom), eunoia (goodwill), copia (stock of possible choices, both content and form), actio (non-verbal language) and identification (according to Kenneth Burke’s ideas) are employed. Sociologically coloured concepts, such as tokenism and strategic essentialism, are also present in the analysis.The first analytical chapter examines how the organization has changed its communicative strategies on a more general level in order to increase social legitimacy. It shows how the strategies and relationship-building activities correspond in many respects to a normative ideal within the field of strategic communication. At the same time it highlights the tensions created during the process. The role of the fire-hosts as living organizational brands is problematized, as is the reduced internal identification of firefighters caused by the organizational shift towards preventive work. The second analytical chapter examines the fire-hosts' so-called multicultural competence. It shows that multicultural competence is construed in two contrasting ways: the culture perspective and the attitude perspective. These perspectives not only manifest different ideas of the origins of the persuasive power of ethos, but also create different rhetorical subjects. From the culture perspective multicultural competence largely concerns knowledge of what is described as specific cultures and/or religions. This knowledge is mainly ascribed to persons on the basis of national origin and background, and also stresses the significance of a “non-Swedish” appearance. In this perspective, ethos becomes something ascribed mainly to people who appear to have the authenticity of being an immigrant. The attitude perspective, on the other hand, appears as a displayed attitude based on eunoia. Analytically, the attitude perspective is interpreted as a form of phronesis, and different rhetorical concepts are employed to describe and demystify these communicative skills. Three themes in the copia of the fire-hosts are presented: first, the ability to listen actively, second, their repertoire of language skills and body language skills, third, having a broad conception of their duties and role in society. According to this view, one does not have to be categorised as an immigrant by appearance or descent in order to demonstrate multicultural competence. In this perspective, ethos becomes something acquired in the situation rather than attributed to static properties. The third analytical chapter examines the concept of culture as a discursive tool. The concept has a constraining potential as well as a liberating one in the trust-building efforts and the chapter shows examples of both. The thesis ends with three conclusions regarding organizations' trust-building efforts in a multicultural society. The first conclusion is that those organizations must create a balance between emphasizing differences and emphasizing similarities between different groups and “cultures”. The second is that organizations should deal with the concept of culture with caution and avoid describing competencies in cultural terms. The final conclusion is that other organizations struggling with the same issues could learn from studying the processes and actions of the case organisation.
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| 10. |
- Möllerström, Veselinka
(författare)
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Malmös omvandling: från arbetarstad till kunskapsstad : En diskursanalytisk studie av Malmös förnyelse
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Increasingly cities compete for tourist dollars, shoppers, financial investments, know-how and tax-payers by bolstering the cities images as centers of creativity, innovation, knowledge, art, design and so forth. Accelerated and intensified globalization, technological advances, market deregulations,de-industrializations and socio-economic change have urged cities, especially former industrial cities, to remake their image and to develop a new identity. This dissertation is about the transition of a former industrial city, the city of Malmo’s transformation to a Knowledge City. The aim of this dissertation is to stress how the city’s renewed image is created and how it is interpreted by the citizens of Malmo. Theories guiding the analysis of how Malmo’s renewed image as a Knowledge City has been created are based on the framework of Lefebvre’s trialectic production of space and on Foucault’s discourse technology. Taken together, these theories highlight the active process behind the production of space and the discursive construction supporting the renewal. This means that production of space involves both visual representation and discourse production to frame an attractive image. Media and communication are indeed necessary tools in constructing and transforming societal discourse and in diffusion of city images. Focusing on the communication process and adopting the PR-perspective through a Foucauldian lens, the discourse construction is regarded as a disciplinary process aimed at changing people’s perception of the former industrial city. The interpretation of the transition by the citizens of Malmo illuminates the symbolic struggles and dynamics in between global flows and local sites. The findings are categorized according to Stuart Halls decoding processes based on the distinctions between dominated, oppositional and negotiated reading.
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