This study uses content analysis of newspaper articles and athlete biographical/autobiographical sources to examine the constructions of masculinity of male and female athletes at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, China. Based on the socially constructed tension between disability and masculinity and the connections between sport and masculinity, this study sought examples that support or challenge the portrayal of Paralympic athletes in hegemonic masculine terms. This study finds that in the majority of cases, both sets of data sources reflects and/or reinforces the association between sport and hegemonic masculinity. This public display of masculinity indicates the athletes’ attempt to attain mainstream acceptance and legitimacy as “real” athletes as much as it does a rejection of a collective disability identity. The few instances of rejection and reformulation of masculinity come from examples in which the realities of living with impairments are insurmountable barriers to attaining hegemonic masculinity.

This thesis aims to describe and compare how female and male foreign ministers are represented in Swedish and U.S. daily press. Choosing two critical cases, Swedish and U.S. media, where gendered stereotypical representation is most unlikely to occur, gives a larger chance for generalization to other countries media, and other types of media. Based upon the ontology of social constructivism and theories of gendered media representation, a qualitative analysis will be conducted to be able to describe how media representations of these foreign ministers look like. The use of gender stereotypical words and meanings used when portraying foreign ministers in media will be compared both between the female and male foreign ministers and between the Swedish and U.S. daily press. The analysis will show that the foreign ministers are portrayed differently based on sex, where women are portrayed as weak and emotional, with their competence doubted, while the men are strong and unquestionable competent.

As a means to engage with others, television offers the viewer a great deal. In Australia commercial TV is particularly popular, and many turn daily to this cultural arena which graphically portrays our shared concerns and values. Viewers are kept informed and entertained, advertisements display the luxuries and necessities that direct lifestyle choices,and local and global stories are presented for mutual consideration. Audiences are connected not only with products,personalities and newsmakers, but also with fellow viewers who are sharing the experience. Retired people take particular advantage of this multi-faceted link with the outside world, when additional leisure time and reduced social and physical mobility create spaces that can be filled with the narratives and 'para-social' connections of a medium that transports the world to the viewer. Yet one definitive statement that can be made about popular television is that older people are rarely acknowledged and often ridiculed. An easily accessible and valuable communications medium marginalises those most dependent upon it - for information and entertainment, but also, I would argue, dependent upon it to help facilitate key recommendations of the 'successful ageing' formula. Authoritative prescriptions for ageing well emphasise the benefits of social engagement, with television helping to facilitate this by involving the viewer with local concerns and wider accounts of human enterprise. Yet the popular media often presume that older people are no longer viable consumers or citizens, thus alienating them from mediated stories and populations. 'Success', according to commercial media sensibilities, is equated with youthfulness and economic means - twin attributes rarely associated with retired people. As a result, advertising is directed primarily at young, middle-class audiences, and the TV programmes to hook their attention are often typecast with similarly youthful protagonists. Older viewers are taken for granted and rarely acknowledged, and more disconcertingly, stereotyped and ridiculed to empower younger viewers. This dissertation seeks to explore these issues from a sociological perspective, primarily within the Australian context. Research strategies include a detailed analysis of the role of television in older people's lives and how they are portrayed, with results aligned with 'successful ageing' guidelines. Included in this approach is a study of how older people are portrayed on commercial TV in Australia, and a discussion of findings. The final section includes a chapter which consists of an examination of negative media portrayals from a political and human rights perspective, and the final chapter which asks how the oldest and frailest may by impacted by the cultural devaluation of old age.

Les sciences sociales contemporaines adoptent, en grande partie, un point de vue relativiste : il n’est de réalité que dans sa construction. Conséquence de cette orientation, les conditions de possibilité de la critique du réel tiendraient de la seule analyse de cette « construction ». Autrement dit, le questionnement de la représentation dispense d’interroger le réel représenté. C’est ainsi qu’aux « rapports sociaux » qui permettaient jadis, en référence à la théorie marxiste de la valeur, de comprendre le mouvement de l’histoire et ses phénomènes s’est substitué un questionnement du discours, lieu ultime de façonnement du réel… L’objectif de notre recherche est de réinscrire la question de l’analyse de la représentation journalistique dans la réaffirmation matérialiste de l’existence, extérieure, objective, contradictoire, du réel représenté et, sur cette base, d’entreprendre un travail critique d’élucidation et de compréhension de la nature de sa représentation. Fondamentalement, c’est la question de l’idéologie telle que Marx la posait qui nous paraît le mieux aborder, de manière non spéculative, la problématique de la transparence et de l’opacité de la représentation, le concept d’« idéologie » permettant précisément d’en questionner la nature. Après l’avoir définie et avoir pris connaissance de ses évolutions, et en nous inspirant notamment des travaux de Bertell Ollman sur la dialectique matérialiste, nous nous proposons de vérifier la valeur heuristique de cette notion grâce à l’analyse de trois événements internationaux traités sur les ondes de France Inter. L’information paraissait devoir être considérée pour elle-même, nous souhaitons montrer qu’il est possible de la renvoyer à la réalité dont elle prétend nous informer, qu’il est possible de l’aborder dans sa faculté à dire – ou à taire – le réel. / Contemporary social sciences have adopted a relativistic outlook. The primary argument which today prevails is that reality does not exist outside our own construction of it. In this regard, any meaningful analysis or critique of “representations”, in so far as the reality which they describe does not pre-date them, now excludes any analysis of that material reality. The conditions for any critique of reality thus involve only an analysis of the “construction”. Such analysis also prevails in studies of “social relations” which heretofore assisted, with reference to the Marxist theory of value, in an understanding of historical movements and phenomena but which have now been replaced with the approach of “discourse analysis”, discourse being the final retreat in the construction of reality. This study purports to re-anchor the analysis of journalistic representation in a materialist reassertion of the exterior, objective, and contradictory existence of reality as represented by the media. It thus will attempt a critical analysis aimed at clarifying and articulating the nature of this representation. Fundamentally, it is, we think, through Marx’s concept of ideology that the problematic surrounding the transparency or opaqueness of this representation can best be approached, as Marx’s concept permits one to discern its nature more precisely. After defining this notion and exploring its development, especially in the light of Bertell Ollman’s work on dialectical materialism, this work endeavours to assess its heuristic value by analysing three international events reported by the French national radio station “France Inter”. Information tends to be considered in and of itself; our study will seek to demonstrate that it can be analyzed directly by reference to the reality which it purports to represent; and in terms of its ability to express – or conceal – reality.

Den här uppsatsen har som syfte att undersöka och jämföra i vilka sammanhang samer representeras ochgestaltas i två norrbottniska nyhetstidningar, Norrländska Socialdemokraten och Norrbottens Kurirensamt hur de skiljer sig från vad samer skriver om sig själva i sin egen press, tidskriften Samefolket.Uppsatsen består av två undersökande delar, en kvantitativ innehållsanalys och en kvalitativ, där StuartHalls teorier kring representation kombineras med framinganalys.Den kvantitativa delen visar att samer framförallt förekommer i nyhetssammanhang, att dennorrbottniska pressen framförallt rapporterar om samisk politik medan den samiska pressen fokuserarmer på kultur. I merparten av artiklarna är tonen neutral. Undersökningen visar också att samer i mer änhälften av alla artiklar som undersöks ges störst utrymme att aktivt föra sin talan i texterna.Den kvalitativa delen tar sig formen av en framinganalys, där resultaten pekar mot att de norrbottniskatidningarna tenderar att använda sig av konfliktgestaltning medan den samiska pressen är mer neutral isin rapportering. Även om samerna ges störst utrymme att tala aktivt i de analyserade texterna, visarundersökningen att gestaltningen tenderar att flytta fokus från sakfrågor till förmån för exempelviskonfliktgestaltning.

Stigmatisation of Romani women is the rule rather than the exception in many countries around Europe, something that has also been confirmed through research. That is one reason why I have chosen to highlight successful Romani women in this study. More specifically, this essay investigates how successful Romani women are represented in the media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Through a thematic analysis, I have identified three major themes that I analyse with support of previous research as well as an intersectional perspective. The three themes are that: 1) Romani women achieved a lot, but it was “not enough”, 2) The women embraced their ethnicity, but a negative discourse of the media to Roma was projected through the approach of some reporters, 3) The women aimed to “change the world”. The overall picture was fairly homogenous yet interesting; everyone appeared to be of a heterosexual orientation, family and education were emphasised as tools to succeed in the labour market and discrimination was shown as an unequivocal barrier to their success.

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This thesis explores the phenomenon of moral panics in American society, focusing on three cases: the automatic knife panic in the 1950s, the migrant caravan panic in 2018, and the LGBTQ+ "groomer" panic in 2022. Utilizing Stanley Cohen’s concept of moral pan- ics, expanded by David Garland and Goode, the research aims to understand the origins, amplification of risks, perceived threats, and socio-political consequences of these moral panics. The methodology involves content, narrative, and discourse analysis of legislative acts, academic literature, and contemporary media coverage. Findings reveal that interest groups, namely media and political figures, significantly contribute to constructing and am- plifying moral panics. Exaggerated perception of risks to society, either through false claim-making or cultural trauma, drove a moral panic in each of these cases, leading to increased social control through legislation and the stigmatization and discrimination of minority groups.This research contributes to ongoing efforts to combat prejudice and social injustice by shedding light on the societal ramifications of moral panic. It underscores the need for further investigation into the motivations of interest groups to spread moral panics and strategies for preventing their occurrence in a globalised media landscape. The study opens discussions on media manipulation and human rights.

<p>The master thesis is about the Nord-Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which will cross the Baltic Sea and go through territorial waters of Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Nord-Stream is a complex project with different stakeholders and different interests. The main focus of the study is the representation of the Nord-Stream project in the media of Russia and Sweden as stakeholders in the deal. The period of media representation is 2009.</p>