The background to the thesis is the decentralization trend which has led to the development of various forms of local radio and television in a number of countries, including Sweden. Common to all official statements regarding the emergence of local media is the theme that local media has a potential for strengthening democracy. The aim is formulated as: to what extent can investigations into audience and participation in Swedish local media be considered indicators of whether these media contribute to the generally-accepted democratic aims of society? Special attention is also given to a study of the research field of "local mass communication" i this has been achieved with the help of a bibliographical analysis of the documents listed in the NORDICOM-bibliography for the years 1975-1980. The audience and participation analysis is based upon: (a) the author's own studies from the cable-tv experiment in Kiruna 1974/75; (b) secondary analyses of studies of audience and participation in Swedish local and neighbourhood radio 1979/80; and (c) the author's own data on local radio from a study in Västerbotten in 1978. The analyses in the thesis are based on two ideal models for the democracy-media relationship - the ideal-democratic model and the critical model. The results show that there is support for both models, i.e. local broadcasting media seems to both reach low-resource people and generate participation in various forms. On the other hand, from the point of view of the critical model, it seems as if participants represent well-established groups in society. The cable-tv data also indicates that activation effects are larger among the highly-edu-cated members of the audience. Other results demonstrate that the following factors are decisive for audience structure: size of the broadcasting area, occupation, and the listener's distance from the transmitting area. Factors that are critical for participation and contact-tendency are organizational activity and previous attempts to achieve influence in community matters. / digitalisering@umu

This is a study of the work of some seventy of the many hundreds of translators of the Bible, in whole or in part, into English during this century. Style, with particular emphasis on diction, is the major concern, though other aspects can be touched on at times, as well as methods of translation. Part one deals with versions of Mark into English prose, and part two with versions of the Psalms into English verse forms. The translations are grouped according to the aims and purposes of the translator and/or the type of language he employs. First a short passage is analysed - generally Mark 1:1-11 or Psalm 23 - and then a larger body of text is examined and the various levels of diction and phrasing are noted with examples cited of each. Some evaluation occurs, set against the criteria of comprehensibility and suitability of the style to the subject-matter, to the style of the original, and to the limitations of the intended audience. Several factors are seen to affect the style of a Bible translation, the most conspicuous being the influence of tradition, the translation method used - formal or dynamic equivalence - or the amount of restructuring necessitated by audience-orientation. The main trend this century is the gradual departure from "Biblical" English and the increased interest in the use of comprehensible contemporary language. A comparison between the versions of Mark and the Psalms shows that their translators seemed to have- different objectives. Translators of Mark were generally more interested in dynamic equivalence, some in reflecting the linguistic level of koiné Greek, and many in audience-orientation. There are also several, however, who preferred to lean toward literalism. Translators of the Psalms into verse forms were not concerned with reflecting the linguistic level but rather the prosodie features of the original Hebrew Psalms. There is less interest both in literalism, audience-orientation and in dynamic-equivalence, except perhaps in versions into rhymed verse or a few of those into free verse. The overall impression gained from this study is that style is of vital importance when it comes to the effectiveness, usefulness and impact of a translation. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis explores the components that are involved in the translation of a text that are interpretable by two distinct readerships. It examines: - theory that provides an understanding of dual-readership texts for children and adults; - examples of dual-readership texts, their translations, and analyses of these; - Bled by Daniel Danis and my English translation as a test case of a contemporary dual-readership source text and translation. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to shed light on what could be a new sub-domain of translation studies, namely, research on dual-readership translation. My translation of Bled provides insight into my own interpretation of dual-readership translation, namely, focusing on what is desirable and what is achievable in the translation of this type of text.

This study aims to gain greater knowledge about the phenomenon cheerleading journalism and its existence in the Swedish sports journalism. We did this by making an impact in the media debate, to thereby identify key aspects of cheerleading journalism. These elements are then used to reach a preliminary definition of the phenomenon. This was followed by qualitative interviews with six Swedish sports journalists from newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, with the aim to find out how they behaved the phenomenon. The results of the earlier debate and the answers from the respondents show that cheerleading journalism is nationalistic, biased and seeks an inclusive effect on its audience. This phenomenon is considered to be an inferior form of journalism and progress especially in reporting on the Swedish national teams and / or individual representatives of Sweden. The results have also been related to selected theories, agenda-setting, gatekeeping and framing.

The purpose of this study is to discuss how journalists think about the interaction with the audience in social media and the fact that it can make the traditional audience feel excluded. The study shows how journalists on P4 Kalmar is experiencing audience interaction in social media and describes how aware the journalists are about the digital divide. The results show that all of our interviewed journalists think that the interaction with the audience through social media works well and that there is awareness among journalists about the digital divide. The results also show that many of the interviewed journalists had not reflected on that parts of the audience can feel excluded by the interaction taking place in social media, but some of them could understand if parts of the audience felt that way. We consider our study as part of a research field on journalist’s interactivity with the audience through different types of media, but also as source of inspiration for future research on how the digital media becomes one with the community.

The question formulation for this work has been "is an ice-hockey audience influenced by music during time-outs in a game?". The method was to observe one period with Färjestads BK and Mora IK, but a recording was also made, together with a conversation with the arena DJ. From the recording, the audience reactions were graded from a given scale. The grades were compilated to a diagram that shows the audience reactions in relation to the time, from the first face-off to the final whistle. From the diagram, one can see the connections between the audience reactions and the music. During the observation, all important incidents were noted so that potential connections could be made. Any influence on the audience by the music could not ascertain with this method. Finally, it could be ascertained that if a better picture of the reality is wanted, it will demand more observations and records of more games, as this work only analyses one period in one game.

This thesis examines Chappelle's Show’s use of racial satire to challenge dominant stereotypes and the effectiveness of that satire as a tool to achieve perspective by incongruity. I use a variation of D’Acci’s circuit of media study model to examine the institutional challenges and limitations on the show due to the context in which it was created, produced, and distributed; to interrogate the strategies employed by the show’s writers/creators to overcome these challenges through the performance of race; and to analyze the audience’s understanding of the use of racial satire through a reception study of the show’s audience. I argue that using satire often has the unintended consequence of crossing the line between “sending up” a behavior and supporting it, essentially becoming that which it is trying to discount, though this is not to say that its intrinsic value is therefore completely negated.

My dissertation contributes to the accountability literature in international relations by examining the role constituents' preferences can potentially play in fomenting or constraining coercive foreign policies in democracies. In times of international crises, domestic audiences have specific coercive foreign policy preferences and will support executives who represent them when selecting coercive foreign policies. Executive actions will increase popular support or generate audience costs depending on whether these actions are consistent with the specific policy preferences that domestic audiences have given the threat a crisis poses to national security. To determine when audiences prefer economic or military coercion and how these preferences affect their evaluation of the executive I conduct three experiments, including a survey experiment conducted with a representative sample of Americans and an experiment conducted with a convenience sample in the United Kingdom. The results show interesting similarities and differences between the cross-national samples regarding foreign policy preferences and the public's propensity to support and punish leaders during times of international conflict. Mainly, I find that (1) the concept of audience costs can be expanded to cases of economic coercion, (2) under certain circumstances audience costs operate even in crises that are not very salient and (3) when there is a mismatch between public preferences and threats issued by the executive, audience costs do not operate at all.

Performances of poetry constitute significant cultural and literary events that challenge the representational limits and possibilities of transposing written words into live and recorded media. However, there has not been a comprehensive study of Canadian poetry that focuses specifically on performance. This dissertation undertakes a theorizing of performance that foregrounds mediation, audience, and presence (both readerly and writerly). The complex methodology combines theoretical approaches to reading (Linda Hutcheon on adaptation, Wolfgang Iser on the reader, and Roland Barthes on the materiality of writing) with poetics as theorized by Canadian poets (namely bpNichol, Steve McCaffery, Jan Zwicky, Robert Bringhurst) in order to argue that performances of poetry are responsive exchanges between performers and audiences. Importantly, the dissertation argues that performances of poetry call for a re-evaluation of reading as listening, thereby altering the interaction between audience and performance from passive to participatory. Arranged in four chapters, the dissertation examines a range of Canadian poets and performances: The Four Horsemen (Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, and bpNichol), dance adaptations of Michael Ondaatje’s poems, George Elliott Clarke’s poetic libretti, and Robert Bringhurst’s polyphonic poetry. Following the Introduction’s outlining of the term performance, Chapter One examines processes of recording and adapting avant-garde sound poetry, specifically in the sound and written poetry of Nichol and McCaffery. Chapter Two theorizes adaptation as a responsive reading practice in the context of dance adaptations of Ondaatje’s writing (Bruce McDonald’s Elimination Dance and Veronica Tennant’s Shadow Pleasures). In Chapter Three, Clarke’s jazz opera Québécité, with libretto by Clarke and music composed by D.D. Jackson, foregrounds a central argument of this dissertation: that multi-vocal poetics can, in fact, reconfigure multicultural politics. Chapter Four turns to polyphony as a textual representation of multi-vocality in the poetry of Robert Bringhurst. Through a close-listening to a musical poem by Jan Zwicky, the Conclusion points towards new critical directions in listening to Canadian poetry. Only in understanding how cultural and political performances are recorded, enacted and received both on and off the page can we listen, critically and actively, to our multi-voiced Canadian soundscapes.

Performances of poetry constitute significant cultural and literary events that challenge the representational limits and possibilities of transposing written words into live and recorded media. However, there has not been a comprehensive study of Canadian poetry that focuses specifically on performance. This dissertation undertakes a theorizing of performance that foregrounds mediation, audience, and presence (both readerly and writerly). The complex methodology combines theoretical approaches to reading (Linda Hutcheon on adaptation, Wolfgang Iser on the reader, and Roland Barthes on the materiality of writing) with poetics as theorized by Canadian poets (namely bpNichol, Steve McCaffery, Jan Zwicky, Robert Bringhurst) in order to argue that performances of poetry are responsive exchanges between performers and audiences. Importantly, the dissertation argues that performances of poetry call for a re-evaluation of reading as listening, thereby altering the interaction between audience and performance from passive to participatory. Arranged in four chapters, the dissertation examines a range of Canadian poets and performances: The Four Horsemen (Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, and bpNichol), dance adaptations of Michael Ondaatje’s poems, George Elliott Clarke’s poetic libretti, and Robert Bringhurst’s polyphonic poetry. Following the Introduction’s outlining of the term performance, Chapter One examines processes of recording and adapting avant-garde sound poetry, specifically in the sound and written poetry of Nichol and McCaffery. Chapter Two theorizes adaptation as a responsive reading practice in the context of dance adaptations of Ondaatje’s writing (Bruce McDonald’s Elimination Dance and Veronica Tennant’s Shadow Pleasures). In Chapter Three, Clarke’s jazz opera Québécité, with libretto by Clarke and music composed by D.D. Jackson, foregrounds a central argument of this dissertation: that multi-vocal poetics can, in fact, reconfigure multicultural politics. Chapter Four turns to polyphony as a textual representation of multi-vocality in the poetry of Robert Bringhurst. Through a close-listening to a musical poem by Jan Zwicky, the Conclusion points towards new critical directions in listening to Canadian poetry. Only in understanding how cultural and political performances are recorded, enacted and received both on and off the page can we listen, critically and actively, to our multi-voiced Canadian soundscapes.