This is a qualitative study based on fieldwork carried out in Accra, Ghana April 3 – May 29, 2010. The aim was to shed light on how a selected number of female Ghanaian journalists experience their working conditions from a gender based perspective. The material consists of eight semi-structured interviews ranging from 20 minutes to 1 hour 12 minutes. The interviewees are female, Ghanaian journalists between 23 and 46 years old working in print or broadcast media in Ghana.  The interviews were analyzed thematically resulting in seven sub-headings, all relating to my research questions, which were: - Is being a female journalist in Ghana today in any way a disadvantage/advantage? - How do female journalists in Ghana experience their opportunities to advance and be promoted? - Do female journalists in Ghana experience any differences between them and their male colleagues? Do they report on different kinds of subjects? My analysis conclude there are a number of disadvantages being female within the media in Ghana: there is a perception of female journalists being flirtatious and less professional than male journalists, it is challenging for female journalists to start a family since journalism is a very time-consuming profession and the responsibility for domestic work is still primarily on the woman and, finally, the interviewees experience they have to distinguish themselves from their male colleagues and make their mark as competent and professional to really be taken seriously. Concerning the opportunity to get promoted there is a contradiction; the interviewees all experience they have the opportunity to get promoted as long as they work hard, nevertheless they recognize a male-domination among their executives and expresses an awareness of gender based promotions. The interviewees claim they can report on whatever subjects they want, but they all express an awareness of the distinction between topics primarily covered by women and others by men. This contradiction is similar to the one articulated above. To sum up, there is a discrepancy between how the interviewees felt about their own situation and how they perceive the inequality issues surrounding them.

Näthatet uppmärksammas idag som ett växande problem. Internets utbredning har gett upphov till att hat och hot yttras mer obegränsat. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att utforska kvinnliga journalisters utsatthet av näthat samt bidra med kunskap om behovet av potentiellt stöd. Deltagarna var tio väletablerade frilansande samt redaktionsanställda kvinnliga journalister. Datainsamlingen gjordes med fokuserade kvalitativa intervjuer. Tematisk analys användes som metod för dataanalys. Resultatet visade på näthat som ett djupt etablerat mångfacetterat fenomen. Utsattheten för näthat ansågs bidra bl.a. till stress, rädsla och påverkan på det allmänna välbefinnandet. Utsattheten kunde hanteras genom olika copingstrategier samt praktiska åtgärder. Journalisterna i studien visade på en djuplodande medvetenhet om hatfenomenet och vilja att förmedla sin kunskap om näthatet och dess konsekvenser. Vidare framhölls ett behov av stöd och ansvarstagande från arbetsgivare och rättsväsende. Resultatet i föreliggande studie är i linje med befintlig forskning om hat och hot på nätet. / Internet hate is today highlighted as a growing issue. The expansion of internet hate has given rise to a more unrestricted expression of hate and threats. The present study aimed to explore female journalists’ exposure of internet hate and to contribute with knowledge regarding the need of potential support. The participators consisted of ten well established freelance and editorial female journalists. The data was collected with focused qualitative interviews. Thematic analysis was used as method for the data analysis. The result showed internet hate as a deep established multifaceted phenomenon. The exposure of internet hate was among other things considered contribute to stress and fear, and to have an impact on the general well-being. The exposure could be handled with the use of various coping strategies and practical measures. The journalists in the present study showed a profound awareness regarding the phenomena of hate and willingness to mediate their knowledge about internet hate and its consequences. Furthermore, a need of support and responsibility from employers and the judicial system was emphasized. The result in the present study is in line with existing research about hate and threats online.

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The diploma thesis deals with the mental health of war journalists in the period when this profession is undergoing significant changes. In the theoretical part, the thesis has the ambition to briefly describe the main development points of this profession from its inception to the present, which we define as a period of new wars. This is characterized by the increased danger faced by war journalists, as their originally respected, protected status has become the target of murder and kidnapping. The work of a war journalist has been transformed mainly in countries where media houses no longer have the funds to run foreign newsrooms and pay for the journeys of their journalists. Therefore, the phenomenon of freelance journalism has flourished, which gives journalists freedom at the cost of poor financial rewards and reduced security. However, the main topic of the work is the mental health of war journalists. Work stress, burnout syndrome, depression and post-traumatic disorder are mentioned as the main psychological pitfalls that the war journalist faces. An anomaly is identified that although an ordinary woman is more likely to develop PTSD than a man, a war journalist has the same probability as her male equivalent. Thus, the research part, through conducting semi-structured interviews, focuses...

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The purpose of this study is to compare the contents, editorials and front covers of Sweden’s oldest girl’s magazine Veckorevyn during two different years, in which the magazine had two very different chief editors. In the year 2000, Emma Hamberg got the job as editor-in-chief for Veckorevyn, with a vision of changing the way the magazine represented young females. She wanted to add a more feminist viewpoint to the magazine, since she felt that Veckorevyn didn’t live up to its claim of being “a girl’s best friend”. Six years later, the famous Swedish fashion editor Ebba von Sydow became editor-in-chief for Veckorevyn, with the intention of making the magazine better, smarter and more fun for young girls. Her ambition was also to add more features about career and affordable fashion, since she felt that those topics were important for young women of today. Since these two editor-in-chiefs wanted to do so different things with Veckorevyn, we found it interesting to try to pinpoint what their differences and similarities as editors-in-chief were and how this was reflected in the magazines. The methods used were quantitative content analysis and qualitative text analysis, together with a comparative analysis between the two annual volumes. We also did interviews with the two former editors-in-chiefs, Emma Hamberg and Ebba von Sydow to get a clearer image of what they wanted to do with the magazine and how well they thought that they reached their goals. As guidelines for the study, we used theories about the survival techniques used by female journalists, feminism, personification, the male gaze and the female gaze. We found that the two versions of Veckorevyn were similar in which subjects they chose to write about. Both versions had a content based mostly on fashion, beauty, and celebrities. However, we found a noticeable difference in how they wrote about these subjects. Other differences were found in how the editorials were written, and in the choice of what kind of people got to appear on the front covers.

The aim of this thesis is to find an answer to the question if gender influences news production and news selection. It is hypothesized that in national daily broadsheet newspapers, the editor's gender has no influence on the professional behaviour and therefore editors' preferences of topics and news values should be identical. The theoretical part deals with different approaches to the topic of gender influence on the news production, describes the situation and stereotyping of female journalists and strategies they choose to deal with it. Next it briefly recapitulates the main news values theories and dichotomy of "hard" and "soft" news. The research part describes a study of gender influence on decision-making processes during news selection in Czech national daily broadsheet newspapers. The statistical methods used herein include the Student's T-test, Z-test and ANOVA. The statistics show no significant differences between male and female editors in consideration of news topic importance (to the reader), news values assessment or the selection of printable news. All the editors in the researched respondent population tend to favor "hard" news and to consider the same values and topics important in the same manner regardless of their gender. Despite slight differences in individual topics, this...