This study aims from a gender perspective to examine how the audience pay attention to people of power in news media. To examine this we viewed how televiewers pay attention to party leaders in televised political debates. The studys gender perspective can be divided into two main aspects, on one hand whether the party leaders gender have any impact on the televiewers attention and on the other hand whether the televiewers gender have any impact on how they divide their attention. The questions examined are “how do televiewers pay attention to male versus female party leaders in political televised debates?” and “what differences and similarities can be found in how male versus female televiewers pay attention to party leaders in political televised debates?”. To get a comprehensive understanding of the audiences attention we combined two different methods; eye tracking methodology and qualitative interview. Eye tracking generated objective knowledge of the televiewers visual fixations while the qualitative interview gave us a deeper understanding of their memorialization. Five men and five women participated in this study.  Our results show that our participants give more detailed attention to the female party leaders appearances, while to a greater extent remembering the male party leaders political statements. We found more similarities than differences in how male versus female televiewers pay attention to party leaders, both with and without regard of the party leaders gender. For example male politicians seem to be the norm for what makes a party leader, since many participants primarily tend to fixate on them while also remembering their statements. However, our male participants tend to make fewer but longer fixations while our female participants instead tend to make more but shorter fixations. To summarize the results, we can see that both the party leaders and the televiewers gender have an significance to the televiewers attention.

This study focuses on the gender representation on Instagram of the two party leaders Annie Lööf and Ulf Kristersson. We will compare how they communicate through images on their private Instagram accounts. The purpose of this study is to see how they represent themselves on their private Instagram account, and make comparisons to see if there is any similarities or differences from a gender perspective that can be found in the society. The theoretical framework is based on Hirdman's Gender System, Connell's Masculinity Theory and Semiotic Theory. To accomplish this study, a semiotic method was used with denotations and connotations. To understand the underlying meaning in the images, an analysis tool that includes Goffman’s and Barthes different dimensions and Hansen and Machin’s analysis units has been designed. The result of the analysis shows that there is a difference in how the two party leaders choose to present themselves on Instagram. Lööf appears to be the stereotypical woman, she is responsive, empathetic and caring. Kristersson is portrayed like the stereotypical man, he takes place, is active and competitive. The image of the party leaders is similar to previous research and theories on gender and authority. Both Lööf and Kristersson reproduce the media's stereotypical representation of women and men. / Denna studie fokuserar på hur partiledarna Annie Lööf och Ulf Kristersson framställs, utifrån ett genusperspektiv, på Instagram. Deras bildkommunikation på Instagram studeras och jämförs. Syftet med studien är därför att jämföra hur en kvinnlig respektive manlig partiledare använder sitt privata Instagram-konto för att framställa sig själv, för att se om det finns några likheter eller skillnader utifrån ett genusperspektiv och för att se om de reproducerar den stereotypa framställningen av politiker i media. Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgår från Hirdmans Genussystem, Connells Maskulinitetsteori och semiotisk teori. För att genomföra studien användes en semiotisk metod med denotation och konnotation. För att förstå de underliggande meningarna i bilderna har ett analysverktyg konstruerats som innefattar Goffmans och Barthes olika dimensioner och Hansens och Machins ytterligare analysenheter. Resultatet av analysen visar att det finns en tydlig skillnad i hur de båda partiledarna väljer att framställa sig själva på Instagram. Lööf framstår som den typiska kvinnan, lyhörd, empatisk och omhändertagande. Kristersson framställs likt den stereotypa mannen som tar plats, är aktiv och tävlingsinriktad. Den bild som partiledarna visar upp kan kopplas ihop med tidigare forskning och teorier kring genus och makt. Både Lööf och Kristersson reproducerar medias stereotypa framställning av kvinnor och män.

Syfte: I våra svenska tidningar har bilderna fått ta mer och mer plats och får därmed större möjlighet att påverka läsaren med egna tolkningar av bilden. Det har lett till en debatt kring hur bilder används för att gestalta våra politiker på nyhetsplats. En grupp journalister som kallar sig Den allierade journalisten uppmärksammade att det, enligt dem, fanns en skillnad i hur Mona Sahlin och Fredrik Reinfeldt porträtterades i bild under valspurten 2010. Senare redovisade journalistprofessor Kent Asp att vissa tidningar varit extra hårda i sin bevakning av Mona Sahlin i nyhetstexter. Med anledning av detta finner vi det intressant att undersöka och analysera  tidningarna Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet och Expressens bilder av Mona Sahlin och Fredrik Reinfeldt de sista veckorna innan valet 2010. Med en djupgående analys av materialet vill vi se hur de båda partiledarna framställs, om det är några skillnader mellan framställningen av de båda, samt om det fanns någon skillnad mellan tidningarna i hur de framställde Mona Sahlin och Fredrik Reinfeldt. Metod: Vår undersökning har utförts genom en kvalitativ semiologisk bildanalys av Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet och hur de gestaltade Mona Sahlin och Fredrik Reinfeldt i valet 2010. Urvalet har gjorts genom en denotativ genomgång av det totala antalet bilder på de båda där de figurerat på tidningens framsida med tillhörande sidor till artikeln inne i tidningen. Sedan har vi konnotativt analyserat ett representativt urval av bilder av de bilder som vi gick igenom i föregående steg. Den semiotiska bildanalysen fokuserar på konnotationer med miljöer, symboler och tecken samt de känslor betraktaren får beroende på den kulturella bakgrund betraktaren har.   Slutsats: Det går att se skillnader i framställningen av Mona Sahlin och Fredrik Reinfeldt. Skillnaden ses tydligast i kvällstidningarna Aftonbladet och Expressen. Överlag så är bilderna och rubrikerna om henne negativt vinklade och handlar mer om henne som person än om den politik som hon framför. Fredrik Reinfeldts politik får också stå tillbaka till förmån för artiklar om honom, men i de bilder han syns så är de till stor grad positiva. Redan tidigt i valspurten utmålas Reinfeldt som en vinnare av de båda kvällstidningarna, vilket fortsätter synas hela vägen till valdagen.  Kvällstidningarna gestaltar kampen mellan Reinfeldt och Sahlin mer som spel än sak, något som dagstidningarna inte gör till lika stor grad. Dagstidningarna tar upp sakfrågorna oftare än kvällstidningarna, men bildmässigt använder de sig av liknande bildspråk som kvällstidningarna. Bilderna i Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet  är också de till Reinfeldts fördel, respektive Sahlins nackdel. Bilderna kan analyseras på ett djupare plan än kvällstidningarna som ofta förankrar sina bilder i en rubrik för att tolkningen av bilden ska bli mer stängd. Bilderna i dagstidningarna är mer ödesmättade och genomtänkta, och framställer ofta Reinfeldt som en vinnare, men Sahlin som en ensam förlorare.

The purpose of this paper was to seek answers to why the Christian Democrats decided to actively contribute to the December agreement as well as its termination. My questions are: • Why did the Christian Democrats decide to join the December agreement? • Why did the Christian Democrats decide to leave the December agreement? I have used an analysis model based on the model Gunnar Sjöblom developed to explain how parties in a multi-party system reach their overall goal of program realization. As a development of Sjöblom's model, I have added an aspect from Karl Loxbo about the importance of the parties' strategic actions over time. I have also used Tommy Möller's description of eleven factors that affect the scope of action for political leaders at national level. I have used a case study design and made a comparison of two different analysis units in time. To chart the course of events and to find causal mechanisms, I have used process tracking. My conclusions are that the Christian Democrats had a primary focus on cohesion of the Alliance as a starting point for entering into the December agreement and that the party largely left the agreement because the new party leader considered it as a barrier to realizing the party's new political orientation. The situation that arose after the Swedish Democrats entered the Riksdag and brought entirely new conditions remains to be solved.

The purpose of this study is to examine the climate of discussion between party leaders of Swedish political parties. The method used to carry out this task is a statistical analysis of "Agenda Debatt", the most viewed debate on Swedish television. The statistical analysis is based on deliberate democracy-theory, more specifically Fishkin and Luskin's definition of the ideal debate. Fishkin and Luskin's 5 principles for ideal debate will be operationalized and thus make up the foundation for the statistical analysis. The results of the analysis will in turn be the foundation for a qualitative discussion, which aims to answer the research question: "How can the Swedish climate of discussion between political party leaders in 'Agenda Debatt' be described from a deliberate democracy perspective?" The research question was answered, and the climate of discussion could be described as poor from a deliberate democracy perspective.

This essay aims to investigate how the leaders for the Swedish parliamentary parties appear on their official Instagram accounts. By conducting a discourse analysis, looking at both text, visual images, and the combination of the two in the Instagram posts, the intention is to analyse how gender is being performed through the rhetorical concept of persona.  The analysis show that all eight party leaders mainly enact political/professional personas. Sub-personas derived to this category are individual vs group member, active vs passive, and critic. The male party leaders exhibit the individual, active and critical personas to a greater extent than their female counterparts, and thereby performing gender in a stereotypically masculine way – reproducing the image of the stereotypical male politician. The analysis also finds that some party leaders, mainly female ones, use personal personas to a greater extent.  The conclusion is that all party leaders mainly use professional personas, profiling them as first and foremost politicians. But when looking at how the personas are carried out, the female party leaders can be seen using numerously more personas than the male ones, especially adding on personal personas. In addition to enacting the traditional female stereotype of having to handle both carrier and family, this may reward them with additional Instagram followers. But when the number of followers is put in relation to surveys of trust and opinion polls, the conclusion is that the party leaders exhibiting masculine coded personas are more prosperous in actual politics.

A qualitative study of the Swedish party leader’s presentation on Instagram.  Social media has become a big part of political communication. It makes it possible to spread messages and information directly to its voters without having to go through the traditional media, which they needed to before the age of social media. After finding a research gap about politicians' presentation on Instagram in a Swedish context, this study aims to examine four Swedish party leaders' presentations on Instagram by using qualitative methods where their image and text art studied. The study is based on Goffman's dramaturgical perspective and the phenomenon of personal branding.  The study shows that the party leaders' posts have a clear political focus with varied personal elements in the self-presentation depending on the party leader and the political affiliation. Posts with political content show a prominence that aims to emphasize its role as a leader, which is enhanced by the formal dress and the setting shown in the pictures. These posts are aimed to influence, inform and enlighten. The more private and personal pictures are supposed to present an ordinary side of the party leader and create recognition that the voters can relate to by showing emotions, family life and hobbies. But even though these pictures may feel personal and look like the party leader lets the followers into private life, there is an impression control, where they themselves have chosen what they want to share and highlight the sides in the self that they want to associate their personal brand with.