The aim of this thesis is to investigate the assessment process in Swedish compulsory school practice, and the changes that occur in relation to the introduction of national school reforms. The fieldwork forming the basis of the thesis was conducted in year five and year six classrooms between 2011-2013, a period during which new national syllabuses with knowledge requirements, grades in year six and extended national tests were introduced. The thesis consists of four articles, the first of which explores how the assessment process is put into practice in a year five classroom and how it is understood by the students and one of their teachers. The fieldwork on which the first article is based was conducted prior to the introduction of the above-mentioned reforms. The second article investigates the assessment process in two different year five classrooms in two schools, after the introduction of the new syllabuses but prior to the introduction of grades in year six and extended national tests. The third article investigates changes in the assessment process in the same two schools. The fieldwork was conducted in year five and year six, in relation to the introduction of grades in year six and extended national tests. The fourth article addresses how changes in the assessment process have affected students’ learner identities. The empirical material was collected during four fieldwork periods in three schools, chiefly through classroom observations, interviews and student essays. The analysis in the thesis is based primarily on Basil Bernstein’s (e.g. 2000) theoretical framework but also on the theoretical concepts of Torrance and Pryor (1998). The study shows that the reforms are exerting a significant influence on the assessment process in the investigated classroom practices. Teachers monitor their students’ performance more closely and students strive to acquaint themselves with what is expected of them. It also appears that the focus is increasingly on students’ performance in relation to the steering documents, that the more regulated practices restrict teachers’ and students’ autonomy and that the assessment process in the two schools investigated in both year five and year six are becoming increasingly similar. Furthermore, the study shows that students tend to pay more attention to their school work, while at the same time experiencing more negative pressure to perform. In the concluding analysis and discussion sections, connections are drawn between prevailing education policy and the reforms, as well as their influence on classroom practice, students and teachers.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine how Saudi Arabia is portrayed in Swedish press. This includes the largest newspapers from the major cities of Sweden as well as the larger newspapers from the less populated areas. Since a significant amount of news in these newspapers, especially those from the less populated areas, are provided from news agencies these were included in the study as well.  The questions examined were: which portrayals of Saudi Arabia is used in the Swedish press and how frequently are they recurring? Does the historic relationship between Europe and Islam effect contemporary portrayals of Saudi Arabia in Swedish press and, in that case, how? Do differences in portrayals occur depending on the relationship between Sweden and Saudi Arabia in the news context? To approach this we conducted a quantitative framing analysis. Three frames were first identified in a qualitative study. How frequently these frames were used was then analyzed with a quantitative approach. The news articles examined were published during two news events. In 2012 information regarding the military cooperation between Sweden and Saudi Arabia surfaced causing criticism towards the Swedish regime. In 2015 the Swedish regime decided to cancel said military cooperation. The study showed that the historic relationship between Europe and Islam does indeed effect the portrayal of Saudi Arabia in Swedish press today. Attributes commonly associated with post colonialism and orientalism such as Muslims as barbaric and highly conservative was found. The study also found portrayals of Saudi Arabia as increasingly powerful and that this, due to the aforementioned attributes, was highly problematic. The “power frame”, as we chose to call it, was the most commonly used frame in both news events. The “barbaric frame” and the “conservative frame” was more commonly used in a news context were Sweden and Saudi Arabia stood in a diplomatic conflict.

The aim of this doctoral dissertation project has been to investigate and describe Entrepreneurship Education in one Swedish county, E‐county. The dissertation is based on five studies, four case studies and a minor follow‐up study. Together these studies constitute a multiple case study called The Main Study. The purpose of the study has been to investigate how European policy on entrepreneurship education has been reproduced and realized in different educational settings in E‐county, and the consequences this has had for fostering students and local identity building. The two first studies, cases A and B were carried out in three schools where three high school programs were studied, the Haircare program, a technical program and a social science program. The programs were chosen so that the whole range of highschool programs were represented; a practical program, a semi‐academic program and an academic program. The third case, C, contained the specific educational program ʺSummer Entrepreneur” which was developed in a local municipality in Ecounty, and had been spread throughout Sweden. The program was developed by local people within the framework of an educational concept that had been imported from Canada, “Open For Business“. The fourth study, case D, was carried out in the educational program Youth Enterprise in local high schools, including the so called “Practice school”. The fifth study was a minor study through interviews with representatives from the different educational programs. To enable methodical triangulation, studies A to D were carried out with interviews, questionnaires, observations and document analysis. The studies were based on theories of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and general education. The theoretical framework for analysis was based on Basil Bernstein’s (2000) theoretical concepts classification, framing, the pedagogic device and pedagogic identities. The major finding from the Main Study was that entrepreneurship education was already part of the educational programs studied for some time before it became part of the Swedish national curricula in 2011. Entrepreneurship had become an element in the fostering of local identities in E‐county. Since it has become a major element of the value base in the national curricula, it will probably be an important part in fostering and identity building in all Swedish schools in the future.

This dissertation critically examines how U.S. print media sought to represent the realities of decolonizing and newly independent countries in West Africa by focusing on pivotal events and charismatic leaders from the “non” vote in Guinea in 1958 to the radical appeal of Amilcar Cabral in Guinea-Bissau in 1973. The framing and agenda setting of mainstream media coverage turned leaders and events into metonyms not only for peoples and nations but also for Africa and Africans as a whole. However, the complexities of West Africa, such as political rivalry in the Congo or civil war in Nigeria, troubled such representations. Thus this dissertation tracks the widening of coverage and opening up of representations in African American and New Left print media in a time of global unrest as well as Cold War.

The relationship between Japan and the U.S. has endured contention since the beginning of the millennium, but the two countries remain allies. This quantitative and qualitative content analysis examines the print coverage of two controversies in Japan-U.S. relations: the sinking of a Japanese fishing trawler and the controversy surrounding the Futenma base. By applying the theoretical framework of media framing, the research examines four U.S. newspapers and one Japanese newspaper while considering the two corresponding geopolitical periods: Japan (sur)passing. By coding each article for predefined framing categories, the research found in the era of (sur)passing, the application of the mea culpa and responsibility frames mirrored the geopolitical dynamic of the time. However, the reconciliation frame, created by the U.S. newspapers’ use of elite news sources in the period of Japan passing, went against the scholarly interpretation of the period, and instead focused on a positive bilateral relationship in order to influence public opinion.

Pat Tillman—an Arizona Cardinals player who sacrificed everything to serve his country but died in Afghanistan—was initially touted as a true American hero who was killed by enemy fire. In reality, however, the Tillman narrative was based on nothing but military propaganda. This research focused on how mainstream U.S. newspapers used news frames, overall story tone, and news sources before and after the official acknowledgement of the true cause of Tillman's death as fratricide. As hypothesized from C. Wright Mills' "lesser institutions," Antonio Gramsci's hegemony, and Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's propaganda model, the newspapers generally decreased both direct and indirect references to news frames involving "lesser institutions" (e.g., NFL, Arizona State University) and ideological values (e.g., heroism, patriotism) after the revelation, but they were not critical of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars or the Bush administration at all. In addition, they increased their dependence on official sources and decreased family and friend sources after his cause of death was changed. The results as a whole indicate that in the Tillman saga, the revelation of his true cause of death introduced a significant disruption to the propaganda information system, causing news frames to decrease, but the third filter of the propaganda model—reliance on official sources—was strong enough to overcome that disruptive event and continue to protect the power elite.

This thesis explores the conversation surrounding the recent attempts by the Vermont Legislature to pass a Sugar-Sweetened Beverage tax in the years 2014-2016. We explore the common perceptions expressed by a sample of Vermont residents and also look at how Vermont media outlets portrayed the tax through frames of reference. Framing is a method of emphasizing certain points of an issue. This thesis reports the common opinions of Vermonters, the media framing of the issue, and if there is any relationship between them in two academic journal articles. The first article looks at the common frames used in Vermont media during the 2014-2016 period. Classifying 10 pro- and anti-tax frames from 30 common arguments, the article analyzes the use of these frames, their prevalence in different news outlets, and their frequency during time periods. The article also looks at sponsors of these frames and measures which frames individuals and organizations are sponsoring. The study finds that anti-tax advocates most often cite economic hindrances as a reason to oppose the tax and pro-tax advocates predominately cite health benefits and economic tax benefits as a reason to support the tax. In the final year, pro-tax advocates sponsored economic benefits more than any other frames and this argument coincided with the statewide discussion of a budget shortfall. The second article measures the relationship between the media portrayal of the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage tax and the opinions of Vermont citizens regarding the tax. By looking at the prevalence of pro- and anti-tax frames usage in each year, a logistic regression model was built to measure the odds of people favoring tax based off of independent variables, including frames. Vermont residents fluctuated in their opinion of the tax over the years. It was found that in 2015, pro-tax frames made people more likely to support the tax. Democrats were also more likely to support the tax and Republicans were more likely to oppose the tax. This thesis provides insight into the conversation surrounding Sugar-Sweetened Beverage taxes in Vermont. It helps to shed light on the issue, how different groups feel about the issue, and how frames of thought presented through the media can relate to Vermonters' opinion of the tax.

The purpose of this study is to examine four Swedish newspapers views on female athletes in the Olympic Games in Mexico City 1968 and Barcelona 1992, and examine what information the Swedish public received through their reporting about the Olympic Games in Mexico City and Barcelona. The study is based on printed editions of the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Expressen, Kvällsposten and Idag.   The study is a quantitative content analysis, containing a total number of 68 articles. In this paper the theoretical perspective is based on the framing theory, where the focus is how the female athletics were depicted in the Swedish press.   The results show that the Swedish newspapers want to portray and communicate about the female athletics performance, which applies to both the Olympic Games in 1968 and 1992. However, there were news reports in both Olympics that focused more on reproducing the female participant's appearance rather than their athletic performance. The results also show that there are only slight differences in each newspapers framing of female athletics in the Olympic Games in Mexico City 1968. The most usual descriptions based on my results are that female athletics are beautiful, girls and small. The result of this paper shows that is possible to perceive a change of the most common descriptions in the Olympics Games in Barcelona 1992. In the Olympics 1992 framing as doped and civil state began to more usual in the news that was about female athletics.

This thesis explores national and international news reporting of a major controversial news story – the sinking of South Korean corvette, Cheonan in March 2010. The thesis draws upon a comparative analysis of major news coverage pertaining to the incident with a sample of US/UK and South Korean media (AP, CNN, The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Yonhap,The Hankyoreh Shinmun, The DongA Ilbo). In addition 18 semi-structured interviews with foreign correspondents and Korean journalists were conducted in order to explore news gathering practices concerning the incident and to investigate factors that influence news production. There has been a growing debate that a paradigm shift in journalism theory is necessary in the post-Cold War era. This study examines how a new paradigm shift might be applicable in the case of North Korea. This study also addresses international news flow and explores the propaganda model by Herman and Chomsky (2002) in light of media influence in foreign policy. Specifically, this study attempts to investigate the applicability of some filters in the propaganda model in the context of the North and South Korea’s conflict coverage, concentrating on the use of news sources and the impact of new media on journalism practices. This is contextualised by addressing journalistic challenges of covering South and North Korean conflicts. Key findings are that the dominant news frames identified were conflict frames in international news media and human interest frame in national news respectively. The primary factor that influenced journalism practices at a national and an international level include a journalist’s ideology - one of the most significant factors in news framing. Moreover, a routinized journalism practice, and inaccessibility to North Korea that entailed limited news sources also influenced the ways in which news relating to the Cheonan incident was reported. Some filters of the propaganda model, which are routinized news sources relying on officials and ideological convergence such as anti-communism were operationalised in the case of the Cheonan. The international news agencies also played a pivotal role as primary definer and seemed to influence national and international mainstream media. Correspondents perceived that the Korean news media’s ideological cleavage hampered Korean social integration. On a global scale, South Korea’s security is under the influence of geopolitical power control with peripheral countries. Given the impact of newsmaking on society and policy making, this study highlights that investigative journalism practices based on gathering ‘facts’ and the personal ethics of journalists themselves are indispensable.

The diploma thesis called "The Framing of the Topic of National Indebtedness in MF DNES and Právo before the Election to the Chamber of Deputies 2010" deals with a concrete example of framing in Czech media praxis. The national indebtedness was one of the key topics during the pre-election campaign. The coverage of this topic is analyzed in two Czech newpapers - Mladá fronta DNES and Právo. The diploma thesis describes the frames used in the coverage and compares framing in both newpapers.