Because of the increasing importance of local government in America's cities, it is worthwhile to note what factors influence the election of our local leaders. This study sought to isolate the communication factors and rhetorical strategies which influenced the election of Mayor Richard Fulton in Nashville's 1975 Mayoral Race. Data was gathered from the written and video media, a private interview with the candidate, and campaign materials. Research also provided the candidate's previous political background. Various factors in Nashville's 1975 Mayoral Race combined to produce an insightful episode in rhetorical and nonrhetorical communication campaign strategies. During the initial stages of the study, emphasis was placed on the rhetorical strategies of candidate Richard Fulton, and to a lesser degree, those of his opponent, Earl Hawkins. As the study progressed, it became increasingly evident that although rhetorical strategies were influential in Fulton's campaign victory, the major reason for his political success could not be totally attributed to his campaign speaking. After acknowledging that fact, a search throughout the available data began to determine what factors were responsible for his ultimate campaign success. It was found that the raising of the candidate's ethos was the most influential campaign factor. Evidence throughout the available data documented over and over again the conclusion that Richard Fulton built an attractive image appealing to Nashville's voters. Fulton's rhetorical content and past experiences served to connunicate this "winning image." It was revealed that: The national and local political situation was favorable to the image which Fulton projected, Fulton's ethos was very high, Fulton's image was the chief factor in this successful campaign, and Fulton's rhetorical strategies were in accord with the majority of Nashville's voters' attitudes. Because specific categories have not been formed by the communication community pertaining to the political candidate's image, this study has been one of discovery and new insight in the area of local politics. A proper rhetorical analysis could not simply proffer an evaluation of traditional aspects of speaking, such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Truly these categories enter the campaign on an important level, but with the increasing role of the media, even in local campaigns, new categories need to be developed and explored. It is the hope of the writer that this particular study will encourage greater interest and future investigations into the local political workings in our cities, particularly those in the South. Why are the Americans of each city choosing their particular leaders? What role is public rhetoric playing in the local choice? How is the media affecting those choices on the local level? Is the American public being "sold" a false image by local politicians due to local advertising, and if so, how might greater public speaking help to dispell these misleading images? These are just a few questions which may stir future interest in pursuing the rhetorical study of our nation's many, local political campaigns and their place in the future development of the contemporary South.

What is the importance of political speechmaking? Do state governors discuss presidential priorities? This study addresses these questions by analyzing the contents of annual State of the State addresses given by governors from 2012 to 2014 during the presidency of Barack Obama. A descriptive paper provides evidence that governors primarily discuss employment and economic issues in their addresses, are discussing greater number of policy issues than in previous decades, and are delivering their address before the presidential State of the Union message. Examining health care and immigration policy in separate empirical papers, I theorize that contextual factors, including legislative partisanship, public approval, and presidential influence may affect the extent to which policies supported by the Obama administration are rhetorically referenced by governors. Empirical analyses found limited support for the influence of divided government, but demonstrated significant evidence for the importance of including state-centric factors, including annual employment rate and proximity to Mexico, as well as temporal effects, into future analyses of gubernatorial rhetoric.

This content analysis of mainstream and alternative news narratives interprets the use of the crisis media frame, and describes the relationship between local policy initiatives, media discourse and public opinion on tent cities, organized by people experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon. Framing homelessness and housing as a crisis intensified the public debate, attested by an increase in mainstream media reports on tent cities, and by controversial policy changes that addressed the individually-experienced traumatic impacts of the City's anti-camping ordinance, as well as the systemic lack of affordable housing and emergency shelter. Media discourse related to city-sanctioned tent cities blurs the lines between Shanto Iyengar's episodic and thematic media frames because of the simultaneous acknowledgement of individual and systemic circumstances. The crisis frame is a discursive mechanism in the production of knowledge on homelessness and housing, and is considered as an integral characteristic of Henri Lefebvre's conceptual model of socio-spatial production, which describes the interdependency between discourse, practice and meaning in the material and symbolic production of space.

<p>The purpose of this paper is to see how politicians use Internet communication in their daily work and how they use it to interact with citizens of Vasteras city. To reach my conclusions I used both theoretical methods such as literature studies and qualitative interviews with the towns 11 trustees. Accoarding to this study the politicians saw not only a lot of potentials and advantages in Internet communication but also many difficulties and obstacles. In this case the cons far exceeded the pros. One of the main reason is the bad experiences which caused by rasist attacks/threats made to politicians and also the difficulties in handling of sensitiv documents which was seen as a stress factor. Vasteras home page is more seen as a very inert two way communication channel, due to the lack of discussion/debate forum. Other forms of communication via other media is prefered. Obviously IT is a fast and complementary media but face to face communication is prioritized rather than computer communication. E- democracy, E- meeting, E- discussion can not replace face to face communication. There is a strong belief among the municipal executive committee in the representative democracy as the best functional political system. The political climate characterizes as a sort of conservatism or pessimism when it concerns IT and democracy. Despite all of this, there are many optimistic attitudes about IT in a future perspective. Marketing and education are essential elements that benefit to more dialog and interactivity which can influence the quality of democracy. The Internet is perceived by many of respondants as an excellent horizontal communication than vertical.</p>

<p>Posters have been used in political communication for more than a century, and are still an important element in the election campaigns. However, few studies have been devoted to the way in which text and image work together in order to obtain the rhetorical goal of making voters vote for a specific party.</p><p>In this study, election posters in the 2002 general election in Sweden from all parties represented in the Swedish parliament are analysed. The context of this specific sample of political communication is described through a sociological approach inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, and through theories of political marketing. The model for analysis of the posters combine semiotics and rhetoric in order to present a model capable of analysing both text and image, and the way in which they are used in order to influence and persuade voters.</p><p>The conclusions are that Swedish parties favour textual messages and not visual elements, and that when visual elements are used, these are mostly portraits of candidates. So apparently, the predominance of visual elements in advertising does not show in election posters. Neither can one claim that personalisation is a predominant element, as the total percentage of posters depicting candidates is quite low. The tendency towards negative campaigning seen in earlier elections is not present in the 2002 posters, and the rhetoric is mostly epideictic and thus aimed at keeping already convinced voters rather than attracting new ones. This might indicate that the posters have lost their role as means of attracting new voters and have become more of an “internal” affair, telling the party’s voters, in a way which presupposes shared points of view, that the party is there to be voted for as always. The posters thus fulfil a symbolic function of binding together adherents rather than attracting newcomers. </p>

Social scientists agree that public confidence in social institutions is a crucial element in building democratic society. This is especially true for transitional societies including post-communist countries, because the lack of public confidence in newly emerged democratic institutions can interfere with democratic development. Although different theories explaining public confidence in social institutions were developed, these theories ignored the role that mass media play in building public confidence. The goal of this study is to examine the connection between mass media coverage of social institutions and public confidence in these institutions by conducting content analysis of Belarusian newspapers, reviewing the results of the public opinion polls from Belarus, and exploring the links between coverage of social institutions and trust in them. Four institutions were chosen for this examination: two institutions with high level of confidence representing the state (the President, the military) and two institutions with low level of confidence representing civil society (independent labor unions, opposition political parties). Results showed that there is a noticeable connection between media coverage and public confidence in social institutions. Content analysis demonstrated that the state-run newspapers publish a great number of articles about Belarus President Lukashenko, covering him within the scope of explicitly positive themes. As results of public opinion polls demonstrate, the President enjoys an high level of confidence amongst people who trust state-run Media. On the other hand, independent newspapers present President Lukashenko in a negative different light: he is being depicted as a dictator and an ineffective leader. According to public opinion polls, people who trust the independent media are less confident in the President: more than 42% do have confidence in him. Given that state-run newspapers present the President almost exclusively within positive themes and independent newspapers seldom speak of the President’s achievements, concentrating mostly on his failures and shortcomings, we can see a strong connection between media coverage of the President and levels of public confidence in him. Examining media coverage and public opinion about other social institutions provided similar results, confirming the connection between media coverage and public confidence in this study.

Posters have been used in political communication for more than a century, and are still an important element in the election campaigns. However, few studies have been devoted to the way in which text and image work together in order to obtain the rhetorical goal of making voters vote for a specific party. In this study, election posters in the 2002 general election in Sweden from all parties represented in the Swedish parliament are analysed. The context of this specific sample of political communication is described through a sociological approach inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, and through theories of political marketing. The model for analysis of the posters combine semiotics and rhetoric in order to present a model capable of analysing both text and image, and the way in which they are used in order to influence and persuade voters. The conclusions are that Swedish parties favour textual messages and not visual elements, and that when visual elements are used, these are mostly portraits of candidates. So apparently, the predominance of visual elements in advertising does not show in election posters. Neither can one claim that personalisation is a predominant element, as the total percentage of posters depicting candidates is quite low. The tendency towards negative campaigning seen in earlier elections is not present in the 2002 posters, and the rhetoric is mostly epideictic and thus aimed at keeping already convinced voters rather than attracting new ones. This might indicate that the posters have lost their role as means of attracting new voters and have become more of an “internal” affair, telling the party’s voters, in a way which presupposes shared points of view, that the party is there to be voted for as always. The posters thus fulfil a symbolic function of binding together adherents rather than attracting newcomers.

This thesis has its focus on media portrayal of a large political institution; the European Union. Articles from two nations daily newspapers have been analyzed in order to examine how the European Union is described and framed for their readers. The newspapers that was chosen for this study and from which the material was collected, were the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet the American newspaper The New York Times. The material was taken from three periods of time, and by this the results did not only serve a presentiment on how the media reports about the subject, but also an idea over the media’s coverage character over time. Also, by analyzing articles from newspapers from different countries, the material could give an answer to whether there is any difference in media reporting and coverage about the European Union over nation borders. Theories that have been under observation for this study, and which have functioned as tools for the analyzing process are: the agenda-setting theory, media ideology, framing, media logic and political communication. Further inspirations that have been under consideration and of values through the development of this thesis are thoughts from the modern theorist Jürgen Habermas, and earlier studies that have been made on the subject in matter, for example ones by Lars Palm and Vanni Tjernström. Results from this study showed that there were differences between the two nations way of reporting about the subject, and also that changes over time have occurred. Mostly, it was the Swedish news reporting that showed evident change over the three investigated periods. This can be explained by the countries over all changed relationship towards the European Union. Further did results from this study show that the American articles included more actors and subjects, compared to the Swedish articles. This can be a factor of the American articles longer character.

According to most ways of measuring it the Swedish trade union movement is the strongest in the world. The Swedish Trade Union Confederation is the largest and most influential union confederation by far. Since the 1980s though, Sweden experienced a shift in the power relations between employers and unions in favour of the former. This has coincided with a growing importance for political communication, public relations and the mass media. This development has presented the Swedish trade union movement with a multitude of challenges. One of the major ones is how to influence the representations of trade unions and their viewpoints in the news media. The purpose of this study is to describe and try to explain how the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and its affiliated unions act to confront the “medialisation” of the public debate. A combination of research methods are used in this study in order to investigate both the historical development of trade union news management and the use of news management by trade union personnel in their everyday work. The study of how news management historically became a part in the overall union activity was performed through qualitative analysis of archive material. The study of the everyday uses of news management and the factors constraining this work builds upon interviews with the press officers of the TUC affiliated unions and the TUC itself. The study shows how both the historical development and the everyday use of news management by the Swedish trade union movement need to be understood in a context. This context contains political, economical, ideological and organisational structures that at the same time enables and constrains the adaption of news management. The study points towards five central paradoxes which faces the trade unions when they seek desired media attention and try to avoid unwanted publicity. The first paradox concerns how to fight hard in the interest of the members, while at the same time avoid being described as a sectional interest. The second paradox stems from the desire of the trade unions to be perceived as big and strong and how this might result in the labelling of them as ‘Goliath’ during a conflict. The next paradox concerns how trade unions want to show the importance of the work done by their members during a conflict and the way this might lead to media attention about how the strike affects ‘innocent bystanders’. The fourth paradoxes come from the wish of the trade unions to make their local representatives visible in mass media. This could result in unwanted publicity, due to the difference between blue-collar trade unionists and middleclass journalists. The fifth paradox stems from the importance of acting quickly to achieve wanted media attention and to avoid unwanted. The paradox is that it might be hard to be fast and at the same time have a thorough democratic process on a controversial issue.

The purpose of this study was to examine the political party “Feministiskt initiativ” (Fi) and their communication during the election campaign 2006. We wanted to find out what the intention was and how the communication was received by the public. We also looked for signs of congruence between those two sides. Fi is the first political party with a feministic ideology to candidate for the parliament in Sweden. The party is rather new and their political standpoints and internal affairs have often been subject of for debate in the media. We wanted to investigate people’s individual opinions of the matter, and therefore we chose to personally interview a number of people. First we met with one of Fi:s board members, who would function as a representative of the party and then we interviewed eight other people, who would represent the Swedish population. In the interviews we asked for opinions about some of the material that had been used during the party’s election campaign 2006. The results show that Fi wants to communicate a reflection of them selves. They claim that Fi is an innovative party with humour, and they want that to be apparent in their communication. They also want to subdue the prevalent image of feminists that exists in today’s society. The party wants to communicate with all public groups, but has despite this, chosen a rather unconventional rhetorical style which can be misinterpreted in some cases. When we interviewed the representatives of the public, the expected misinterpretation was present. The respondents sometimes found it hard to understand the text in the posters and the rhetorical style was not as obvious for the people as for the party. Despite this, the core messages appeared quite obvious for the respondents. However, the most dominant feature of the interviews was the great variety in the answers. A lot of different feelings and opinions were surfaced. Some people showed no reaction what so ever, while others were very affected and almost offended. But the campaign also produced positive reactions and we could tell that the party communicates issues that engage and move people. / Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka Feministiskt initiativs (Fi) kommunikation ur ett sändar- och mottagarperspektiv. Vi har tittat på vad sändaren har för avsikt med kommunikationen och hur de själva uppfattar den. Vi har även undersökt hur allmänheten uppfattar kommunikationen och om sändarens uppfattningar stämmer överens med mottagarnas. Fi är det första politiska partiet, med feminismen som ideologi, att kandidera till Sveriges riksdag. Partiet är relativt nytt och deras politik och interna problem har varit ett omdebatterat ämne i media. Med detta som grund fann vi partiets kommunikation som ett intressant föremål för granskning. För att komma i kontakt med människors subjektiva föreställningar kring det aktuella fenomenet genomförde vi personliga intervjuer. Vi intervjuade en styrelseledamot från Fi som skulle representera partiet och åtta andra strategiskt utvalda personer som skulle kunna representera den svenska befolkningen. Det material som låg till grund för undersökningen bestod av partifärgen, logotypen samt ett antal affischer och ett vykort som användes i valkampanjen 2006. Resultatet visar att Fi vill att deras kommunikation ska spegla partiets karaktär. De säger själva att Fi är ett parti med humor och nytänkande och att det ska synas i hur de kommunicerar. De vill även bli kvitt den klichéartade bilden av feminister, som allt för ofta påträffas i dagens samhälle. Partiet vill kommunicera med alla samhällsgrupper och ser hela Sveriges befolkning som sin målgrupp. Trots det har de ändå valt en något icketraditionell stil som de tror kan misstolkas ibland. Den av partiet förväntade misstolkningen, syntes mycket riktigt, i våra mottagarintervjuer. Affischerna kunde ibland uppfattas som tvetydiga och retoriken var inte alltid så självklar för mottagarna som den kan antas vara för sändaren. Trots detta verkade de flesta ändå förstå vad Fi:s grundläggande budskap handlar om. Det mest utmärkande i resultatet var den breda variation av uppfattningar som materialet gav upphov till. Känslor och tankar kring Fi:s budskapsförmedling visade sig nämligen vara väldigt varierande. Reaktionerna skiftade från ingen åsikt alls till att man blev starkt berörd eller till och med provocerad. Men materialet gav även upphov till positiva känslor och reaktioner och vi såg tecken på att partiet tar upp frågor som berör och engagerar människor.