In an American democracy, created by the people and for the people, contemporary political women remain a marginalized voice in policy making and governance. My dissertation celebrates personal politics, and posits a landscape for thinking about democracy and advocacy in terms of political feminism. Specifically, I am concerned with how theorizing feminist interventions in the rhetorical canon operationalize material advancements for women in the political public sphere. To that end, this dissertation will introduce two systemic obstacles for political women, including, first, an ideological problem, where the political infrastructure and the press apparatus exacerbate a patriarchal gendered game; and second, an epistemological problem, where gendered language and gendered journalism are used to discipline political women. In the search for how political women can challenge and thwart political hegemony, I build from feminist rhetorical theory, political theory, and public sphere theory to offer rhetorical care as a vehicle for feminist political advocacy in the American political public sphere. Operationalizing feminist care through the case study chapters of Hillary Clinton and Wendy Davis, respectively, I argue that both political women successfully shifted gendered narratives for women in political leadership. / text

This paper examines and analyzes Hillary Clinton's Twitter account activity between July 1, 2016 and August 28, 2016 in an attempt to determine the perception of authenticity on social media and whether Hillary Clinton was effective in improving her image during the 2016 presidential election. This thesis questions whether Twitter is a reliable tool in determining authenticity.

The aim with this essay is to examine how two Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, have framed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the US presidential election in 2016. The goal with this essay is to contribute to research on how politicians are described in the news media and how politicians’ gender affect this description. The research questions are as follows:  1. How did the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter frame Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during US presidential election in 2016? 2. What similarities and differences can be seen between the two candidates, in how they were framed? 3. Were there any similarities and differences between the two newspapers, in how they framed the candidates?    In order to answer the research questions, we conducted a quantitative content analysis, in which we analyzed 160 news articles. The articles were published between February first and November eighth in 2016. Through, first, a strategic, and then, a systematic selection 80 articles for each candidate were selected. For the survey three theoretical fields were chosen; framing theory, media logic (focusing on personalization) and gender theory. The quantitative content analysis coding scheme is based on these theories.   The results show that game and strategy framing was the most prevalent form of framing in both newspapers, about half of all the articles were framed as game and strategy. The most common topic of the articles was “the election, opinion polls and media”. The result also showed that Trump often was termed as evil, as a loser, and the articles were often negatively angled towards him. Clinton was more often termed as good, as a winner and the articles were more positive towards her. However, Trump got the most attention in both papers. The survey also shows a higher degree of personalization against Clinton and she weren’t quoted in the articles as much as Trump. No major differences were seen between the newspapers in their use of frames and the degree of personalization.

The aim of the study was to examine the ways in which the presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were portrayed in articles regarding the first presidential debate of 2016. We also wanted to examine the differences and similarities between the framing of the two candidates as well as which frames varied between the newspapers from Sweden and the USA and which they had in common. We made a qualitative framing analysis of 14 articles from 14 different newspapers half of which were from Sweden and half from the USA. The result shows that Hillary Clinton is most often portrayed as an experienced and professional politician whereas Donald Trump is portrayed as her opposite in both regards. The framing of Trump shows him as an outsider from the business world, who has a history of controversial behavior in which he is accused of both racism and sexism. Both candidates are portrayed as highly disliked by the American people. They are also portrayed as dishonest as a consequence of their respective scandals where they are being accused of having hidden something from the public – Clinton in her use of a private e-mail server during her time as secretary of state – Trump due to his unreleased tax returns. The American and the Swedish articles frame the candidates similarly, although the American newspapers are more prone to the usage of harsh language in describing the candidates and their actions in the debate. The Swedish newspapers tend to use less emotive words in re-telling the debate.

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This dissertation explores the relationship between gender, war, and media constructions of both. Using the theoretical frameworks of the social constructions of gender and the gendered constructions of the public sphere, I have analyzed how Time magazine portrayed Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton in discussions of war. Time represents mainstream mediated coverage in this case. Rice and Clinton represent women outside the normal boundaries of femininity. First, they were participants in the public sphere, which is largely male-dominated in our society. Second, both women were involved in discussions of war and foreign policy. Their participation in this area of the public sphere is a contradiction to how society expects women to act during war time. The most interesting conclusion is the way the women are linked back to the private sphere through their relationships with men. These representations align with historical theoretical definitions of the public sphere, which favor male participation and often disregard female participation. / text

Syftet med denna uppsats är testa Muddes hypotes: När populistiska aktörer når politiska framgångar och hotar etablissemanget, svarar delar av etablissemanget med att inkludera ett populistiskt språkbruk för att mota bort utmanaren. Ovanstående hypotes prövas genom att undersöka om Hillary Clinton och Jeb Bush som tillhör ett politiskt etablissemang utvecklat sitt språk i sina kampanjtal mot att bli mer eller mindre populistiska, i samband med att Donald Trump och Bernie Sanders som av flera medier blivit beskrivna som populister anslutit sig till primärvalet 2016 i USA. Teorin som används i uppsatsen är hämtad från Cas Muddes studie The Populist Zeitgeist samt Kirk A. Hawkins studie ”Is Chávez Populist?”. Metoden i uppsatsen utgörs av en kvalitativ idealtypsanalys. Utifrån uppsatsens resultat kan följande indikationer redovisas. Hillary Clinton har inte inkluderat ett mer populistiskt språk i sina kampanjtal i samband med att Trump och Sanders ställt upp inför primärvalet 2016 i USA. Detta står i motsats till Jeb Bush som inkluderat ett mer populistiskt språk i samband med att Trump och Sanders ställt upp inför primärvalet 2016 i USA, vilket styrker Muddes hypotes.

Problemformulering och syfte Det amerikanska presidentvalet 2016 var unikt – för första gången hade en kvinna chansen att bli president. De båda kandidaterna, Hillary Clinton och Donald Trump, figurerade flitigt i media under respektive valkampanj, inte minst på bild. Och just bilden har fått en allt större betydelse i nyhetsbevakning. I de traditionellt textbaserade medierna blir bilderna fler och större, medan texten krymper. Då mycket av tidigare forskning fokuserat på gestaltning i text, ville vi ta det vidare till bild. Syftet med vår studie var därför att se hur de två kandidaterna i det amerikanska valet gestaltas i bild. Men även hur rubrikerna till bilderna är gestaltade. Metod och material Vi har gjort en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av bilder publicerade på Hillary Clinton och Donald Trump i New York Times och Dagens Nyheter från den 1 november till och med den 8 november 2016. Totalt analyserade vi 67 bilder, 46 där Hillary Clinton förekom och 34 där Donald Trump förekom. Huvudresultat Resultatet av vår studie visar att media gestaltar kandidaterna olika i bild. Skillnaden finns i valet av bildutsnitt, kameravinkel och ansiktsuttryck. Det vanligaste sättet att gestalta Hillary Clinton på är som en lättillgänglig och oproblematisk person, dock med en viss distans. Medan Donald Trump gestaltas som en öppen och tillgänglig person som står nära läsarna, men samtidigt som en makthavare med ett allvarligt uttryck. Gestaltningarna av kandidaterna kan även tolkas som stereotypa för hur kvinnor och män porträtteras i media, där media fortsätter att reproducera könsstereotypa föreställningar om vad som är manligt och kvinnligt. Rubrikerna gestaltades i största utsträckning som spel.

Problemformulering och syfte Medierapporteringen kring det amerikanska valet år 2016 har varit enorm i USA såväl som i Sverige. När media rapporterar och skildrar händelser görs en gestaltning. I och med det faktum att världen är obegränsad och mediernas format är begränsat får således all rapportering en viss gestaltning. Gestaltningar har en stor påverkan på mottagaren och kan exempelvis göra att misstron mot politik och politiker ökar samt att förtroendet för medier minskar. Mycket forskning kring gestaltning i val har gjorts men forskning som avhandlar hur svenska medier gestaltat det senaste amerikanska valet finns det mindre av. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur det amerikanska presidentvalet år 2016 gestaltades i tidningarna Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet och Expressen. Metod och material En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av nyhetstexter i tidningarna Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet och Expressen ligger till grund för den här studien. Innehållsanalysen gjordes på tidningarna som publicerades från den 30 oktober till den 8 november 2016. Totalt analyserades 127 artiklar, 28 i Dagens Nyheter, 22 i Svenska Dagbladet, 25 i Aftonbladet och 52 i Expressen. Huvudresultat Resultatet av studien visar att de olika tidningarna gestaltar valet på varierande sätt men den gemensamma nämnaren är den stora förekomsten av skandalgestaltnng. Sakgestaltning är den dominerande gestaltningen, vilket även är morgontidningarnas vanligaste form av gestaltning. Kvällstidningarna använder sig oftast av spel - och skandalgestaltning. Hillary Clinton beskrivs mer positiv och mindre negativ än Donald Trump trots att hon oftare förekommer som huvudaktör i de skandalgestaltade texter.

For years, Texas has experienced significant growth and demographic change that has slowly altered the balance of Texas’s political power. This thesis argues that due to a series of unlikely developments, the scales are tipping in favor of the Democrats much earlier than projected. As a result of demographic changes, Donald Trump, and the Tea Party faction of the Texas GOP, the Democrats may be able to win Texas’s electoral votes, as well as the 2018 Texas gubernatorial race.