This thesis explores the Twitter discourse surrounding French secularism, referred to as laïcité, and its interplay with Islam in France. The research aims to provide an in-depth synchronic analysis of patterns and Twitter users’ language and rhetoric when discussing the principle. Moreover, it attempts to examine the variations of these discussions based on their contextual relevance and Twitter’s algorithm. To achieve this, I conducted a Critical Discourse Analysis on three data sets containing the hashtag #laïcité and pertaining to discussions on France and Islam: The first set is a compilation of tweets from the 26th of March to the 1st of April 2023; the second set is a compilation of tweets following the Charlie Hebdo attacks, from the 8th of January to the 14th of January 2015; and the third set is a compilation of “Top Tweets” initiated by Twitter’s algorithm retrieved on the 4th of May 2023. The findings show a frequent instrumentalisation of laïcité to place the principle in elite and ideological discourses, discriminating against French Muslims. I identify two common discourses on #laïcité. First, laïcité is often associated with conservative France and is employed as a justification for propagating hate speech towards Islam and Muslims, especially on Twitter, where the platform's features and algorithm amplify this negative rhetoric. Second, laïcité is viewed as a critical aspect of French identity that frames the assimilation of French Muslims as the only way to comply with this principle.

This study investigates TikTok audios and hashtags through the lens of digital literacy studies, using Ron Scollon's nexus of practice as a theoretical framework. The researcher sought to investigate literacy practices on TikTok, such as how lurkers and posters interact with the app in ways that both define and are defined by their individual identities. Relative to other social media platforms, there is a dearth of research on TikTok. This study contributes to the gap while also building off the findings of Kaye et al., who investigated authorship and (mis)attribution on the app, and Sachs et al.'s claim that Goffman's metaphorical front stage is weakening as users are able to select audiences for identity performance on TikTok. Through ethnographic semi-structured interviews and textual analysis, the researcher found that hashtags and audios work in tandem on TikTok; both hashtags and audios work to traditionally sort videos for users, hashtags offer creators an additional boost to their views, and audios act as an additional sorting mechanism. Furthermore, the study found evidence that audios signal a video's content prior to viewing. The findings additionally opposed Sachs et al.'s claim about the front stage weakening; rather, the participants were acutely aware of the “mortifying ordeal of being known,” with TikTok allowing users to have multiple “front stages'' to perform different aspects of themselves on, while still keeping certain parts to the “backstage.”

I denna studie har kommunala destination management organization (DMOs) kring Vänern studerats och specifikt hur de implementerar sociala medier i deras marknadsföring. Vi har haft som syfte att studera hur användandet av sociala medier som marknadsföringskanal kan medföra en maktförflyttning och i förlängningen påverka en plats varumärke. Vi har även varit intresserade av att studera hur samskapande av budskap på sociala medier kan bidra till en maktfördelning för att öka platsens synlighet och konkurrenskraft. Studien tar upp begrepp som user generated content (UGC), hashtags och storytelling vilka är verktyg kopplade till maktförflyttningen av marknadsföringen av en plats.Studiens grundar sig i en kvalitativ enkät utförd med respondenter från kommunala turistorganisationer samt visuell observation av respondenternas sociala medier. Datainsamlingen har genererat information om hur kommunerna arbetar med sociala medier som marknadsföringskanal samt hur de använder tillgängliga verktyg på sociala plattformar. Vi har i vår analys tagit hjälp av ett modell som bygger på fyra begrepp kopplat till sociala medier som vi valt att anpassa till vår studie efter vår teoretiska ramverk. Bland annat skapar modellen ett ramverk för DMOs som en hjälp att stärka sitt varumärke. Ramverket består av Varumärke, Rörlighet, Samskapande samt Storytelling och bidrar med kunskap om hur kommuner kan använda det innehåll som användarna av sociala medier skapar och delar med sig av. Resultatet av vår studie visar att kommunerna har kontrollen över sitt varumärke, det har alltså inte skett en maktförflyttning i den bemärkelsen att besökaren har makten över varumärket. Däremot ser vi att samskapande och maktfördelning av kommunens varumärke kan öka konkurrenskraften och är ett underutnyttjat verktyg. Studien visar även att kommunerna är aktiva på sociala medier men vi upplever skillnader i engagemanget och i hur de samskapar med besökaren. / In this study destination management organizations (DMO) surrounding Lake Vänern have been studied and specifically how they incorporate social media in their marketing.The aim of the study was to study how the use of social media as a marketing tool can lead to a transfer of power and in prolongation affect a place brand. We have also had an interest in studying how co-creation of messages on social media can lead to a distribution of power to increase a “place” competitiveness and visibility. The study concerns concepts such as user generated content (UGC), hashtags and storytelling which are tools connected to distribution of power and marketing of a “place”.The study is based on a qualitative survey study performed by respondents from destination management organizations within the destinations surrounding Vänern and also a visual observation of the study's respondents' social media. Our collected data has generated knowledge on how destinations are working with social media as a marketing tool and also how they use the accessible tools that social media offer. Our analysis is inspired by a model that is based on four concepts connected to social media that we have chosen to adapt to our theoretical framework. Among other things the model creates a framework for DMO as a help to strengthen their place brand. The framework consists of brand image, mobility, co-creation and storytelling and contributes with knowledge of how destinations can use the content that the users of social media creates and shares. The study shows that the respondent destinations are in control of their brand, there has not been a transfer of power in the meaning that the visitors are in control of the brand image. However, co-creation and distribution of power of the destination brand to strengthen a place's competitiveness is an underutilized tool. The study also shows that respondent destinations are active on social media, however we experience differences in how they co-create with visitors and their commitment in engaging with visitors.

Scholars are often studying emojis as pure visual elements or as essential textual parts. Theories in this study bridge these subfields and examine emojis in both fields. This bridging understanding of emojis is applied to hashtag activism in the discursive Black Lives Matter debate to increase the comprehension of the impact of emojis. Emojis can be used in various hashtag activism as reinforcing visual elements that help put a figurative meaning to political movements. Emojis can also be used to change the intonation or meanings in computer-mediated communication and thereby be essential for understanding the textual meaning as a whole. The study is conducted with quantitative content analysis of tweets relating to two, here considered oppositional, hashtags; #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter with the aim of receiving a comprehension of how the support of emojis affect the written statements. The study presents results and a thorough discussion that brings the conclusion of emojis having an immense impact, as both visual and textual support on the tweets written in this political online debate. / Forskare studerar ofta emojis som rena visuella element eller som väsentliga textdelar. Teorier i denna studie överbryggar dessa delfält och undersöker emojis inom båda områdena. Denna överbryggande förståelse för emojis tillämpas på hashtag-aktivism i den diskursiva Black Lives Matter-debatten för att öka förståelsen om påverkan av emojis. Emojis kan användas i olika sorters hashtag-aktivism som förstärkande visuella element som hjälper till att sätta en figurativ betydelse på politiska rörelser. Emojis kan också användas för att ändra intonationen eller betydelsen i datormedierad kommunikation och därmed vara avgörande för att förstå den textuella innebörden som helhet. Studien genomförs med kvantitativ innehållsanalys av tweets relaterade till två, här betraktade som oppositionella hashtags; #blacklivesmatter och #alllivesmatter i syfte att få en förståelse för hur emojis påverkar de skriftliga yttrandena. Studien presenterar resultat och en grundlig diskussion som drar slutsatsen att emojis har en enorm påverkan, både som ett visuellt och textuellt stöd på tweets skrivna i denna politiska online-debatt.

Extracting knowledge from user-generated content (UGC) in social media platforms is a very hot research topic in the area of machine learning, nonetheless, the main challenge resides in the fact that UGC carries inference, abstraction and subjectivity alongside objectivity. With the aim of recognising the importance of subjectivity as an influential aspect for providing humanoid results from a machine learning algorithm, this study proposes a novel approach to improve Instagram hashtag recommendation by considering sentiment that can be expressed for images. Two main points are studied in this thesis; evaluating the relativity of Instagram image to hashtag for both objective and subjective features of an image and the effect of sentiment on said relativity. This work examines three machine learning methods for hashtag recommendation: AWS service, developed algorithms with and without sentiment considerations. The models are tested on a collected dataset of de-identified Instagram posts in location London gathered from public profiles. The results show that considering sentiment significantly improves Instagram hashtag recommendation.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how German newspapers discursively constructed the #MeToo movement in order to determine whether the hashtag campaign was legitimized or delegitimized. The ideological construction can be seen as an indication of social change or respectively the upholding of the status quo in regard to gender equality. Of further interest was how the coverage can be perceived as an example of a post-feminist sensibility in mainstream media.Approach: Relevant articles published during two time periods in 2017 and 2018, following defining events of the #MeToo movement, were retrieved from selected publications, including Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit. A qualitative critical discourse analysis applying Norman Fairclough’s (1995) three-dimensional approach was performed on 41 newspaper articles.Results: Through analysis, three main discursive strands emerged: (1) supportive coverage of #MeToo (2) opposing coverage of #MeToo (3) #MeToo as complex. The degree to which the articles adhered to these positions varied from publication to publication. The most conservative publication largely delegitimized the movement by, amongst others, drawing on a post-feminist discourse. Whereas the liberal publications predominantly constructed #MeToo as legitimate. Overall, there was little discussion of marginalized voices and opportunities for progressive solutions leading to social change. Conclusion: The analysis of the German media debate around #MeToo offers a perspective onto the tensions and potentials of the recent media-driven conversation about sexism and sexual harassment. Additionally, it gives some indication of the public attitudes towards gender issues in Germany.(Social) Implications: This thesis contributes to a growing pool of research on news media’s framing of social movements. With its critical impetus, it might add a small input to social change directed at gender equality.

The intention of this thesis is to investigate whether there are consistent narrative patterns of images produced by female photojournalists under the Instagram hashtag #8mfotografascolombia in the context of the feminist mobilization of March 8, 2021, that took place in Colombia. I aim to establish if indeed these new communicative strategies in expansion respond to narratives widely used by traditional photojournalism, or if they operate under a different set of dynamics. Under the lens of Representation Theory I want to study how hegemonic depiction and absent stories form photojournalism are configuring counter narratives on social media platforms. On the other hand the perspective of Feminist Media Theory will provide understanding and context about the processes of production, circulation and absent feminine gaze within the media. The subsequent analysis shows that in fact narratives are being configured opposed to the structures of large media organizations in which the female gaze produces not only aesthetically different results, but the photographic process is intrinsically linked to performative actions, the recognition of subjects and away of the logic of spectacle and violence of the big media, but also outside of what the Instagram algorithm privileges.

This study aimed to get a deeper understanding of how people interact within groups on social media that originally stems from a hashtag-activistic campaign. The study was conducted on an empirically selected group using the hashtag #Trashtag on Facebook. #Trashtag is a hashtag used when picking up garbage in order to document pictures of ones work on social media. This study attempts to find out how the interaction within this group works and what makes people engage in the matter.  This study is conducted through content- and text analysis as well as ethnographic observation online. The observation method is also the means in which the data for this study is collected. The following three theories is used as the theoretical framework for this study, participatory culture, making is connecting and uses and gratification alongside with an hermeneutic perspective. The main results for this study was found by observing 45 publications from one Facebook group with the mission to clean up a beach in Ireland.  The observation showed that publications posted in the group varied between subjects concerning the constant litter and contamination on the beach too publications designed to inform about possible or direct causes of the problem. The main result of this study was an observation that a recurring way of motivating the group members to participate in the Facebook group was through emotionally charged content designed to provoke some kind of reaction. The engagement however is driven by positiveness and unconditional encouragement between the participants, negative vibes are not answered upon. Furthermore the study found that the urge to participate and contribute gives people a satisfactory feeling of achievement. Therefore activist groups like the one being researched in this study are important not just for the environment itself but also for the individual. The presented material in this study could be used for further research within this subject.

Offering contemporary insights into movement activities, this study explores the discursive identity formations and discursive constructions of veganism in the communication event #veganuary on Twitter. In a tentative attempt to understand #veganuary as a site of discursive and socio-cultural change, this study seeks to answer the research questions: (1) “What discursive identity formations take part in the semantic battle for the meaning of veganism in the communication event #veganuary on Twitter?”, (2) “How is veganism discursively constructed in the communication event #veganuary on Twitter?”, and (3) “How can we understand #veganuary on Twitter as a site of discursive and socio-cultural change?”. Relying on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) both as a theoretical and methodological framework, this study places itself in the field of media and communication studies in the intersection between studies on discourse, veganism, Twitter usage, and the everyday activism of Lifestyle Movements (LMs). Four main identity formations were identified and analyzed in the communication event, discursively constructing very different definitions and implications of veganism – as a diet, a challenge, a lifestyle, an identity, activism, a market opportunity, and a brand mission. Ultimately, #veganuary on Twitter can be understood as a site for discursive and socio-cultural change as a hemeratopian everyday alternative space, in which new interdiscursive mixes and discursive practices are interlaced in creative ways, inviting and involving new voices to the communication, imagination, and development of alternative ways of living.

The patriarchal societies in the MENA region have their entire social framework around the protection and regulation of female sexuality. The woman’s male relatives have to make sure that her honor is under their control and fulfills the patriarchal family demands. Women’s failure to stick to the code of honor may result in aggressive reactions that may mount to honor killings and this had happened in 2019 to Israa Gharyeb. The murder of the 21-year-old girl sent a shockwave of protests not just in the Palestinian society where the crime had happened but also across the Arab region. Activists on social media and the streets are sending a clear and strong message that murdering women will not be hidden anymore. Accordingly, this thesis sheds the light on the Twitter hashtag # كلنا_اسراء_غریب (we are all Israa) to reflect on the participants’ responses to both crime event and the traditional discourse on “Honor killings.” Theoretically, the paper offers a rereading of the theory of critical discourse analyses on the notions of ideology, power, and dominance. Empirically, this paper will analyze 460 tweets by conducting critical discourse analysis and qualitative content analysis.