According to the immigration service forecasts Sweden faces large refugee influxes in the coming years. This means that educators in the kindergarten, preschool and school, will meat children from the war torn countries. In this study, the purpose is to find out the educators different conceptions of war-affected refugee children, because my theory is that their beliefs influence their actions. I wanted to get answers to their beliefs about the difficulties or challengers that children and educators may be faced with. Furthermore, I wanted to know what educators envisioned about their own role’s importance to the war affected refugee children and their perceptions of the Swedish culture, environment, language and school. All children have the right to go to school and usually begin refugee children in preparatory classes, but when one is six years you start directly in preschool. Internationalization requires people for them to see the values of diversity and raising awareness around a common cultural heritage. Performances means to understand the world and to embrace the world in different ways. The view of other people is deeply rooted within us and is influenced by the traditions we carry with us from teaching and education. In my study, I used qualitative interviews in the meeting with the four educators. In the study there is a research study which deals with relevant literature for my study. Educator’s perceptions showed that communications problems, not having a common language, don’t have a knowledge of what the kids have been through, cultural differences, which requires mutual understanding it was seen as a major difficulty. Their knowledge and ideas based on experience, there was no training how to actively work with war affected refugee children. In summery, I can’t make any conclusions about my theory that beliefs affect their behaviours, but about the need for a little extra commitment about these children, such as to convey security in different ways were considered important as the performances was that there are children who have had a hard time. Their beliefs about war-affected refugee children reflects the need for more knowledge in the form of further education.

Since World War II, the U.S. and China have gradually developed links, especially in economic areas. The world is witnessing the two economies intertwine, and it would seem that these two nations might potentially also cooperate and collaborate in social areas as well. Accordingly, it seems desirable to determine the degree to which cross-cultural communication between these two nation-states is feasible and effective. To make this comparison, television—now almost a universal medium of communication—is employed to explore the similarities and differences between the United States and China. In terms of the United States, American Idol is a popular television show which began airing in 2002. Likewise, Super Girl was a popular Chinese television show that was broadcast for three seasons, from 2004 to 2006. Both American Idol and Super Girl are singing talent television shows. The winners of these two shows receive contracts from the national major record companies and can become top popular singers and super stars. This fantasy has attracted thousands of young singers to participate in the contests every year. This study analyzes these two similar television shows, giving full recognition to the extremely diverse cultures in which they exist. Because of the differences between American and Chinese cultures, an eclectic approach would seem initially appropriate. The eclectic approach includes a combination of four research methods: content analysis; analog criticism; cross-cultural criticism; and fantasy theme analysis. The hypothesis of this study is that the same type fantasy generates different meanings and results in these two distinct cultures. / Department of Telecommunications

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Background: Branding is a way for companies to differentiate their products and services from its competitors in the fierce competition in business today. This phenomena has up until recently mostly been used in the B2C context, but the importance of branding in the B2B context has been more and more acknowledged. Trade shows are a good way to find customers, and to display and sell products, but can it also be used to strengthen the brand of the exhibiting company? According to Nordiska Undersökningsgruppen (2001) 79 % of the participating companies in B2B trade shows claims to have strengthened their brand through the trade show. As few companies take part in organized research about their trade show performance, we were curious about how such a vast majority of companies knew that their trade show participation actually strengthens their brands. Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to explore how trade shows are used by subcontractors to strengthen their brand names, and how these companies measure brand strength. Method: A case study has been conducted, examining four subcontractors participating at the Elmia Subcontractor trade show. In order to collect our primary data, we used questionnaires both prior to and after the trade show as well as face-to-face interaction during the trade show. We also chose to use the TSI model (Jansson, 2003) to examine what could be done in the different stages of the trade show process in order to maximize the com-panies’ results from it. Conclusions: The conclusion of this thesis is that the brand image and thereby the strength of the brand of the trade show participating company is mainly a result of the face-to-face meeting. Since we have established that the view on branding in the investigated companies differ from the theoretical view in large, we believe that the relevance of the investigation mentioned in the background can be questioned. The companies lack procedures for measuring their brand strength.

A partir del referencial empírico de la televisión y sus formatos, esta tesis analiza el fenómeno social creado por el reality show Gran Hermano, y su papel en la producción de sentido entre jóvenes inmigrantes que viven de forma temporal o permanente en España y Portugal. El estudio trata del formato, así como del campo de la producción y de la recepción a través de un estudio comparativo entre los dos paises. Se procura conocer las marcas multiculturales de este programa híbrido que mezcla distintos formatos como programas de concursos, programas de confesionario, programas de auditorio, telenovelas, periodismo y documentales. Además, es un programa transnacional que presenta características globales y locales. Metodológicamente, se realiza un estudio de caso comparativo de forma cualitativa, utilizándose distintos instrumentos como la técnica documental, las consultas de base histórica, la presentación descriptiva del formato, el análisis del discurso de dos diarios y las entrevistas semi-estructuradas. En el campo de la producción son analizados durante 15 días los diarios El País (ES) y Público (PT), para conocer el discurso sobre televisión, Gran Hermano y los reality shows, a través del análisis de los titulares y de los materiales de opinión. También son estudiadas cartas de lectores de los dos diarios para ver como este discurso es apropiado por el campo de la recepción. También fueron realizadas entrevistas semi-estructuradas con jóvenes extranjeros que viven en Portugal y España para comprender cómo ocurre el proceso de producción de sentido sobre el programa y saber si Gran Hermano colaboró en el proceso de socialización de los inmigrantes. / This thesis analysis the social phenomenon created by the reality show Big Brother and your function in the meaning's production between young immigrants that live temporal or permanentment in Spain and Portugal.This study speaks about the Big Brother format, the production and the reception ambits through by a comparative study between two countries - Spain and Portugal. It wants to know the multicultural marks of this hybrid program, a program that mix different formats like talk shows, soap operas, confessionary programs, documentaries and journalism. Big Brother is a transnational program with global and local characteristics that mixes, in the first time in the world television, different communication technologies and different forms of interaction: telephone, e-mails, web pages, cable TV and open TV.Methodologically, it realizes a qualitative and comparative study using different instruments as the documental technique, the historic consults, the description of the format, the analysis of the discourse of two newspapers and the semi-structured interviews with young immigrants.In the production ambit, are analysed during 15 days the newspapers "El País", in Spain, and "Público", in Portugal, to know the journalistic discourse about television, reality shows and Big Brother although by titulars pryte and the opinion matters. Are studied the letters of the newspapers readers to know how this discourse is appropriated by the reception ambit.Furthermore are realized semi-structured interviews with young immigrants that live in Spain and Portugal to understand how is the process of the meaning' s production about Big Brother and to know if the program helped in the socialization process of this young immigrants.

<p>Background: Branding is a way for companies to differentiate their products and services from its competitors in the fierce competition in business today. This phenomena has up until recently mostly been used in the B2C context, but the importance of branding in the B2B context has been more and more acknowledged. Trade shows are a good way to find customers, and to display and sell products, but can it also be used to strengthen the brand of the exhibiting company? According to Nordiska Undersökningsgruppen (2001) 79 % of the participating companies in B2B trade shows claims to have strengthened their brand through the trade show. As few companies take part in organized research about their trade show performance, we were curious about how such a vast majority of companies knew that their trade show participation actually strengthens their brands.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to explore how trade shows are used by subcontractors to strengthen their brand names, and how these companies measure brand strength.</p><p>Method: A case study has been conducted, examining four subcontractors participating at the Elmia Subcontractor trade show. In order to collect our primary data, we used questionnaires both prior to and after the trade show as well as face-to-face interaction during the trade show. We also chose to use the TSI model (Jansson, 2003) to examine what could be done in the different stages of the trade show process in order to maximize the com-panies’ results from it.</p><p>Conclusions: The conclusion of this thesis is that the brand image and thereby the strength of the brand of the trade show participating company is mainly a result of the face-to-face meeting. Since we have established that the view on branding in the investigated companies differ from the theoretical view in large, we believe that the relevance of the investigation mentioned in the background can be questioned. The companies lack procedures for measuring their brand strength.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-182). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Master)--İzmir Institute of Technology, İzmir, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves. 87-89).

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Virgil Suarez, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 14, 2005).