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 following thesis is dedicated to the investigation of the comparative gender discourse of two of the current South American female Presidents: Michelle Bachelet, the first woman elected President in Chile for a four year term, in 2006 and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first woman elected President in Argentina also for a four year term, but in 2007. Using secondary sources and critical discourse analysis, the study attempts to characterize their agenda on gender both before and after their election campaigns. Recognizing that a candidate must balance between many actors, as one of the principles of social constructivism runs, the essay presents a short history of the feminist movement in both countries and the current state that the movement finds itself in, either institutionalized or absorbed and fragmented by party politics. The conclusions that the study arrives to are that, of the two subjects, the one who has presented a more concrete and convincing stand on gender thanks to her political views, the space created for feminism by her coalition and the climate of her country, is Michelle Bachelet.

This study explores how contemporary Afrikaans churches represent gender in their visual culture. For these purposes, a Barthean semiotic analysis is done on visual material produced between 2007 and 2008 by three Afrikaans corporate churches in the Pretoria- Centurion area, namely the Dutch Reformed congregations Moreletapark and kerksondermure (“church without walls”), and Doxa Deo’s Brooklyn and East campuses – Afrikaans Apostolic Faith Mission congregations. The analysis seeks to demystify and denaturalise the material’s potentially mythical, ideological and hegemonic underpinnings. Operating from an interdisciplinary theoretical framework comprising aspects of Visual Culture Studies and Gender Studies, this study primarily provides a focused analysis of the representation of men and masculinity in the selected churches according to three themes, namely professional occupation and leadership; physical activity and adventurism; and fatherhood. This focus was adopted owing to the lack of available literature on men and masculinity in the church and Christianity, as opposed to the more ready availability of research on women and femininity. The representation of gender in Moreletapark, kerksondermure and Doxa Deo is conceptualised in broad terms through a comparison of the representation of masculinity with femininity as its foil. In this regard gender is analysed in the three churches according to notions of gendered ontology and matters of work, marriage and family. Exscripted, or non-represented, themes are also problematised. It is argued that the churches under investigation represent gender in dualistic, essentialist and often stereotypical terms. This particular depiction of gender attests to the churches‟ participation in the biological essentialising of gender, polarising men and women into strict binary dualisms, whilst also visually denying the existence of homosexuality and alternative sexualities. This tendency is problematic, not only because it fails to provide a realistic portrayal of men and women in the three churches, but also because it visually participates in conservative and fundamentalist gender discourses. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

Au XXIe siècle, les images sont partout. Les avancées technologiques rendent aujourd’hui la fabrication et la distribution des images accessibles à tous, et le temps passé devant les écrans ne cesse de croitre. Pourtant, malgré cette omniprésence, le besoin d’une éducation à l’image n’est pas encore ressenti. Alors que le cheminement scolaire veille à l’enseignement écrit, l’éducation visuelle semble être oubliée, notamment par le système d’éducation québécois. Face à ce problème, j’ai voulu explorer les capacités du cinéma comme outil dans l’enseignement de la littératie visuelle dans un mémoire de recherche-création. Ainsi, dans la première section, les concepts de littératie visuelle et de pensée critique sont définis et analysés, et leur place au sein du système d’éducation est examinée. La deuxième section traite du cinéma, notamment en tant que langage enseignable. La troisième partie couvre, sous divers angles, l’influence des images chez les spectateurs. La quatrième section offre quant à elle une réflexion sur la représentation des genres et son action sur les spectateurs du point de vue des goûts et du rapport aux genres. Enfin, la dernière section présente l’exercice pédagogique à la base de la création accompagnant ce mémoire. Cette création documentaire permet d’observer le processus d’apprentissage de participants dans leur processus d’exercice pédagogique et le développement d’une littératie visuelle. La double mise en abyme offre une opportunité de réfléchir à la capacité du cinéma comme moteur d’apprentissage face aux images. / In the 21st century, images are everywhere. Technological advances have made the production and distribution of visual media accessible to everyone; the time spent in front of screens keeps increasing. Yet, despite this ubiquity, the need for a visual education has not been felt. While the Quebec education system focuses on written language, the visual language seems to have been left apart. In light of this problem, this research-creation thesis intends to explore the potential of cinema to be a relevant tool for visual literacy. In the first section, I offer a definition and an analysis of the concepts of visual literacy and critical thinking, and examine their place in the Quebec education system. The second section covers how cinema can be considered as a teachable language. In the third section, I show different ways in which images can influence viewers. The fourth section reflects on how those influences affect the tastes and opinions regarding gender. As for the last section, it is a description of the pedagogical exercise created for this study. This written part is completed by a creation. My documentary film brings further reflections on visual literacy and how it can be acquired by the participants of the pedagogical exercise. This mise en abyme allows the viewer to look at how cinema can be a vector of learning in the face of visual media.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa hur kvinnoideal och värderingar reproduceras på Instagram genom att undersöka hur de gestaltas i reklamfilm som använder influencer marketing. Genom att analysera och jämföra den visuella gestaltningen med det verbalt uttryckta i samband med betalda samarbeten kan frågeställningarna besvaras. 1) Vilka likheter och skillnader finns mellan det visuella och det verbala framställandet av kvinnoideal och värderingar i betalda influensersamarbeten? 2) På vilket sätt använder sig företagen av influencers uttalade ideal och värderingar i reklam?  De teoretiska utgångspunkterna har behandlat skapandet av influencers, förtroendet till influencers, feministisk teori och marknadsföring, feministisk blickteori, Goffmans teori om könsframställning samt gestaltningskomponenterna. I studien har jag utifrån denna teoretiska ram och en semiotisk innehållsanalys analyserat två reklamfilmer från de svenska företagen Aimn och Deodoc som använder influencer marketing publicerade på Instagram. Därefter har jag jämfört det visuella materialet med verbalt material i form av de medverkande influencers uttalade åsikter som de yttrat i reklam för respektive företag. I min analys av det rörliga materialet är underordning och en sexualiserad bild av kvinnan frekvent förekommande i porträtteringen. I Aimns video användes ofta en ovanifrån-vinkel och ifråntagandet av blicken som förminskar och underordnar objektet i relation till betraktaren. I Deodocs video användes en neutral kameravinkel och hon har en blick som möter kameran, på så sätt en kontroll av sin egen blick och en mer jämställd maktrelation till betraktaren. Beröring användes både i syftet att uttrycka ömtålighet och styrka i båda reklamfilmerna. I det verbala materialet användes starka ord och värderingar som anspelade på en stolt och stark kvinna. Dessutom uttrycktes ett värde i att vara naturlig och ”som man är” i det verbala materialet medan det visuella uttryckte en iscensättning och idealet som en fixad attraktiv kvinna. Resultatet tyder alltså på att de två kvinnliga influencerna gestaltades olika i den visuella och verbala gestaltningen.  På frågeställning ett kunde slutsatsen dras att i Deodocs video överensstämmer värderingarna även om företaget prioriterat en visuellt snygg scen där Bianca Ingrosso sexualiseras snarare än porträtteras som naturlig. Verbalt lyfter man i kampanjen menstruation som något naturligt som ingen bör skämmas för men i det den visuella gestaltningen görs detta på ett attraktivt sätt. I Aimns video så har slutsatsen för den första frågeställningen dragits att videon visuellt anspelar på kroppen som ett objekt medan influencern Nicole Falciani verbalt uttalar sig om insidan och vad kroppen kan göra som det viktiga. På den andra frågeställningen om hur företag använder sig av influencers unika och förtroendeingivande särställning i reklam har slutsatsen dragit att dessa företag har använt en influencer för att skapa förtroende och tillit till företaget och budskapet. / The purpose of this essay is to examine how women's ideals and values are reproduced on Instagram by examining how they are embodied in commercials that use influencer marketing. By analyzing and comparing the visual design with the verbally expressed within a paid collaboration, the questions can be answered: 1) What are the similarities and differences between the visual and the verbal presentation of women's ideals and values in paid influencer collaborations? 2) In what way do companies use influencers' stated ideals and values in advertising? The theoretical basis explains the creation of influencers, trust for influencers, in addition to a feminist theory, marketing, feminist gaze theory, Goffman's theory of gender representation and the design components. The study uses semiotic content analysis to analyze two commercials from the Swedish companies Aimn and Deodoc that uses influencer marketing published on Instagram. Then I compared the visual material with the verbal material in the form of the participating influencers' expressed opinions that they expressed in advertising for each company. In my analysis of the visual material, subordination and a sexualized image of the woman are frequent in the portrayal. Aimn's video frequently uses a camera angle from above and presents Nicole without a gaze which diminishes and subordinates her in relation to the observer. In Deodoc’s video, a neutral camera angle is used and Bianca is given a gaze that meets the camera, thus she owns her gaze and has equal power relationship to the viewer. Touch was used both to express fragility and strength in both commercials. In the verbal material, strong words and values which alluded to a proud and strong woman were used. Additionally, a value in being natural was expressed in the verbal material while the visual expressed a staging and the ideal of a fixed attractive woman. The results thus indicate that the two female influencers were portrayed differently in the visual and verbal portrayal. To answer the first question, it could be concluded that in Deodoc's video, the values are consistent even if the company prioritizes a visually attractive scene where Bianca is sexualized rather than portrayed as natural. Verbally, the campaign shows menstruation as something natural that no one should be ashamed of, but in the visual design, this is done attractively. In Aimn's video, the conclusion for the first question has been drawn that the video visually alludes to the body as an object while the influencer Nicole Falciani verbally speaks about the inside and what the body can do as the most important. To answer the second question about how companies use influencers' unique and trustworthy position in advertising, it has been concluded that these companies have used an influencer to create trust and confidence in the company and the message.

No description available.

This thesis explores the development of a series of posters created by Howard Chandler Christy during the World War I era. During this time, Christy was a Department of Pictorial Publicity (DPP) committee artist commissioned by the committee chair, Charles Dana Gibson. The DPP was part of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) developed by the Woodrow Wilson administration to generate the propaganda necessary to gain the support of the American people to enter World War I. The CPI was headed up by George Creel, a journalist and politician, who used advertising techniques to create the first full-scale propaganda effort in United States history. American poster images of women during World War I represent an era when propaganda posters came of age. These iconographic interpretations depicted in political propaganda helped shape the history of the twentieth century. While exploring these portrayals of women, the observer looks through a historical lens to contemplate the role of propaganda in the American war effort, while considering the disparity between images of women and the reality of their experiences in the patriarchal society in which they lived. Howard Chandler Christy's war-related posters represented the gendered rhetoric of a social order that functioned under the well-established assumption that men and women both had their place in society based on gender-specific stereotypic characteristics. Women were central to propaganda posters from this era; their images were widely used in posters encouraging Americans to support the war effort. With few exceptions, these representations perpetuated traditional concepts of appropriate gender roles. Posters often used women as icons characterizing the nation in time of war. For example, a beautiful woman, with a backdrop of the United States flag or sometimes even dressed in Old Glory, suggested why the nation was fighting. Some posters explicitly used beautiful women to signify that America's honor was at stake and we needed fighting men to protect it. The poster art form spread rapidly during the early twentieth century, putting a woman in her place rather than challenging the historical circumstances that created the complex, problematic issues related to the visual representation. Reading these posters as cultural texts, it is apparent that women's images are central to gaining an understanding of the social norms and cultural expectations.

Since 1958, Moderna Museet has housed Sweden’s largest collection of Swedish and international modern and contemporary art. This thesis examines the 21st-century collecting strategies and policy development of Moderna Museet, with a focus on diversity and representation, using intersectional theory and queer studies. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods, including statistics, archival research, discourse analysis, institutional ethnography and interviews with five curators, this study reveals how acquisition policies align with the museum’s aim to diversify its Eurocentric and North American-oriented collection. Fisher’s exact (statistical) test shows differences between the Swedish and international collections, as well as significant gender disparities between donated and purchased artists, indicating a structural unequal pattern regarding donations. Gender and nationality emerge as disciplinary parameters and social constructions for artist registration within the museum database. The findings underscore the slow, systemic change in Moderna Museet, influenced by power structures, external factors, and the museum’s institutional history. In contrast to the 1990s, diversity in the 21st century is continually negotiated and pursued performatively and discursively, rather than implemented through a goal-oriented policy.

Facial recognition technology has become a ubiquitous tool in security and personal identification. However, the rise of this technology has been accompanied by concerns over inherent biases, particularly regarding ethnic and gender. This thesis examines the extent of these biases by focusing on the influence of dataset imbalances in facial recognition algorithms. We employ a structured methodological approach that integrates AI-generated images to enhance dataset diversity, with the intent to balance representation across ethnics and genders. Using the ResNet and Vgg model, we conducted a series of controlled experiments that compare the performance impacts of balanced versus imbalanced datasets. Our analysis includes the use of confusion matrices and accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score metrics to critically assess the model’s performance. The results demonstrate how tailored augmentation of training datasets can mitigate bias, leading to more equitable outcomes in facial recognition technology. We present our findings with the aim of contributing to the ongoing dialogue regarding AI fairness and propose a framework for future research in the field.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relevant factors to develop a framework for optimising public participation to improve service delivery in a metropolitan municipality in South Africa. This approach was undertaken with a view to identify the gaps created through the expectations generated among citizens by the national government and the weaknesses in the capacity of the local government to deliver through its supply chain processes, and hence develop strategies to close the existing gaps as much as possible. There were four samples in the study namely: citizens, managers, businesses and ward committee members (WCM). The data that were collected for citizens were conducted at each Customer Care Centres (CCC). For the other three sets of respondents, it was conducted through email. The research approach was quantitative. Factor analysis was applied in this research study in order to identify significant factors that drive public participation in service delivery by local government. Findings of this study showed that there are two major perceptions of the respondents perceived to affect the optimisation of effective service delivery: 1) the facilitating factor and 2) the impeding factor. This was assisted by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) where a model was designed which resulted in the development of the public participation framework for effective municipal service delivery. These findings will inform the management of local governments to prioritise inclusion of all citizens by optimising their participation for effective service delivery. Areas where participation in local government was lacking were identified and this study presents well-informed strategies for local governments and for their possible implementation. / Business Management / D.B.L.