<p>Posters have been used in political communication for more than a century, and are still an important element in the election campaigns. However, few studies have been devoted to the way in which text and image work together in order to obtain the rhetorical goal of making voters vote for a specific party.</p><p>In this study, election posters in the 2002 general election in Sweden from all parties represented in the Swedish parliament are analysed. The context of this specific sample of political communication is described through a sociological approach inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, and through theories of political marketing. The model for analysis of the posters combine semiotics and rhetoric in order to present a model capable of analysing both text and image, and the way in which they are used in order to influence and persuade voters.</p><p>The conclusions are that Swedish parties favour textual messages and not visual elements, and that when visual elements are used, these are mostly portraits of candidates. So apparently, the predominance of visual elements in advertising does not show in election posters. Neither can one claim that personalisation is a predominant element, as the total percentage of posters depicting candidates is quite low. The tendency towards negative campaigning seen in earlier elections is not present in the 2002 posters, and the rhetoric is mostly epideictic and thus aimed at keeping already convinced voters rather than attracting new ones. This might indicate that the posters have lost their role as means of attracting new voters and have become more of an “internal” affair, telling the party’s voters, in a way which presupposes shared points of view, that the party is there to be voted for as always. The posters thus fulfil a symbolic function of binding together adherents rather than attracting newcomers. </p>

Social scientists agree that public confidence in social institutions is a crucial element in building democratic society. This is especially true for transitional societies including post-communist countries, because the lack of public confidence in newly emerged democratic institutions can interfere with democratic development. Although different theories explaining public confidence in social institutions were developed, these theories ignored the role that mass media play in building public confidence. The goal of this study is to examine the connection between mass media coverage of social institutions and public confidence in these institutions by conducting content analysis of Belarusian newspapers, reviewing the results of the public opinion polls from Belarus, and exploring the links between coverage of social institutions and trust in them. Four institutions were chosen for this examination: two institutions with high level of confidence representing the state (the President, the military) and two institutions with low level of confidence representing civil society (independent labor unions, opposition political parties). Results showed that there is a noticeable connection between media coverage and public confidence in social institutions. Content analysis demonstrated that the state-run newspapers publish a great number of articles about Belarus President Lukashenko, covering him within the scope of explicitly positive themes. As results of public opinion polls demonstrate, the President enjoys an high level of confidence amongst people who trust state-run Media. On the other hand, independent newspapers present President Lukashenko in a negative different light: he is being depicted as a dictator and an ineffective leader. According to public opinion polls, people who trust the independent media are less confident in the President: more than 42% do have confidence in him. Given that state-run newspapers present the President almost exclusively within positive themes and independent newspapers seldom speak of the President’s achievements, concentrating mostly on his failures and shortcomings, we can see a strong connection between media coverage of the President and levels of public confidence in him. Examining media coverage and public opinion about other social institutions provided similar results, confirming the connection between media coverage and public confidence in this study.

Posters have been used in political communication for more than a century, and are still an important element in the election campaigns. However, few studies have been devoted to the way in which text and image work together in order to obtain the rhetorical goal of making voters vote for a specific party. In this study, election posters in the 2002 general election in Sweden from all parties represented in the Swedish parliament are analysed. The context of this specific sample of political communication is described through a sociological approach inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, and through theories of political marketing. The model for analysis of the posters combine semiotics and rhetoric in order to present a model capable of analysing both text and image, and the way in which they are used in order to influence and persuade voters. The conclusions are that Swedish parties favour textual messages and not visual elements, and that when visual elements are used, these are mostly portraits of candidates. So apparently, the predominance of visual elements in advertising does not show in election posters. Neither can one claim that personalisation is a predominant element, as the total percentage of posters depicting candidates is quite low. The tendency towards negative campaigning seen in earlier elections is not present in the 2002 posters, and the rhetoric is mostly epideictic and thus aimed at keeping already convinced voters rather than attracting new ones. This might indicate that the posters have lost their role as means of attracting new voters and have become more of an “internal” affair, telling the party’s voters, in a way which presupposes shared points of view, that the party is there to be voted for as always. The posters thus fulfil a symbolic function of binding together adherents rather than attracting newcomers.

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.

According to most ways of measuring it the Swedish trade union movement is the strongest in the world. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation is the largest and most influential union confederation by far. Since the 1980s though, Sweden experienced a shift in the power relations between employers and unions in favour of the former. This has coincided with a growing importance for political communication, public relations and the mass media. This development has presented the Swedish trade union movement with a multitude of challenges. One of the major ones is how to influence the representations of trade unions and their viewpoints in the news media. The purpose of this study is to describe and try to explain how the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and its affiliated unions act to confront the “medialisation” of the public debate. A combination of research methods are used in this study in order to investigate both the historical development of trade union news management and the use of news management by trade union personnel in their everyday work. The study of how news management historically became a part in the overall union activity was performed through qualitative analysis of archive material. The study of the everyday uses of news management and the factors constraining this work builds upon interviews with the press officers of the TUC affiliated unions and the TUC itself. The study shows how both the historical development and the everyday use of news management by the Swedish trade union movement need to be understood in a context. This context contains political, economical, ideological and organisational structures that at the same time enables and constrains the adaption of news management. The study points towards five central paradoxes which faces the trade unions when they seek desired media attention and try to avoid unwanted publicity. The first paradox concerns how to fight hard in the interest of the members, while at the same time avoid being described as a sectional interest. The second paradox stems from the desire of the trade unions to be perceived as big and strong and how this might result in the labelling of them as ‘Goliath’ during a conflict. The next paradox concerns how trade unions want to show the importance of the work done by their members during a conflict and the way this might lead to media attention about how the strike affects ‘innocent bystanders’. The fourth paradoxes come from the wish of the trade unions to make their local representatives visible in mass media. This could result in unwanted publicity, due to the difference between blue-collar trade unionists and middleclass journalists. The fifth paradox stems from the importance of acting quickly to achieve wanted media attention and to avoid unwanted. The paradox is that it might be hard to be fast and at the same time have a thorough democratic process on a controversial issue.

Jon Stewart, the anchor and purveyor of “fake news,” has catapulted television's The Daily Show into prominence. The show functions as both a source of political humor and a vehicle for political commentary. This thesis explores how the program visually and rhetorically problematizes the hegemonic model of traditional television news, and how it tips the balance between what is considered serious news and what has become cliché about the broadcast industry.

This study focuses on the social medium Facebook. Its intention is to examine the contents of the Facebook statuses the Swedish parliament parties chose to publish in the final two weeks before the parliamentary elections in 2010. The key concepts used in the analysis are interactivity and multimodality. Aspects to be explored are interactivity of their status updates and how the parties used various multimodal objects. A comparison of the parties' usage also follows. The study was carried out using a quantitative content analysis of variables created from an application of Jensen's interactivity typology. The results show that the parties mostly publish content with pure information, rather than trying to create a closer contact with users through more dialogue-inducing content. The results also show that the parties' use of interactivity in the status updates is relatively equal. However, the use of multimodal objects in the content differs a great deal between different parties.

Taigi artėjant kiekvieniems laisviems ir nepriklausomiems rinkimams, kuomet valstybės piliečiai į valdžią išrenka savo atstovus, politinė reklama tampa neatsiejama politinių partijų rinkiminių akcijų dalis. Ypatingai ji yra svarbi politinėms partijoms, kadangi pastebima, jog kiekviena partija prieš rinkimus pastaraisiais metais gali potencialiai pretenduoti į tuos pačius rinkėjus visoje Lietuvoje, nes šie nėra prisirišę prie konkrečios partijos. Vis daugėja neapsisprendusių rinkėjų, kurie pasirenka, už ką balsuoti tik rinkimų kampanijos metu. Politinės reklamos raiška žiniasklaidoje, bei jos įtaka rinkėjams yra analizuota, bet pats politinės reklamos kūrimo procesas nėra plačiai ištyrinėtas Lietuvoje. Tai pat politinės reklamos samprata yra ganėtinai nauja Lietuvoje. Šio darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti ir paaiškinti politinės reklamos kūrimo proceso vyksmą reklaminių - rinkiminių kampanijų planavimo, organizavimo ir įgyvendinimo metu. Tai pat ištirti politinės reklamos teisinį reglamentavimą Lietuvos įstatyminėje bazėje. Tyrimo objektas - politinė reklama ir politinės reklamos kūrimo procesas Lietuvoje, jo struktūra bei ypatumai. Darbe naudojamasi Lietuvos ir užsienio mokslinės literatūros analizės, sisteminimo ir klasifikavimo metodais. Politinės reklamos teisinio reglamentavimo tyrime atliekamas dokumentų ir teisės aktų analizės metodas. Taip pat atliekamas kokybinis tyrimas – pusiau struktūruotas interviu. Pastarasis metodas pasirinktas siekiant išsamiau... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Political advertising becomes a simultaneous part of electoral process for all political parties, as common independent elections are approaching and the citizens of a country are going to vote for their representatives to the government. This process becomes especially important to political parties, as recent evidence proves that every political force in Lithuania can potentially apply for the same electors in Lithuania, as they are not devoted to one exact party. The number of such voters, who make up their decision on who to vote during the elections, is increasing. The expression and influence on the electors of political advertising in the media has widely been analysed, however, the process of creating political advertising has not been thoroughly researched in Lithuania. Therefore, the concept of political advertising is comparatively new in our country. The objectives of this work – is to analyse and explain the procedure of creating political advertising – in the process of planning, organizing and realizing it. Besides, the purpose is to research the legal regulations of political advertising on the basis of Lithuanian legitimate system. The object for the research is political advertising itself as well as the process, structure and peculiarities of creating it. The study relies on the analysis, filing and classification of Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature. In addition, the qualitative investigation, i.e. partly structural interview, is carried out... [to full text]

Independence and liberty of cyberspace enabled inception of new kind mass media. Internet based news organization no longer needed to obey national laws and acknowledge states' superiority in international political communication. News organizations, like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikileaks, etc., have emerged as mighty actors in the international communicative activities. They are being driven by self-interests, which not necessary conform sovereign states' interests. The development of new kind mass media are not being determined by national laws or other offline rules. This study determined the role of self-ruling mass media in the international political communication. Also, this work showed that emergence of new kind mass media have caused substantial decline of sovereign states' power in international political communication. / Liberalus, atviras ir decentralizuotas internatas – erdvė, kurioje vystoji naujos rūšies masinio informavimo priemonės. Jos yra nepavaldžios nacionalinių valstybių vyriausybėms ir veikia skatinamos savų interesų. Google, Wikileaks, Facebook, Twitter ir kitos netradicinės internatinės žiniasklaidos organizacijos tapo įtakingomis ir galingomis veikėjomis tarptautinės politinės komunikacijos procese. Jos vystosi ne pagal valstybių sukurtas taisyklės, tačiau pagal savas. Jos yra pirmos viršvalstybinės naujienų agentūros. Šis tyrimas atskleidė savivaldžių žiniasklaidos organizacijų vaidmenį ir galią tarptautinėje politinėje komunikacijoje. Taip pat tyrimas parodė, kad naujo tipo žiniasklaidos iškilimas lėmė valstybių galios tarptautinėje politinėje komunikacijoje mažėjimą.

New Zealand’s 2008 general election, with its unprecedented focus on the “ethnic vote” and ethnic minority candidates with highest-ever party list rankings, proved compelling from a migrant engagement perspective. How do migrant communities achieve voice in their adopted country? And how does a now unmistakably multicultural nation address the political communication needs of an increasingly vocal, pro-active, and politically involved migrant population? This thesis examines the role of ethnic minority media in engaging migrant communities in the democratic process. In particular, it examines South Asian media in New Zealand and the extent to which they represented a vital public sphere for informing and engaging their wider migrant communities in public political debate during the 2008 election campaign. Applying qualitative and quantitative research approaches, this thesis elicits and analyses diverse perspectives of the extent to which local South Asian newspapers and radio current affairs programming represented an important complementary public sphere for informing and engaging migrant voters during the campaign. Ultimately, this study provides an alternative perspective on media coverage of the 2008 New Zealand general election, and insight into the role and influence of ethnic minority media within democratic discourse. As a contribution to the body of academic literature examining the media and minority political engagement, it is intended to provoke critical consideration of the communications needs facing new migrants in an increasingly multicultural New Zealand.