The aim of this comparative study has been to identify similarities and differences in Swedish and British media’s framing and empowerment of actors in relation to the 2017 Stockholm terror attack. Theories on the risk society, framing, power and CDA have been used to create a framework that gives a deeper understanding of media’s role in framing actors and events, and how this can potentially affect the public. Moreover, to determine how media use their power to dis- tribute power among the actors and objects that are part of such an attack. A critical discourse analysis has been carried out on excerpts from a total of 15 articles, seven and six from Sweden and Britain respectively. In this analysis, both framing and power issues were identified, which was used to conduct a discussion on the findings in relation to the the- oretical framework used. It was found that while Sweden and Britain are part of the same culture and therefore largely covered the terror attack the same way, there was a significant difference in the portrayal of the perpetrator. Swedish media had a tendency to use othering and describe the perpetrator as one of “them” as opposed to the “we”. British media, on the other hand, made use of other- ing as well, but would also offer descriptions that could make the “we” relate to him. This difference can potentially be due to the fact that Swedes have been more emotional about the attack, as it happened in their own country. The distribution of power between actors were done similarly in both countries. Two power- plays were identified: the police vs. the perpetrator, and the act (the truck) vs. the public. In order to avoid giving the perpetrator credit for the act, when the act was portrayed, the truck would be described as the powerful actor. Thus, even though it is common sense that the truck did not drive into people on itself, the perpetrator’s actions has not been acknowledged in the media. Instead, when describing the perpetrator, it has been done in relation to the police, who were described as the powerful actors – they caught the perpetrator, i.e. he did not have the power to avoid them or escape. Thus, while Swedish and British media largely have covered the act the same way and with the same means, the Swedish media have used emotional means to further othering.

Background: Since athletes are often perceived as unbreakable, their mental health problems might be bypassed or denigrated by their coach, peers or even by the media. However, athletes are as, if not more, susceptible to mental health problems as anyone else. As the media continues to be the primary source of information, the way in which the media portrays mental health problems can affect how people perceive and regard them. In this research, I examined how Finnish elite athletes with mental health problems are portrayed in the Finnish news websites by qualitatively analyzing eight articles of four Finnish athletes, two former and two current. Furthermore, I compared the articles with one another in order to study the eventual differences between each article’s portrayal of the athletes’ mental health problems. Method: This analysis was conducted by applying a narrative discourse schema to the selected eight articles, which enabled me to examine both the structures of the articles as well as the underlying discourses and social context. Results: Nearly all of the articles are framed from the athlete’s point of view in terms of including more citations from the athlete than comments from the journalist. Furthermore, none of the articles regarded mental health problems among athletes in general, but rather portrayed each case as a single incident. Male athletes with a depressive disorder were complimented far more compared to female athletes. Moreover, female athletes eating disorder and anxiety were often associated with appearance and pressure regarding their sports career. Conclusion: The way in which athletes with mental health problems are portrayed in the Finnish news websites can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, they can be perceived as hopeful recovery stories from the athletes perspective, as they portray how successful athletes can also develop mental health problems and still continue their career. Secondly, by not addressing the problem as a whole nor including any factual information in any of the articles indicates the journalists lack knowledge and/or apathy about the issue, and that it is a difficult subject to portray acceptably.

We present a concept for using procedural techniques to represent media. Procedural methods allow us to represent digital media (2D images, 3D environments etc.) with very little information and to render it photo realistically. Since not all kind of content can be created procedurally, traditional media representations (bitmaps, polygons etc.) must be used as well. We have adopted an object-based media representation where an object can be represented either with a procedure or with its traditional representation. Since the objects are created on the client the procedures can be adapted to its properties such as screen resolution and rendering performance. To keep the application as small and flexible as possible, each procedure is implemented as a library which is only loaded when needed. The media representation iswritten in XML to make it human readable and easy editable. The application is document driven where the content of the XML document determines which libraries to be loaded. The media objects resulting from the procedures is composited into the media representation preferred by the renderer together with the non-procedural objects. The parameters in the XML document are relative to parameters determined by the system properties (resolution, performance etc.) and hence adapt the procedures to the client. By mapping objects to individual libraries, the architecture is easy to make multi threaded and/or distributed.

The topic of LGBT rights has been increasingly discussed and debated over recent years. More and more scholars show their interests in the field of LGBT representations in media. However, not many studies involved LGBT representations in social media. This paper explores LGBT representations on Facebook by analysing posts on an open page and in a private group, including both representations of the self as the identity of sexual minorities, content that is displayed on Facebook and the similarities and differences in two different settings (a private group and an open page). This study aims to fill the gap of self- representations of sexual minorities in non-anonymous online settings. Main concepts in this study include communication, gender, and sexuality, media representation, power, identity, stereotypes, self-representations, and discourse. A content analysis was conducted on posts from an LGBT open page and a private group with CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) being used as the method. Results suggest that both the open page and private group express values of non- discrimination, equality, and respect by presenting links, images and with an extra form of representation - personal statements in the group. Compared to the neutral environment on the open page, more personal emotions are involved in the private group and some of them tend to be negative. However, some images can go extreme, they overemphasise same-sex marriages but neglect other ones.

The final months of 2017 have witnessed the birth of a movement, the #Metoo movement, which started after several Hollywood actresses have accused famed producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. The movement is an ongoing prevalent phenomenon on social media where its aim is to demonstrate the frequency and widespread of sexual harassment in all sectors of work, whereas the movement Media has been widely reporting on the movement and has given a platform to several women to speak their truths. In my research, I aim to conduct a comparative study of how three mainstream media outlets have covered the moment on their websites. The media outlets chosen are Aljazeera, BBC and CNN. The theoretical framework for the study will revolve around theories of representation, power, and to help in understanding how mainstream media represents the #Metoo movement on their news websites A total of 15 articles will be analyzed through a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. The study concluded that the #Metoo movement is represented through a constructionist approach, and there are minor differences between the three distinctive international mainstream media news websites.

Representing “Oriental” men as sexual predators in the media is a recurring theme that has proliferated since the New Year’s night in Cologne in 2015/2016. This study investigates how the representation of men with an immigrant background as sexual predators has developed in the year before and after the New Year’s night in Cologne in 2015/2016 in the Bremen local newspaper Weser Kurier. The aim of the study is to find out in what ways the representation of “Oriental” man has changed, how a moral panic is established, and how an idea of fear is created. To reach this aim Critical Discourse Analysis will be used in combination with theories concerned with “Othering”, moral panic and Orientalism. Because of the limited scope of this study, it should be considered as a base for future research into the field.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to establish the representations of the main characters of Modern Family out of three themes: the representation of genders, race and LGBTQ+, based on theories within the field, such as representation and stereotypes. Earlier research shows that these three social groups often are represented stereotypically in media with more inclusivity in some aspects and less in some. Four episodes have been chosen from different years and have been analyzed from an intersectional perspective. This purpose of this research is to understand what codes have been used when creating the main characters, and it focuses on three research questions:- In what ways are the female, male, Latin and LGBTQ+ characters on Modern Family represented?- Has the representation of race, gender and LGBTQ+ changed over the nine years since Modern Family started broadcasting? If so, in what ways?- What stereotypes replicate on the different characters depending on their race, gender and LGBTQ+?To do this, descriptive text analysis and semiotics have been used to analyze each episode and for better understanding of the stereotypical traits and representation in the analysis, Richard Dyer’s definition of stereotypes and Stuart Hall’s theory of representation have been used. The results show different changes in representation regarding the three themes. In conclusion, the representation of genders has changed over the nine years, thus has the representation of the Latin race and LGBTQ+ community not changed in many significant ways.Heading: Representation of race, gender and LGBTQ+ on Modern Family. Author: Anna Sofia StoiljkovicLevel: Final Exam Project in Media and Communication Studies, 15 hp Institution: School of Arts and Communication (K3)Faculty: Faculty of Culture and Society University: Malmö University Supervisor:Examiner:Term: Spring of 2019Keywords: Media representations, tereotypes, gender, race, LGBTQ+, Modern Family.

The diploma thesis titled Gender aspects in communication of sport events: Case study of medialization of the Gabriela Koukaová's and Jaromír Jágr's absence from the XXIII. Olympic Winter Games is focused on communication aspects of the Czech biathlonist Gabriela Koukalová and hockey player Jaromír Jágr in relation to their gender. The theoretical frame which introduces the reader to the concept of gender itself and the characteristics of the Czech society and local sporting environment is followed by the practical part composed by analysis of the two concrete cases. The poststructural qualitative discoursive analysis has been chosen as an analytical tool. By using such tool the author analyses the proclaims by the sportsman and sportswoman precisely on the social media, the reaction of the public to these statements and the overall mediatization in chosen media. The complex case study conclusion summarizes identified trends which are present throughout the analyzed data. Some of the defined trends might in the context of the Czech environment be strengthening the observed patriarchal social system.

This thesis named " Media Representation of the Scout Movement in Czech Internet Media iDNES.cz and Novinky.cz" focuses on the way Scouting is pictured in these two popular types of Czech media. The aim of the work is to analyse certain titles to find out how Scouting is presented as an organisation. The work is divided into three main parts - theoretical resource, methodological and analytical parts. The first chapter interprets technical terms mainly connected with the representation of reality or construction of reality. Furthermore, the chapter offers a brief interpretation of history and the current state of Czech Scouting. The second methodological part contains a description of the methods applied and shortly characterises certain titles. Finally, the last part describes particular forms of presentation of the Scout movement in certain media. The problematic is handled with three set research questions. By means of qualitative analyses, the work thoroughly describes the presentation of the Scout movement by certain media.

There is a scholar consensus that girls have been marginalized in childhood studies. Taking into account the gender effect in constructing different childhoods for boys and girls this thesis explores the frontiers of girlhood. Girlhood as being abandoned and not perceived in the here and now is constructed only in the future, namely in the frames of femininity and womanhood. This initiates pathology in the lives of girls. This thesis through film representation explored new constructions of girlhood. Two films Barbie as Rapunzel and Tangled based in the fairy tale of Rapunzel were explored through Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. The discursive constructions, the “preppy” girl and the “alternative” girl emerged accordingly as the versions of the “authentic” girl that is searching for her identity and leading to the “self-regulated” girl discourse as a way to reconstruct girlhood.These discursive constructions can be used in the reorientation of girlhood as they unravel the necessities that exist in girl studies.