No description available.

Depuis les années 1970, les propositions de réforme des systèmes de protection sociale se sont multipliées dans les pays industrialisés. Parmi celles-ci, l'idée d'introduire un "revenu inconditionnel" (RI) constitue l'une des plus controversées. Sous cette appellation, on regroupe ici trois propositions : l'allocation universelle, l'impôt négatif, et le revenu de participation. Nulle part le RI n'a été mis en œuvre, et certains en ont déduit que ses chances politiques étaient extrêmement faibles. Pourtant, durant la période 1970-2003, on a pu relever d'importantes avancées. Alors que dans certains pays les stratégies des promoteurs du RI ont été vouées à l'échec, ailleurs la proposition a gagné en crédibilité. Ce travail porte en son cœur la question de recherche suivante : quels sont les déterminants de la faisabilité politique d'un revenu inconditionnel ? Il procède en six grandes étapes. Les trois premières sont de nature théorique, alors que les trois dernières sont résolument orientées vers l'investigation empirique et comparative, au départ d'études de cas portant sur cinq pays de l'OCDE : Belgique, Canada, France, Irlande et Pays-Bas. Ce faisant, nous traitons de la question du destin politique du revenu inconditionnel, et indiquons pourquoi la notion de « faisabilité politique » devrait occuper une place centrale en analyse des politiques publiques. Trois grandes conclusions de la thèse peuvent être très brièvement résumées. On relève premièrement que le débat sur le RI confirme l'impact des institutions de protection sociale sur la faisabilité politique des réformes. Le RI a été sérieusement discuté dans deux pays de tradition libérale, le Canada et l'Irlande. Deuxièmement, on note que les organisations de travailleurs sont structurellement enclines à s'opposer à toute progression politique vers un RI. Cette opposition, ouvertement exprimée ou anticipée par les décideurs, affecte la faisabilité politique de la proposition. Enfin, en France et aux Pays-Bas des organisations de chômeurs autonomes ont émergé au cours des années 1980. Elles ont été capables de construire un discours revendicatif distinct du discours syndical, dans lequel le « droit au revenu » a dès l'origine occupé une place centrale, ce qui a manifestement contribué à accroître la faisabilité politique d'un RI. Notons que le modèle explicatif développé, à la différence de la plupart des études portant sur la mise à l'agenda des instruments de l'action publique, n'attribue pas de place décisive aux entrepreneurs politiques individuels. / The idea of introducing an “unconditional minimum income” constitutes one of the most controversial reform proposals in the field of social policy. Under this label or alternative designations such as “basic income” or “citizen's income”, one generally refers to the payment of an income by a political community to all its members, on an individual and regular basis, without means test or work requirement. Such a benefit would differ from existing minimum income schemes, since the latter are means-tested, targeted at the needy, and related to work requirements. Even if it has already been considered by utopian thinkers during the nineteenth century, the proposal has mostly been discussed from the 1960s onwards, first in North-America and later in Europe. In all countries where this idea has been debated, significant oppositions have slowed down or even stopped its political progress. Nowhere a true unconditional minimum income has been implemented, and some have concluded that it was “politically unfeasible”. The research question which constitutes the main thread of this thesis is the following: is it possible to identify explanatory factors which determine the political feasibility of an unconditional income in industrialized countries? To answer this question, the thesis starts with a theoretical overview of the scientific literature on “basic income” and related proposals (a “negative income tax” and a “participation income”, in particular), as well as of comparative welfare state research. It also focuses on the misleading interpretations of the very notion of “political feasibility” that are too often found in political science. It then turns to a systematic comparison of historical outcomes in five OECD countries: Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland and the Netherlands. In this perspective, a significant part of the thesis is devoted to a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of the political feasibility of an unconditional income. We show that when it is used together with in-depth analyses of cases, QCA is superior to purely quantitative or qualitative techniques for the study of a small number of cases (small-N). In the case of this research, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis shows that the political feasibility of an unconditional income is negatively affected by the existence of a system in which unions run the subsidized unemployment insurance systems (a so-called Ghent system) or, more surprisingly, by the presence of a social movement advocating the introduction of such a minimum income scheme. From this, one can infer that a major redistributive reform which would take the form of an unconditional income is much more feasible if it is debated outside of the public sphere where many actors can express their views. As should be the case for all studies using Boolean algebra, in the concluding chapter of the thesis one then goes back to a detailed comparative analysis of cases to test this hypothesis. The crucial impact of labor unions and social movements is confirmed, but somewhat qualified, and the importance of taking institutional factors into account – such as the liberal character of the welfare system – is strongly emphasized.

This thesis has its focus on media portrayal of a large political institution; the European Union. Articles from two nations daily newspapers have been analyzed in order to examine how the European Union is described and framed for their readers. The newspapers that was chosen for this study and from which the material was collected, were the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet the American newspaper The New York Times. The material was taken from three periods of time, and by this the results did not only serve a presentiment on how the media reports about the subject, but also an idea over the media’s coverage character over time. Also, by analyzing articles from newspapers from different countries, the material could give an answer to whether there is any difference in media reporting and coverage about the European Union over nation borders. Theories that have been under observation for this study, and which have functioned as tools for the analyzing process are: the agenda-setting theory, media ideology, framing, media logic and political communication. Further inspirations that have been under consideration and of values through the development of this thesis are thoughts from the modern theorist Jürgen Habermas, and earlier studies that have been made on the subject in matter, for example ones by Lars Palm and Vanni Tjernström. Results from this study showed that there were differences between the two nations way of reporting about the subject, and also that changes over time have occurred. Mostly, it was the Swedish news reporting that showed evident change over the three investigated periods. This can be explained by the countries over all changed relationship towards the European Union. Further did results from this study show that the American articles included more actors and subjects, compared to the Swedish articles. This can be a factor of the American articles longer character.

Det finns ytterst få beskrivningar av kvinnliga musiker och deras musicerande genom historien. I dag syns fler kvinnor på musikfältet, men männen dominerar fortfarande musikmedierna i stort, både vad gäller artister och journalister. Syftet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på hur ofta och hur mycket kvinnliga respektive manliga artister syns i musiktidningarna Sonic och Lira musikmagasin, i radioprogrammet Mitt i musiken och i tv-programmet PSL- på festival. Vidare vill jag undersöka hur många av texterna och inslagen som är gjorda av kvinnliga respektive manliga journalister. Med hjälp av dessa två representationsstudier undersöker jag sedan om det finns ett samband mellan artisternas kön och journalisternas kön. Fokus riktas då i huvudsak mot kvinnliga musikjournalisters rapporterande. Vidare vill jag fånga musikjournalisters funderingar kring kvinnor och mäns representation i musikmedierna och hur de ser på sin egen roll som förmedlare av musikjournalistik. Metod: för att mäta frekvensen av artister och journalister har jag använt mig av en kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Vid intervjuerna med musikjournalisterna har jag använt mig av en samtalsintervjuundersökning. Resultat: Det syns fler män än kvinnor i de undersökta analysenheterna. Kvinnliga journalister rapporterar procentuellt mer om kvinnliga än om manliga artister. De intervjuade musikjournalisterna är medvetna om underrepresentationen av kvinnor i musikmedier och menar att den främsta orsaken är att utbudet av artister redan från början är ojämnt. Många av de intervjuade påpekar också att deras urval av artister i första hand styrs av vilka artister de själva tycker är bra.

The starting point of this study is that the news media in general strongly influence which topics determine the public agenda by their choice of what is considered newsworthy. The study is based on articles from two major Swedish daily newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter.  The aim of our thesis is to establish how the environmental public debate as portrayed in the newspaper corresponds to the environmental discussion within the scientific (subject matter expert) field, that is taught by the academic institutions, or if the two materially differ. The environmental communication discourse at the academic institutions advocates ‘episodic’ formation as the driving force behind transformation of attitudes and behavioral preconceptions. This episodic formation is aimed at incentivizing change by creating intimacy to the incident by linking cause and consequence to the individual citizen instead of to society as a whole. The analysis consists of approximately 50 articles, all published in year 2010, and is based on CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) where we sought to map out the discourses that frame the representation of environmental topics in these two daily newspapers.  The result shows that the newspapers account of environmental topics only weakly corresponds to the scientific account. The media representation mainly adopts a ‘thematic’ formation in which environmental topics are frequently approached by means of distancing itself or taking a broader and detached stance instead of a specific and attached link to the individual. The result thus shows that the newspapers discourse practice does not positively drive changes to attitudes and behaviors but rather reinforces the prevailing discourse and social posture in society. At the same time the analysis shows that the two newspapers form a forum where many different views and values are being voiced and where many different groups in society are represented in democratic spirit. Both supporting and inhibiting views are presented in this context. If the newspapers overall discourse practice promotes or inhibits transformation of the public’s environmental attitudes and behavior tends towards that ‘status quo’ is upheld at the expense of change. This despite, environmental topics are considered important by the Swedish public in general.

Syfte: Att analysera hur Aftonbladet använde olika strategier och retoriska begrepp under rapporteringen av svininfluensan, samt hur mediers makt kan beskrivas utifrån Foucaults teori. Teori: Medieretorik, encoding/decoding, budskapsstrategier, diskursteori, diskursens makt Metod: Kritiskt granskande analyser i form av kritisk diskursanalys och kritisk retorikanalys. Resultat: Aftonbladet använder sig utav medvetna eller omedvetna strategier och retoriska begrepp för att sända ut ett visst budskap. Makten att kunna försöka påverka kan, enligt Foucaults teori, komma ifrån staten i första hand. Därför är användningen utav strategier och retoriska begrepp nödvändig för att bibehålla makten att kunna försöka påverka och övertyga läsarna.

We have studied the effects that blogs have on the society through interviews with influential bloggers, a news director and the founder of Sweden’s largest blogprovider. Existing theoretical work by other researchers have been used as a starting point to our thesis. Via a deductive method we then proceeded to test these existing models and viewpoints on the reality. Through our research we have concluded that blogs, if they co-operate, have an agenda-setting function, and that they can affect newspapers to write about certain topics. We have also discussed blogs role as media watch dogs. Gunilla Sax, news director, questions the blog world’s ability to fully cover all media, and to deliver a systematic and just review of the media. Through her reasoning we have come to think that it is vital the blog society continues to evolve and mature, and we suggest that there might be a need for some sort of interest organization to coordinate the highly decentralized blog community. Blogs can either be seen as a complement to the news-industry, or as an alternative. Respondents reflect about several differences amongst newspapers and blogs, mainly regarding the methods of work. However, they also confirm what, for example, Bruns (2008) and Våge et al. (2005) writes about the co-dependence that exists between regular newsmedia and the blog community.

This research explores the second-level agenda-setting effects of news photographs and news stories, separately and when presented together. The tone of photos and stories each independently influence public opinion on an affective level. Negative stories and photographs elicited negative opinions and emotions about the issue presented, while positive responses resulted from positive stories and photographs. When congruently toned stories and photos were presented together their affective agenda-setting effects were amplified. Positive stories paired with positive photos created stronger positive affect than negative stories and photos, which precipitated a strong negative response. However, because of the negativity bias, no significant differences were found between negative stories paired with negative photos and negative stories with positive photos. Audiences felt negative, regardless of the valence of the photo. When stories and photos were of incongruent tone, the audience's opinion about the issue followed the tone of the story. Findings from this study also confirmed that need for orientation was not a component of second-level agenda setting. However, a relationship was established between need for orientation and elaboration. Those with high need for orientation were more likely to process the information deeply than those with low need for orientation, thereby drawing ties between agenda-setting theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model. / text

More guns-less violence? A qualitative and comparative analysis between the swedish and the american daily news-press.

This thesis describes and analyses in three substudies how home-based measures for children are expanding and why an open care idea are established as part of the Swedish child welfare. The first substudy describes the national increment of what today can be considered as a treatment policy – non-institutional care in child welfare. The results are analysed with Kingdon's agenda setting theory and shows that the factors of what Kingdon describes as problems-, politics- and policyflow influenced the national increment. Significant mechanisms have primarily been, the profession, the society's concerns for socially disadvantaged children, negative experiences of institutionalisation and a political position to deinstitutionalise all care. The second substudy focuses on how knowledge and research contributes to ideological, professional, and organizational change in child welfare by analysis of Research & Developments reports and articles from the professional journal Socionomen. Based on the neo-institutional concepts of organisational fields and isoformism the study's results shows that a consequence of adaptation strategies and "rationalized myths" are a number of similarities in how home-based measures are organized and which measures that are used. The third substudy, a case study, analyses how we can understand a local development of ideas in social services for children with concepts from neo institutional theory. Interviews and municipal documents are analysed and shows that the local translation of an open care idea is characterized by discretion, personal preferences and action and affects the choice of method and organization. The study also shows a political mistrust of institutional care while there is at the same time political confidence in the individual social worker's ability to find solutions that allow non-institutional measures to be an alternative to institutional care. An overall conclusion of the thesis is that there is now a treatment policy in social services for the children, which involves extensive efforts at home and it has led to that more children receive support from social services. One result of non-institutional care increment is that it led to increased costs for municipalities for intervention for children and young people when out-of-home care has not decreased. Another general conclusion is that translation and adaptation of ideas to local contexts is something that generally fits street-level bureaucrats need for discretion.