This research analyses the extent to which three newer (European Union) EU member states, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia have attempted and succeeded in shaping the development of the EU's energy security policy, focusing on natural gas. This explores the argument that EU membership affects the formation of national foreign and energy policy as well as procedures of policy-making, and that newer member states have also been able to shape EU level policy-making through the ‘uploading’ of national preferences. The research engages with relevant conceptual issues to develop and utilise a framework which is a synthesis of literature on EU agenda-setting, policy framing, Europeanisation and the social construction of energy ‘crises’ and (in)security. This conceptual frame is then used to explore and evaluate the influence of newer member states on EU energy policy agenda-setting, policy-making and policy implementation. Evaluating the obstacles and opportunities for influence, an empirically rich data set is analysed to test the extent to which five theoretically derived hypotheses account for member state influence. Five mechanisms are identified as potentially key factors in explaining the degree of influence which member states have. The thesis suggests that one is the impact of supply disruptions and price rises on perceptions and constructions of national and EU energy security. This can contribute towards a context that is conducive to the arguments about policy change and projection being made, a policy window, and is a reflection of the social construction of energy insecurity and energy crises. Diplomatic skill and learning to ‘play the EU game’, being active in Council summits and technocratic level(s), and engaging in consensual policy-making that adheres to EU norms and interests is seen as important. Another key factor is the role of Russia as a major and sometimes monopoly gas supplier, in constraining, enabling, and influencing the strength of national interests - the extent of political will and EU energy policy activism. A fourth factor is considered to be the extent to which institutionalised sub-EU regional and strategic alliances exist and are prioritised as an arena to develop coordinated policies and preferences. The final conceptually derived factor is related to the strength of administrative capacity, in terms of well-coordinated institutions at the national and EU level, and sufficient personnel and resources. The thesis also provides a study of the development of EU energy policy since the 1950s in chapter two, and chapters three to five focus on the three country case studies; Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia. These empirical chapters include in each case a history of their energy policy and relations with both the EU and Russia. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the empirical findings using comparative country case manner approach, along with conceptual (and methodological) observations based on the testing of the hypotheses.

The Social Democratic MEP mandate performance has certain specific features which distinguish it from mandates of members of other EP fractions. The theoretical part of this thesis focuses on the historical context of European Social Democracy and challenges which it must currently face (euroscepticism, consequences of economic crisis etc.). Furthermore, it considers the role of the Party of European Socialists the whole process. The practical part of this thesis consists of guided interviews with EP Members for ČSSD and SMER - sociálna democracia. The aim of this thesis is to assess the degree of European Social Democracy's Europeanization and differences in national and European aspects of the character of Social Democratic MEP mandate.

The study examines how print media in Sweden portray Putin, Russia and Russians and what makes an impact on Swedish journalists when they write on that subject. The first part presents a content analysis of articles published in the two main Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet (DN and SvD). The two most significant years of coverage of Russia in Sweden (2014-2015) were chosen as a time frame for the analysis. It examines the predominant tones that were used in the articles towards three keywords “Putin”, “Russia” and “Russians”, as well as the sources that were chosen by the journalists. In line with previous researchers, the author of this study observed a certain tendency shared in two Swedish printed media to report negatively about the Russian president. At the same time tones towards the country in general and its citizens were more neutral than negative. The second part of the research focuses on qualitative interviews with journalists representing different media in Sweden (radio, TV channels and newspapers). During the interviews, journalists were invited to reflect how they see Russian society, what connection they have with Russian culture and what impacts their choice of topics. According to the findings, a journalist’s work is affected by their individual background, economical situation in media organisations and expectations from the audience.

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Suitable Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) is necessary for the full enjoyment of human rights. In 2019, Scotland made history as the first country to take such a hands on approach to ensuring MHM, when it placed the ‘Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill (2019)’ on its political agenda. The bill aims to provide free period products to all those who need, across the whole of Scotland. It also aims to combat the stigma that currently dominates menstruation discourses. This thesis takes a targeted approach and investigates the bill from the perspective of Agenda-Setting Theories to start the process of understanding how this issue gained a place on the Scottish political agenda. Specifically, it employs a discourse analysis to examine how the issue was defined in the bill at hand, in order to highlight key signs that might have impacted its success. The thesis finds that the bill makes an important connection between MHM and the social struggles for gender equality and socioeconomic equality which has the effect of increasing the social significance of the issue. Additionally the bill is found to situate itself within the framework of international human rights norms which has a legitimizing effect on its claim.

The diploma thesis Sport news in the Czech print media agenda: changes in coverage and presentation of sports and the influence on a public agenda in 1993 - 2007 analyses sport news of the chosen print media and its changes in a long- time period. This thesis finds out whether and to what extent the sport news pages extend, which sports and in what way are presented, and whether changes of the coverage occur. Next question is, whether the long-term coverage of certain sports can influence public opinion on which sports to consider as important and favorite. In addition to that, this thesis is concerned with the occurrences of personalization and celebritization trends in the Czech print media sport news.

The study aims to investigate whether there is a discrepancy between how Swedish fast fashion- companies communicate their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) work and how their CSR work is reported in the Swedish news. If differences do occur, we will analyze and discuss what this discrepancy may be due to. The study is limited to only studying one of the world's largest fast fashion companies H&M and examining how H&M choose to highlight their CSR work in their sustainability report and at the website, compared with what is reported in the Swedish news. The study has a qualitative approach with a total study of 13 news articles, H&M's latest sustainability report and H&M's. CSR communication and agenda setting theory have formed the basis of the study's analysis to identify differences and why they may occur. The results of the study shows that there is a discrepancy between the channels depending on whether the customer receives information from H&M's own channels or if they receive information from news media. Moreover, the study shows that H&M communicates their CSR work to their advantage, while the agenda setting theory confirms that news media cover and form the topics that are in the public interest. The question of which information consumers should believe in will continue to remain, and the study can only inform and draw the consumer's attention to the fact that there are differences in the reporting and hope to contribute to future research.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how Dagens Nyheter and The New York Times are framing the climate crisis in their news reporting during the period 1-30 November 2020. The thesis is based on Robert Entman’s theory on framing, Shanto Iyengar’s theory on episodic and thematic framing and Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald Lewis Shaw's theory on agenda setting as a metatheory for discussion. The research questions are: (1) Which frames are being used by Dagens Nyheter and the New York Times in their news reports on the climate crisis during the period 1-30 November 2020?, (2) To what extent are these frames being used in each newspaper? and (3) To what extent do the newspapers use thematic and episodic frames?. The material consists of 26 articles from Dagens Nyheter, and 35 from The New York Times. By using both a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative content analysis, we analyzed the chosen material. Research question (1) showed that the frames that were being used were politics, environmental impact, weather/natural disasters and economy. Research question (2) showed that politics/government and responsibility were the dominant framework in both newspapers, followed by environmental impact, weather/natural disasters and economy. Research question (3) showed that the majority of the articles in both newspapers had a thematic framework. One of the differences that was identified between the newspapers was that The New York Times used thematic frames to a greater extent than Dagens Nyheter. Based on Iyengar’s theory it is therefore reasonable to assume that The New York Times portrayal of the climate crisis might have a greater effect on the public opinion than Dagens Nyheter. Dagens Nyheter, however, used episodic frames to a greater extent, which according to Iyengar often evokes stronger emotional reactions from the recipients.The study’s chosen theories proved to be a good fit for describing and explaining how climate related articles are being framed in the papers.

This bachelor thesis examines how Swedish Television frames news about gang violence and explains which actors that appear in news articles on this field. News about this societal problem have started to appear more frequently in media publications during the last years which motivates the implementation of the study.   The analysis reveals that news about gang violence to a large extent is being framed as a question for politics. This is demonstrated in articles where the problem is framed as a conflict between political parties which proposes different solutions. Gang violence is also framed as something that the government should take responsibility for and therefore not a societal problem that individuals can solve themselves. Most of the articles are framed in a thematic, more general than specifik, perspective and episodic frames do not get that much coverage. There are mostly politicians that occur in articles about gang violence and thus the actors who have the opportunity to set the media agenda.  News articles published on the online edition of Swedish Television in September 2020 have been used as study material. This was a period during the year of 2020 where most news articles about gang violence were published. The method applied was a combined quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The theoretical framework consists of McCombs & Shaws agenda setting theory and also three framing theories formed by Entman, Iyengar and Semetko & Valkenburg. The frames used in the study are the conflict frame, human-interest frame, economic consequences frame, responsibility frame, morality frame, thematic frame and episodic frame.

This study examines the agenda setting and decision-making behavior of the United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1989.