The goal of this investigation is to explore the relationship of health provider communication techniques and their impact on patient understanding, satisfaction, and self-efficacy. This investigation looked at the two specific communication techniques of concern elicitation and mutual agenda setting which occur during the beginning of a medical visit. Encounters were recorded with patient knowledge and transcribed to be analyzed. Following a coding manual created from both previous research and original input, the transcripts were organized and read through to process data. Focusing on the two communication techniques—concern elicitation and mutual agenda setting—I looked at the beginning of the encounter to note any usage of the techniques. Using a series of independent samples t-tests, I found that patient understanding was significantly correlated with concern elicitation. At the same time, the length of visits that used concern elicitation and mutual agenda setting was not significantly greater than the length of visits in which these techniques were not used. This implies using these communication techniques clinical practice does not risk losing precious time. This investigation can also give support to more in depth research on various other communication techniques and their potential benefits in bridging the disparity in health literacy.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) is a crucial international decision-making body that deals with a range of conflicts requiring consideration. However, its formal issue consideration has remained stagnant, with only a few new conflicts being added to the list. This project aims to investigate the conditions under which the Council members opt for informal governance settings instead of formal ones to address global crises and argues that the official UNSC agenda is not solely shaped by the preferences of powerful states but is influenced by the Council's operational methods. To explore this, the project combines two strands of scholarship on informal governance in international organizations and introduces a rational choice framework to analyze the factors influencing governance choices. The study employs a multi-method approach, including a multinomial regression model and a case study analysis of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar from 2017 to 2022. The findings suggest that member states select the most suitable meeting type based on Council homogeneity, information availability, and issue urgency while considering their preference for formal consideration. The Council's yearly changing membership and fluctuations in information availability prompt states to strategically shift issue consideration between formal and informal, public and private settings. Contrary to criticisms, the Council does not overlook specific crises but often discusses urgent matters informally. Should member states' preference for formal issue consideration align with issue urgency that the Council shifts to formal meetings at the horseshoe table. This project sheds new light on the functioning of the UNSC and contributes novel insight into how member states' meeting choices early in the policy-making process significantly influence agenda-setting and decision-making outcomes. / Political Science

In order to maintain a democratic society, journalism as a third state power plays a major role. Impartial journalism is therefore important to preserve a well-functioning democracy, which is what this study is about. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate whether Aftonbladet's party leader debate in 2022 was biased or unbiased based on the following research questions: - How biased has Aftonbladet been during their party leader debate in 2022? - In that case, which parties/blocks has Aftonbladet benefited through a biased party leader debate? The study aims to contribute to increased understanding of media's impartial role in a well-functioning democracy and to provide information about Aftonbladet's reliability and impartiality. In order to see whether the media presents a political debate biased or unbiased we have chosen to limit ourselves to Aftonbladets Party Leader Debate 2022. In the study, we carry out a quantitative content analysis where bias is an important and recurring concept that is central to the entire study. Based on Kent Asp's previous reports on the same subject (2003 and 2006) we have created our own analytical schemes, code instructions, codebook and codeschemes which we have used for our analysis of the debate. The study uses Agenda Setting Theory and Objectivity Theory to increase reliability. Our aim with this study is to analyze how Aftonbladet contributes to a democratic society and if they fulfill the ideal of objectivity. The results of our study shows how Aftonbladet during their party leader debate 2022 led a partisan debate in the favor of the left liberal and green parties. They did this by rhetorically asking more critical questions to the moderate, conservative and nationalist parties. They also chose to actively select biased journalists as moderators and commentators which influenced the debate. They also chose to silence the right moderate, conservative and nationalist parties many times during the debate which caused arguments between party leaders and moderator.

The purpose of this study is to examine how political communication of security policy is presented by Swedish parliamentary parties in the context of media development. Political actors have been given increased opportunities to communicate with the public, therefore the aim of this study is also to investigate how their political communication affects the interactions that it creates, such as readers' commentary on social media. This is a case study of Sweden's right and left parliamentary outliers, The Sweden Democrats and The Left Party, as selection attempted a limited generalization to a wider perspective of other parties. The empirical material has been analyzed from Instagram and X to find out if the communication differs between platforms. The study concludes that Swedish security policy is presented differently between the parties on social media. The communication does differ between platforms. The Left Party shifts patterns of which security policy gains the most attention and how the issue is presented. Both parties use their communication in a more personal tone towards other parties and users on X compared to Instagram. The result of the interactions shows that the agreed rate for petitions is high for both parties on Instagram, and lower on X.

In order for a democracy to fulfill its function, it requires access for information transmission where an exchange of information and opinions occur between citizens and decision-makers. Security and framing correlate with each other since medias’ framing are crucial to understand whether something is considered a threat or a problem. The news media is thus seen as an actor that possesses a certain power through the presentation of threats as it shapes public opinion. This study examines how the Russian threat-images towards Sweden are produced during different time periods and what differences have arisen. In addition, this study aims to investigate how the news medias’ presentation of threat images can influence citizens and decision-makers. This essay consists of a qualitative thematic case study and media analysis where news articles are analyzed in relation to the essays’ chosen theories, which consists of the framing-theory and the agenda-setting-theory. In summary, this study concludes that news media reported on an increased threat picture against Sweden in 2013. However, the focus was mainly on preventive measures and discussions regarding possible measures if the threat would escalate in the future. In 2023, the media changed its tone to emphasize the seriousness and urgency of the situation by using words related to war and danger. The differences between 2013 and 2023 is a more urgent presentation of the threat in 2023. According to the chosen theories, the news medias’ way of presenting the security situation as threatening can result in citizens and decision-makers prioritizing the issue to a greater extent. Based on the material, the news media have mainly focused on the military threat both in 2013 and 2023 but have not to the same extent prioritized reporting regarding other threats that previous research performs. This can result in citizens and decision makers not prioritizing the other threats equally and accordingly not taking sufficient measures.

Since the 1990s, many countries have become more ethnically diverse. The structure of the people, the demos, is changing. According to Robert Dahl’s fourth criterion of what a democratic process is, the people should have control over the political agenda. Previous research has shown a significantly lower political participation and representation of immigrants in the political and media sphere in Sweden. Do the people really control the agenda? This thesis examines the representation of people with a foreign background from outside Europe on Swedish debate pages by collecting a sample of writers' names from three established Swedish newspapers; Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, and Aftonbladet, during the time period 1992–2022. Using a name algorithm to determine country of origin, the results show an increase in representation to the point of 2002. From 2002 to today, the representation of non-European foreign background on Swedish debate pages has decreased.

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