| 1. |
- Norén, Fredrik, 1984-
(författare)
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"Framtiden tillhör informatörerna” : samhällsinformationens formering i Sverige 1965–1975
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is about the formation of governmental information in Sweden during the period 1965 to 1975. During this period information related issues were high up on the political agenda, in Sweden and internationally. I argue that the period is of particular interest in order to understand the impact and development of governmental information in Sweden, even for our time. One overreaching research question has guided this study: What ideas and practices characterized how and why the state disseminated information to the public? The thesis uses four tensions to study the formation of governmental information in Sweden during the late 1960s and early 1970s: (1) information as a solution – information as a problem, (2) dissemination of information – control over information, (3) information through mass communication – information through interpersonal dialogue, and (4) governmental information – commercial information. These tensions draw theoretically from John Durham Peters’ notions of communication.The thesis uses strands from three research fields: PR-history, cultural histories of media, and digital humanities. The four papers use different theoretical perspectives in order to shed new light on of the formation of governmental information in Sweden. Adding to that, and to theoretically tie the papers together, the thesis presents an overarching network perspective with a special focus on conceptual history as a means to better understand how governmental information was discussed as well as practiced. Different methods are used to study the formation of governmental information. The latter is partly because of the political issue’s porous boundaries and fragmented-oriented character, and partly due to the lack of previous research with a problematizing and historical approach to governmental information in Sweden. The thesis combines qualitative and quantitative methods to study different aspects how the state communicated with the public.This dissertation presents new findings about the formation of governmental information during the period 1965 to 1975. One regards the different intersections of governmental information. It shows that the production and dissemination of information from agencies to citizens was far from “pure” governmental information, and rather entangled with various actors from industry, academy and civil society. A second finding concerns the language of governmental information. Here, the dissertation shows – through large-scale digital text methods – how the concept of “information” exploded in usages from the 1960s and onwards, and how “information” as a discursive element infiltrated a growing number of political topics from the same period and onwards. A third finding centers on the media of governmental information. One result shows how broadly academics and bureaucrats defined the concept of media in relation to the practice of governmental information. All kinds of media devices, and not only the traditional news media, were considered important for the purpose of disseminating information on large scale to the public. Lastly, this dissertation reveals governmental information as without guaranties. Overall it shows how information from state agencies to citizens was generated through various conflicting tensions that have to be addressed, but without any hope of finding a balance free from communication problems. These problems tend to reoccur in different settings through history, also visible today. This result should however not be regarded as a pessimistic standpoint, rather it calls for modesty in terms of communication in general, and governmental information in particular.
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| 2. |
- Arnesson, Johanna, 1980
(författare)
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FASHIONABLE POLITICS The discursive construction of ethical consumerism in corporate communications, news media, and social media
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates the discursive construction of ethical consumerism – a notion that encompasses both ‘conscious’ consumption choices and responsible’ corporate activities – in mediated discourses about fashion and clothing consumption in Sweden. Drawing on the discourse-historical approach within critical discourse analysis, the study provides an empirical examination of discursive elements in corporate communications, newspapers, and social media, which construct the market as the best solution to social injustice and climate change. The analysis focuses on how specific identities or practices are established as ethical, authentic, and legitimate, and investigates both the promises and the limits of discursive ethical consumerism in late capitalism. The thesis shows how corporate and journalistic discourses can be depoliticising, as they focus on consensus and collaboration rather than on conflicts of interest, and on individual responsibility and consumption choices rather than on political policy. However, the convergence of consumption and politics also becomes highly political when these issues are discussed by the audience. The approach places the thesis within a tradition of critical studies of branded politics and the neoliberalisation of contemporary societies, while still taking the reflexive awareness of politically motivated consumers into account.
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| 3. |
- Najem, Chafic T., 1991-
(författare)
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Smuggle, Frame, Shoot : Illicit Media Practices and Visual Insurgency from Lebanese Incarceration
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This research explores prisoners’ illicit use of digital-media technology during their incarceration in Lebanon. Prisoners smuggle cellphones and access internet and telecommunication connection to produce and mediate videos, images, and voice recordings documenting quotidian experiences of imprisonment, violent events, and the COVID-19 Pandemic inside the notorious and overcrowded Roumieh Central Prison. Fragmentary prison amateur cellphone media messages make their way from behind bars to various media ecologies, from social media to local and international news-media platforms, where they are (re)mediated and often appropriated to feed partisan and sectarian media narratives. In this dissertation, I investigate prison cellphone recordings and their political and testimonial possibilities by tracing the prison media practices responsible for their production and circulation. Influenced by Amel’s (1976, 1988) intellectual project of theorizing from the periphery and the lo popular approach to theorizing media with and from individuals’ media practices in their territory (Martín-Barbero, 1998), I propose a framework for the conceptualization of prisoners’ illicit use of digital-media technologies and the recordings they produce as media from the prison. Based on a foundation of media-practice theory, more specifically the articulation of activist media practices and mediation theory (Martín-Barbero, 1993; Mattoni, 2012; Mattoni & Treré, 2014), I introduce three overarching and overlapping conceptual themes: media witnessing, media mobilization, and vulnerability in resistance. Using this theoretical framework, I examine the categories, characteristics, and modes of framing reflected in prison cellphone recordings, explore their alignment with mechanisms of mobilization and organized protest, and consider them as visual and sonic recorded testimonies that document and communicate personal impressions and the conditions of quotidian life in confinement. The analysis draws on a qualitative, multi-method approach combining visual analysis and contextual interviews. Location- and event-based searches were used to systematically collect a corpus of prison cellphone recordings remediated between 2011 and 2022 on Facebook, YouTube, and local and international news-media platforms. I propose the notion of visual insurgency as a step towards understanding the role and function of recordings that are produced and mediated through inherently prohibited media practices. Through the examination of composition, POV, frame, sound, (re)mediation, and the partisan context of Lebanon and the colonial history of its prisons, I trace the illicit media practices responsible for these prison representations. I claim that, through their media practices, prisoners mediate from the prison testimonies of their lived experiences, expose their vulnerabilities to the precarious conditions they exist in, re-claim a sense of mundanity, and incite feelings of affinity to mobilize support. I conclude that prison cellphone recordings are the result of meticulous prison media practices that are intended to actively mobilize support and sympathy, as well as to establish communication networks with affiliates and media personnel. Prison media practices continue to grow as prisoners smuggle digital-media technologies, develop new approaches to framing their testimonies and shooting the precarious environment, stories, performative assemblies, and lived experiences behind bars.
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| 4. |
- Dafgård, Lena, 1958
(författare)
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Digital Distance Education – A Longitudinal Exploration of Video Technology
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The context of this thesis is digital distance education. Distance education has developed from correspondence courses, based on letters sent by mail between student and teacher, to digital distance education with interactive video classes from anywhere, as long as a computer/tablet/smartphone and an Internet connection are available. The development of technology, particularly with the introduction of the Internet, has completely changed the possibilities for teaching, learning, interaction, and communication at a distance. Many technologies can be used in distance education, but this thesis aims to: Better understand the possibilities and limitations of video in digital distance higher education. The research has three elements of analysis: 1) video technology, 2) distance courses, and 3) distance teachers. Each allows a focus on how distance courses with video are designed and on teachers’ perspectives on the use of video in distance education. The first focus on course design is examined through two research questions. RQ1 asks, How is digital video used in distance higher education? When teachers design distance courses with digital video; a) which categories of video are used or not used? b) how much are these categories used? c) why are they used or not used? And d) how are they used? Complementing RQ1, RQ2 asks, How do course designers respond to the possibilities and limitations of video for distance higher education? Addressing the second focus of the thesis on teacher perspectives, RQ3 asks, What are the teacher’s attitudes and perceptions about the use of digital video in distance higher education? With a comprehensive literature review as a foundation, the results of this thesis include a classification system with two main categories; recorded and live video that is developed and used to orient an empirical investigation. The data for this investigation was collected through a national web-based questionnaire. Then, based on the survey, a specific higher education institution was selected for an interview study with teachers using video conferencing in distance courses in Teacher education. Interaction and communication are central concepts in this thesis, and the analytical lens combines the socio-cultural perspective and the theory of affordances. The results indicate that across types, video is mostly used as a supplement to other resources. Further, a correspondence is found concerning, on the one hand, teachers’ experience of distance education and participation in in-service training, and on the other hand, their use of video in teaching. In general, the most reported reasons why teachers do not use video are that it does not bring anything and takes too much time. Many of the constraints that teachers perceive are related to time; e.g. competition between an ambition to teach according to a student-centred approach but also a strong feeling of responsibility of delivering content to students. The technology of video has the affordances of mediating a teaching and learning environment similar to the one in the classroom, but conditions such as large groups or many students and the difficulty of perceiving non-verbal signals through video, affect the communication situation negatively and reduce possibilities of interaction. As a systematic study investigating the mainstream use of technology and media, this thesis contrasts with many other studies, which are often relatively small and local in nature, conducted by enthusiastic teachers investigating the use of one specific technology. The results show how the mainstream use of technologies such as video change conditions for distance teaching and influence how we think and interact with others and our environment.
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| 5. |
- Jungselius, Beata, 1982
(författare)
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Using Social Media
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The rise of social media platforms has changed how people interact. Mobile technologies with built-in, high-quality cameras offer new possibilities for people to document and share their everyday activities. Many consider these interaction-mediating devices to be important tools for facilitating people’s social life through use of social media. The aim of this thesis is to describe what constitutes social media use in a world of smartphones with cameras, why and how social media use is meaningful as a category of activity, and to contribute with new insights on how social media skills and perceptions change as practices and platforms develop. Drawing upon data collected in 2012 and 2017, this thesis provides empirical findings from four papers. By returning to the same informants, conducting stimulated recall interviews five years apart, the data provides insights on how social media use has developed over time. In this thesis, social media use is understood as the social practices that people engage in when they plan, produce, post, and take part in social media activities. As levels of engagement in social media vary from active involvement, such as producing and interacting with content, to more passive ways of planning and monitoring social media, a revised conceptualization of social media use is argued. The focus of this thesis is on a specific and central part of social media; social photography (i.e. how people produce, share and interact around pictures) in social media, especially through the use of the social photo sharing application Instagram. When engaging in social photography activities, users rely upon modal, technical and social affordances and develop particular idioms of practices. Each social media platform engenders its own expressions and idioms, and its own platform vernacular, which users learn in order to interact on it fluently. Users develop new skills through social participation within their community of practice on one or more platforms. As they learn how to engage in social practices, developing skills for particular idioms of practice and platform vernaculars, they become competent members of these social media communities. Based on data collected five years apart, this thesis highlights that despite many relatively stable aspects to the ways that users approach social media, four prominent categories of factors have had an impact on changes to social media use over time: changes in life and time management, changes in technical capabilities, changes in privacy preferences, and changes in modes of engagement.
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| 6. |
- Andersson, Linus, 1979-
(författare)
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Alternativ television : former av kritik i konstnärlig TV-produktion
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation analyses social critique, communication critique and aestheticalcritique in television produced by artists. Theoretically it draws on researchon alternative media, TV studies, especially genre analysis and narratology,and media aesthetics. It conducts a text-production study of three examplesof alternative television from the period 2004-2008: ContemporaryArt Center TV (CAC TV): A show produced by the CAC in Vilnius, Lithuaniaand aired on a commercial TV-channel; Good TV who aired video art ona local public access channel in Stockholm, Sweden; and Candyland TV, apirate transmission from an art gallery in central Stockholm.Empirically it builds on TV-texts, web sites and documents, as well asinterviews with participants. Through a study of form and stylistics, relationto conventional genres and modes of narration, it engages in a discussionabout the features of a critical, alternative media text.The study shows how these televisions work in a tradition of alternativetelevision and connects them to tactics and aesthetical forms as found inhistorical examples, but also how this type of formalist media critiquemight inform an understanding of alternative media. From the analysis ofrelations between social and formalist aspects of alternative television, adistinction between alternative as ”alternative worldview” and as ”alternativeexpressions” is suggested, a distinction that contributes to the developmentof theory in the study of alternative media.
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| 7. |
- Cotal San Martin, Vladimir, 1979-
(författare)
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The Mediated Representation of Working Conditions in the Global South : Discourse, Ideology and Responsibility
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the mediated representation of workers’ working conditions in the Global South. Using a qualitative approach inspired by Critical Discourse Studies, it focuses on ideological representation in newspapers from Sweden, the USA, Chile and China/Hong Kong. The aims are to understand how working conditions are represented; identify key themes of news reporting; understand how newspapers convey ideological discourses about ‘foreign’ and ‘distant’ working conditions; and provide critical insights into how the topic is represented in newspapers in terms of its relevance (to a national readership) as well as agency and responsibility (i.e. who is responsible for working conditions?) and the possible ideological impact thereof on the reader and their knowledge/interpretation of this issue. The results suggest that the general structuring of Swedish media discourse on workers’ conditions runs thematically across various parts/sections of the production industry: garments, electronics, food, furniture and toys. In addition, further themes/frames are used in the coverage (working conditions in the workplace, salary, conditions of employment, housing, workforce composition and workers’ organizations), further particularising the explored focus of media representation. The study also suggests that mainstream news media represent working conditions in ways that exclude a range of key issues, actors and causalities. Constructed at the level of media discourse, such problematic representations largely conceal the structural, institutional and corporatist responsibility behind the global exploitation of workers and their largely unfavourable working conditions. Instead, responsibility for those working conditions is effectively and strategically shifted away from the wider global system of capitalist-driven exploitation into individual social actors, in both the Western world (in the form of particular transnational corporations and in the form of readers/ users as consumers) and the Global South (in the form of local factory owners, governments, officials etc.). Speaking from a critical perspective and offering a number of empirically-funded insights, the study suggests that newspapers construct the key topic as relevant through a number of thematic and argumentative frames. Of these, the ‘consumer framework’ – which effectively serves to shift responsibility away from wider structural socioeconomic causes to an individual level – remains central. The thesis also shows that the representation of working conditions in the Global South is strongly embedded within a highly problematic colonial (or post-colonial) imagery. Therein, the exploitation in the Global South is seen as a localised ‘cultural problem’ of ‘them’ rather than a systematic problem related to global capitalism and its transnational system of social and economic inequality.
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| 8. |
- Doona, Joanna
(författare)
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Political comedy engagement : Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship
- 2016. - 1
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Political comedy is a hybrid genre that mixes political news and analysis with comedy and entertainment. As it becomes more and more popular in most media forms and national contexts, researchers struggle to understand its role in relation to other types of political media, and of citizenship; in this sense, it challenges scholarly conceptualisation of political media and citizenship. Thus, this thesis examines and develops the understanding of how audience engagement in political comedy encourages political and cultural citizenship. The focus on engagement allows the study to emphasise diverse subject positions and their dynamic character. Additionally, it stresses that reasoning is both emotional and rational, rather than either or, which is especially important in the study of political comedy. By mapping contemporary examples of political comedy as well as carrying out in-depth interviews and focus groups with 31 young adult Swedes (18-35 years old) who regularly engage with political comedy (Swedish radio programme Tankesmedjan and/or American television programme The Daily Show), the study’s analytical attention is on modes of address as well as audience engagement. Focussing on constructions of genre, so-called ‘genre work,’ political identity and cultural citizenship, the thesis reiterates contemporary scholarly critique of the modern era ideal type of a dutiful, rational and well-informed citizen, from a normative and empirical standpoint. The study’s findings include a challenge to the understanding of ‘entertainment’ as separate from, and less valuable than, ‘information’; and contributes a deeper understanding of how audiences engage with these kinds of political media spaces. It shows how such spaces allow for so-called political play and emotional authenticity, which is important for the developing citizen. Further, it illustrates how audiences enjoy the double mode of engagement that is required by political comedy’s mix of serious and silly, whereby they analyse which is what. The thesis contributes knowledge about political comedy audiences being skilled, ‘media-savvy’ and ‘self-informed,’ yet lacking in political efficacy. They are highly interested in political news and political issues, but worry about various social aspects of increasing their political participation, which the present study labels as ‘uneasy’ citizenship. In this context, audiences enjoy the so-called symbolic levelling that results from political comedy’s critique of conventional journalism’s claim of epistemic authority. Through this, political comedy aids young adults in feeling like citizens, in a political and cultural sense, as it represents critical thinking and promotes an understanding of the perspectives of others. The thesis argues that the growing engagement in political comedy is a symptom of contemporary young adult citizenship, where the use of irony and humour is a way of coping with uneasiness. Hence, the study shows that political comedy engagement is an expression of the need for a wide variety of political media spaces, where different aspects of young adult citizenship can be recognised, including the emotional.
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| 9. |
- Ezz El Din, Mahitab, 1972-
(författare)
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Beyond Orientalism and Occidentalism : Identity constructions in Arab and Western news media
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study examines how the media construct the identities of the Other by creating various ‘us’ versus ‘them’ positions (Othering) when covering non-violence-based intercultural conflicts in Arab and Western news media. Othering in this study is understood as an umbrella concept that in general terms refers to the discursive process of constructing and positioning the Self and the Other into separate identities of an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’This process is analysed using a mixed method approach. A content analysis is used to map the data, and then a closer examination of the discourse is conducted using a qualitative approach inspired by critical discourse analysis. Two empirical studies are conducted based on this analysis: 1) the case of the Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda’s publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed in 2007 and 2) the media coverage of the headscarf ban in French state schools in 2004. This study also employs Galtung’s Peace Journalism model as a frame of reference in the conclusions to discuss how this model could contribute, if applied in journalistic texts, to more balanced constructions of intercultural conflicts.The results show that Othering is a central discursive practice that is commonly adopted in both Arab and Western media coverage of non-violent intercultural conflicts, but it appears in different forms. Many of the previous studies have devoted considerable attention to rather conventional dichotomous constructions of Eastern and Western Others. The present study, in contrast, brings to the fore more non-conventional constructions and, while recognizing the occurrence of the conventional constructions, goes beyond these binary oppositions of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Variations in the types of identity constructions found in my study can be attributed to the mode of the article, the actors/voices included, the media affiliations and the topic and its overall contextualization.The different types of identity constructions in the media coverage may bring about a less black and white understanding of an event and help bring forth a more nuanced picture of what is going on and who is doing what in a conflict situation. Their occurrence in the media can possibly be linked to a new vision of a global society that does not necessarily constitute homogenous groups with the same characteristics, but rather is more consistent with a hybrid identity.This research is timely, as with the recent arrival of large groups of migrants from the Middle East, the ‘fear of Islam,’ and the right wing propaganda regarding Muslims as a threat is increasing. Islamophobia can be seen as a new form of racism used by elites to serve particular agendas. If media practitioners applied a more critical awareness in their writings so as not to reproduce culturally rooted stereotypes, which can inflame conflicts between people and nations, we might see less hostility against migrants and achieve a less racist world.
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| 10. |
- Handler, Reinhard
(författare)
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Colliberate : The practices of free and open source software
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This ethnography explores the inner workings of LibreOffice, a free and open source software project. It explores the practices that underlie the collaborative production of an office suite of software that can be shared, used, copied, modified and redistributed freely. Thereby this dissertation provides an insight into how ethical ideas, technical expertise and governance structures inform the practices that are used. Such an approach provides important access into the underbelly of software which is too often perceived as neutral infrastructure for digital media. The most important result of this dissertation is the explanation of a complex interplay of technology, political notions, community spirit, and governance mechanisms forms the basis for the collaborative practices to build software. Understanding software as a set of practices allows further investigations into digital media that can produce much needed knowledge about software which has become the infrastructure of everyday life.This study shows that software is not a technical expression but much more the result of a plethora of influences. It analyses a number of key topics: the practices that are activated – how people with different levels of skills and knowledge manage to establish a common way; the break of a community of collaborators with a major software company with the help of a standard technical practice; the complex entanglement of volunteers and economic interests of companies that contribute to the project; the differences within free and open source software - mostly expressed through licenses – that can sometimes result in open conflicts because of diverging perceptions of what freedom and / or openness means; and the role of a specific form of governance in a project that rests on an ideal notion of decentralization.
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