Masteruppsatser
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Item Reporting on the Environmental Crisis - Investigating Solutions-Focused Journalism in Swedish News Media(2025-07-01) Ekblom, Klara; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationAim/research problem: Given the urgency of the Triple Planetary Crisis and the rising phenomenon of news avoidance, it has become increasingly important to examine how news media address these dual challenges. This study contributes to the growing field of solutions-focused journalism by analysing how such reporting is manifested in Swedish mainstream environmental news coverage. It further investigated what types of solutions were prioritised and how the reporting aligned with normative ideals of journalism. Theory: The study applied theories of solutions-focused journalism and normative ideals of journalism (accuracy, objectivity, and scrutiny). The findings were further discussed through the lenses of agenda-setting theory, culturally resonant frames and dominant paradigms, and journalism’s role in democratic societies (monitoring, facilitative, and radical). Methods: A quantitative content analysis was conducted on news articles reporting on the Triple Planetary Crisis. The analysis focused on the prevalence of solutions-focused journalism, the types of solutions presented, and how these were reported in terms of tone, evidence, critical examination, and level of agreement. Material: The material consisted of news articles published between October 1, 2024, and February 28, 2025, in the Swedish mainstream news media outlets SVT Nyheter, Dagens Nyheter, and Svenska Dagbladet. The sample included text-format material from articles in web and print formats. Results: (1) Solutions-focused journalism constituted a minority of Swedish news media’s reporting of the Triple Planetary Crisis. (2) Prominent solutions concerned policy, and technology, and to some extent business strategies, while solutions related to individual behaviour and collective action were underrepresented. (3) Solutions were typically reported with positive tones, vague evidence, and limited critical examination, although they frequently portrayed solutions as part of a conflict. (4) The salience and framing of solutions reflected a preference for culturally resonant narratives aligned with dominant paradigms, which leaves the public with a limited set of frames for understanding the Triple Planetary Crisis. (5) The reporting style raises concerns for journalism’s ability to uphold its normative ideals and challenge the role of journalism in democratic societies.Item Public Opinion on Energy Transition - The Impact of Representation in the Public Debate(2025-07-01) Philipp, Claire Sophie; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationAim/research problem: The aim of the research is to investigate to what extent rural and urban interests are represented in the public debate on energy transition in Germany. Further this, research investigates differences in public support for energy transition between rural and urban areas. Lastly, the research investigates how representation in public debate affects support for energy transition. This is important as energy transition requires broad public support among the population to be a success. Despite this, little research has examined the representation of rural and urban communities in public discourse, as well as the impact of this representation on public opinion remains largely unexplored. Theory: This research draws on public debate theory (Lambek, 2024), agenda-building theory (Nisbet, 2008), and representation theory (Pitkin, 1967) in order to understand representation in public debate. Regional divides are contextualized using structural theory of imperialism (Galtung, 1971) and cleavage theory (Lipset & Rokkan, 1967). Energy justice theory (Heffron, 2022), specifically procedural and distributional justice is also at heart of this study. The combination of these theories serves as the basis of this research. Methods: The study employs a quantitative research design. T-tests are conducted to establish if there are meaningful differences between representation of rural and urban interests in the public debate as well as differences in public opinion on energy transition between rural and urban communities. A multivariate regression analysis is conducted to estimate the relationship between representation in the public debate and public opinion on energy transition. Relevant control variables are included. The program used in the context of this study is Stata 18. Material: This study employs secondary data, specifically, the Umweltbewusstseinstudie 2022 (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit (BMU) et al., 2024). The data was collected in Germany using multi-stage probability sampling in 2022. The sample includes 2073 observations and was weighted using characteristics such as region, age, gender, and education to align it with the population. Results: The main findings of this study are: (1) Rural interests are underrepresented in the public debate; urban interests are adequately represented. (2) Public support regarding energy transition is lower in rural areas than it is urban areas. (3) Representation of rural interests in public debate affects public opinion on energy transition. Representation of urban interests, by contrast, does not have a statistically significant effect on public opinion on energy transition. This thesis highlights the fact that a fair energy transition is not only about fair infrastructure but also about a fair voice.Item From Fringe to Front Page - The Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory in Swedish News Media(2025-07-01) Stenberg, Amanda; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationConspiracy theories have received limited academic attention regarding how they are represented, legitimized, or challenged in the media. As far-right populist actors increasingly use conspiracy narratives in political communication, the risk of these gaining legitimacy has potential societal consequences. Such factors include polarization, erosion of democratic norms, increased discrimination, and possible violence. This study focuses exclusively on Swedish news media and explores how coverage and framing of ‘the Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory are presented between 2015 and 2025. Using a qualitative content analysis supported by quantitative mapping on more than one thousand articles and chronicles from news outlets in different media categories. The findings show a substantial increase over the past ten years. The qualitative content analysis is guided by framing theory and agenda-setting theory, which developed categories, codes, and themes of frames and discourse frames. Identifying language characteristics and frame descriptions was used in the categorization of articles. The results find that mainstream outlets dominate the amount of coverage, often using delegitimizing frames as the conspiracy theory is reported together with racism, extremism, and conspiratorial thinking. Left-leaning alternative and advocacy journalist outlets position themselves as watchdogs and reinforce counter-narrative discourse against conspiracy theory and far-right populism. In contrast, the alternative right media frames 'the Great Replacement' as a legitimate concern towards demographic change, highlighting statistical distortion, censorship, and anti-establishment narratives that aim to undermine mainstream media and government. Ideological divides shape how the theory is framed, where partisan media aligns with the narratives of their agenda. The results demonstrate how extremist ideas can gain access to, and over time become salient, within the public sphere. This study is limited by its frame selection, scope, and absence of audience effects. Future research should expand the scope, incorporate network analysis, and examine the media’s influence on democratic discourse by using complementary frames. Given the complexity and sensitivity of this unexplored topic, particularly the ties to far-right ideology and extremism, further scholarly contributions are valuable.Item Far-right Populist Rhetoric - Gendered Enemy Construction and Performative Masculinity(2025-07-01) Roka, Aikaterini; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationAim/research problem: How do far-right populist leaders use gendered political communication, specifically the construction of gendered enemies and the performance of masculinity, to reinforce their authority and shape political realities? By examining this, this thesis aims to contribute both theoretical and practical insights into the communicative strategies of contemporary far-right populism, offering a critical lens for understanding how language, identity, and power are combined in the construction of political reality. Theory: The study draws on Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach, van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive Model, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, and Benjamin Moffitt’s framework of populism as political style. Methods: This study adopts a qualitative research design grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Material: The study focuses on speeches by Donald Trump (Waco Rally, 2023), Viktor Orbán (Tusványos Speech, 2024), and Jair Bolsonaro (Independence Day, 2022). Results: The findings reveal that far-right populist leaders systematically construct enemies using rhetorical strategies of nomination, predication, and scapegoating. These enemies are often feminized, queered, or otherwise depicted as morally and culturally deviant, reinforcing a narrative of national crisis and cultural decline. At the same time, the leaders perform masculinity through language, posture, religious references, and emotional appeals that assert strength, protection, and control. The interaction between these elements is central to the affective and ideological appeal of far-right populist leadership, the more feminized and threatening the enemy, the more justified the leader’s authoritarian and masculine stance appears.Item Information-seeking repertoires during local crises - A qualitative study of Brazilian immigrants in Sweden(2025-06-30) Santiago, Tayná; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationPurpose: The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how Brazilian immigrants living in Sweden seek information during local crises by using different information-seeking repertoires. Theory: Based on the information-seeking repertoires approach and the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective, the study explained the differences in information-seeking repertoires between people, especially regarding the migrant populations. Method: A qualitative approach was used for this research. In total, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with Brazilian immigrants who live in Sweden. The data was thematic analyzed to recognize themes that align with the participants’ perceptions about local crises. Findings: The thematic analysis of the interviews revealed that the source combination was regular, but this combination varied according to the media and sources that Brazilian immigrants use, and patterns in media usage could be identified. Brazilians’ motivations, in conjunction with the availability of information, impartiality, and accuracy, influenced considerably their trust in one source of information or media. The perceived risk of the development of the local crisis also impacted the way that participants sought, shared, and trusted information. These findings contributed to a better understating of the information-seeking repertoires of migrant populations during local crises.Item Democratic Erosion and the News Media - An Exploratory Case Study of Sweden and the Freedom of Religion(2025-06-30) Hix, Svenja; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThis thesis explores the symptoms of early democratic erosion in the news media and the role the news media may play in the process. As of now, there has yet to be any contemporary research on that subject. The thesis focuses on the process of democratic erosion within the aspect of civil liberties and how symptoms of early democratic erosion can be visible in the media. Through deductive reading of literature on democratic erosion and the normative roles of the news media in a healthy democracy, the thesis identifies potential drivers of early democratic erosion as jeopardizing civil liberties, especially those of minorities or a particular group. More specifically, the symptoms of early democratic erosion in the news media are the normalization of hostile discourse, the provision of a platform for anti-democratic ideas, the normalization of political intolerance, the targeting of one group in the news media and the use of propaganda or misinformation to manipulate the public. While the news media are not solely responsible for democratic erosion, it is found that they can either counteract or contribute to it. The news media contribute to the phenomenon by failing their normative roles in a democracy and undermining democratic values. This can have different dimensions, such as publishing anti-democratic discourse without challenging it or polarized presentation of political issues or minorities without providing alternative perspectives. Complicity of the news media, characterized by the news media simply echoing statements from political actors, is part of this failure and subsequently contributes to democratic erosion. However, the news media can also counteract democratic erosion by resisting such polarization, publishing fact-checked information, and challenging anti-democratic statements made by political actors. When the news media fulfill their normative roles dutifully, they can create an environment in which healthy discussion flourishes and minority voices are included equally, without hate speech and intolerant discourse dominating the public sphere. These results are generalizable to liberal democracies and highlight the importance of the news media adhering to their normative roles to safeguard and protect democracy. To find out what these theorized symptoms and roles look like in reality, a case study of Sweden over the years 2016 to 2023 is conducted. Two major news outlets (Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet) are analyzed regarding their presentation of Islam. The reason for this is the previously established jeopardizing of civil rights as a main driver for democratic erosion and the subsequent symptoms in the media. Islam’s exposure was chosen to represent how freedom of religion is treated in the Swedish news media as the ascertained symptoms often affect a particular group. In this case, Islam was selected because of recent Swedish history, which saw a rise in the popularity of right-wing parties that deliberately attack Muslims verbally. Additionally, crimes such as Quran burnings and Mosque attacks have increased in the past years. Yet, Sweden is considered a stable and liberal democracy with freedom of religion anchored in its constitution, making it an interesting case to analyze regarding early democratic erosion and the role of the news media. The reason for including a tabloid and a broadsheet is to compare the patterns over the selected time frame in the analysis. The empirical analysis uses a mixed-methods approach that examines Islam’s portrayal in the news media. First, a quantitative content analysis of 687 articles in total is conducted. While collecting that data, some articles that represent respective symptoms were chosen and presented qualitatively alongside the results of the quantitative analysis. The findings show that both news outlets display several symptoms of early democratic erosion and have contributed to democratic erosion by being a microphone for political actors in several instances over the past years. SvD is more committed to factful informing of the public than AB, highlighting that tabloids are more drawn to sensationalist reporting. Nonetheless, an increasing pattern of positive developments by SvD and AB can be observed, especially in the year 2023, where both news outlets fulfill their normative roles as watchdog more consistently and challenge the opinions of the elite more actively. This enables an optimistic prediction for the future in the Swedish case. The Swedish news media have the potential to play an essential role in safeguarding Swedish democracy by adhering to their normative roles.Item Beyond the Visible: Community Perceptions of Rituals and Symbols in Northern Ireland(2025-06-30) McCrohan-Nyhan, Morgan; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationIntroduction This thesis investigates the influence of cultural rituals and symbols on social identities and intergroup conflict in Northern Ireland. The paper analyses the historical circumstances of colonisation, which solidified religious and ethnic divisions, specifically between Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Unionists. Objective The aim of this study is to examine the role of cultural rituals and symbols on the development and continuation of social identities and intergroup conflict in Northern Ireland. Methods This study employs Social Identity Theory and the Ethno-Symbolist approach to analyse the intricacies of sectarian conflict. Data was gathered via qualitative semi-structured interviews with individuals belonging to both the Catholic Nationalist and Protestant Unionist populations. The utilisation of thematic analysis was employed to reveal the importance of cultural elements in various contexts. Results The investigation uncovered an intricate interaction between urban and rural viewpoints, where urban areas prioritise cultural symbols and rituals, which could potentially worsen tensions. On the other hand, rural areas provided more favourable conditions for achieving reconciliation. The study also emphasised the varied interpretations of British and Irish identities, especially within Loyalist groupings, and the impact of global geopolitical issues, such as the Israel-Palestine problem, on local sectarian identities. Conclusion Cultural rituals and symbols have a substantial impact on political communication and the development of identity in Northern Ireland. An intricate comprehension of these issues is crucial for fostering peace and reconciliation. The study promotes the idea of representing identity in an inclusive manner in order to connect different religious or political groups, and suggests that further research should be conducted on minority social identities and inclusive cultural practices to decrease conflicts between different groups and promote long-term peace.Item Effect of Populist Campaign Communication on Citizen Engagement in Social Media(2025-06-30) Mahmud, Manjurul; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationObjective: The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of populist campaign communication by political actors on social media, particularly focusing on the period before an election. The study aims to understand how these communications on platforms like Facebook and Twitter influence citizen engagement, examining both populist and non-populist messages. Theory: This study integrates theories from political science, sociology, and communication to examine the impact of populist campaign communication on citizen engagement on social media platforms. It employs perspectives from political communication, such as the populist dichotomy between "the people" and "the elite" , psychological frameworks like Social Identity Theory to explain group dynamics and attraction to populist messages. Additionally, the Civic Voluntarism Model are utilized to understand people are attracted to populist messages. Method: The research employs a quantitative content analysis of 918 social media posts from four political actors—two each from the United States and the United Kingdom—during their respective election campaigns. Engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments were recorded for each post. Populist messages were identified using predefined categories, allowing the study to measure the frequency and impact of populist versus non-populist content across platforms. Findings: The findings of the study indicate that populist campaign communication significantly impacts social media engagement on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Contrary to initial expectations, Twitter proved more effective in generating engagement than Facebook. Additionally, government leaders employed populist messaging more frequently and received higher engagement than opposition leaders. Populist messages consistently outperformed non-populist content in terms of user engagement.Item Organizational Listening in Local Public Administration - Expanding the scope of organizational listening through a qualitative study of local public officials(2025-06-30) Hermann, Mamiko; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationPurpose: The purpose of this study is to discover different activities of organizational listening at the local public administration and their correlation with organizational objectives. Theory: Drawing on the theory of organizational listening, this study incorporated the perspective of democratic theory and policy process to examine organizational listening in local public administration. Method: A qualitative research methodology was employed in the conduct of 16 semi-structured interviews with public officials from 13 Japanese local governments. The data was subjected to thematic analysis in order to identify themes that resonate with the participants’ experiences and perceptions of listening in their daily practice. Results: Thematic analysis of the interviews yielded the identification of six components of organizational listening in the local public administration. In more concrete terms, the orientation, the presence of different purposes, forms, modes, and participants of listening were identified. These components were employed to identify four distinct types of organizational listening, which were subsequently classified according to the factors that determined the drivers of listening and the intention. These types were designated as strategic listening, legal listening, daily listening, and cold listening, which incorporated a wider variety of listening activities that were considered outside the scope of organizational listening. Furthermore, the presence of relational goals such as civic education, and normative goals, such as building trust, beyond the instrumental goals to be achieved through listening were also highlighted in accordance with the organizational goals. The findings contribute to the understanding of the listening activities in the local public administration and suggest the expansion of the scope of the theory of organizational listening to integrate the divergence between the ideal and practice.Item News framing of the 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) – Big 3 labor strike - A Critical Discourse Analysis(2025-06-30) Li, Laura; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThe aim of this thesis is to identify and name the predominant news frames used to depict the 2023 United Auto Workers strike against the Big 3 – Ford, GM and Stellantis. The research objective can be viewed in two parts: 1) identifying the most prominent frames and which actors were favored and 2) comparing the use of frames between mainstream and left alternative news and whether that selection reflects the political leanings of the media sources. The principle theories used in this thesis are Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and framing theory in addition to a literature overview of class and hegemony, frames found in labor coverage, and Collective Action Frames (CAFs) to set the context for these theories. CDS has a diverse set of strategies named Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and this thesis utilized multiple strategies including: Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), CDA methods (Carvalho, 2008; Machin & Mayr, 2012) and Multi-modal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) (Ledin & Machin, 2020; Way, 2020). It used a sample of 74 pieces of news media from four sources: two mainstream – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and two left alternative – TruthOut, and More Perfect Union. They are sourced from major timeline events over the length of the UAW strike from 14 September – 30 October, 2023. While three of the news sources are either traditional/online newspapers, More Perfect Union is solely online and their coverage was sourced from their Instagram page as social media platforms are their direct channels for publication. There were nine frames predominant in the news coverage. Five frames from the literature on labor coverage and four CAFs. Those five existing frames from the literature are: 1) a healthy business sector means a healthy economy; 2) Americans are consumers not workers; 3) Strikes and collective worker economic action is un-American; 4) Corporate family; and 5) Class-based anti-union rhetoric. As one could expect, these frames favor the corporations over the workers. I also identified and named four CAFs: 1) this is class war; 2) Union family; 3) workers deserve their fair share; and 4) strikes and collective worker economic action is powerful. They are categorized based on the three types: diagnostic, prognostic and motivational and as they are CAFs, they favor workers.Item The Red, White and Biased? - Media Framing of the U.S. Opioid Epidemic Based on News Outlets’ Political Partisanship – A Comparative Analysis of California and Texas(2025-06-30) Schulte, Henriette; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationObjective: This thesis investigates potential differences and similarities in media framing of the U.S. opioid epidemic in regard to partisan media bias in 16 liberal, centrist and conservative news outlets in the country’s two most populous states, California and Texas. It takes state-level differences related to demographics, state governments and laws, prescription policies or health insurance into account. The results of the hypothesis testing will then be assessed in the context of the two contrasting states. The aim of this procedure is to be able to draw conclusions whether one or both of the above-mentioned factors can be ruled out as as an explanation for possible patterns in media coverage, possibly hinting towards a potential impact of partisan media bias or state differences on framing and thus opening up a debate for further research. Theory: The analysis is based on the framing theory by Robert Entman (1993), which states that issues can be viewed from a range of perspectives and that individuals arrive at opinions or reconsider their attitudes based on the way a matter is portrayed in the media. Individuals are often guided towards pre-determined evaluations of issues by the media’s focus on specific issue attributes. Frames are thus tools helping human beings to grasp the world and their surroundings (Lecheler & de Vreese, 2019:7). Method: A comparative quantitative content analysis was conducted using five generic frames established by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) and four issue-specific frames identified through the review of previous research on media narratives in the opioid crisis. The collected data was analyzed using the statistical tests of Pearson’s chi2, Cramér’s V and cross-tabulations. Intracoder reliability was ensured through Cohen’s kappa values. Material: The data was collected from March 30th, 2024 to April 12th, 2024 and retrieved through a search of pre-defined keywords from the news outlets’ respective websites and archives. The sample (n=401) includes articles published between March 1st, 2023 and July 31st, 2023, the time frame around the mortality peak of the crisis to date, May 2023. Only news items, no other journalistic text types, making clear reference to the current opioid crisis in the United States, were coded. The analysis focused on the textual parts of the articles only. Results: During the hypothesis testing, significant variations in media framing were found between newspapers of different political leanings. Conservative media use the criminalization narrative more frequently than liberal ones, while those make use of the medicalization, human interest and conflict frame more often than their conservative counterparts. Liberal and conservative news outlets do not differ in the use of the stigma frame and their portrays of victims and perpetrators within the crisis. When contextualizing these results in the Californian and Texan samples, the outcomes remain the same, indicating that the differences found may be due to the media’s partisan bias and that state-level contrasts investigated in this thesis can be dismissed as an explanation for the patterns in this case.Item Disinformation and crisis communication in multicultural environments: - New roles for communication professionals in changing communication landscapes(2025-06-30) Ramdén, Filip; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThis thesis is a study of the information campaign targeting the social services during 2022 and how communication professionals at the social offices and at Socialstyrelsen combated the disinformation spreading about the social services. The campaign highlighted how a changing information environment with an increased amount of disinformation makes new demands on the role of the communication professional in the public sector. The campaign specifically targeted the Swedish Muslim minority population, adding a multicultural aspect of the campaign and subsequent crisis communication. In the wake of the campaign, demands for countering and mitigating disinformation were made by the Swedish government to Socialstyrelsen by an official decree. The efforts to combat the disinformation made by the social offices and Socialstyrelsen will be analyzed using frameworks from previous crisis communication research about the crisis types paracrisis and moral outrage inducing crisis. Relevant previous research concerning crisis communication in multicultural environments is also applied to the material. In addition, this thesis will conduct an actor analysis on the actors mentioned in the interviews using the rhetorical arena theory. Finally, the thesis aims to place the crisis followed by the campaign in relevant crisis communication crisis types. The material in this study is composed of in-depth interviews with seven communication professionals at Socialstyrelsen and social offices at the municipality level. Five communication professionals are working at the municipality level in different parts of Sweden, both in major cities and smaller municipalities. Two communication professionals are managers at different levels at Socialstyrelsen. The study found that there are differences in how Socialstyrelsen and the municipalities work towards mitigating the disinformation originating from the campaign. Socialstyrelsen has a much more strategic way of working towards combating the disinformation. Socialstyrelsen has through a governmental decree received a significant boost in funding which makes it possible for Socialstyrelsen to hire translation agencies and market on social media. The municipalities view their role as more supportive towards the core function of the social services, the social workers, and the work they conduct at the service. At the municipality level, there was an outspread aversion to using social media more actively to combat disinformation. The worry was based on the sensitive nature the social services conduct, and that if the social services would increase their presence on social media, sensitive information might be reported on social media. Overall, there is a need for increased language skills at the communication departments of both Socialstyrelsen and the municipalities since both parts are reliant on third-party translations or rely on co-workers outside of the communication departments. The language issue is especially noticeable in the problems the communication professionals had when conducting environmental scanning on social media before the crisis. Due the campaign primarily spreading in Arabic speaking groups on social media, the social services had no possibility to spot early warning signs. Regarding actors in the crisis, the study found that the media were seen as the actor that alerted the social services to the campaign. Several communication professionals described how increased media reporting and media questions were the initial signals that something was happening. The psychological defense agency (PDA) is an actor viewed with admiration and is highly valued by several of the communication professionals. Due to the unprecedented nature of the campaign and the occurrence of the disinformation, many communication professionals expressed relief when the PDA made statements and confirmed the social services in their situation. Finally, the unusual combination of disinformation, public sector crisis communication, and moral outrage makes this a hard crisis to place within existing crisis communication frameworks and crisis types, especially when it comes to suggested actions. More research is required to be able to provide advice and guidance to public organizations who are facing a moral outrage crisis sparked by online disinformation.Item A workers’ rights issue - Swedish national news media and the MeToo movement after the first three months(2025-06-30) Maaranen, Elina; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThe MeToo movement was created in 2006 by activist Tarana Burke, and re-emerged October 2017 when actress Alyssa Milano posted on Twitter to encourage women to respond to her tweet with “Me Too” if they had ever been sexually abused or harassed, to show the magnitude of the problem (Ganetz et al., 2022; Mendes et al., 2018). The Swedish movement turned to collective mobilisation in order to create awareness and demand change – street protests and petitions under industry-specific hashtags were created to highlight the structural issues for women in the workplace, the media, and the home (Ganetz et al., 2022; Pollack, 2019; Rennie, 2022; Stubbs-Richardson et al., 2023). MeToo was picked up and portrayed by Swedish news media as a worker’s rights issue, rather than a feminist one (Hansson et al., 2022). The purpose of this thesis was to understand how Swedish news media employs Swedish traditions of strong unions to report on the movement as a question of workers’ rights, and it aimed to answer the research question How do the national news media discuss MeToo when the movement is portrayed as a question of workers’ rights? Previous research focuses on Swedish news media’s reporting on MeToo, criticism and hegemonic struggles that arose after the movement’s initial success. Journalistic practices determined if MeToo was legitimised in the news. Theories used for this paper are hegemony, feminism and language as power, including critical discourse analysis. Hegemony is a form of social power that embeds itself within social and institutional practices which is interpreted as natural (Condit, 1987; Stoddart, 2017). Feminist theory explores the idea of the patriarchy as the current hegemonic ideology while the language section serves to describe how language affects the shaping of our social world, which in turn reinforces or challenges hegemony (Askanius & Møller Hartley, 2019; Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). A thematic analysis in two steps was conducted. The first step was to categorise news articles during the time period and see how many had a focus on specifically workers’ rights. A selection of 154 articles from Sweden’s biggest national print newspapers (Ocast, n.d.) were thematized. The second step thematized six articles which were originally sorted into the theme “Workers’ rights, workplace” from the first step. The results from the second step showed that when the movement is depicted as a workers’ rights issue, four main themes are prevalent in the reporting: Descriptions of the problem, Explanations of the problem, Actors, and Responsibility. Sub-themes within the themes are also found, which are shown and analysed through a feminist standpoint.Item Self-perceptions and misperceptions - Examining the antecedents and consequences of self-perceived media literacy(2025-06-30) Holmström, Elvira; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThe current media landscape provides arenas for public debate where virtually anyone can share their opinions and disseminate information (Strömbäck et.al 2022:57). Legacy media has traditionally held a gatekeeping role and curated the media supply, by being citizen's main source of news but this role has been undermined by media formats that lower the threshold for participation (Lechler & Egelhofer 2022:69-70). This has largely shifted the responsibility of navigating and assessing the truthfulness of media onto the individual. Because individuals are highly prone to directional biases, media literacy has become increasingly important (Journell 2024:25-26). Much of previous research within media literacy builds on an objective perspective of media literacy, but the issue with focusing exclusively on objective media literacy is that it is a perspective that does not account for the important influence of motivations, such as psychological and social circumstances (Journell 2024:29). Perceptions guide our actions, irrespectively of how representative they are of the real world (Lippman 2004). The self-perception of media literacy abilities is thus important regardless of their congruence with reality. The aim of this thesis is therefore to add to the sparse research on self-perceived media literacy and its implications for misperceptions, departing from the normative assumption that citizens need to be informed for a democracy to function well. This study contains a twofold analysis of self-perceived media literacy. First, antecedents in the categories demographic variables, political variables and media variables were examined using hierarchical regressions on panel data. Second, a stepwise regression was used to explore the relationship between media literacy and misperceptions within the topics immigration, vaccines and crime. The results demonstrate that within demographic variables, higher educated (b=.298 p<.001) and men (b=.211 p<.001) reported higher self-perceived media literacy. Political variables had the strongest explanatory value out of the three categories of variables (ΔR²=.090 p<.000), and showed that higher self-perceived media literacy was reported by respondents with higher political knowledge (b=.398 p<.001) , higher political interest (b=987 p<.001) and that were far to the right (b=.195 p<.01). Finally all media use variables included except left-wing alternative media use were also positively related with self-perceived media literacy. In the second analysis, only vaccine perceptions were found to have a significant relationship with self-perceived media literacy (b=.051 p<.05).Item Agenda-Setting in the 2023 Dutch National Elections(2025-06-30) Dönmez, Deniz; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThis thesis examines the interaction between the media agendas of the newspapers De Telegraaf (tabloid) and NRC (broadsheet) and the political agendas of four major political parties, PVV, GroenLinks-PvdA, VVD and NSC, as well as the role of professionalised political campaigning in the interaction between the media and political agendas during the 2023 Dutch national elections. Employing a quantitative content analysis, this study explores the media and political agendas through mentions of issues and political leaders across 487 newspaper articles and 636 Facebook posts and advertisements. Although the interplay between media political agendas has been studied in the past, the Dutch contemporary elections in 2023 have not been researched before, and the role of professionalisation in political campaigns has received less attention as part of the interplay between these agendas. Findings reveal distinct differences between the tabloid and broadsheet media agendas. De Telegraaf emphasised immediate, tangible issues such as taxes and public transport, alongside nature and environment and immigration, reflecting its editorial emphasis on current daily life events. NRC concentrated on long-term societal problems such as nature and environment and education and science. Both newspapers gave considerable coverage to political leaders Pieter Omtzigt and Frans Timmermans, highlighting their significant roles in the political discourse. This study further identified varied degrees of professionalisation in political campaigns. PVV exhibited many indicators of professionalised campaigns and has a significant positive correlation between their political agenda and the media agendas on the issues of nature and environment and immigration. Conversely, GroenLinks-PvdA, despite a highly professional campaign, showed no significant correlations between its political agenda and the media agendas. VVD (high professionalisation) and NSC (low professionalisation) also exhibited no significant correlation between their political agendas and media agendas. This reveals the complex interaction between the media and political agendas and the inconsistent role of professionalisation within this relationship. External factors, such as institutional factors, timing, content characteristics and a difference in campaign tools used may be an explanation for this complexity. By highlighting the interaction between the political and media agendas, this study underscores the need for political communicators, media professionals, and political strategists to understand (digital) media platforms and agenda-setting in the public discourse. Future research should explore these dynamics in different electoral contexts, platforms, and methods to further understand their implications.Item “Day 3… Still alive ..” - The Impact of Personalised Journalism in Modern Conflict Reporting(2025-06-30) Zirillo, Benedetta; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThis thesis is a study of the role of Palestinian war reporters during the Israel-Hamas conflict, particularly in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, events, and how their use of social media, especially Instagram, has contributed to the reification of a multifaceted and passionate narration of the war, allowing the reporters to become central figures in the news narrative itself. The research highlights how the evolving media landscape places new demands on journalists, who must navigate the dual pressures of advocacy and market forces while maintaining their professional credibility. The advent of social media and phenomena such as personalisation has raised significant questions about objectivity and the ethical responsibilities of journalists, particularly when their work is consumed and shared across social media platforms. This study analyses the works of key Palestinian journalists using established theories of mediatisation and commodification in journalism. Additionally, it considers the implications of these trends for the broader field of journalism, particularly in the context of conflicts that attract significant global attention. The material in this study includes detailed content analysis of social media posts and news reports from the selected journalists, alongside theoretical insights from prior research on personalised journalism and conflict reporting. The study found that the personal and emotionally charged narratives of these reporters significantly influenced both local and global perceptions of the conflict, suggesting that the future of conflict journalism may increasingly blur the lines between reporting and advocacy. Ultimately, this thesis argues that while personalised journalism offers a powerful tool for engaging audiences and humanizing complex issues, it also presents challenges for maintaining journalistic independence and objectivity, especially when inserted in modern market dynamics. As the academic understanding of these trends continues to develop, future research may provide further guidance on how journalists can balance these competing demands.Item The messy ministers - A qualitative interview study on voters’ perceptions of coleadership and its effects on the communication of a political party(2025-06-30) Bergström, Alva; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThe Swedish Green Party is the only political party in Sweden who have two spokespersons instead of one party leader. An internal conflict in the party on whether the leadership model benefits them or hinders them in being able to communicate and reach out to voters became the starting point for this thesis. The leadership model of co-leaders is highly unresearched in relation to political parties. The model might be uncommon but is seen to be used in political parties around the world. While some previous research have been done in relation to the co-leaders own experiences, the perspective of the voter is missing. By conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews with 10 Swedish citizens, this thesis aimed at contributing to filling this research gap. The aim of the thesis was thus to research voters’ perceptions about the Swedish green party's choice of having two spokespersons instead of one party leader and whether that affects the trust in the party and makes it more difficult for them to communicate and reach out to voters. The theoretical background consists of theories and concepts of collective-leadership, leadership characteristics, party communication and political trust. These topics are then further explained, and their relation to each other is examined, in the chapter with previous research. The result of the study shows that voters overall view the co-leadership model as confusing, and that the party's communication is negatively affected by the implementation of two spokespersons because voters lack a clear “face” to associate to the party and this makes them messy in the eyes of the voters. This perception was shared among most participants that also commonly shared the understanding that the leadership model foremost benefited the spokespersons themselves.Item News framing of the 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) – Big 3 labor strike(2025-06-03) Li, Laura; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation; Göteborg University/Department of Journalism and Mass CommunicationThe aim of this thesis is to identify and name the predominant news frames used to depict the 2023 United Auto Workers strike against the Big 3 – Ford, GM and Stellantis. The research objective can be viewed in two parts: 1) identifying the most prominent frames and which actors were favored and 2) comparing the use of frames between mainstream and left alternative news and whether that selection reflects the political leanings of the media sources. The principle theories used in this thesis are Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and framing theory in addition to a literature overview of class and hegemony, frames found in labor coverage, and Collective Action Frames (CAFs) to set the context for these theories. CDS has a diverse set of strategies named Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and this thesis utilized multiple strategies including: Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), CDA methods (Carvalho, 2008; Machin & Mayr, 2012) and Multi-modal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) (Ledin & Machin, 2020; Way, 2020). It used a sample of 74 pieces of news media from four sources: two mainstream – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and two left alternative – TruthOut, and More Perfect Union. They are sourced from major timeline events over the length of the UAW strike from 14 September – 30 October, 2023. While three of the news sources are either traditional/online newspapers, More Perfect Union is solely online and their coverage was sourced from their Instagram page as social media platforms are their direct channels for publication. There were nine frames predominant in the news coverage. Five frames from the literature on labor coverage and four CAFs. Those five existing frames from the literature are: 1) a healthy business sector means a healthy economy; 2) Americans are consumers not workers; 3) Strikes and collective worker economic action is un-American; 4) Corporate family; and 5) Class-based anti-union rhetoric. As one could expect, these frames favor the corporations over the workers. I also identified and named four CAFs: 1) this is class war; 2) Union family; 3) workers deserve their fair share; and 4) strikes and collective worker economic action is powerful. They are categorized based on the three types: diagnostic, prognostic and motivational and as they are CAFs, they favor workers.Item IDENTITY & TECHNO-UTOPIANISM. A Critical Discourse Analysis of Marketing Material and their Sociotechnical Imaginaries.(2022-02-10) Åberg, Albin; University of Gothenburg/Department of Journalism, Media and Communication; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik, medier och kommunikationThis research paper sets out to investigate the messaging present in a corpus of texts gathered from Acxiom’s, an American data-analysis and ‘Identity Solutions’-company, website. The paper applies a framework of Critical Discourse Analysis informed by Theo van Leeuwen’s theory of ‘legitimations’ and analyses the findings through the theoretical framework of ‘Sociotechnical Imaginaries’. Greater emphasis is placed on the theoretical framework, in the hopes of allowing a greater insight into the ideological underpinnings of the corpus. The paper looks at five broad categories of inductively identified discourses in the texts; the neo-liberal market economy, privacy, identity structure, techno-utopianism, and the naming conventions/usage of biological terms carried out by Acxiom. This is undertaken with the aim of answering the question: ‘What discourses are present in the texts, and to what extent do they extol the virtues of techno-utopianism?’ After the empirical analysis, the project will pivot to focus especially on the underlying techno-utopian elements and discursive positions which Acxiom assume in the texts. The analysis will be focusing on the techno-utopian elements, and Acxiom’s own conception of identity, as it exists both inside and outside of its system, to show how the texts analysed contain a great starting point for attempting to trace an outline of the imaginary disseminated through Acxiom’s system. Additionally, through engaging in a legitimation-based critical discourse analysis, this study aims to examine the power structures implicit in the texts. It diagnoses how Acxiom constructs not only their own position, but also that of their clients, and the consumers which are categorised in said system. Through doing so, the project looks at the role of a dataanalysis company working largely unseen in today’s data-driven landscape of marketing and communication in order to ensure that corporate communications remain targeted and relevant at the potential cost of reifying and maintain prior power relations in society. Additionally, the project looks at the imaginary, the vision of a preferable future, constructed by Acxiom and critically analyses how it contains elements that misinterprets the role and function of ‘identity’ and reshapes it into an algorithmic abstraction, away from its roots in individuals’ ‘real’ lived lives. Through activating the idea of said ‘imaginary’ the project shows how futures that are envisioned run the risk of being subsumed into the technology of those that control it. Therefore, the project will through an empirical element, draw out the theoretical and ideological underpinnings of a major actor in the sphere of data-analysis and identity solutions.Item “THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY” The Ethnographic Content Analysis of the Negative Political Ads in the Post-Soviet Hybrid Democracy(2021-09-13) Samkharadze, Tamar; University of Gothenburg/Department of Journalism, Media and Communication; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för journalistik, medier och kommunikationResearch in field negative campaigning has demonstrated an anglophone nature. Little is known about strategies of negativity beyond American and the Western European scope. Purpose of this paper is to investigate types of negative ads produced by political parties in post-Soviet, hybrid democracy and determine if well-established findings and theories of negativity can be used to explain dynamics of the negativity in multi-party political system, where political parties as a democratic institutions are weak, political culture is low and personalization of politics is highly demonstrated. An extensive literature review is done to derive theories and finding from already existed academic knowledge in regard to phenomena of negative campaigning. This study touches upon different aspects of negative ads and examines the types of negative ads produced to attack the competitors during parliamentary race. The impact of context characteristic, such as personalization and the extent to which negativity is targeted to downplay election completions to political leadership. A step further, diverse techniques to design audio-visual content to transmit negative messages is explored. To reach the objective of the presented study, rarely used qualitative approach compared to the functionalist approach dominating the field of the negative political advertising is implemented. With the flexible nature of the Ethnographic Content Analysis and construction of unique guiding framework inspired by the M.I.T.S method for studying screen media it became possible to remain sensitive to the yet unexplored political and cultural context and at the same time ensure systematic analysis to account for the scientific credibility. The results show that types of negative ads produced to attack competitors in hybrid democracy is fully in line with the strategies used in other countries. That is, incumbents attack less compared to parties in opposition with poor poll standings. Due to personalization of politics in the country under investigation, attacks instead of ideological stances target politicians and their characteristics; this tendency was detected in both types of negative ads, whether attacking policy or image of the opponent parties. Lastly, study found that negativity in attack ads is conveyed through different dimensions of the audio-visual content and negativity is embodied in the cues and symbols rooted in the historical and cultural knowledge of the nation.