People with disabilities have traditionally occupied stigmatised identities due to less conventional ways of operating in daily life. The online medium with its absence of visible identity markers, which have typically determined how a person is read offline, combined with the constructive potential embedded within a largely textual medium, potentially, bring together greater control and flexibility in identity construction. The online medium, therefore, may offer social benefits to people with disabilities that are not available in other contexts. This research discursively explores what kinds of experiences are available for people with disabilities online. It argues that the online medium offers alternative subjectivities for positioning people with disabilities in the social world. Discursive findings, however, also show that operating online within a disabled identity creates marginalised experiences.Discourse analysis, underpinned by a social constructionist philosophy, which emphasises the constructive nature of language in creating experience, is utilised as a methodology for gathering and analysing data. I have adopted Gilbert and Mulkay's (1984) concept of an 'interpretative repertoire' to manage the construction of discursive patterns identified in the data. Semi-structured interviews with 21 people with physical and sensory disabilities, who used the online medium daily, or several times per week, were carried out. Participants were recruited from various disability organisations in New Zealand and were invited to take part in an online interview via email, or another online communication program of their choice. Participants were met in person prior to the interviews to confirm the researcher's credibility and to build rapport.Seven key repertoires were identified in the data, with each one organised around several discursive resources. A choice to disclose repertoire allows disability to become a flexible feature of identity to be revealed and/or concealed in a contextualised and occasioned fashion. The accessing a socially valued subjectivity repertoire enables people with disabilities to position themselves as valued members of the social world, free of the physical and psychological barriers constructed by others that surround disabled identities. A transcendence repertoire functions in the talk of people with disabilities by surpassing the physical, social, and psychological limitations arising from having to operate within a disabled body, allowing far greater capacity for participation. A participating in the world repertoire affords people with disabilities the opportunity to be part of a wider community of relationships, people, interests, activities, and information, creating a sense of global belonging and connection. The keeping safe and qualified deception repertoires, together, enable people with disabilities to successfully manage the dilemma of participating in a medium where there is potential for substantial self-gain as well as harm. In contrast to the repertoires available for experiencing alternative subjectivities, which operate outside the oppression of disabled identities, a disabling differentials repertoire demonstrates the social disadvantages surrounding disabled identities online. Discursive findings are discussed in relation to disembodiment, as the online medium enables abilities to extend beyond the body, lifting the ceiling on standard ways of operating. This opens up psychological benefits as people with disabilities are afforded opportunities to access and participate within many dimensions of social life. At a collective level, political implications associated with the absence online of disabled identities are raised. Issues of technopower are also mentioned, along with future research directions. Overall, participants' constructions demonstrate how the online medium makes available a social space where people with disabilities can temporarily step outside the physical, social, and psychological constraints of operating within disabled subjectivities. This was cherished and celebrated.

This research investigates ways to help shoppers evaluate physical products via the Internet. The primary research issue is, therefore, how to provide experience vicariously. The study was undertaken in three parts. First, an extensive range of Web sites belonging to Internet-based retailers was examined, together with literature on vicarious experience and Web page design. These helped to explore the question of ‘What components of Web-based representations of physical products might assist shoppers when trying to evaluate those products as part of a purchase decision?’ Online store systems that are representative of the main communication styles found in the Web survey were then evaluated in a series of laboratory-based experiments. This second part of the study makes a broad assessment of the impact of representative technologies on the product evaluation process. Finally, a smaller-scale, more targeted investigation was conducted, also using a laboratory-based experiment. This third part of the study assesses the impact of an individual’s evaluation style on the perceived success of representative technologies.

Technology is becoming more central to people’s lives than ever before, and the most widely embraced technological device on the consumer market are mobile phones. This creates an ever-increasing market place for mobile apps, which during 2016 had revenues amounted to 88.3 billion U.S. dollars. The number is expected to increase, and together is estimated to generate 188.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenues 2020. One of the industries affected by this strong online presence is direct selling, where branded mobile apps have started to be used as a sales tool for sales representatives. The apps aim to facilitate the sales representatives’ daily work and bring new opportunities to engage with the end customers in a more convenient way. However, limited research exists about how the sales representatives experience the branded mobile apps in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to explore the sales representatives’ behavior and attitude towards using branded mobile apps within the direct selling industry. This study has been conducted by a quantitative descriptive and exploratory study using a survey. Sales representatives that placed an order exceeding 100 Euros during the last three weeks in five Western culture countries for one direct selling company were targeted. In total, 460 responses were gathered. The result gave some valuable insights although the initial hypothesized benefits could not be confirmed. The findings instead suggest separate items that contributed the most to sales representatives’ satisfaction and purchase intentions. In order to increase satisfaction among sales representatives, branded mobile apps used in direct sales should 1) facilitate the interaction with the company, 2) be easy to navigate with, 3) provide relevant information, 4) be convenient to shop from, and finally 5) work as a good conversation topic in a social context. Further on, the item identified to have the greatest contribution to purchase intentions is how convenient the app is to shop from, i.e. the same as number 4) above. The future challenge for the direct selling industry and its managers is thus to take advantage of these insights and further study how the attributes more practically can be implemented for their business. By focusing on these actions in the creation and development of branded mobile apps, the direct selling industry can expect to achieve higher satisfaction among their sales representatives and also increase their purchase intentions. / Dagens teknik har blivit en allt mer central del i människors liv, och den vanligaste enheten på konsumentmarknaden idag är mobiltelefoner. Detta har skapat en ständigt ökande marknad för mobilappar, som år 2016 genererade 88.3 miljarder U.S. dollar. Antalet appanvändare framöver förväntas att öka, och tillsammans generera 188.9 miljarder U.S. dollar i intäkter år 2020. En av de branscher som påverkats av denna starka närvaro online är direktförsäljning, där appar har börjat användas som försäljningsverktyg för konsulenterna. Apparna syftar till att underlätta konsulenternas dagliga arbete och ge nya möjligheter att engagera sig med slutkunderna på ett lättare och mer fördelaktigt sätt. Dock existerar det lite forskning och kännedom om hur konsulenterna upplever användandet av appar i branschen. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka försäljningsrepresentanternas beteende och attityd gentemot att använda appar inom direktförsäljningsbranschen. Studien har varit både beskrivande och undersökande, och har genomförts genom en samla in kvantitativ data med hjälp av en enkätundersökning. Kunder som har lagt en order över 100 Euros de tre senaste veckorna i fem västeuropeiska länder för ett direktförsäljningsföretag har studerats. Totalt erhölls 460 svar. Resultatet gav flertalet värdefulla insikter, även om de initiala hypoteserna syftade till att undersöka olika fördelar inte kunde bekräftas. Resultaten föreslår istället separata aspekter med störst påverkan på hur nöjda konsulenterna är, samt deras köpintentioner. För att öka nöjdheten bland konsulenter bör appar som används i direktförsäljning 1) underlätta samspelet med företaget, 2) vara lätta att navigera med, 3) tillhandahålla relevant information, 4) vara bekväm att handla från och slutligen 5) fungera som ett bra samtalsämne i ett socialt sammanhang. Vidare kunde det ses att den identifierade aspekten som bidrar mest till konsultenternas köpintentioner är hur bekvämt appen är att handla från, det vill säga samma aspekt som identifierades för konsulenters tillfredställelse under nummer 4) ovan. Den framtida utmaningen för direktförsäljningsindustrin och dess chefer är således att utnyttja dessa insikter och studera vidare hur dessa aspekter kan lämpas mer i praktiken för deras företag. Genom att fokusera på dessa åtgärder vid skapandet och utvecklingen av appar kan direktförsäljningsindustrin räkna med att erhålla högre tillfredsställelse bland sina konsulenter, samt att även öka deras köpintentioner.

Several studies explore new technology and social media usage, especially in the global North. This study set out to investigate what kind of experiences and opinions youth in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia, had of their internet and communication technology usage, through semi-structural interviews, at the same time comparing the possible differences in this between LGBT and non-LGBT youth. That way I am trying to add a perspective and voice in the new media discourse, as well as adding to the knowledge of my partner organization, Svalorna Latinamerika. I decided to focus on three main online activities; security issues, relationship building and information management, and the nine informants were encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences as well as information about their general ICT usage. The results showed that the youth’s internet usage was depending more on their interest in the different media and platforms, rather than on their sexual orientation or gender. The LGBT informants however had more experiences of discrimination and threat online. Also, all of the informant’s seemed to create new relations not only to other users online, but also to the platforms and media itself, this depending on how much they were using the platforms. Finally I could see that the informants could satisfy many different needs with their ICT and social media use, depending on their interests, resources and time spent online.

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