The thesis aims to analyse how human rights issues are reported by different types of transnational media channels – professional and citizen. More specifically, the human rights related articles published during 2016 in citizen media website Global Voices and two mainstream media channels – The Guardian and Al-jazeera English are analysed in a quantitative way and compared. The key focus of the analysis is drawn on theories about human rights representation in media, continuum of professionalism in the period of digitisation and globalisation of news. The quantitative content analysis helped to determine that there are more similarities in human rights representation in terms of content of information, than in the tools which are chosen to present human rights.

The City of Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, has high ambitions when it comes to inclusion and participation from local businesses and universities, NGOs and citizens. The decision to democratize management and to change the city’s processes towards working on (more) equal terms with relevant actors, was made by the City Council in 2014 as a step towards a socially sustainable development. The City Planning Office of Malmö has the main responsibility for city developing projects. One of the city’s current developing projects is called Amiralsstaden, defined as a geographical area and a development process. The ambition of the project is to “through broad participation and co-creation, improve the city- and living environment and investigate how new housing and new businesses can be established” (malmo.se 2018: a) The project focuses on creating new ways of working with physical planning and to create new models for participation (Reflecting Paper 2018). Since 2017, Amiralsstaden has facilitated two different participatory communication processes for development. Communication for Development scholar, Linje Manyozo (2012:222), argues that development communication no longer is a question of relevant technology or local contexts, nor a question of top-down or bottom-up approaches. Instead, he says, it is a question of how power figures in the political economy of both development and communication. A key indicator of whether media and communication for development interventions have played a critical role in society should therefore revolve around an understanding of how power has been negotiated and contested in favour of people. With Amiralsstaden as case study, this thesis sets out to explore how the ambitions of participation on policy level translate into ‘real world’ city planning and what impact it has on development. More specifically, I want to know how citizen participation in communication processes for development is practiced, experienced and what these processes lead to in terms of results and outcome for the city and for the participants. The study is based on qualitative research methodologies, mainly in-depth interviews and observations. Concepts related to participation, such as power, voice, and representation, are in focus to analyse and understand participatory processes and how they contribute to city development.

Kollektivtrafik är en stor del av mångas vardag och en självklar del av staden. Internationellforskning visar att möjligheten för medborgare att delta i kollektivtrafikplaneringen är tämligenlåg. Däremot saknas det kunskap kring hur detta ser ut i Sverige. Syftet med denna studie varatt öka kunskapen kring hur medborgardeltagande kan se ut inom planeringen avkollektivtrafik. Studien syftade även till att skapa en förståelse för hur planering av kollektivtrafiksker i praktiken. För att undersöka detta har en fallstudie av bussprojektet HelsingborgsExpressen iHelsingborg genomförts. Genom en analys av policydokument och intervjuer medtjänstepersoner har det skapats en nyanserad bild av HelsingborgsExpressen samtmedborgardeltagande inom kollektivtrafik.Studien visar att kollektivtrafikplanering utgår från en rationell planeringsmodell som följertydliga planeringsprinciper för att bidra till uppsatta mål. Målet om en ökad andelkollektivtrafikresenärer förekommer ofta inom denna diskurs. Planeringsprocessen förHelsingborgsExpressen har i mångt och mycket liknat detta tillvägagångssätt. Studien visardock att det inom HelsingborgsExpressen till viss del skett en kombination av rationell ochkommunikativ planering. I planeringen genomfördes en dialog på stadsdelen Råå där syftet varatt få reda på hur medborgarna ställde sig till tre olika alternativ för bussens sträckning. Studienvisar också på att en dialog inom kollektivtrafikplanering kan syfta till att informeramedborgare, få tillgång till den lokala kunskapen samt som ett verktyg för en ökad inkluderingav medborgarna. Inom HelsingborgsExpressen framgår det att medborgarnas lokala kunskapär betydelsefull, däremot finns det tvivelaktigheter angående hur kunskapen har använts samtvilken betydelse den har haft i den beslutsfattande processen. / Public transportation is an essential part of many people’s everyday life and a natural segmentof the city. Research outside Sweden shows that the possibility for citizens to participate withinthe planning of public transportation is rather limited. There is a lack of knowledge whetherthis statement applies to a Swedish context or not. The purpose of this study was to contributewith knowledge and understanding to the discourse of citizen participation and the planning ofpublic transportation in Sweden. This has been achieved by a case study of a Bus RapidTransportation project called HelsingborgsExpressen (The Helsingborg Express) in the southernpart of Sweden. A content analysis and interviews with planners has resulted in a nuancedpicture of HelsingborgsExpressen and citizen participation within the public transportationplanning.The study shows that the planning of public transportation is based around a rational planningdiscourse that follows established planning principles and set goals. The goal of a redoubledmarket share for the public transportation occurs frequently within the discourse in question.The planning process for HelsingborgsExpressen is, in many regards, an example of this. Withinthe planning, one opportunity for citizen participation occurred in the district Råå. The purposeof this citizen participation was to let people prioritize amongst three possible routes for the bus.The study also shows that citizen participation within the planning of public transportation canbe used to inform the citizens, access their local knowledge as well as a tool for including thecitizens to a greater extent. Within HelsingborgsExpressen, the study shows that the citizens’local knowledge is valuable, but the question regarding how this local knowledge has been usedin the decision-making process still exists.

As we find ourselves in the midst of a planetary trend towards urbanisation, we must acknowledge that urban spaces are linked in a network of metabolic consumption and production that impact not only those recognised as ‘urban dwellers’, but are incorporated into a global structure. Ireland is no exception, with development centred around Dublin, a ‘primate city’ with a vastly larger population than others in the region. Dublin’s Inner City areas have in recent decades been marked by a series of large-scale interventions aimed at reconstituting a new vision of Ireland as a global, modern city home to a tech-savvy workforce. Yet as Dublin explores its post-recession identity as a hub for investment in tech and finance, its urban population continues to grow in ways that are seen to disenfranchise existing Inner City communities. This study explores the perceptions of residents of Inner City Dublin engaged in urban planning processes, in the hopes of making manifest the goals and desires driving participation through various channels, both formal and ‘radical’. A case is made for the city as a site of a post-political condition by questioning the role and efficacy of official consultatory channels, as well as in contrasting held imaginaries presented by interviewees and those presented by official planning documents. Attempts by Dublin City Council to market Dublin as a ‘creative’ city, intent on monetising aspects of cultural identity as a global competitor intent on drawing investment and foreign talent is considered representative of post-politics, contrasted by urban residents’ desires to safeguard the existence of vibrant communities within the Inner City who now risk exclusion.

This research will analyze the radio station ONUCI FM, UN’s peace radio in Côte d’Ivoire. The central focus is on journalists’ perception of their role as professional advocacy for peace and democracy. Personal interviews with five ONUCI FM-journalists provide the primary source of qualitative source. In light of the Security Council’s decision to end UN’s peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire in 2017 followed an uncertainty of ONUCI FM’s future before it was decided that the station would continue to broadcast under the Felix Houphouët-Boigny foundation. This research attempts to elucidate the consequences in similar previous cases. This research shows that the UN often lacks a long-term plan of how to handle their stations when their mission ends, thereby creating an indisputable journalistic vacuum where they previously operated. This research shows that few UN radios are capable of surviving without donations but that leaving abruptly may cause harm to the achieved peace. With the intention to provide a solution to the vacuum created after the UN this research explores the possibilities of citizen journalists filling the void after the organization’s withdrawal. This research argues that Citizen Journalism is a suitable substitute to Peace Journalism when UN radio stations stop broadcasting. Applied theories are Peace Journalism, Journalism ethics and Citizen Journalism. All theories are applicable in the analysis of journalists as nation builders, government partners, and agents of empowerment and also as watchdogs. In conclusion, the purpose of this research is to understand the journalist's own experience of working at ONUCI FM and to analyze if a radio station such as ONUCI FM, when no longer supported by the UN, can benefit of Citizen Journalism.

A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course-work degree of Masters of Recreation and Tourism in the Centre for Recreation and Tourism at The University of Zululand, 2003. / This study is conducted with a view that the provision of tourism and recreation attractions contributes greatly to the social, physical and economic development in the Stanger-Mthunzini Districts. The study is also carried out with a view that tourism has a great potential of boosting the economy of the study area and the entire country of South Africa. The study has therefore operated with the following objectives in mind: • To determine the adequacy of tourist attractions and service facilities in the study area. • To investigate the extent to which members of the local community are aware of the existence of the tourist attractions. • To find out the nature of tourist participation patterns within the study area. • To establish the extent to which members of the local community benefit from the availability of tourist attractions. • To examine if there is any co-operation between the managers of attractions, developers and the members of the local community. • To establish the level of involvement of the local community in tourism related decision-making Pursuant to the listed objectives, this study identified related hypotheses towards finding answers to the research question. The method of collecting, analysing and interpreting data involved computer manipulation of data utilising the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of this study reveal that most of the stated objectives were met. The study revealed that most members of the local community do not associate the development initiatives with their immediate needs. They see the presence of the existing attractions as not benefiting them in any significant manner. It was also established that the members of the local community do not use local attractions extensively, due to the lack of exposure to them and the fact that most of the people in the study are not highly educated. Respondents revealed that most of them are employed to do manual work in the sugar-cane plantations. The conditions under which they work, leave them with neither adequate financial resources nor time to participate in recreation activities. In terms of behaviour and attitudes, the study indicated that the members of the local community have negative feelings towards the provision of tourist recreation. The reasons usually given were that they were not invited to participate in decision-making. Other respondents claimed that they were driven away from the land they originally occupied and owned, for purposes of constructing some of the tourist attractions. Some recommendations have been made to improve the way in which the members of the local community perceive the attractions in their locality. These include doing public awareness of these attractions, involving the members of the local community in decision-making, providing them with employment. The government should play a role in developing and empowering the youth and women by equipping them with skills required in the tourism industry.

This research project explores how the method of infrastructuring can be used for ecological citizenship. A case-study analysis identified where in the infrastructuring process measures for ecological citizenship can be taken. In a co-creative workshop concept targeted towards the identification of boundary topics and the formation of a public, the empowering features of the re-shaping of mental models are explored. Infrastructuring is considered as a design method which is able to enhance citizen participation for ecological citizenship.

Cyber-attacks on Internet users have caused billions of dollars in losses annually. Cybercriminals launch attacks via threat vectors such as unsecured wireless networks and phishing attacks on Internet users who are usually not aware of such attacks. Senior citizens are one of the most vulnerable groups who are prone to cyber-attacks, and this is largely due to their limited cybersecurity awareness and skills. Within the last decade, there has been a significant increase in Internet usage among senior citizens. It was documented that senior citizens had the greatest rate of increase in Internet usage over all the other age groups during the past decade. However, whenever senior citizens use the Internet, they are being targeted and exploited particularly for financial crimes, with estimation that one in five becoming a victim of financial fraud, costing more than $2.6 billion per year. Increasing the cybersecurity awareness and skills levels of Internet users have been recommended to mitigate the effects of cyber-attacks. However, it is unclear what motivates Internet users, particularly senior citizens, to acquire cybersecurity skills so that they can identify as well as mitigate the effects of the cyber-attacks. It is also not known how effective cybersecurity awareness training are on the cybersecurity skill level of senior citizens. Therefore, the main goal of this quantitative study was to empirically investigate the factors that contributed to senior citizens’ motivation to acquire cybersecurity skills so that they would be able to identify and mitigate cyber-attacks, as well as assess their actual cybersecurity skills level. This was done by assessing a model of contributing factors identified in prior literature (senior citizens’ cybersecurity awareness, computer self-efficacy, perceived risk of identity theft, & older adults’ computer technology attitude) on the motivation of senior citizens to acquire cybersecurity skills. This study utilized a Web-based survey to measure the contributing factors and a hands-on scenarios-based iPad app called MyCyberSkills™ that was developed and empirically validated in prior research to measure the cybersecurity skills level of the senior citizens. All study measures were done before and after cybersecurity awareness training (pre- & post-test) to uncover if there were any differences on the assessed models and scores due to such treatment. The study included a sample of 254 senior citizens with a mean age of about 70 years. Path analyses using Smart PLS 3.0 were done to assess the pre- and post-test models to determine the contributions of each contributing factor to senior citizens’ motivation to acquire cybersecurity skills. Additionally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) using SPSS were done to determine significant mean difference between the pre-and post-test levels of the senior citizens’ cybersecurity skill level. The path analysis results indicate that while all paths on both models were significant, many of the paths had very low path coefficients, which in turn, indicated weak relationships among the assessed paths. However, although the path coefficients were lower than expected, the findings suggest that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, along with antecedents such as senior citizens’ cybersecurity awareness, computer self-efficacy, perceived risk of identity theft, and older adults’ computer technology attitude significantly impact the cybersecurity skill levels of senior citizens. The analysis of variance results indicated that there was a significant increase in the mean cybersecurity skills scores from 59.67% to 64.51% (N=254) as a result of the cybersecurity awareness training. Hence, the cybersecurity awareness training was effective in increasing the cybersecurity skill level of the senior citizens, and empowered them with small but significant improvement in the requisite skills to take mitigating actions against cyberattacks. The analysis of covariance results indicated that, except for years using computers, all the other demographic indicators were not significant. Contributions from this study add to the body of knowledge by providing empirical results on the factors that motivate senior citizens to acquire cybersecurity skills, and thus, may help in reducing some of the billions of dollars in losses accrued to them because of cyber-attacks. Senior citizens will also benefit in that they will be better able to identify and mitigate the effects of cyber-attacks should they attend cybersecurity awareness trainings. Additionally, the recommendations from this study can be useful to law enforcement and other agencies that work with senior citizens in reducing the number of cases relating to cybersecurity issues amongst senior citizens, and thus, free up resources to fight other sources of cybercrime for law enforcement agencies.

This research is an exploratory study of thirty human service agencies' programs to link their services to informal helpers in their communities. The helpers were persons identified as important helping resources to persons in their own social networks, who were often also clients of the service agency. The thirty agencies were drawn from across the nation, and served several different types of client populations and needs. Models from practice and theory suggest that linkages between the formal and informal caregiving systems should be modeled after primary relations, informal and personal in character. Research and literature on organizations suggests, however, that the formal service system tends to impose its own standards of control and accountability on its linkages. This research sought to determine how agency context influenced the structure of relationships between agency staff and informal helpers. Specifically, what organizational attributes are barriers to informally structured relationships? Does the perception of the program mediate the influence of organizational attributes on the relationship structure? The data were gathered through intensive site visits, using discussions, observations, and document reviews, from which case studies and content analyses were prepared. Multiple item scales were constructed to measure several attributes of the agency context, the program innovation, and the staff-helper relationship. The scales constructed range in reliability from alpha = .29 to .93. A conceptual model described the predicted relationships among the variables, from which seven hypotheses were derived. Pearson correlations, partial correlations, and multiple regression were used to test the hypotheses statistically. Case materials were used to supplement the statistical analyses. The pattern of associations found in the study was more complex than initially proposed. High program unit formalization was the single best predictor of high formalization of the staff-helper relationship, while a supportive work climate was a good predictor of informal relationships between agency staff and informal helpers.

Citizen science projects present a distinctive opportunity for professional and volunteer scientists to coordinate their efforts to gather unique sets of data that can benefit the scientific and local communities. These projects are assumed to be an effective educational tool to teach nature of science (NOS) to participants (Brossard, Lewenstein, Bonney, 2005). This case study evaluates the effectiveness of participation in a citizen science project as a way to learn about NOS. Through enhancement of the Tryon Creek Owl Monitoring Project the researcher reviewed the characteristics of a citizen science project that were thought to be necessary to impact the volunteers' knowledge of NOS. The study also explored the benefits and limitations to organizing the citizen science protect using the principles of action research. Analysis of participants' knowledge and the effectiveness of active research theory, was evaluated through pre- and post- questionnaires and interviews. Although volunteers were able to explore the core themes of NOS through actively engaging in the scientific process, they did not experience a statistically significant change in their demonstration of understanding. For a multitude of reasons, participants had a positive experience with the presence of an embedded researcher within the project. This case study supports the use of active research as a guide to ensure that within each project the needs of both the scientific community and the volunteer scientists are met.