Sociala medier har kommit att bli en del av det utvidgade offentliga rummet som en konsekvens av IT-utvecklingen. Det är därmed också en plats för opinionsbildning och politisk påverkan, vilket kan utnyttjas av såväl politiska som kommersiella intressen för dold informationspåverkan. Astroturfing är en av många former av dold informationspåverkan och syftet med denna studie är få en större förståelse för astroturfing genom att besvara följande problemformulering. Vad kännetecknar digital politisk astroturfing, och varför används astroturfing för informationspåverkan i sociala medier? För att besvara problemformuleringen har jag genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra experter samt genomfört en litteraturstudie. Resultatet visar att de två främsta kännetecknen för astroturfing är att det försöker se ut som en gräsrotsrörelse och att de som ligger bakom har dolt sin verkliga identitet och sitt verkliga syfte. Detta kan göras på många olika sätt och metoderna kan kombineras för att passa in i det sammanhang där en försöker använda astroturfing för att påverka. Resultatet från såväl tidigare forskning som intervjuer visar därmed att det är väldigt svårt att med säkerhet identifiera astroturfing. Resultatet visar också att det främsta skälet till att astroturfing används i sociala medier är att det är enkelt och billigt. Litteraturen hävdar att ikläda sig formatet social rörelse ger en viss legitimitet och kan bidra till mobilisering, vilket bekräftas av intervjuerna. Men intervjuerna visar också att det sannolikt inte har någon större betydelse i förhållande till h et är att få till astroturfing i sociala medier. / Social media has become part of the extended public space as a consequence of development in ICT. It is thus a space to form public opinion and for political influence, which means it can also be exploited by political and commercial interests for concealed information influence. Astroturfing is one of many available information influence activities and the purpose of this study is to attain a greater understanding of astroturfing by answering the following research question: What characterizes digital political astroturfing, and why is astroturfing used for information influence in social media? To answer the research question I have conducted qualitative interviews with four experts and done a literature study. The results show that the two main characteristics of astroturfing are; that it tries to look like a grassroots movement and; that those who orchestrate it have concealed their real identity and purpose. This can be done in many different ways and the methods can be combined to fit the context in which one is trying to use astroturfing as an information influence activity. The results from both previous research and interviews thus show that it is very difficult to identify astroturfing with certainty. The results also show that the main reason why astroturfing is used in social media is that it is easy and inexpensive. The literature claims that mimicking a social movement gives a certain legitimacy and can contribute to mobilization, which is confirmed by the interviews. But the interviews also point out that it is unlikely to have any major impact compared to how inexpensive it is to orchestrate astroturfing in social media.

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Over the last two years the number of refugees and asylum seekers in European countries dramatically increased, with asylum claims mostly originating from countries affected by war and poverty, especially in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. The rapid increase of the mobility of migrants raises contradictory reactions in society and individual countries can not agree on an acceptable solution. Against the background, Western European countries usually approach the immigrants more openly than Eastern European countries. A big role in the question of acceptance of migrants in different countries is played by the media. In contemporary society, the media constitute the main source of information about what is happening in the world and intermediate events in which the public cannot participate directly. Therefore it is important to examine how mass media in Eastern and Western European countries present the issues of solidarity, human rights, and the right to asylum. The aim of this master thesis is to find out what the main differences are in the case of printed mass media and whether the western newspapers create a better image of refugees than eastern media. As a representation of an Eastern European medium one Czech daily newspaper was chosen and from Western newspapers one German medium...

This thesis focuses on the influence the language of online media has on the expression of printed media on the example of Lidové noviny newspaper and the Lidovky.cz server. In the theoretical part, this work describes media product and content, style and language of news reporting and opinion journalism, the selection of language devices which are further defined, and the editorial preparation of texts. The empirical part offers an insight into the operation of the newsroom of Lidové noviny and of the server Lidovky.cz and marks their connectedness as well as their differences. Furthermore, this work identifies the language devices appearing in news reporting both local and foreign sections based on a qualitative analysis. Singular language devices are investigated in printed Lidové noviny newspapers from years 2014 and 2019 and in the content of the Lidovky.cz server. The research sample consists in the case of Lidové noviny of the first Monday issue of each month in the respective years. Comparisons within the framework of the specific language devices appearing in the selected research sample are then provided based on the results and their interpretation. In the conclusion, the main results of the singular language categories are summarized after the comparisons between the above-mentioned...