Denna studie har haft för avsikt att undersöka hur damidrott och kvinnliga idrottare representeras på den TV-sända Idrottsgalan samt hur innehållet i programmen bidrar till konstruktionen av dessa representationer. I ett första skede tillämpades en kvantitativ innehållsanalys på de 17 avsnitten av Idrottsgalan. Utifrån vårt framtagna kodschema har vi kunnat utläsa generella mönster vad beträffar hur ofta damidrotten och kvinnliga idrottare uppmärksammas i programmen. Med hjälp av den kvalitativa semiotiska analysen har vi vidare, genom att fokusera på de två specifika avsnitten från år 2002 och 2016, åskådliggjort den djupare mening som sträcker sig bortom det manifesta. Resultaten har pekat på att damidrott och kvinnliga idrottare generellt är underrepresenterade och att sporten fortfarande främst är en arena av och för män. / This study was intended to investigate how women's sports and female athletes are represented on the televised Idrottsgalan and how the setting of the programs contribute to the construction of these representations. First we applied a quantitative content analysis of the 17 sections of Idrottsgalan. Based on the coding scheme that we developed, we have been able to deduce general patterns in terms of how often women's sport and female athletes occur in the programs. Using the qualitative semiotic analysis, we have also focused on two specific episodes from 2002 and 2016 and illustrated the profound meaning that goes beyond the manifest. The results have indicated that women's sports and female athletes are underrepresented in general and that the sport is still primarily an arena by and for men.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing film franchise that nurtures superhero stories within their narratives. However, in recent years the franchise has undergone a substantial shift in its adversary portrayal, with introducing Russian characters. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to expand the knowledge on the construction and development of Russian enemy images within the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, by focusing on three key movies: Iron Man 2 (2010), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Black Widow (2021). The research utilizes a diachronic case-oriented comparative design, wherein the selected movies are analyzed through a unique analytical framework, which consists of semiotic analysis and enemy images as theory. The study’s results demonstrate that the construction of enemy images in each movie resembles an ideal type and remained somewhat similar in terms of the demarcation between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and the characterization of ‘their’ essence throughout the years. However, the study’s findings indicate two developmental shifts: first, in ‘our’ character, where similarities are observed with ‘their’ violent behavior, and second with expanding ‘their’ threat from solely physical to psychological aspects as well.

This study explores the multiple ways in which Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) functioned through concrete biomedical institutions, namely, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the World Health Organization (WHO). AIDS is viewed as a product of the full range of institutional practices in which it became embedded and in which it was set within the boundaries of Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease (see the Preface section). This biomedical model of disease was materialized through journalistic practices and sold as news. Within these operative terms can be understood another analytical strategy that also designates the main domain of my study of this contemporary social form: I argue in this thesis that knowledge about AIDS was by no means dependent solely on the objective, scientifically determined, "received narrative" of biomedicine; what is today known as AIDS is also a product of a wide range of social practices produced and reproduced over time and space. AIDS is also an outcome of the resolutions, judgements and decisions that working journalists made over time in terms of what they generated or covered as news; the disease is also product of a large assortment of representational mirrors that I call `authentic voices', to take as good examples, the "narrative of moral protest", the narrative of a "homosexual disease", the narrative of a "heterosexual disease," and the narrative of a "modern-day Black Death" (plague). The story of AIDS in the media can also be seen to be defined by the proliferation of these authentic voices. From this reading, the distinctive trait of AIDS in the media lies in the fact that it is a constructed object, a disease framed through a specific structure of meanings. When we look at these structure of meanings we find that their moral and cultural assumptions and stereotypical connotations embody certain aspects of the organism of the society within which they were created and nourished over a much longer history. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

This study sought to examine linguistic and discursive strategies used to construct messages reflective of the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy for Zimbabwe of 1999 by government and private newspapers. Such analysis was perceived to be important since media content has a bearing on Zimbabweans‘ perception and attitudes regarding HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and control. The study was aimed at comparing messages from newspapers with views by the people of Zimbabwe regarding the implementation of the policy. Findings reveal that empowerment programmes particularly those targeting women and children are lagging behind as Zimbabweans, literature and newspaper data sources testify. In addition, information sources concur that cultural (For example, stigmatisation, polygamy, religious practices, spouse inheritance) and structural (For example, patriarchy, masculinity, bureaucracy, politics) are stumbling blocks that negatively affect the implementation of the policy. Further, even though private and government newspapers do not fully agree on the portrayal of human agents, there is a general consensus between newspaper reports and Zimbabweans that people still face socio-economic and econo-political challenges that militate against the smooth implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Government newspapers tend to downplay aspects which reveal inadequacies of government activities. The study notes this as betrayal of use of ideological squares both by government and private newspapers whereby certain aspects regarding the implementation of the policy are either downplayed or highlighted to influence perception. The study reveals that newspaper reports used nominalisation, quantification, positive politeness, thematisation, rhematisation, intertextuality, euphemism, proverbs, idioms, action verbs, metaphors and citation of experts as linguistic and discursive strategies both for agenda setting and building purposes regarding the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Other devices used particularly in the encoding of Operation Murambatsvina are, claptraps, deictic referencing, personal pronouns, adjectives and direct speech. The study attributes problems regarding the Zimbabwean HIV and AIDS intervention model to the top – down approach inherent in the policy. Hence, the call for an adoption of an unhu/hunhu/ubuntu inspired bottom – up HIV and AIDS intervention model in Zimbabwe. This would inculcate pro-family, pro-village, pro-nation/people and ―servant leadership‖ (Mangena and Chitando, 2011) values in the fight against the pandemic through the embracing of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Unfortunately, such values largely continue to elude the radar of the current top – down HIV and AIDS intervention model cuurently in use in Zimbabwe. / African Languages / D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages)

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Kinesiology and Health, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-114).

This study explores the multiple ways in which Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) functioned through concrete biomedical institutions, namely, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the World Health Organization (WHO). AIDS is viewed as a product of the full range of institutional practices in which it became embedded and in which it was set within the boundaries of Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease (see the Preface section). This biomedical model of disease was materialized through journalistic practices and sold as news. Within these operative terms can be understood another analytical strategy that also designates the main domain of my study of this contemporary social form: I argue in this thesis that knowledge about AIDS was by no means dependent solely on the objective, scientifically determined, "received narrative" of biomedicine; what is today known as AIDS is also a product of a wide range of social practices produced and reproduced over time and space. AIDS is also an outcome of the resolutions, judgements and decisions that working journalists made over time in terms of what they generated or covered as news; the disease is also product of a large assortment of representational mirrors that I call `authentic voices', to take as good examples, the "narrative of moral protest", the narrative of a "homosexual disease", the narrative of a "heterosexual disease," and the narrative of a "modern-day Black Death" (plague). The story of AIDS in the media can also be seen to be defined by the proliferation of these authentic voices. From this reading, the distinctive trait of AIDS in the media lies in the fact that it is a constructed object, a disease framed through a specific structure of meanings. When we look at these structure of meanings we find that their moral and cultural assumptions and stereotypical connotations embody certain aspects of the organism of the society within which they were created and nourished over a much longer history. / Sociology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

From the earliest days of English-language Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television (CBC-TV), the military has been regularly featured on the news, public affairs, documentary, and drama programs. Little has been done to study these programs, despite calls for more research and many decades of work on the methods for the historical analysis of television. In addressing this gap, this thesis explores: how media representations of the military on CBC-TV (commemorative, history, public affairs and news programs) changed over time; what accounted for those changes; what they revealed about CBC-TV; and what they suggested about the way the military and its relationship with CBC-TV evolved. Through a material culture analysis of 245 programs/series about the Canadian military, veterans and defence issues that aired on CBC-TV over a 40-year period, beginning with its establishment in 1952, this thesis argues that the conditions surrounding each production were affected by a variety of factors, namely: (1) technology; (2) foreign broadcasters; (3) foreign sources of news; (4) the influence of the military and its veterans; (5) audience response; (6) the role played by personalities involved in the production of CBC-TV programs; (7) policies/objectives/regulations set by the CBC, the Board of Broadcast Governors and the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (later, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission); (8) ambitions for program development and the changing objectives of departments within the CBC; (9) economic constraints at the CBC; (10) CBC-TV’s relations with the other producers of Canadian television programming, like the NFB; and, (11) broader changes to the Canadian social, economic, political and cultural scenes, along with shifts in historiography. At different times, certain of these conditions were more important than others, the unique combination of which had unpredictable results for programming. The thesis traces these changes chronologically, explaining CBC-TV’s evolution from transmitting largely uncritical and often positive programming in the early 1950s, to obsession with the horrors of war and questioning of the military’s preparedness by decade’s end, to new debate about the future of the forces and the memory of war in the 1960s, to a complex mixture of activism, criticism and praise in the 1970s and 1980s, and, finally, to controversy and iconoclasm by the 1990s.

This present master thesis focuses on the sociological phenomenon of violence affecting Aboriginal women in Canada, specifically what may be apprehended through an intersectional perspective on violence Aware that the silence surrounding this phenomenon is just as violent as the situation itself, this thesis proposes tools for understanding and reading that allow everyone to better understand the ins and outs of the manifestation of this violence. This analysis explores how the invisibility of these women in society takes shape, how it is expressed, and what it reveals about the Quebec and Canadian society. It was decided to address our problem through the written press media and the production of mediatic and journalistic discourses, which often reveal a particular ideology and themselves reflect a society in general. Using a corpus of 200 articles with different themes, and in light of certain concepts related to discourse analysis, the results of our data will allow us to discuss the influence of these mediatic and journalistic discourses, and better understand the government issues, particularly Aboriginal ones, facing the country today. We will thus see how media power can play a significant role in society and how indigenous women are increa singly becoming part of an empowerment movement, enabling them to deconstruct the social barriers in which they have long been partitioned. / Le présent mémoire s’intéresse au phénomène sociologique de violence dont sont victimes les femmes autochtones du Canada, plus précisément ce que l’on peut appréhender par le truchement d’une perspective intersectionnelle sur la violence. Reconnaissant d’emblée que le silence entourant ce phénomène est tout aussi violent que la situation en elle même, ce mémoire propose des outils de compréhension et de lecture permettant à chacun de mieux cerner les tenants et les aboutissants de la manifestation de cette violence. Cette analyse explore la façon dont l’invisibilité de ces femmes dans la société prend forme, de quelle manière elle s’exprime, ainsi que ce qu’elle révèle de la société québécoise et canadienne. Il a été décidé d’aborder notre problème en utilisant les médias de presse écrite et de la production des discours journalistiques et médiatiques, souvent révélateurs d’une idéologie particulière et eux mêmes le reflet d’une société en général. À l’aide d’un corpus regroupant 200 articles aux thématiques différentes, et à la lumière de certains concepts portant sur l’analyse de discours, les résultats de nos données nous permettent de discuter de l’influence de ces discours journalistiques et médiatiques et de mieux comprendre les enjeux gouvernementaux, notamment autochtones, auxquels le pays fait aujourd’hui face. Nous voyons ainsi comment le pouvoir médiatique peut jouer un rôle conséquent auprès de la société et de quelle manière les femmes autochtones s’inscrivent de plus en plus dans un mouvement d’empowerment leur permettant au fur et à mesure de déconstruire les barrières sociales dans lesquelles elles ont longtemps été cloisonnées.

North Korea is one of the most isolated countries in the world. The media therefore play an important role in shaping the image of this country abroad. The aim of this diploma thesis was to find out how Czech online media represented the DPRK between 2010 and 2012, when the power was transferred from Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un. In the first part of the thesis, I qualitatively analysed 48 articles from five Czech online media: lidovky.cz, novinky.cz, iHNed.cz, respekt.cz and reflex.cz. I chose grounded theory as a research technique. However, the aim of the research was not to build the theory itself, but to conceptualize and describe the relations among the individual media representations of the DPRK. The analysis revealed that the online media reported on the DPRK mainly in connection with country's poor economic situation and with related deep inequalities between the ruling class and people. The transfer of power in North Korea was reported by Czech media in connection with Kim Jong-il's poor health. After his death, the media focused on uncertainty about the country's future. At the end of the period the media represented Kim Jong-un as the new North Korean leader, who was seeking for his own ruling style, which was based on the cult of personality.

This study sought to examine linguistic and discursive strategies used to construct messages reflective of the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy for Zimbabwe of 1999 by government and private newspapers. Such analysis was perceived to be important since media content has a bearing on Zimbabweans‘ perception and attitudes regarding HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and control. The study was aimed at comparing messages from newspapers with views by the people of Zimbabwe regarding the implementation of the policy. Findings reveal that empowerment programmes particularly those targeting women and children are lagging behind as Zimbabweans, literature and newspaper data sources testify. In addition, information sources concur that cultural (For example, stigmatisation, polygamy, religious practices, spouse inheritance) and structural (For example, patriarchy, masculinity, bureaucracy, politics) are stumbling blocks that negatively affect the implementation of the policy. Further, even though private and government newspapers do not fully agree on the portrayal of human agents, there is a general consensus between newspaper reports and Zimbabweans that people still face socio-economic and econo-political challenges that militate against the smooth implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Government newspapers tend to downplay aspects which reveal inadequacies of government activities. The study notes this as betrayal of use of ideological squares both by government and private newspapers whereby certain aspects regarding the implementation of the policy are either downplayed or highlighted to influence perception. The study reveals that newspaper reports used nominalisation, quantification, positive politeness, thematisation, rhematisation, intertextuality, euphemism, proverbs, idioms, action verbs, metaphors and citation of experts as linguistic and discursive strategies both for agenda setting and building purposes regarding the implementation of the HIV and AIDS policy. Other devices used particularly in the encoding of Operation Murambatsvina are, claptraps, deictic referencing, personal pronouns, adjectives and direct speech. The study attributes problems regarding the Zimbabwean HIV and AIDS intervention model to the top – down approach inherent in the policy. Hence, the call for an adoption of an unhu/hunhu/ubuntu inspired bottom – up HIV and AIDS intervention model in Zimbabwe. This would inculcate pro-family, pro-village, pro-nation/people and ―servant leadership‖ (Mangena and Chitando, 2011) values in the fight against the pandemic through the embracing of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). Unfortunately, such values largely continue to elude the radar of the current top – down HIV and AIDS intervention model cuurently in use in Zimbabwe. / African Languages / D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages)