| 1. |
- Olausson, Ulrika, 1964-
(author)
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Medborgarskap och globalisering : den diskursiva konstruktionen av politisk identitet
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study takes as its point of departure the theorizing on citizenship and globalization. Today it is common to discuss a “flexible” citizenship beyond the paradigm of the nationstate, which, besides its legal aspects of rights and obligations, also includes identification with and participation in various communities, primarily political ones. “Politics”, in this context, is considered to be constituted on the micro-level, discursively between individuals (e.g. Laclau and Mouffe 1985). The aim of the study is to, through the study of collective meaning making, contribute to the theory building about citizenship and globalization. The study consists of three cases, each of which attracted much media attention, with varying degrees of proximity and distance. The construction of political community, on various levels on the globalization scale (subnational, national, transnational) within the collective meaning making, is studied. The aim of the study also includes the analysis of the discursive resources that are used for the making of meaning. “External” discourses such as media messages and interpersonal communication are analyzed as well as “internal” ones: e.g. values, norms, identifications and experiences. In addition, the study aims at localizing the construction of meaning and community within the structural context , and relating it to current structures of power. The thesis is concluded with a suggestion of how to relate the discursive construction of political identity to deliberative democracy theory. The empirical material is collected by means of focus-groups interviews, including 2–5 people, with a total of 133 respondents. The transcribed material is analyzed by means of critical discourse analysis, CDA. The study identifies two different types of identity constructions: processes of nationalization, where the experienced Swedish identity and community function normatively in the making of meaning, and processes of subnationalization, among those groups that somehow felt excluded from and mistreated by the national (Swedish) environment. The thesis concludes that the collective making of meaning within an assumed national community contains ideological elements and works to a large extent in the service of power. However, the subnationally compressed communities create meaning in an oppositional manner, compared with the nationalized community and in relation to structures of power. Active citizenship is thus best located in conflict, among groups that experience exclusion and oppression in different situations (Mouffe 1995b). If this is right, the focus must shift from consensus to communication, efforts to open up discursive bridges between the hegemonic community and dissident voices should be made (c.f. Aronowitz 1995). An important space for transgressing communication is of course the media. However, the study shows that the media must deal with some problems before they are ready to serve as discursive bridges, for instance the tendency to make the factual antagonisms subordinate to homogenizing emotional reporting. In addition, there seems to exist a need for the political institutions to move beyond the paradigm of the nation-state, and find other frameworks for the democratic processes, not least at the subnational level. Thus, instead of discussing either a global or a national citizenship one could, with Habermas (2001), reflect on a postnational citizenship relating to the reflexive transformation of national civic sovereignty into subnational and supranational citizenship.
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| 2. |
- Brundin, Pia, 1974-
(author)
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Politics on the net : NGO practices and experiences
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study investigates how different kinds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), operating in different national political contexts, perceive and use the Internet as a political space. The political space concept, as defined here, encompasses two dimensions of Internet use: one external, where organisations use the Internet for online activism and campaigning, and one internal, signifying organisational use of the Internet to promote engagement and interactivity with members and/or supporters. Another question raised is whether Internet use for political purposes by NGOs varies between different national political contexts. Moreover, do the organisations believe that the Internet has affected their political influence to any extent? The empirical data consist of the results of two surveys, one directed primarily to American NGOs, the other explicitly comparative, analysing NGOs in Sweden and the USA. Furthermore, content analyses of NGO websites have been conducted and additive indexes constructed. The findings of the study suggest that, overall, the Internet is most important to the studied organisations as a space for external political initiatives. There were, however, important differences in this regard, which could be related to the organisations’ national political contexts. For example, the American NGOs have oriented their websites primarily towards relatively superficial forms of member involvement, while the Swedish NGOs provided more interactive grassroots features on their websites. Regarding political influence, the Internet arguably has the potential to make the most dramatic difference by reinforcing the organisations’ offline political activities. The present results indicate that, despite the possible converging effect of the Internet on NGO political activism, national political culture exerts an inescapable influence on how the Internet is used as a political space by the studied organisations.
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| 3. |
- Hamqvist, Sara, 1975-
(author)
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Dagspress, sport och doping : medieskandaler i ett samtida Sverige
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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| 4. |
- Karlsson, Michael
(author)
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Nätjournalistik : En explorativ fallstudie av digitala mediers karaktärsdrag på fyra nyhetssajter
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)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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| 5. |
- Nilsson, Malin, 1973-
(author)
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Att förklara människan : Diskurser i populärvetenskapliga TV-program
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The principle aim of the study is to describe, analyze and problemize the ways in which television science documentaries (within a public service context) discursively represent scientific theories, research results and conclusions about the origins of human nature and the causes of human behavior. The study covers 25 programs broadcasted by SVT and UR during a period of four years,2002-2005 , and 12 additional programs are used as a basis for discussion. Most of the programs included in the study are productions purchased mainly from BBC Science. Thus, managing editors, producers and presenters were interviewed for the purpose of illuminating quality judgements and purchasing criteria. A five stage-model of critical discourse analysis has inspired the method which emphasizes the network of communicative practices in which the media text and representation are embedded. That includes media genre, production and narrative conventions as well as the wider historical, social and political/ideological context and discourse practices of which the issues represented are a part. The critical discourse analysis has been complemented by ideas about different documentary modes of representation or basic ways of organizing documentary texts in relation to certain recurrent features or conventions. In the analysis these modes have been applied to understand the degree of transparency and editorial presence and visibility in the science documentaries. The importance of the discourses presented is related to their more applied meanings. When certain descriptions, explanations and understandings of alleged human “basics” gain priority, it may affect the possibilities to define and handle very concrete social issues in a way that is inconsistent with this fundamental perspective. Thus, the ideological function of the science documentaries (as public service-program and educational media) deserves serious attention.
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| 6. |
- Ringfjord, Britt-Marie, 1959-
(author)
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"Fotboll är livet" : en medieetnografisk studie om fotbollstjejer och TV-sport
- 2006
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Media represent a powerful institution in society reflecting dominant values in society and take part in socialization to gender roles for men and women. The gender discourses in society as well as in mass media are interrelated to a complex system of many parts in people’s every day lives (the family, the school, the peer group, boyfriends etc.). The study’s main focus is on how discourses in society and Sport Media offers different gender positions that young female football players use as tools when they as active subjects make meaning of their identities in a gender discourse of sport.In Sweden football is a well-represented sports in media as well as among a Swedish population of nearly 9 millions. The Swedish Football Association is the largest among the sports federations with more than 3.200 associated clubs consisting of more than 1 million active members where 20 % are females (The Swedish Sports Confederation www.rf.se). In media the most common sports is football and Television Channels with nationwide coverage produce more male sport than gendered mixed or female sport in all. Male and gendered mixed sport top the list of sports occurring on Television, as despite football, consists of ice hockey on second place, athletics on third, motor sports and skiing on fourth and fifth place. Popular female sports, that is sports dominated by women in Swedish sports federations, as gymnastics, equestrian and swimming, we find horse jumping on ninth place and swimming on eleventh but not gymnastics though it’s the second popular sports activity after football for females. Despite this when Germany and Sweden meet in Women’s World Cup Final in USA 2003 broadcasted by Swedish Channel 4, the match was followed by 3,5 million Swedish viewers. In the combined the annual audience rating 2003 on Television viewers in Sweden, this football match came second only beaten by The Swedish Trial Contest for Eurovision Song Contest. Other sports events positions on this annual list are far behind other popular TV-programs in Sweden as Donald Duck and Friends, a popular Disney production always sent on Christmas Eve and Swedish quizzes with popular program leaders (www.rf.se, www.svenskfotboll.se, www.mms.se). It has been said that Female Football reached a break trough 2003 in Sweden as a public popular sports event, and in 2004 spectators visiting But if this hints to better opportunities for more female football in the national media coverage, the male dominance still continues in media representations of sport. Even though female sport reporters and female sports appears in media more often than before, this suggests that Sport Media foremost is an interest only for a male viewer, but many women like sport on Television too. The question is what happens when teenaged girls (and boys) view mediated sport produced for male middle-aged adult audience groups? How does cultural meaning of generation, gender and social differences structure everyday life for a collective group as a female football team in how they construct and position them selves within a gendered discourse? This brief summary reflects sports and media habits in the Swedish society and shows us the cultural importance of physical activities and media entertainment in our day-to-day lives. How the sport is represented through media reflect in certain ways our own picture of the concept sport, as well as sports is comprehended and valued on a cultural level. From a feminist perspective on the institutionalised power relations between media and culture the central question is how gender discourses negotiate meaning in society for men and women. The theoretical framework for feminist audience researchThe main theoretical perspectives used here are Stuart Halls reception model of the process of encoding and decoding media texts as meaningful TV-discourses, where viewers in terms of meaning structures approach the media. This model has developed by feminist media studies as power structures of gender discourses in production, content and reception (van Zoonen 1994:41f, Thornham 2000: 99). I will use this model to analyse female positions as gender discourses in a football team. The second perspective is a hermeneutic inspired approach supported by John B Thompson’s appropriation concept.The reception model suggests that even if media texts are framed in certain ways were a dominant power structure of gender representations are embedded; they are decoded by the audiences’ meaning structures in a social context with specific cultural and historical variations. The main point is that communication practices have to be understood in a wider context of social and cultural determinations, as context is both related to family matters and wider social relations. Instead of ideological power structures Hall emphasize the process of hegemony were three possible positions in the decoding process are offered to the viewers: a dominant /hegemonic, a negotiated and an oppositional position (Hall et al 1972/1992, van Zoonen 1994). By relate dominant structures to social processes in culture we can find different explanations. In one sense the media content offers a dominant/hegemonic female collective gender identity supported by the common western ideal for femininity, but in another sense the female gender identity expressed in this football culture by the female football players shows how the interpretation of media content adjust in a socio-historical context. Young females in a football club can negotiate or reject the offered media messages and construct other possible gender positions in their own socio-historical context. Appropriation is a concept that directs our attention to contextualise the process of reception as a cultural phenomenon, where macro structures of ideological power in society are interrelated with people’s ordinary lives and sense-making processes in their micro social world. This concept also helps us to direct our attention on combining the contexts of production, content and reception in order to analyse culture as meaning making processes. To appropriate is a cultural process were individuals use their available resources to make sense of media messages and adjust them to their social-historical context. Media products are an important part in how we create communication and shape our identities in modern society. The media stimulate to action and utterance as an active part in the formation of social reality. By following the content of sport in media, individuals actually can use that as information to guide their thoughts and actions in their own social context. The appropriations of symbolic forms in a social context are shared with other important individuals in every day communication (Thompson 1995:11f, 174f). In modern society collective identities are complex and culturally constructed in various ways. Media, as part of popular culture, have a particularly important role in the construction and mediation of different expressions and styles of identities. In one sense mass media serves us with a multiplicity of possible identities, free for any individual to pick up and adjust for individual needs in a social context outside the media content. In another sense we must also relate this to some of the important power structures in the organization of media production and content of Sport Media in order to show how mediated symbolic forms adjust in a cultural context by active meaning making subjects. (These structures are often referred to as the Media-Sport-Complex where the analyses of global power relations are connected to perspectives on political economy and culture. See Miller at al.2001, Roche 2000, Boyle & Haynes 2000). In relation to this study the football-playing girls have opportunities to choose what ever sport they like on a theoretical level, but on a social level they adjust to the cultural context they live in, where football for men and women are considered as two separate spheres, supported by the Sport Media content.The Sport Media’s gender representations divides sports in a female and male sphere according to gendered stereotyped structures in society, where team sports as football or ice hockey are dominated by men, and individual sports as gymnastic or figure skating are dominated by women. These stereotypes are structured within ideological representations of gendered positions for masculinity and femininity that are bound to social-historical context that changes over time. The framed structure in media texts function as ideologies but at the same time hegemony according to Hall rather suggests possibilities for opposition and social change since the production of cultural meaning always is open to contestation from below (Hall 1972/1992: 136ff). The positions suggested here are considered as gendered ideal types not existing in reality. Rather they show how complex constructions of gender identities are and how the girls in this study reflect and move between discourses and different gender positions. The dominant/hegemonic ideal for femininity concerns appearance and beauty accepted as normal standards for females, and are reproduced in many social spheres of which mass media is one of the main messengers. The negotiated position acknowledges and adjusts the offered dominant feminine ideal to own experiences and social situation. The oppositional position recognizes the dominant feminine ideal but due to other experiences or social situation this position rejects and question the proposed ideal with skepticism (Thornham 2000: 100).But if media discourses reflect dominant values in society there is another standard to consider for the constructions of gender in sports. The commonly hegemonic gender ideals are reflecting dominant gender values that in part passes over to sport, where masculine and feminine ideals for physical body appearance distinguish between gender and between spor
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Ågren, Henrik, 1968-
(author)
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Tidigmodern tid : Den sociala tidens roll i fyra lokalsamhällen 1650-1730
- 1998
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines how time-reckoning was used in Swedish courts in the early modem period. The theoretical foundation is that the need for people to coordinate in time becomes more important the larger and more complicated the social context is. Therefore, it is more important that one part in a communication is clear in its indication of time the less the other part shares its everyday life. A time-indication is formed by the situation of both sender and receiver, within the context of a society's system of measuring time.During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, contacts between local communities and central state institutions intensified through the state's increasing demands of influence over local authorities.Thereby, a situation arose in which it became more important for ordinary courts to be careful in theirrecord keeping with, among other things, time-reckoning. Terms for time are also formed by the context in which they are reckoned. As life is different in different types of local communities, there are also differences in the use of time in different courts. Therefore, the empirical study is a comparison of the Lagunda district court, the Uppsala city courts, and the Sala mining court, circa 1650 and circa 1730. Lagunda represents a rural environment, while Uppsala represents a preindustrial urban area. Sala silver mine is included in the study as an industrial environment. Also, the city courts of Sala have been studied to gain perspective on the comparison between Uppsala and Sala silver mine.The results show that both the chronological differences and differences in areas of investigation were important. During the 1730's, all courts were considerably more careful in time-reckoning than they had been in the 1650's. Also, the similarities between the areas were greater, which must be seen as a result of the fact that time-reckoning primarily was made for the sake of the central institution towhich the records were to be sent. The more interactive the state, the greater the precision of courtrecords and uniformity of local communities. The time-indications used are thus more a reflection ofthe need for understanding in communication between separate institutions than of organisation in thelocal community.The manifest differences between the areas are that while time in Lagunda and at Sala silver mine in different ways reflected the areas' economic foundation, time-reckoning in the towns was of a more varied nature. The results for the towns of Sala and Uppsala are more similar than those of the townof Sala and Sala silver mine, although the selection of people was practically the same at the mine andin the town. This indicates that the environment and the type of court played a greater role in deter-mining which results we obtain, than did the people's own concept of time. However, there were somesimilarities between the town of Sala and the silver mine. Therefore, one cannot rule out that the results also reflect peoples' relation to time, irrespective of the situation they are in.
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