Major hurricane landfalls are the most dangerous natural hazard threats experienced in the U.S. Television news is a primary sources of hurricane hazard information and has the ability to influence what viewers understand about and how they respond to these events. While it is understood that media plays a central role in communicating weather, it is unknown whether or not news media content communicates the recommended hurricane hazard adjustments that are needed for preparedness and protection. Thus this study supports prior research calling for a closer examination of the role and effects of visual information in media documents. Using the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the present research employs qualitative media analysis to explore the framing of hurricane preparedness through television newscasts covering Hurricane Katrina from August 23-29, 2005. Key findings from this study suggest that there are five common frames through which hurricane information is presented to viewers of the national news broadcasts surveyed in this study. Preparedness information was found to be mainly represented through visual content but sparsely mentioned in reporting. The study also found that more often visuals were used to aid story development instead of provide educational or instructional messages that model the adoption of hazard adjustments and have the potential to motivate protective actions and behaviors by helping to increase self-efficacy. The present study concludes by discussing underlying aspects of conflict present within the media frames and offering recommendations for better integration of media content into risk communication campaigns for severe weather.

Das Internet kann auf vielfältige Weise in den (häuslichen) Alltag integriert werden - die vorliegende, durchaus interessante Studie analysiert hauptsächlich auf der Basis von problemzentrierten Interviews und einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse (nach MAYRING) die (aktiven) Aneignungsmodi und die Integration dieses Mediums in den Alltag. Im Mittelpunkt der Studie stehen die Effekte der Nutzungs- und Kommunikationsformen des Internets, aufgegliedert in zeitliche, räumliche, inhaltliche und soziale Dimensionen. Im Besonderen werden die Wirkungen der Internetnutzung in Bezug auf Beziehungsstrukturen zwischen (Lebens-) Partner/innen und Geschlechterverhältnisse fokussiert. Dabei wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit Ungleichheitsstrukturen auch im Bereich des going online reproduziert werden. Durch die Auswahl von jeweils zwölf Paaren in Deutschland und Australien werden Veränderungsprozesse in zwei Ländern verglichen, die sich in einer etwas differenten Phase des Diffusions- und Integrationsgrads befinden. Die Autorin verweist darauf, dass gerade qualitativ orientierte Studien die sich wandelnden Kommunikationsprozesse und Interaktionsstrukturen im häuslichen Alltag in den Blick nehmen können - das wird mit der Studie gezeigt, auch wenn "nur" ein eher explorativer Anspruch deutlich wird.

This thesis examines the way in which the United States of America and the State of Israel are represented in Turkish internet press. The newspapers that have been chosen for the analysis are Zaman and Hürriyet, which are two of the most read newspapers in the country, but at the same time differ from each other in a significant way. The first part concentrates on the history of the Turkish press and also outlines the general characteristics of the chosen newspapers. The second part provides a brief overview of Turkey's relations with the Unites States and Israel. The final part consists of an analysis of the newspaper articles that were published on the official internet websites of the abovementioned periodicals. The aim of this thesis is to examine to what extent the editorial line of both periodicals and the general ideology behind them influences the style of the articles and the criteria which decide the content and selection of these articles. In the last part, I shall also compare and contrast the image of the USA and Israel that Zaman and Hürriyet present their readers.

The thesis focuses on the image of interpreter and interpretation in Czech printed media from 1990 to 2012. It aims to explore how interpreters present themselves in media, how journalists present interpreters and whether that image is accepted or not by the public. The thesis consists of two parts. The theoretical part focuses on methods of media and discourse analysis, definition of interpretation, formation of interpreters and professional associations in the Czech Republic. Empirical part analyses more than 800 articles about interpretation and analyses the discourse of Czech media during the period of twenty years. Analysis showed that the discourse changes constantly and the point of view of interpreters on their profession is different from the discourse created by journalists. Empirical part contains a survey which showed, that public opinion on interpreters is different from observed discourse of the media.

This thesis utilizes social influence theory and computational tools to examine the disparate impact of positive and negative ties in nuclear weapons proliferation. The thesis is broadly in two sections: a simulation section, which focuses on government stakeholders, and a large-scale data analysis section, which focuses on the public and domestic actor stakeholders. In the simulation section, it demonstrates that the nonproliferation norm is an emergent behavior from political alliance and hostility networks, and that alliances play a role in current day nuclear proliferation. This model is robust and contains second-order effects of extended hostility and alliance relations. In the large-scale data analysis section, the thesis demonstrates the role that context plays in sentiment evaluation and highlights how Twitter collection can provide useful input to policy processes. It first highlights the results of an on-campus study where users demonstrated that context plays a role in sentiment assessment. Then, in an analysis of a Twitter dataset of over 7.5 million messages, it assesses the role of ‘noise’ and biases in online data collection. In a deep dive analyzing the Iranian nuclear agreement, we demonstrate that the middle east is not facing a nuclear arms race, and show that there is a structural hole in online discussion surrounding nuclear proliferation. By combining both approaches, policy analysts have a complete and generalizable set of computational tools to assess and analyze disparate stakeholder roles in nuclear proliferation.

This paper aims to study Swedish newspapers and their reporting on climate change and the climate threat in regard to different discourses. The two discourses, one regarding rhetoric controlled by a mindset of chatastrophy and the other concerning responsibility were discussed in relation to the content of the Paris agreement. The agreement also functioned as the chosen time period for the essay. This means articles from 2015 and forward were analyzed and the discussed. The methods used for the study were critical discourse analysis which was created by Norman Fairclough in combination with theories regarding policymaking and represented problems, a theory and method created by Carol Lee Bacchi. The essay’s results focused on the two discourses and the content of the Paris agreement, in these the discourses were identified and analysed. The conclusions showed that the rhetoric surrounding climate change was influenced by a doomsday an chatastrophic influenced rhetoric that affected the articles and opinions. Another conclusion showed that in relation to the Paris agreement the question of responsibility was placed on the more developed countries in the agreement but in the media the responsibility was more abstract and concerned a more unclear version of humanity. Therefore the blame for climate change is unclear and uncertain.

Den här studien är en kritisk diskursanalys av ämnet kroppslig hälsa i skriftlig media. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur fenomenet kroppslig hälsa framställs i skriftlig media genom språket och dess användning. Analysmodellen vi använt oss av är formulerad av Norman Fairclough och det datamaterial vi använt oss av är av empirisk karaktär och insamlat från svensk skriven media i form av både rikstäckande press och lokalpress. I studien finns även ett avsnitt där vi presenterar tidigare forskning inom ämnet hälsa och diskursanalys. Forskningen presenteras genom fem teman: biopolitik, livsstil, individens ansvar, klass och könsskillnad utifrån ett hälsoperspektiv samt experthjälp. Den teori vi utgått ifrån för studien är främst den för den kritiska diskursanalysen, vi har även använt oss av Foucaults biopolitik vilken främst ges uttryck i diskussionsdelen.  Resultatet för studien presenteras i två delar utifrån Fairclouchs analysmodell; text samt diskursiv praktik. Resultatet redogör vi för med en rad olika teman vi formulerat utifrån den analys som gjorts. De teman som vi formulerat är: hotspråk, den stratifierade hälsan, anvisningar & imperativ, superlativ, vetenskapligt språk och den reella exemplifieringen (del ett). De huvudsakliga diskurser vi funnit i materialet är: den ohälsosamma diskursen, den hälsosamma diskursen, den vetenskapliga diskursen samt den utbildande diskursen (del två).

Einerseits werden bestehende Ergebnisse aus so unterschiedlichen Richtungen wie etwa der empirischen Medienforschung und dem Text Mining zusammengetragen. Es geht dabei um Inhaltsanalyse, von Hand, mit Unterstützung durch Computer, oder völlig automatisch, speziell auch im Hinblick auf die Faktoren wie Zeit, Entwicklung und Veränderung. Die Verdichtung und Zusammenstellung liefert nicht nur einen Überblick aus ungewohnter Perspektive, in diesem Prozess geschieht auch die Synthese von etwas Neuem. Die Grundthese bleibt dabei immer eine einschließende: So wenig es möglich scheint, dass in Zukunft der Computer Analysen völlig ohne menschliche Interpretation betreiben kann und wird, so wenig werden menschliche Interpretatoren noch ohne die jeweils bestmögliche Unterstützung des Rechners in der Lage sein, komplexe Themen zeitnah umfassend und ohne allzu große subjektive Einflüsse zu bearbeiten – und so wenig werden es sich substantiell wertvolle Analysen noch leisten können, völlig auf derartige Hilfen und Instrumente der Qualitätssicherung zu verzichten. Daraus ergeben sich unmittelbar Anforderungen: Es ist zu klären, wo die Stärken und Schwächen von menschlichen Analysten und von Computerverfahren liegen. Darauf aufbauend gilt es eine optimale Synthese aus beider Seiten Stärken und unter Minimierung der jeweiligen Schwächen zu erzielen. Praktisches Ziel ist letztlich die Reduktion von Komplexität und die Ermöglichung eines Ausgangs aus dem Zustand des systembedingten „overnewsed but uninformed“-Seins.

This dissertation analyzes the discourse of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in his weekly television show Aló Presidente. It focuses on the discursive practices in this genre by Chávez as an essential element in the Bolivarian Revolution; an exercise of power in itself, and a means to establish a direct relationship with the Venezuelan public. The analysis shows that Aló Presidente employs unique discursive strategies to engage in a national dialogue, including: the use of repetition, lists, and fragmentation through the alternation of discursive genres, as well as deictic shift; the establishment of an ideology, the presentation of selected themes and stories; the construction of relationships with established social categories (middle-aged women, high-ranking military personnel, militant youth, etc.) through dialogue with interlocutors during the show; and a strict hierarchy in which Chávez appears as the ultimate leader, through deixis, turn-taking, and the use of targeted speech acts. This study uses the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing mainly from Fairclough (2003) and van Dijk (1998, 2010). It also draws from theories of: (a) discourse genre, as in Charaudeau (2004) and Smith (2003); (b) deixis, as in Agha (2007); (c) dialogue, defined by Weigand (2009) and Tannen (2007); (d) political discourse, discussed in Chilton (2004); and (e) media discourse, as in Bourdieu (1991). The corpus is drawn from broadcasts ending with the digit 8 randomly selected between 2005 and 2007 (shows 218, 248, 278, 288, 298). The conclusion is that the show serves as the main communication strategy of the Revolution, establishing a direct relationship with viewers, in which several conventional procedures of television discourse are flaunted. The discourse, which is anchored in the category of space, is well established as a new genre in political media discourse. It is directed to Chávez’s followers, divided into specific target groups, in a hierarchical fashion in which he occupies the power position. The strategies adopted allow for a high level of involvement with the audience. The discursive practices developed are a key element in the advancement of the Revolution and are in line with its beliefs and attitudes. / text

Men’s magazines is a form of media that has been present and popular among men for decades and even centuries. In the beginning of 1990 the popularity for men’s magazines boosted as the new ideal man was presented. The new lad represented a new masculinity that was more honest about its ideals and point of views. Media is being consumed in order to find an identity of self and be able to partake in a group culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of men’s magazines and put that in relation to the male consumer’s homosocial quest for male identity and fellowship. The study analyzes American Playboy magazines of three decades being 1990s, 2000 and 2010. The method of the study is discourse theory and semiotic theory. Discourses describe how people discuss and comprehend their surrounding world through cultures within social group formations. The semiotic theory refers to the study of the meaning that is being created by people in different contexts. The theory being used in the analysis of the content in Playboy is the homosocial theory. Homosocial theory is based on the notion that men have a need of identification and to be a part of a group consisting of other men in a joint male culture. Through the analysis of the content of Playboy the study has come to the conclusion that there is a common pattern in Playboy that presents a homosocial male culture. By consuming the magazine, the man partakes in the male fantasy world that is presented in Playboy. The study also showa that Playboy preserves an ideal man that is a sophisticated gentleman. This culture has flourished over 60 years and shows no signs of dying off.