The evolution within political parties shows an increase of professionalisation where a higher competence is on demand and is practised on a communicative level. Currently a lot of the research surrounding this professionalisation has been focused on only political parties , but at the same time other stakeholders is also working within the political area without being political parties. How does political youth associations, that is widely driven by volunteers, navigate within this political context where the demands and expectations is constantly increasing? The purpose of this study was to examine how political communication is practised by political youth associations in a world that gets increasingly more professional. The study was conducted by analysing every post published during the month of January 2018 by the two political youth associations SSU and MUF on their Facebook and Instagram pages. The chosen method of this study has been Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, complemented by qualitative interviews with the heads of digital communication of both associations. The theories applied on the material was different approaches to discourses, mainly the thoughts of Michel Foucault, combined with how discourses can shape identities. The theories by Erving Goffman concerning the presentation of self and, by extension, the presentation of organisations, was also used. By applying these to the material, six different themes were identified.These can be divided into two subsections, content and form, which lay the groundwork for the central result of this study. Both associations have to balance the work of attracting new members and maintaining a trustworthy political image. This is the result of political communication that has become highly professional.

The research explored the public support towards the political communication carried out during COVID-19 in India. Through the means of a structured questionnaire based on Easton's dimensions of public support, responses were collected from 200 respondents, 100 each from the academic background of journalism and psychology. To determine the support towards the government performance during the crisis times based on the political communication done by the current regime in India. The results suggested that the public support is quite less from the respondents of journalism background. However, the psychology respondents showed relatively high support towards the political communication done by the Indian government in the COVID-19. It suggests that the public support is not one but scattered and also the academic background could play a major role in one's understanding of the political communication and lending of the support. The research demonstrated how respondents from different backgrounds show almost the opposite support towards political communication in the times of crisis. This gives out a good comparison and also concludes the public support. Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, political communication, crisis communication, public support, India.

Magister Commercii - MCom / In May 2019, South Africa held its sixth democratic national and provincial elections. 48 political parties participated in this general election compared to the 19 that participated in 2014. Thus, the 2019 elections witnessed a significant broadening of political options that could appeal to the electorate. At the same time mechanisms for political parties to communicate and engage with voters have also evolved. Research has shown that ‘new media’, commonly known as social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for example), have increasingly become part of the political communication methods within electoral democracies. Given this, the study aimed to conduct a deep analysis of the use of Twitter as a communication tool by the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) during the election campaign period of 2019. The study adopted a qualitative method, by having a virtual ethnography approach to collect Twitter feeds. In addition, a Twitter survey was conducted in order to understand how the users received the political campaigns on the platform. The analysis was guided by the theoretical framework of Foot and Schneider (2006) which outlines and discusses four pillars (or functions) of online campaigning namely: “informing, involving, connecting and mobilizing”.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>The Swedish election year of 2010 has just begun and the political actors are mobilizing their communication efforts to win the votes of the public. The political campaigns of 2010 have the potential to be the first where a new channel for political communication has the potential to make a difference – the social media. This paper aims to describe in what ways a Member of Parliament, Nina Larsson (FP), together with the PR-agency Hello Clarice are using social media to conduct political campaigning on the web. It also aims to study if the professional consultants of Hello Clarice have any influence over Nina Larsson’s political communication.</p><p>The theoretical framework which is the base for this study are theories of an extended public sphere in the age of mediation. The information age has created new forms of interaction between humans over geographical distance which also is a key starting-point in Manuel Castells theories of the network society. This theory is therefore a theoretical foundation of this paper. The paper also uses theories of political communication and the idea of the professionalization of political communication. The research was conducted with a netnographic approach with observational studies of Nina Larsson’s two blogs and her activities on the social network Twitter. As a compliment to the observational studies research has also been conducted trough qualitative interviews with both Nina Larsson and representatives from the PR-agency Hello Clarice.</p><p>The results show that Nina Larsson’s political communication has to a degree been affected by the professional consultants of Hello Clarice. The paper has also shown an indication of the potential of social media in use of strategic political communication, in which different channels serve with different purposes. Our research has also shown that in this specific case social media can decrease the communicative distance between politician and citizen.</p> / <p>Valåret 2010 har precis tagit sin början och de politiska aktörerna mobiliserar sina kommunikationsinsatser för att på bästa sätt kunna vinna väljarnas förtroende och i slutändan röster. Årets valrörelse kan också bli den första där en ny kanal för politisk kommunikation är av betydelse – de sociala medierna. Denna uppsats syftar till att beskriva på vilka sätt en riksdagsledamot, Nina Larsson (FP), tillsammans med en kommunikationsbyrå, Hello Clarice, arbetar för att bedriva politiskt kampanjarbete i de sociala medierna. Uppsatsens mål är också att undersöka om kommunikationsbyrån påverkar de politiska budskap som Nina Larsson kommunicerar i de sociala medierna. </p><p>För att skapa förståelse för det som studeras baserar sig studien på ett övergripande plan i olika teoretiska synsätt om utvidgningen av det offentliga rummet som skett i samband med medieutvecklingen. Informationssamhällets utbredning har skapat nya förutsättningar för interaktion mellan människor i ett geografiskt avstånd. Manuel Castells teorier om nätverkssamhällets framväxt, i vilket dessa interaktiva aktiviteter sker, är därför också en övergripande teoretisk utgångspunkt för studien. För att skapa förståelse för de aktiviteter som studeras grundar sig studien också i teorier om politisk kommunikation och tankesätt om professionaliseringen av den politiska kommunikationen. En netnografisk ansats har använts för att bedriva observationsstudier av Nina Larssons två bloggar och av hennes konto på mikrobloggen Twitter. Studien har också kompletterats genom kvalitativa intervjuer med Nina Larsson och med representanter från kommunikationsbyrån Hello Clarice. </p><p>Studiens resultat visar att Nina Larssons politiska budskap delvis har påverkats av kommunikationsbyrån Hello Clarice. Studien visar också de sociala mediernas potential för att bedriva strategisk politisk kommunikation där de olika kanalerna som Nina Larsson kontrollerar tjänar olika syften. Syften som sammantaget ska stärka de politiska mål som Nina Larsson har. Våra observationer av Nina Larssons kanaler visar också att de sociala medierna kan fungera som ett verktyg för att minska det kommunikativa avståndet mellan medborgare och folkvald, vilket i detta specifika fall visat sig genom att Nina Larsson visat en vilja till dubbelriktad kommunikation.</p>