In October 2015, a masked man armed with a sword and a knife entered the school Kronan in the Swedish town Trollhättan. Four people, including the perpetrator, were killed and another two severely injured. The aim of this study is to examine the frames in medias description of the event and of the perpetrator from the view of the journalistic responsibilities. The event in Trollhättan can be seen as an act of terror and during such events the journalistic responsibilities sometimes changes. There is a conflict in the aspect of telling the truth on one hand and protecting the citizens from harm on the other, in order not to reproduce the terrorist’s message in the press. This study is a qualitative framing analysis of 11 articles from the local newspaper TTELA. We found that the most salient frame of the event was grief rather than drama and that the media acted on the responsibility of protecting the citizens from details. The perpetrator was described as a lone wolf with connections to racist groups on the Internet. There was a shallow frame regarding the danger with the groups on the Internet but the main problem was described as gone with the death of the lonely perpetrator.

In the autumn of 2015 a huge amount of refugees were on the run to Sweden. The news media described the situation as a refugee crisis and border controls were initiated. The aim of this study was to examine how two Swedish newspapers, one national and one local, portrayed refugees at the time when the border controls were initiated in Sweden. The questions examined were: How are the refugees portrayed, what are the similarities and differences between Dagens Nyheter and Sydsvenskan’s portrayal of the refugees? To approach this we made two different analysis of reports from each newspaper, three from Dagens Nyheter and two from Sydsvenskan. We did a framing analysis on the text and a semiotic analysis on the pictures. Findings show that the portrayal of refugees are very similar in both newspapers. The refugees are described as inferior, but at the same time brave, well-educated and hopeful. We also found that refugees often are portrayed as “the others” and the citizens of Sweden are portrayed as “we”. Although the similarities outweighs, we found some interesting differences in the newspapers portrayal of the refugees. For example, in Dagens Nyheter the hopefulness is combined with a positive and joyful approach, while Sydsvenskan describes the hope with an uncertainty and concern about the future.

Many recent experimental studies have shown that some subjects destroy other subjects' incomes without receiving any material benefit, and that they even incur costs to do so. In this paper, we study the boundary conditions of this phenomenon, which is referred to as anti-social behavior. We introduce a four-player destruction game, in which we vary the framing and the presence of another activity, running in parallel to the destruction game. We observe a substantial amount of destruction in the baseline condition without the parallel activity, and with a framing in the spirit of previous destruction experiments. Our results indicate that a parallel activity as well as a framing emphasizing joint ownership of the item that can be destroyed reduces destruction almost to zero. We therefore argue that the emergence of anti-social behavior is highly contingent on the contextual environment. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Studiens övergripande syfte var att undersöka matematikutbildningen och matematikämnets roll i samband med stadiebytet från grund- till gymnasieskolan. Studien styrdes av två forskningsfrågor gällande den bild eleverna ger av matematikämnets betydelse för deras val av gymnasieprogram samt vad som karaktäriserar matematikutbildningen i årskurs 9 och gymnasiets årskurs 1. Den första frågan besvarades via en skriftlig enkät till samtliga elever i årskurs 9 i en större kommun och den andra frågan utifrån videoinspelade lektionsobservationer i båda skolstadierna, kompletterat med elevintervjuer. Resultatet visar att faktorer som goda valmöjligheter för framtiden och möjlighet till ett bra arbete var viktiga för programvalet. Cirka 36 % av eleverna angav att matematikämnet inte hade påverkat programvalet, medan 35 % ansåg sig ha påverkats och då oftast i positiv bemärkelse, dock med tydliga skillnader mellan olika program. I jämförelsen av årskurs 9 och årskurs 1 användes begrepp från Bernsteins teori om pedagogisk diskurs samt den antropologiska teorin om det didaktiska. Analysen pekade på stora likheter mellan de båda skolstadierna när det gäller lektionernas struktur och elevernas frihet att välja uppgifter att arbeta med, vilket kan ha bidragit till att stadiebytet inte upplevdes som särskilt dramatiskt. En uttalad skillnad var fler och längre gemensamma genomgångar och ett högre studietempo i gymnasiet. Studien lyfter fram olika aspekter av och kopplingar mellan elevernas gymnasieval och matematikutbildningens karaktär, som bör ha betydelse för såväl studievägledning som för organisation och planering av undervisning. Den osynliga pedagogik som observerades beträffande kunskapskriterier och uppgiftsval är något som behöver synliggöras i den aktuella debatten om skolans matematikutbildning. / The aim of the study was to explore mathematics education and the role of mathematics in the transition from lower to upper secondary school. The study was guided by two research questions about the affection of mathematics while students apply for a study programme at upper secondary school and what characterises mathematics education in last year of lower secondary and first year of upper secondary school. To answer the first question a survey was given to all students in one municipality in their last year of lower secondary school, while the second question was investigated through videotaped lesson observations at both school levels, complemented by student interviews. The outcomes show that future options and occupation were important factors for the choice of study programme. About 36 % of the students claimed they had not been influenced by mathematics in their choice of programme while 35 % expressed they had, mainly in a positive sense although there were differences between the programmes. The analysis of the classroom observations and interviews was supported by concepts from Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse and the anthropological theory of the didactic, and indicated strong similarities between the levels regarding the lesson structure and students’ freedom to select tasks to work on. However, at the upper level front teaching was more frequent as well as extended in time and the students reported an increased study pace. The study highlights several aspects of and connections between students’ choice of programme and characteristics of the mathematics education during the transition, which should be of interest to career choice advisors and the organisation and design of education. Potential problems related to the invisible pedagogy observed regarding knowledge criteria and selection of tasks need to be raised in current debates on school mathematics.

The case of mobilization against hydraulic fracturing by interest groups provided an opportunity to examine the influence of three factors (mission, audience, and policy context) on diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. A comparative analysis was conducted of the mobilization activities of five national environmental organizations with a local presence in the Pennsylvania and New York Marcellus Shale regions. The organizations varied with respect to organizational mission, the audiences they were targeting (urban and rural), and the policy context in which they worked (pro and anti-hydraulic fracturing). Data came from eleven semi-structured in-depth interviews with organization personnel, and from the organizations' websites and published documents. The results of this research show how the organizations use diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing to mobilize citizens against hydraulic fracturing. They illustrate the influence of organizational mission, audience (urban versus rural), and policy context in how the groups take on these framing tasks. Overall, the findings provide insights into the variation in frames and framing that can occur at the organizational level inside a movement. They illustrate the explanatory value of investigating multiple factors as they affect diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Public budgeting has become a central artifact of American government – the principal means for establishing and implementing policy. Modern public budgeting was introduced in the early Twentieth Century as an adaptation of objects of revenue and expenditure budgeting used in commercial businesses. Since then - over a hundred years - a series of budget reform movements have sought to overcome a major drawback to this model: the lack of a direct link between revenues and expenditures and any measure of the quality or quantity of public benefits derived from budget allocations. While a number of major budget reforms have come and gone (or came and stayed), that provided additional information on government activities linked to allocations, little research has been done to assess whether this new information has actually been used in the legislative budget decision making process, and if so, whether it influenced final budget decisions. Framing theory holds that information about a problem presented in different ways will be perceived as a different problem by decision-makers. Using framing theory as a theoretical basis, a laboratory experiment was conducted, where groups using budgets differently framed budget documents deliberated over an identical budget scenario. It was found that the nature of the debate did vary based on type of framed budget, but that the final allocations were not significantly different.This document was prepared using Microsoft WORD 2003

The contemporary United States is at a crossroads with race: some believe achieving political equality rests in the ability to wilfully ignore race, while others assess colorblindness is a racial frame that only serves to prolong and irritate inequalities. Higher ed institutions have become involved in this conversation due to critiques of higher ed devaluing racial minorities both in the curriculum and in hiring practices. As a response, higher ed has promised to restructure their institution with diversity and PoC in mind. This research study seeks to understand if higher ed has maintained this promise. Twelve participants were qualitatively interviewed to assess their satisfaction with higher ed and the curriculum as it pertains to race. It was found that students were generally heavily critical of their education, particularly in the “diversity” claims made by the school. Their narratives additionally highlight the importance of sociological spaces within a neoliberal university.

TITLE: Phenomenon of disability and its image in the print media AUTHOR: Lenka Opočenská DEPARTMENT: Department of Special Education SUPERVISOR: Mgr. Lenka Felcmanová ABSTRACT: The thesis "The phenomenon of disability and its image in the print media" aims to find out how periodicals framed chosen topic of disabilities in one year. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the typology of models of disability and the definition of disability from different perspectives. The third chapter provides an overview of how the media shape the attitudes of society. The research section concentrates on how the media has framed newspaper articles and whether terminology changes were reflected in the media. KEYWORDS: Disability, models of disability, attitudes, framing, print media