The objective of this research was to study how two newspapers in Sweden, Aftonbladet and Expressen are creating an image of the Stockholm suburb Rinkeby. The method used to do the study was qualitative content analysis. Ten articles were chosen, five off either newspaper and were found on the internet homepages of the newspapers on 15 November of 2013 and 27 January of 2014. Several theories were used in the study. Agenda setting theory, a media theory that explains the power of media, Figuration theory developed by Norbert Elias that deals with power struggles between different groups in society. Labeling theory explains how society, by labeling someone a “criminal” may accept it as an own identity and become one. Mats Franzén theory of power and how it can be understood thru discourse, context and resources. While studying the subject I realized that for long time the suburbs of Sweden have been portrayed in a negative context, especially “famous” suburbs like Rinkeby. The suburbs’ are constructed by the media as very dangerous places, with young people (often males) running wild and engaging in destructive behavior.

The study examines medias impact on every day racism through Agenda Setting and Framing. Prior studies on the subject are either conducted from an American perspective, or are several years of age. In this study we highlight how todays media depicts our society and how it affects the concept of the world on an individual level. The study is a content analysis of the case study on the news stories “The hunt for the unregistered immigrants”, which have been analyzed through critical discourse analysis. It builds upon studies conducted by Löwander (1997) and Brune (2004) regarding ethnic groups in the Swedish society. The result of this study suggests that Swedish public service media, SR and SVT convey an image in which ethnic minority groups are of lower value than “the white norm” in Swedish society.

Mentally ill patients need to be treated with dignity and their basic human rights must be respected. Community-based interventions are commonly used in many areas after deinstitutionalisation of mentally ill patients. However, it is unfortunate that mental health and mental disorders are neglected in many areas with no proper or standardized services in the community for treatment and support. As a result, most of the mentally ill patients roam in the streets in the rural communities. Exploring community-based interventions in rural areas could assist to improve the quality care of the mentally ill patients. The communities need to be aware of the interventions available to support the mentally ill patients and their family members so that community members who give care to mentally ill patients can be able to identify, implement, monitor and sustain effective interventions to meet the needs of the mentally ill patients in rural areas. Suggestions could also be made to the Department of Health with regard to the community-based interventions in order to improve quality of patient care. The aim of this research was to explore and describe the current community-based interventions for the mentally ill patients as well as explore recommendations by the professional nurses and community caregivers about the utilization of community-based interventions to support mentally ill patients in a rural community. In order to obtain rich in-depth data, a qualitative research approach was followed. A case study design was used to complement the holistic in-depth investigation. Purposive sampling was used to identify professional nurses as participants in the community and snow-ball sampling was used to identify further community caregivers who meet the inclusion criteria. Ethics was considered during the identification and selection of participants. Triangulation of data collection method was undertaken where structured interviews, field notes and documents were used as methods of data collection. A semi-structured interview schedule was formulated which was evaluated by experts in qualitative research. A trial run interview was conducted prior to data collection. Voice recorders were used for the purpose of audio taping the interviews, thereafter the interviews were transcribed and prepared for data analysis. The researcher ensured that field notes were taken immediately after each interview. Data was collected until saturation was reached after ten interviews and analysis of six documents. Data was analysed by means of a written record or transcripts as suggested by Neuwenhuis (2011:89). A specialist qualitative researcher was appointed as a co-coder to analyse the data. The interpretative pattern of data analysis for qualitative data analysis was followed and the guidelines prescribed by Terre Blanche, Durrheim and Kelly (2011:321) were adopted. The identified themes were current interventions and utilizing current suggested interventions. Thus conclusions were drawn in relation to identified themes that with current interventions there are different categories of caregivers that are involved in the care of mentally ill patients in rural communities. Included are the health caregivers, non-governmental organisations, police officers, faith/spiritual healers, traditional healers, families and community members. However challenges were still identified for an example defaulting of treatment, relapse and readmissions of mentally ill patients. With regard to utilizing suggested interventions, participants emphasised more on the need to develop structures in order to support the mentally ill patients in their rural communities and continued community education mental illness and mental health. The recommendations were made to nursing practice, nursing research and nursing education. / Thesis (MCur)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Mentally ill patients need to be treated with dignity and their basic human rights must be respected. Community-based interventions are commonly used in many areas after deinstitutionalisation of mentally ill patients. However, it is unfortunate that mental health and mental disorders are neglected in many areas with no proper or standardized services in the community for treatment and support. As a result, most of the mentally ill patients roam in the streets in the rural communities. Exploring community-based interventions in rural areas could assist to improve the quality care of the mentally ill patients. The communities need to be aware of the interventions available to support the mentally ill patients and their family members so that community members who give care to mentally ill patients can be able to identify, implement, monitor and sustain effective interventions to meet the needs of the mentally ill patients in rural areas. Suggestions could also be made to the Department of Health with regard to the community-based interventions in order to improve quality of patient care. The aim of this research was to explore and describe the current community-based interventions for the mentally ill patients as well as explore recommendations by the professional nurses and community caregivers about the utilization of community-based interventions to support mentally ill patients in a rural community. In order to obtain rich in-depth data, a qualitative research approach was followed. A case study design was used to complement the holistic in-depth investigation. Purposive sampling was used to identify professional nurses as participants in the community and snow-ball sampling was used to identify further community caregivers who meet the inclusion criteria. Ethics was considered during the identification and selection of participants. Triangulation of data collection method was undertaken where structured interviews, field notes and documents were used as methods of data collection. A semi-structured interview schedule was formulated which was evaluated by experts in qualitative research. A trial run interview was conducted prior to data collection. Voice recorders were used for the purpose of audio taping the interviews, thereafter the interviews were transcribed and prepared for data analysis. The researcher ensured that field notes were taken immediately after each interview. Data was collected until saturation was reached after ten interviews and analysis of six documents. Data was analysed by means of a written record or transcripts as suggested by Neuwenhuis (2011:89). A specialist qualitative researcher was appointed as a co-coder to analyse the data. The interpretative pattern of data analysis for qualitative data analysis was followed and the guidelines prescribed by Terre Blanche, Durrheim and Kelly (2011:321) were adopted. The identified themes were current interventions and utilizing current suggested interventions. Thus conclusions were drawn in relation to identified themes that with current interventions there are different categories of caregivers that are involved in the care of mentally ill patients in rural communities. Included are the health caregivers, non-governmental organisations, police officers, faith/spiritual healers, traditional healers, families and community members. However challenges were still identified for an example defaulting of treatment, relapse and readmissions of mentally ill patients. With regard to utilizing suggested interventions, participants emphasised more on the need to develop structures in order to support the mentally ill patients in their rural communities and continued community education mental illness and mental health. The recommendations were made to nursing practice, nursing research and nursing education. / Thesis (MCur)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This research paper investigates the functions of community newspapers in the battle against HIV/Aids. The research is conducted through studying literature, analysing four selected community newspapers and interviewing the editors of the newspapers. According to the literature, a community newspaper stands closer to the reader than any other newspaper, which means it could have a larger impact than for example a national paper. A community paper can provide information or start a debate in the community. The media can focus the attention of the reader on HIV/Aids through agenda setting. By giving the subject prominence in a publication, for instance, the media show how important they consider the subject. The functions of the press can be divided in different categories: the informative function, the press as a booster of the public debate, the service function, the educative function and the entertainment function. This study finds that not all the researched newspapers consider it their responsibility to cover HIV/Aids. The importance that the editors give to the subject and the number of articles that reaches the publication also does not match. The functions the newspapers mainly fulfil, are the information and education function. The reasons for a moderate coverage of HIV/Aids include a lack of statistics, a lack of information from organisations, staff shortages and fear that the reader will receive the opinion that the newspaper writes about the same things over and over again. / Mini-dissertation (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The media has an important role to play in providing information to form the perceptions of media users on HIV/Aids. Furthermore, the media has an agenda setting function through which it determines what news consumers think about, and how they think about these topics they are presented with. Extensive media coverage has been given to the subject of HIV/Aids since the start of the pandemic. The nature of the coverage has, however, been widely criticised, mainly by interest groups actively involved in the fight against the disease. Few formal guidelines exist to guide journalists in this field. Moreover, the existing guidelines that originated mainly from the gaps interest groups identified in the coverage on HIV/Aids, are fairly fragmented. Many newspapers follow the general guidelines set by the media industry for ethical news reporting. These guidelines, such as the ethical code of the Press Ombudsman, are a result of self regulation, which is intrinsic to the social responsibility model that is seen as ideal for South Africa. There are several existing codes offering guidance regarding professional standards and general conduct. Only one - that of the now inactive South African Union of Journalists - includes criteria on HIV/Aids reporting. Through formulating guidelines, interest groups have an agenda setting function and a subsequent potential influence on the media and the public agenda. This paper endeavours to analyse and systematically summarise criteria set by the interest groups for ethically acceptable and accountable HIV/Aids reporting against the background of the agenda setting theory and the social responsibility model. In addition, HIV/Aids reporting in three Sunday papers (the Sunday Times, Sunday Sun and Rapport) is verified against these interest group criteria to ascertain how it measures up, and to determine whether a separate interest group code of ethics is desirable. It was found that the Sunday Times views HIV/Aids as a news priority, while the topic does not feature very high on the agenda of the other two papers. The analysis of news items created the impression that journalists have a basic knowledge of HIV/Aids. However, there is little evidence of deeper insight into the potential impact the media could have on the public's perception of the epidemic. Existing ethics codes compare well to interest group guidelines where general professional standards and ethical aspects are concerned. The interest group guidelines, however, focus on specific problems associated with the epidemic, such as stigma and a tendency to focus on the negative. It is within this applied context that such criteria could be useful. / Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Limit-setting in publicly funded healthcare is unavoidable, and increasingly important in the governance and management of the demand for health services. The work of limit-setting takes place in the organising of the provision of health services, where various health workers (professionals, administrators, unit managers, politicians) collectively exercise their skills. Limit-setting often creates tensions which impose the quest for legitimacy; it involves norms and values which are related to the interests of the health workers, and moreover to society at large. In that sense, limit-setting is related to internal processes of legitimacy within the healthcare organisation, i.e. internal legitimacy, and external processes of legitimacy where citizens are legitimating the activities in the healthcare organisation, i.e. external legitimacy. The purpose of this thesis was to discover, and increase the understanding of the dilemma associated with sustaining, generating and designing internal legitimacy, when working with a policy of limit-setting in healthcare, in relation to the provision of Assistive Technologies (AT). It has explored what health workers do when they are working with a policy, and in particular how they work out what they should be doing. Finally the role of mediating institutions in supporting and designing internal legitimacy, was explored in the thesis. Following a case-study design and a qualitative approach, where fifty-seven semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted, data allowed the exploration of internal legitimacy in a context of complex interaction and construction of policy work in two Swedish county councils. This research produced a number of key findings; in an environment of finite resources health workers encountered situations that were characterised by conflicting pressures, and handled these by way of interaction, sense making, presenting arguments, negotiating and seeking support for an appropriate course of action and practices. The policy work with limit-setting can therefore be regarded as a dynamic interactive process, which incorporates several actors in different situations and locations, together negotiating and institutionalising the policy. Various policy sites, which had the role of mediating institutions, were identified, and were important in the interactive processes of forming a shared collective meaning in order to reach an appropriate act. Hence, designing legitimacy has to acknowledge the interactive policy work, and its contextual character, taking place at the different levels of a healthcare system.

Self-published web diaries called blogs are one manifestation of the Internet’s potential to create new discursive and dialogic spaces for citizens. Blogs are described by their authors and others in the news media (as well as some academic commentators) as a medium that potentially fosters political dialogue in the spirit of Habermas’ conceptual “public sphere.” Blogs also serve as potential competitors to mass media outlets in political debates in two distinct ways: first, by acting as agenda-setters and framers of issues, events and figures and second, by challenging journalistic norms such as the principles of fairness, neutrality and non-partisanship. In spite of these claims, however, very little empirical evidence exists to date on whether political blogs perform the roles of agenda-setters, gatekeepers or framers, or whether they are actually seen as a challenge or potential replacement to mass media outlets by themselves, by journalists or by those who could utilize blogs to transmit messages to the public. This thesis examines these questions as they pertain to Canadian politics, focusing on the interaction between journalists, partisan bloggers and political communications practitioners to assess whether blogs written by explicitly partisan authors actually: 1) create unique discursive spaces for discussion of Canadian political issues, 2) set agendas for political discussion and set issues and 3) serve as an occupational threat/potential replacement to media outlets for disseminating political information. Using surveys and content analysis, this thesis contends that partisan blogs largely mimic political discussion already occurring in media-produced content and are perceived as a potential, though not completely credible, replacement for shaping political agendas and disseminating information.

Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.