This thesis investigates the complex relationship between political institutions and health care policy through framing techniques employed in political discourse in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It addresses how rights and market framing interact in the development, passage and further discourses on the PPACA. President Obama’s discourses are analyzed using qualitative critical discourse analysis of five remarks and addresses given between 2009-2013. These speeches are unpacked and catego-rized to illustrate the change in framing techniques over time. Three main findings are presented after the analysis portion: market framing is used more frequently in the developmental stages of the PPACA, mixed rights and market framing are largely conveyed through anecdotes, and the “right to affordable health care” is forwarded as an argument. These findings support the main argument that rights and market frames have a high level of interaction in the development of the PPACA.

Two studies based on one online randomized controlled trial examined the effects of sport gain-framed messages (Rothman & Salovey, 1997) and a sport possible self (Murru & Martin Ginis, 2010) protocol on indices of possible self activation and elaboration, sport intention, and sport activity. 244 non-sporting adults (M = 50.59, 40-59 yrs) completed baseline/screening measures (T1), a gain-framed experimental/control intervention one week later (T2), and follow-up measures (T3) four weeks after T2. Study 1 showed gain-framed participants most frequently attended to a health and fitness message, more frequently described a possible self, and elaborated more on their possible selves (especially about delaying aging and developing friendships through sport). Study 2 indicated that gain-framed individuals requested more sport newsletters and registered for more sport programs. From T1 to T2, gain-framed conditions facilitated increased intentions for those with low approach motivation, whereas control conditions improved intentions for individuals with high approach motivation.

Given the expansion of multimedia technology and proliferation of moving projections on the theatre stage in the 21st century, this thesis examines how a virtual or projected character can appear to be present without a physical body on the stage. This study is grounded in the theories of effet de présence (effect of presence) as elaborated by Josette Féral, but also uses other theories to look at how productions can create such an effect for virtual characters. Specifically, this thesis examines the character’s relationship with the real, framing devices and actions of the characters. The specific examples of Rwanda 94 (Groupov), La Belle et la Bête (4D Art) and Les Aveugles (UBU CC) are used as case studies in order to focus on these techniques. Partant de l’intégration des nouvelles technologies et la prolifération des projections vidéo au sein des scènes théâtrales du 21e siècle, cette thèse examine les techniques par lesquel les personnages projeté peut sembler présent en l’absence d’un corps physique visible. Cette réflexion est basée sur l’effet de présence, concept élaboré par Josette Féral, ainsi que d’autres théories et examine comment un effet de présence est constitué pour ces personnages virtuels en considérant leur relation au réel (mimesis), les dispositifs de cadrage dans lesquels ils s’inscrivent de même que leurs actions. Cette analyse sera menée à porter de avec trois étudies de cas : Rwanda 94 (Groupov), La Belle et la Bête (4D Art) et Les Aveugles (UBU CC).

The aim of this research is to determine the extent to which the framing of information can reduce the persistence of misinformation. The overall research consists of two experiments of which the first has been conducted and is described in this paper. It investigates the strength of differently framed statements and the degree to which the regulatory focus fit the participants experienced influenced their preference for certain statements. 52 participants have completed the survey in which they were presented several statements containing the same facts but framed differently based on the principles of valence message framing. The research found the positive goal frame, positive valence frame and the company s original statement to be most effective. These statements will form the basis for the second experiment which aims to combine the different frames in such a manner that the continued influence effect will be reduced.

La política exterior es un tema de relevancia constante, un asunto estatal fundamental y que, junto a la política de defensa, son las únicas políticas públicas que tienen una orientación predominantemente internacional. En los sistemas presidenciales, el presidente, sobre todo en Latinoamérica, ha tenido un lugar privilegiado en la definición y conducción de política exterior; pese a esto, aún falta mucha literatura actualizada al respecto. Es por lo anterior, que se desarrolla el siguiente análisis, bajo la pregunta general ¿Cuáles son los principales aspectos de la política exterior mexicana y chilena que los presidentes destacan ante el Debate General de las Naciones Unidas y en qué forma (frame) lo hacen? Con la particularidad de ser estudiado a través de dos teorías complementarias y actuales: el Foreign Policy Analysis y el Framing analysis. / Foreign policy is a subject of continuing relevance, a key state issue, and along with defense policy, are the only public policies that have a predominantly international orientation. The president has been privileged in setting the agenda of foreign policy in presidential systems, especially in Latin America; however, there are very few studies in Latin America explaining this issue. This analysis focuses in the following question: What are the main foreign policy’s aspects that the presidents of Mexico and Chile highlight in the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly and by which frame they do it? This will be studied through important concepts of the Foreign Policy Analysis and Framing analysis approaches.

A transformative decision rule alters the representation of a decisionproblem, either by changing the sets of acts and states taken intoconsideration, or by modifying the probability or value assignments.Examples of decision rules belonging to this class are the principleof insufficient reason, Isaac Levi’s condition of E-admissibility, Luceand Raiffa’s merger of states-rule, and the de minimis principle. Inthis doctoral thesis transformative decision rules are analyzed froma foundational point of view, and applied to two decision theoreticalproblems: (i) How should a rational decision maker model a decisionproblem in a formal representation (‘problem specification’, ‘formaldescription’)? (ii) What role can transformative decision rules play inthe justification of the principle of maximizing expected utility?The thesis consists of a summary and seven papers. In Papers Iand II certain foundational issues concerning transformative decisionrules are investigated, and a number of formal properties of this classof rules are proved: convergence, iterativity, and permutability. InPaper III it is argued that there is in general no unique representationof a decision problem that is strictly better than all alternative representations.In Paper IV it is shown that the principle of maximizingexpected utility can be decomposed into a sequence of transformativedecision rules. A set of axioms is proposed that together justify theprinciple of maximizing expected utility. It is shown that the suggestedaxiomatization provides a resolution of Allais’ paradox that cannot beobtained by Savage-style, nor by von Neumann and Morgenstern-styleaxiomatizations. In Paper V the axiomatization from Paper IV is furtherelaborated, and compared to the axiomatizations proposed byvon Neumann and Morgenstern, and Savage. The main results in PaperVI are two impossibility theorems for catastrophe averse decisionrules, demonstrating that given a few reasonable desiderata for suchrules, there is no rule that can fulfill the proposed desiderata. In PaperVII transformative decision rules are applied to extreme risks, i.e.to a potential outcome of an act for which the probability is low, butwhose (negative) value is high. / <p>QC 20100622</p>

On October 22, 2015, a masked man entered the primary school Kronan in Trollhättan and stabbed three people to death with a knife and a sword. Shortly after the attack the perpetrator was shot to death by the police. The event received a great deal of spatial attention in Swedish media and has been called the worst school attack in Swedish history. The twenty-one-year-old perpetrator had grown up in Trollhättan and it is his origin that is of interest in this study. The aim of this study is to examine how a perpetrator of native origin is portrayed in a Swedish medium. Previous research, which shows that there is a difference between how a perpetrator of native origin is portrayed compared to a foreign one, is used as background. According to these studies media often focuses on the perpetrator’s ethnicity and descent if the person is of foreign origin. Through a qualitative framing analysis we examine how the perpetrator in Trollhättan is portrayed in Sweden’s largest news website, namely aftonbladet.se. We explore how the perpetrator's ethnicity and origin are expressed and which of the perpetrator's characteristics are focused on by Aftonbladet. Through framing analysis we also explore how the perpetrator is portrayed from an us-and-them perspective, and how ideas and concepts are personalized through him. The results of this study show that the male perpetrator who is of native origin in the case Trollhättan is portrayed as a lone maniac who committed an act of evil and that Aftonbladet focused on his personal circumstances, for example that he had issues socializing.

The corona crisis has dominated the news media during 2020. The covid-19 virus has swept across the world and taken many lives. Countries have taken different approaches to handling the outbreak, with Sweden being a special case. Almost no other countries in Europe have taken the same approach. In fact, internationally Sweden has taken a lot of criticism. Different studies have shown that the media tend to report in favor of the authorities during crises. Journalism, according to these studies, proves to be more descriptive during those times and the investigative parts of journalism tend to suffer.  The role of public service media, grounded in respective countries' laws, is to stay objective and in a way serve the people with balanced news reporting. That makes them an interesting subject for this study, since it might show if they have been true to their values. The purpose of this study, which is a quantitative content analysis, is to analyse how public service media in Sweden and Finland has been framing the Swedish corona strategy during the pandemic following the coronavirus covid-19. This by analysing if there are any differences between Sveriges television (SVT) and Yleisradio Oy (YLE) in their framing and on who the responsibility has been placed to prevent the virus from spreading, which sources have been cited in the articles and if this changes over time. Our findings show that there are differences between the media organizations in their presentation of the corona strategy, regarding the study’s issues. For example, SVT placed a bigger responsibility on individuals than YLE, who were more likely to place it on the Swedish government. Although they both mainly placed it upon the government. The most common frame in both organizations was attribution of responsibility, in which the main part of individual responsibility was found. This is likely due to this frame mainly being used on press conferences where the government put out new restrictions. For a more interpretive conclusion, a qualitative analysis is encouraged as future research.

The aim of this study was to examine differences and similarities in the news coverage among the presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the presidential election 2020. We also examined how the candidates are framed in the different newspapers. In this study, similarities and differences regarding national variances in news articles from Swedish and American newspapers, also where a important part of the research. We did a qualitative text analysis based on 48 online articles from 6 different newspapers, the 3 largest from each country. The newspapers in question are USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times from USA and Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen from Sweden. The result showed that there were more differences between the two candidates than similarities, in the way they were presented in news media. Donald Trump was often portrayed as the president that had a very harsh tone in his statements, and he was throwing out accusations towards Biden and the Democrats without having any facts to back them up. This made him look rather ignorant and sometimes even dumb. Biden, on the other hand, was portrayed as the one who is more fitting for the role as president, based on the writings about his previous experience, and many of the articles in the analysis portrayed him as a friendly family man. The focus point on both candidates during the election was who was leading the election, who was leading in which state, and how much that specific candidate was winning by. This was a topic that frequently showed up in articles from both countries and they often portrayed the whole election as some kind of contest or game, instead of focusing on what the candidates wanted to do and change about the country. The American newspapers more frequently wrote about the statistics when it came to who was leading the election, and their news coverage wasn't as clear as the Swedish news coverage. The Swedish newspaper often used secondary sources, for example from American newspapers, since they weren't able to be where the election takes place, which means they are re-telling the things that happened during the election. Other than that, there weren't that many differences between the news coverage in the US and Sweden.

The purpose of the study was to investigate how the Swedish public service channel SVT, presents sports and athletes in the sports news program Sportspegeln. We have conducted a quantitative content analysis of twelve episodes from a one-year period starting in October 2019 and ending in September 2020. The study showed that male athletes are, by far, the most visible in the program. Regardless of the sport, the male athlete is almost always portrayed as the ideal. Except when it comes to skiing, then it is the women who get to be seen the most.  An interesting connection, as our study showed, is that the gender distribution looks the same if you look among the journalists. In all sports, it is mostly male journalists, except in ski sports where most journalists are women.