Syftet med denna undersökning var att ta reda på vilka attityder kring mobilapplikationen Tinder det fanns hos tio unga människor samt om det uppkommit nya behov i och med denna nya teknik där man sveper mellan olika människor. För att få fram ett resultat utfördes tio kvalitativa intervjuer med människor i åldrarna 18-30. Teorierna som kompletterade det insamlande materialet var uses & gratifications teorin som bland annat belyser hur publiken använder medier och vad de får ut av användningen, samt Castells teori om nätverkssamhället där teknologin och dess utveckling spelar stor roll för hur vi använder oss av medier och kommunikation på distans. De kvalitativa intervjuade visade att användningen av applikationen inte var i nätdejtingssyfte. Respondenterna använde snarare applikationen för att bland annat tillfredsställa ett emotionellt behov där ett bekräftelsesökande visade sig vara större än viljan att kommunicera med människor. Även ett avkopplingsbehov existerade, där respondenterna använde applikationen i brist på något annat att göra. Många av Tinders funktioner förstärkte dessa behov, bland annat det utseendebaserade användningsområdet samt applikationens enkelhet i sig.

Denna studie undersöker sociala mediers påverkan på människor med fokus på mat och hälsa. Med hjälp av en kvantitativ enkätstudie har vi undersökt hur och på vilket sätt de sociala medierna spelar in i hur människor äter. Fokus ligger på vilket medie människor i åldern 18 år och uppåt väljer för att få inspiration till hälsosam mat, i vilken grad sociala medier förändrat människors medvetenhet och intresse kring hälsa och mat samt huruvida den här påverkan upplevs som positiv (inspirerande) eller negativ (stress/förvirring). Resultatet visar att de sociala medierna inte tagit över som inspirationskälla då de traditionella medierna, så som tidskrifter, TV och böcker, visade sig vara vanligast för att inspireras och skaffa sig inspiration kring mat. De sociala medierna fungerar snarare som ett komplement och har större popularitet hos den yngre generationen. Vidare visar studien att sociala medier delvis bidragit till att öka medvetenhet och intresse kring mat och hälsa. Majoriteten angav att de snarare inspireras än känner stress/förvirring till de hälsobudskap kring mat som florerar på sociala medier och studien visade ett tydligt mönster att kvinnor är både mer negativt och positivt påverkade än männen.

This work based on regression analysis and analysis using uses and gratification theory at the sample of 146 students opens the relationship between the use of online social networks and other media. Analysis comes up with results inconsistent with the theory of niche. The wider are the gratifications provided by online social networks and the wider are their gratification opportunities, the less they were used or not used more. It is also shown that there is a positive relationship between the number of dimension in which the internet social networks compete with other media and a usage of internet social networks. A major conclusion of this work is a negative relationship between the use of online social networks and all other media, including traditional media, with the exception of computer games. A negative relationship against expectations was found between online social networks and online news sites. In addition to these findings some interesting relationships between the use of online social networks and personal characteristics of their users were shown. There is no effect of age, gender or grade point average. Positive effect, however, was found for semester of studies and negative effect of having a job.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur upplevelser ser ut hos personer som uttrycker sig om adhd på Instagram. De upplevelser som undersöks är hur kontoinnehavarna upplever att de kan få hjälp att hantera sin adhd-diagnos via Instagram. Om de upplever att det finns några bakomliggande behov och motiv till användandet av kontot och i sådant fall vilka de är. Samt om de visar tecken på att själva teknologin och funktionerna spelar roll i skapandet eller tillfredställelsen av behov. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är kommunikationsteorin, uses and gratification samt olika forskares teorier kopplat till den. Den valda metoden är kvalitativ och materialet består av kvalitativ data insamlad via epost-intervjuer. Studiens tre deltagare har alla Instagram-konton där de uttrycker sig om sin adhd-diagnos. Resultatet pekar på att motiv, behov och funktioner till viss del överlappar och kopplar till varandra. Respondenterna har genom mediet bland annat kunnat uttrycka känslor, vara behövda samt känt samhörighet, på så vis kan mediet ha hjälpt dem att hantera sin diagnos. Ur materialet har sammanlagt tre utmärkande behov identifierats. Behovet av social tillhörighet, behovet att uttrycka sig samt behovet av förändring gällande synsätt på diagnosen. De anledningar eller motiv som användarna menar ligger bakom valet av mediet är att sprida kunskap/informera och att nå ut med den samt att känna samhörighet. Funktionerna eller de tekniska behov som verkar spela in i valet och interagerandet är att Instagram är snabbt och enkelt att använda samt att det går att nå ut till många genom det.

AbstractTitle: Onlinegaming – A qualitative study of young people's attitudes about online gaming(Onlinespel – En Kvalitativ undersökning av Ungdomars attityder om onlinespel)Number of pages: 34 (35 including enclosures)Author: Armin MoradiTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of my thesis is that from a social perspective to examine and discussyoung people aged 16-18 vision of online gaming. Why online games are so popular and to see ifthe stereotype is a reality among young people in their late teens ..I also have a secondary purpose where I want to explore the social function of online games have,and what or what needs it fills in young people's everyday lives.Material/Method: The main method used in this essay has been qualitative group interviewswith 17 high school students. The result from these interviews has then been analysed usingseveral theories, Uses and gratification theory, Socialinteraction theory, Interactivity theory andmedium theory.Main results: The compilation of collected my results have shown that young people makeextensive use of online gaming pastime and to socialize with each other both virtually andphysically. Online gambling has on young people an entirely different meaning than it does forolder generations.For young people online is as natural as watching TV is for the oldergenerations.There are gender differences in perception of online games but it is not at all in the same highdegree as can be expected, the differences were minimal. The participants in my interviews havealso made an association exercise in which I presented as the words of 15-20 seconds to describeother words. Most replied to the word "Homework" that it was "boring" and the word "computergames" was the most frequently used word "fun".Keywords: Uses and gratification theory, Socialinteraction theory, Interactivity theory , Mediumtheory, Online gaming,

Pitting long-term goals against short-term desires is among the most difficult tasks in human decision-making. According to behavioural and neuroeconomic theories of self-regulation, these decisions involve a competition between “hot” reward-focused impulses and “cool” cognitive control mechanisms. The current dissertation examines this topic from the perspective of social and personality neuroscience, exploring the cognitive and affective dynamics underlying the self-regulatory process. Chapters 1 and 2 explore how the “hot” system is dispositionally expressed in the personality trait of Extraversion, and the implications of this finding for decision-making behaviour. Turning to the “cool” system, Chapter 3 examines the role of effective performance monitoring in predicting real-world self-regulatory outcomes. Finally, Chapter 4 addresses the question of whether self-regulatory performance can be improved, reporting the effects of a goal-setting intervention on long-term decision-making. Results across the studies are discussed within an integrative model of self-regulation, situated within a social-personality neuroscience framework.

Pitting long-term goals against short-term desires is among the most difficult tasks in human decision-making. According to behavioural and neuroeconomic theories of self-regulation, these decisions involve a competition between “hot” reward-focused impulses and “cool” cognitive control mechanisms. The current dissertation examines this topic from the perspective of social and personality neuroscience, exploring the cognitive and affective dynamics underlying the self-regulatory process. Chapters 1 and 2 explore how the “hot” system is dispositionally expressed in the personality trait of Extraversion, and the implications of this finding for decision-making behaviour. Turning to the “cool” system, Chapter 3 examines the role of effective performance monitoring in predicting real-world self-regulatory outcomes. Finally, Chapter 4 addresses the question of whether self-regulatory performance can be improved, reporting the effects of a goal-setting intervention on long-term decision-making. Results across the studies are discussed within an integrative model of self-regulation, situated within a social-personality neuroscience framework.

Among the web 2.0 applications, a micro-blog (Weibo in Chinese), resembling the combination of a Twitter-like Internet service has gained substantial popularity in China. Sina Weibo is the market leader with approximately 50% of the market share. Around 80% of the users on Sina Weibo are young people. Hence, it is necessary to analyze young Chinese users of Sina Weibo and examine whether Sina Weibo fulfills the needs of young people and whether Sina Weibo meets their expectations. The study used the theory of uses and gratifications and the theory of expectancy-value as theoretical foundations. This study summarized six gratifications items (including social interaction, social networking, information seeking, information sharing, entertainment and recognition) from previous studies, and used these gratifications items to analyze: (1) the relationships between demographics and gratifications obtained; (2) the relationships between Sina Weibo usage and gratifications obtained: (3) the correlations between gratifications sought and gratifications obtained. This study used quantitative method to obtain data from a questionnaire and all the data were input to SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) for analyzing. The questionnaire was conducted and was distributed in Sojump.com. The results showed that Sina Weibo meets their users’ needs from six gratifications dimensions.

This study discusses whether an individualized news consumption leads to a fragmentationamong readers, to the extent that news of social importance, that contribute to a democratic debate are neglected or missed. Areas of interest are how students of a university in the western part of Sweden consume news and in what ways, through the internet, smartphones, computers or newspapers as well as what genres of news are consumed. The uses and gratification theory and theory of the public sphere constitute the theoretical framework of the study. The method used is that of a quantitative nature, more specifically surveys conducted online. The study was not representative for the total population and thus only expresses itself regarding the answers given by the respondents. Finally, the study finds that the respondents use the possibility of an individualized media content more as a tool to consume a little extraof the news genres they find interesting rather than neglect traditional news media completely.

Title: Users motivational drives to engage with athletes on social media Authors: Victor Videgren, Alexander Jost Auf Der Stroth, Jean-Paul Mathieu Supervisor: Viktor Magnusson Examiner: Åsa Devine Background: With social media becoming a more and more prominent tool of communication within sports marketing, athletes stand to gain much by implementing it in their branding and marketing efforts. However, existing literature on the matter inclined that further research in which the perspective of the user was taken, thus advancing the understanding of user engagement motivation toward these athletes on social media networks. This study adapted the Uses and Gratifications theory in which six motivational categories had been summarized, these being: Informational, Entertainment, Remunerative, Social, Communicative and Convenience. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe what motivates users to engage with athletes on social media. Methodology: This work has incorporated a qualitative approach sided with a descriptive purpose. The empirical findings were collected through semi- structured interviews. Furthermore, these findings are coded and analysed by taking inspiration from grounded theory. Analysis: The empirical data was discussed within six motivational categories and was used to describe existing theory. Through the process of analysis, patterns of motivational theories interrelating with each other emerged. These being, a common interest which led users to engage with athletes, honesty and transparency which is what users saw and appreciated in the athlete and finally, the building of relationship which was what created from the engagement with athletes on social media. Conclusion: Through the analysis of the motivational drives patterns were discovered regarding users’ motivations to engage with athletes. The three patterns discovered interrelate with each other and are interpreted to be the typical motivation of a user to engage with an athlete on social media. The motivational patterns are “common interests with athlete”, second being the “transparency of athletes” and third “building a relationship” Keywords: Athlete branding, Social media, Uses and Gratification theory, Motivation, Engagement, Marketing, Grounded theory