Thesis (M.A.)--Brock University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-104).

Sammanfattning Detta är en fallstudie över en Sveriges mest välkända och framgångsrika bloggar – www.kenzas.se, driven av Kenza Zouiten. Syftet med studien var att ta reda på hur man via självpresentation genom en blogg kan bygga upp och skapa sig ett starkt personligt varumärke. De frågeställningar studien utgick ifrån var hur Kenza Zouiten väljer att framställa sig själv som person i skriven text och i bilder, samt huruvida det finns några skillnader i hur hon väljer att framställa sig själv i bloggen idag jämfört med i bloggens början. Metoden som tillämpades var en kvalitativ innehållsanalys bestående av en retorisk textanalys och en semiotisk bildanalys – med ett övergripande hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att Kenza ända från början har haft en väldigt ödmjuk och vänlig ton i bloggen. Hon framställs i skriven text som ärlig, ödmjuk, trovärdig och passionerad, och framstår som en ganska ”vanlig” och normal tjej med ett liv som vem som helst. Hon har aldrig använt sig av bloggen för att provocera eller bråka, utan skriver snarare väldigt ”snälla” inlägg och tackar ofta sina bloggläsare för sin framgång. Hon framstår som väldigt transparent, autentisk och trovärdig i sin kommunikation, man får ett förtroende för henne som bloggare och litar på det hon skriver. I bilder, däremot, får man en lite annorlunda känsla jämfört med när man läser den skrivna texten. Bilderna hon publicerar framstår ofta som exklusiva och professionella, och vittnar om ett ”drömliv” fyllt av vackra och dyra klädesplagg, exotiska resmål och prestigefyllda modellfotograferingar. Det framkom alltså att det finns en motsättning i hur Kenza framställer sig via skriven text och via bilder. Detta kan vara en av de saker som fascinerar läsarna; att någon som verkar leva ett så lyxigt ”drömliv” ändå kan verka så ”vanlig” och oförändrad. Studien visade också på en utveckling i hur Kenza valt att framställa sig själv över tid. I början av bloggandet framstod hon som en vanlig tonåring som bloggade för att det var roligt att skriva dagbok, medan hon nuförtiden sköter bloggen mer som en marknadsföringskanal för sitt personliga varumärke. Hon visar inte upp lika mycket av sin privata sida varken i text eller bilder längre; hon framstår fortfarande som personlig, men inte lika privat. Numera framstår hon snarare som väldigt professionell i sitt bloggande. Slutsatsen är att man genom att utstråla en konsekvent trovärdighet, en autenticitet, passion och ödmjukhet kan bygga upp ett starkt personligt varumärke via en blogg. Detta tillsammans med ett utbud av vackra bilder som speglar en eftersträvansvärd livsstil verkar vara ett vinnande koncept. Även motsättningar mellan skriven text och bilder kan vara en bidragande faktor till hur man framgångsrikt skapar ett personligt varumärke genom att blogga. / Abstract This is a case study of one of Sweden's most well known and successful bloggers Kenza Zouiten. The purpose of the study was to find out whether you through self presentation via a blog can create and build up a strong personal brand. The research questions the study proceeded from were: How does Kenza Zouiten choose to present herself as a person in written text and in pictures? Are there any differences in how she chooses to present herself in her blog today, compared to when she first started blogging? If so: what are they? The method used was a qualitative content analysis consisting of a rhetorical textual analysis and a semiotic picture analysis – with an overriding hermneutic perspective. The results showed that Kenza, from the beginning, has had a very humble and friendly tone in the blog. In written text she is portayed as honest, humble, trusthworthy and passionate, and comes across as a pretty ”normal” girl with a normal life. She has never used the blog to provoke or pick fights, instead she writes very kind-hearted posts and often thanks her blog readers for her success. She appears to be very transparent, autentic och believeable through the way she communicates through her blog. When it comes to how she presents herself in pictures, however, you get a different feeling than from reading the written text. The pictures she publishes often appear as very exclusive and professional. They testify to some sort of ”dream life” filled with beautiful and expensive clothes, exotic trips and vacations and prestigeous fashion shoots. Thus, a divergence between how Kenza portrays herself through written text and how she portrays herself in pictures emerged. This might be one of the things that fascinate the readers; that someone who appears, or seems, to be living such a luxurious ”dream life” can appear so ”normal” at the same time. The study also showed a change in how Kenza has chosen to portray herself through time. When she first started blogging she seemed like a regular teenage girl who liked using the blog as a journal, nowadays she runs the blog more like a marketing tool for self promotion of her personal brand. She does not show as much of her private side, neither through written text or pictures, anymore. She does still come across as personal, but not as private as she once did. Nowadays she appears much more as a professional blogger. The conclusion is that by showing a consistent trustworthyness, autenticity, passion and humbleness, you can build up a strong personal brand via a blog. This, together with a range of beautiful pictures that reflect a desired lifestyle appears to be a winning concept. Divergencies between written text and pictures might also be a contributory factor when it comes to succesfully building a personal brand via blogging.

Study of self-presentation of artist in the Italian painting of the 16th century - abstract Italian art of the 16th century, known as the Cinquecento, is undoubtedly a captivating chapter of art history. No less interesting are the lives of artists from that time, the understanding of self-value and its presentation, creating the artist's identity, i.e. their "artistic self". Within a century we may observe the transformation from a craftsman to an artist, and subsequently artist- the courtier. The main representatives of this "movement", trying to raise the status of arts and artists in the society, were Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari. Each represented a different generation of artists; however, figures of both these painters are complemented in a curious way. There are moments when their lives meet and, in a certain way, follow one another. It is one of the reasons, why the connection Vasari-Zuccari is suitable for understanding social situation or the self-presentation of central Italian artists in the 16th century. It is almost as if this duo was representing a fictitious art figure of the Cinquecento, whose life began 1511 (with the birth of Giorgio Vasari) and ended in 1609 (with the death of Federico Zuccari) and by studying this figure we discover the development of artists' self-concept and...

Article 12 of The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child grants each young person the right to express their view, have their opinion considered and have their say in decisions that affect them. Previous research on talent development in sport has however failed to recognise the voice of the young person or regard the participant as an autonomous agent. This study employed phenomenological enquiry to focus on the conditions of lived reality to afford the young person the opportunity to convey their unique experience. The aim of the research was to employ a participatory approach to explore the essence of young people's conscious experience of Talent Development Programmes in sport. My co-collaborators were eight young people aged between 13 and 17, (two females: netball and gymnastics, and six males: rugby 3, discus, angling, and badminton), who all attended the same school and were all members of a Sports National Governing Body Talent Development Programme. Over twelve months each participant utilised their individual preference to communicate depictions of self, drawing upon interview, conversation, Twitter, video, photo and observation of training and performance. Results were presented in the form of individual vignettes generated from researcher and participant interaction and constructed according to hermeneutical interpretation. Young people’s stories reveal the essence of talent development through the experience of uncertainty and endeavour; talent development experience teaches young people to self-present in response to perceived injustice; and individual progress is characterised by self-regulation and the pursuit of personal empowerment. The research demonstrates that when young people are involved in active decision making about their learning and their lives they feel better respected and understood. Academics and practitioners must now accept a responsibility to engage with the unique lived experience of the young person’s reality to find better ways to listen to the young person’s voice to support their talent development experience in sport.

As the Internet has become increasingly integrated into people’s everyday lives, it has become increasingly important to consider the opportunities it provides for social interaction, self-presentation and self expression. Online spaces have often been considered to be quintessentially postmodern in potentials, allowing for play and experimentation detached from local geographic contexts and disconnected from visual markers of difference such as gender and ethnicity. Debates about affordances and potentials of online interaction have been reframed by several emergent trends in Internet usage encapsulated in the term ‘Web 2.0 networked social media’- including social networking and media sharing sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. These sites represent a renewed focus on the production of an ‘authentic’, often visually represented self online, strongly grounded in both offline and online networks of experiences, locations, relationships and contacts. These occupy a differing, interesting set of positions with respect to theories of contemporary identity and sociality, emphasising authenticity and permanence and embedding the individual in local contexts rather than emphasising anonymity and fluidity. This PhD investigates the impact of these trends, broadly examining gender, self-presentation, identity and interaction in the context of contemporary online spaces. Examining self-presentational and interactional practices and the display of taste online, this thesis will argue that the concept of ‘authenticity’ is a crucial structuring factor across all aspects of contemporary online interaction. The thesis will explore and examine the implications of this discourse of authenticity which delineates the boundaries of acceptable online self-presentation and interaction, and yet lies in tension with the complexities of impression management across the complex merged audiences brought together on social networking sites. The uncertainties and ambiguities of the merged audience here provoke a reflexivity which leads to a reaffirmation of an essentially unreflexive, pre-social self as ‘authentic’. Taking into account the need to account for agency and reflexivity the thesis will work towards an understanding of online self-presentation, gender and identity which incorporates the multiple narrative, performative and aesthetic aspects of identity.

Background:   The phenomenon of the 21st century, fashion bloggers, are having something that the glossy fashion magazines and fashion advertisements never had – a personal touch through their identity. Through sharing experiences, opinions and feelings about garments, shopping and other fashion related subjects, fashion bloggers share their self. Hence, blog can be the space where bloggers present, create or edit their self, shifting between who they really are and who they desire to be.Purpose:   The purpose of this study is to get a deeper insight into the phenomenon of the fashion blogger by investigating bloggers self-presentation through the blog and the relation of their online identity to their real- and ideal-self.Design/method:   This study was designed as an exploratory two case study. The data was collected by using three different methods: the content analysis, the go-along method and the semi-structured interviews. The sources included blog content, human behavior and verbalnarratives. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyze the data.Results:   Case I, a professional Croatian blogger, showed the usage of indirect elements to present the self on the blog and through blogging activities as well as the usage of ingratiation to maintain personal and business relationships, and competence to present the self as professionally competent. It also showed the usage of photo shooting as a cue for impression management as well as the struggle between different selves on the blog. Finally, the results highlighted the role of the blog in actualizing the self. Case II, a hobby Croatian blogger, showed the usage of direct and indirect elements to present the self on the blog and through blogging activities, as well as the intention to create a ‘fashionable personae’. It showed the usage of ingratiation to appear likeable and to get recognition, and competence to present the self as social. Analysis indicated the practice of fashion through dressing with an intention to create the ‘blogger’ identity and reach the ideal-self. The blog was found to be the place for practicing the self-confidence and the self-identity construction.Conclusion:   Case I showed the extensive conscious usage of the blog features and engagement into the blogging activities to present the self and usage of two self-presentation strategies; ingratiation and competence. Overall, it showed that the identity presented on the blog is majorly a reflection of already constructed identity and descriptive self while the significance of the blog is seen in the desire to reach self-actualization. Case II showed more unconscious usage of the blog features and engagement into the blogging activities to present the self and usage of two self-presentation strategies: ingratiation and competence. It also showed that the online identity on the blog mainly serves as a ‘trial identity’ through which the real-self is yetto be found and defined and through which the ideal-self is constantly reached. This study presents the first step into understanding how can blogger’s self-identity and self-presentation can be beneficial for the brand’s marketing strategy.

Social Media has become a place for Social Media Influencers (SMIs) and brands to interact with users. For decades, brands and companies have been engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility, which has recently become highly visible through social media. While not brands, SMIs have also started engaging in and creating social responsibility content on social media platforms, such as Instagram. An experimental design study of 421 participants was conducted to examine and compare consumer perceptions. Using self-presentation theory as a framework and experimental design, this study analyzes consumer perceptions of brand and SMI credibility and authenticity when engaging in social responsibility content on social media.

Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet med studien är att undersöka danslärares självskattade upplevelse av perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress inom danstävlingsverksamheten i Sverige. Tre frågeställningar besvarades i studien: 1) Finns det ett samband mellan perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress och ålder hos danslärare? 2) Finns det skillnader i skattning av perfektionistisk självpresentation mellan män och kvinnor? 3) Hur upplever danslärare perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress? Metod: Studien genomfördes både med en kvantitativ och kvalitativ forskningsmetod. En tvärsnittsstudie genomfördes och en tematisk analys utformades. Kvantitativa forskningsmetoden genomfördes i form av enkätundersökning för att identifiera nivåer av perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress. Kvalitativa forskningsmetoden genomfördes i form av personliga intervjuer för att besvara mer ingående hur danslärare med höga nivåer av perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress upplever sig själva. Resultat: Kvantitativt resultat: Signifikanta, positiva samband visas mellan PSP, NOI, NDI och upplevd stress. Signifikant negativt resultat identifierades mellan ålder och PSP. Inget signifikant samband mellan upplevd stress och ålder identifierades. Kvalitativt resultat: Resultatet presenteras i tre huvudteman som framkom under analysarbetet: Danslärares syn på yrkesrollen, Att vara perfektionistisk och Konsekvenser av hög perfektionism. Resultaten visade att alla danslärare upplevde sig själva som perfektionistiska men inte bara inom själva dansläraryrket utan också i privatlivet. Det visade sig även att deras perfektionistiska beteende i samband med stress ledde till utmattningssyndrom. Även om deras perfektionistiska självpresentation har visat sig leda till ohälsa så upplever de att deras beteende har varit hjälpsamt många gånger. Slutsats: Detta är den första studien som undersökt perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress hos danslärare genom en mixed-method studie. Utifrån respondenternas svar på enkätundersökningen men också genom våra intervjuer har vi förstått att perfektionistisk självpresentation och stress är sammankopplat

Background: As the expanding digital tools of communications provide new ways for people to interact online, new ways of initiating relationships have emerged from this technological development. From traditional online dating sites to today’s proximity dating applications that enable users to easily interact with other users nearby with the help of geolocation technology. This fast-paced movement allows dating applications to enter the market to assist people with the search for their soulmate. These dating applications such as Tinder allows people to manage their self-presentation as desired to pursue their goals online.    Problem: Previous literature about self-presentation and behaviour online has mainly focused on Facebook as the context. Because of its popularity among emerging adults today, this thesis has chosen to study Tinder as a context. Additionally, previous literature about Tinder has mainly focused on the motives behind using the app. However, the examination of self-presentation focusing solely on young women and how Tinder is utilized to reach one’s goal is not thoroughly researched.     Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of how young heterosexual women in Sweden use self-presentation and utilize digital social platforms to reach their goal. This research examines the context of the online dating application Tinder to study experiences and get insights into how the users utilize the app and different strategies to succeed. To fulfil the purpose of this research, the research team is going to thoroughly analyse the participants’ experiences and opinions to further understand how self-presentation and strategies are implemented in a context as Tinder.     Method: This thesis has followed a qualitative approach where an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) strategy is used. Ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted on young heterosexual women between 18-25 in Sweden utilizing the online dating application Tinder.    Results: The findings suggest that the participants use different strategies and have a varying perception of Tinder depending on how they want other users to perceive them and what their goals are. The discovered strategies are how the participants select pictures, what information they disclose in their profile, and how they interact with male users on the application. The development of the digital environment has impacted how users behave online, and findings suggest that social online platforms do not facilitate the expression of the true self online as previous literature has stated.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether women's self presentation on Instagram and in podcasts were consistent with stereotypical characteristics of the female gender, and whether their self presentation would differ as a result of the different media conditions. A qualitative content analysis was performed on transcriptions of podcast-episodes and instagramposts in order to examine how three women, with high numbers of followers on Instagram, constructed their self presentation in relation to female stereotypes. The main theoretical framework supporting the study was Goffman's theory about impression management and self presentation. In addition gender theory and structuration theory were applied.   The result indicates that all three women performed the majority of their self presentation, in both the podcasts and on Instagram, according to the stereotypes presented by the analytical framework. However, the main result show that the women’s self presentation in podcasts were performed more according to stereotypes than on Instagram. This is further debated in the analysis.  The fact that women often are portrayed according to stereotypes in the media is a part of the reason why women are still not equal to men. This problem has been debated for a long period of time but is still an issue. This study is an initial step in exploring how the platforms of podcasts and Instagram enable various female stereotypes in women's self presentation, and can hopefully contribute with further attention to the debate.