This thesis offers an insight in how information influence works in the digital modern age, through the use of strategic narratives in news reporting. The study uses a combination of a textual and narrative analysis in order to examine what kind of patterns are possible to distinguish in how the Russian state-funded news agencies RT and Sputnik are portraying Sweden in their reporting. Insights obtained by analyzing articles from the mentioned news outlets shows that four strategical ’master’-narratives can be found in the reporting: 1) Sweden is being ridiculed, 2) Sweden is portrayed as a collapsing state, 3) conspiracy theories about Sweden are made up and, 4) Russia is portrayed in friendly and peaceful terms. The analysis ultimately demonstrates how these four ‘master’-narratives can be understood as information produced in order to spread a negative image about Sweden and to promote a positive image of Russia. The study emphasizes the importance of continued research in the area and discusses the difficulties with addressing something that cannot be termed as fake news, but rather as fake narratives.

No description available.

This case study acknowledges that militarization on digital media is inadequately studied. A research contribution is therefore created through a narrative textual analysis method informed by strategic narrative theory and research on multimodal meaning-making. The method is then applied qualitatively to a previously neglected empirical material, the Swedish Armed Forces' digital documentary series called “The Veteran’s Portrait”. Using narrative textual analysis, the study interprets that militarizing strategic narratives appear in the documentary series. Thus, the study contributes with needed insight into how militarization as a process occurs on digital media, while at the same time suggesting pathways for future research to further develop this body of research.

Military conflicts are not only an occurrence on the battlefield, but also in communication. This is why it is important for a state to communicate a narrative that supports the state’s interests, a so-called strategic narrative. And when that narrative is focused to either promote the own state or demote its opponents, antagonistic narrative strategies - a theory made by Wagnsson and Barzanje- can be used for creating a successful strategic narrative.    In this paper the Israeli-Hamas case was studied in the United Nations General Assembly. This report aims to contribute to the research on strategic narratives in the context of armed conflict by analyzing Israel’s strategic narrative in The UN General Assembly regarding the ongoing conflict with Hamas, by analyzing how the strategic narrative can be understood by using antagonistic narrative strategies. A narrative analysis is used to interpret the speeches and the strategic narratives they were built upon, and also whether or not Israel used some kind of antagonistic narrative strategies in their speeches.    The results which were found was that Israel used all three of the antagonistic strategic narratives but to a different extent, in which the strategy suppression was used the most to change the status of states. It also showed that antagonistic narrative strategies are an effective way of describing and analyzing strategic narratives in the United Nations General Assembly.

This research aims to analyze and explore the contemporary strategic narratives within NATO, focusing on objectives, success, and context in relation to nuclear deterrence. Employing a narrative methodology, the thesis has identified and examined the strategic narratives in NATO's official documents. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of NATO's nuclear deterrence strategy, addressing a subject of significant political relevance and timeliness. The findings of the study indicate that NATO's strategic narratives regarding nuclear deterrence are strong when viewed from the perspectives of objectives, success, and context. However, a possible lack of credibility emerges through an indication of a "say-do gap," where there may be a discrepancy between stated intentions and actual actions. Additionally, the research highlights a lack of clarity regarding the target audience for the narrative, contributing to their perception as scattered.

The thesis aims to give a deeper understanding of the Russian use of soft power by examining identity building. This research is one of very few that shed light on Russia’s ambitions of exploitation of space. Further knowledge in the field is necessary to understand the underlying motives and objectives behind the Russian space program. This in-depth analysis fills a noteworthy knowledge gap. Using the method of narrative analysis as defined by Roselle, Miskimmon, and O’Laughlin (2014,2017), combined with the theory of strategic narratives and state identity as defined by Eriksson et al (2020), the thesis investigates Russian identity building, examining Russian space program under Putin. In particular, Putin’s 2013, 2016 and 2020 Cosmonautics Day video link-ups with the International Space Station are analyzed. This thesis attempts to define Russia’s future space plan and its geopolitical importance in maintaining the nation’s role on the international arena post-soviet. The results indicate that Eriksson et al's definition of cultural narratives about state identity can be found in future Russian space plans.

The thesis aims to give readers a more precise knowledge of how narratives in the information environment, mainly social media platforms, can be created and structured by agents of influence operations to subvert and influence a target audience. As a case study, the thesis focuses on the influence agent “Shuoun Islamiya”, as the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency pointed out, to be the initiator of the influence operation targeting Swedish Social Services and the LVU-act. The research in this paper explores the narratives used by the agentto reveal three central narratives propagated by Shuoun Islamiya: Sweden as a fascist state, Swedish authorities as abusive towards children, and depicting Swedish authorities as targeting Muslim families in particular. The findings suggest that these narratives are strategically designed to weaken the existing narrative of Sweden as a democratic state and evoke strong emotions in the targeted audience to align with the influence agent's objectives. Construction of these narratives involves setting up antagonistic actors, portraying the Swedish state and the social services as villains who unfairly and systematically target families of immigrant and Muslim backgrounds. The families are, on the other hand, depicted as helpless victims,emphasising a conflict between the state and the families by using provocative and inflammatory language related to allegations of child kidnapping and abuse carried out by Swedish authorities. These narratives are conveyed mainly through social media platforms, showing a strong visual component in which non-related visually evocative images are oftenused to elicit emotional responses from the target audience. Further, results show how non-state actors can influence a sizable audience and take advantage of the digital information environment, combining false and misleading content taken out of context. Moreover, the analysis highlights potential security implications, including the risk of undermining social trust and cohesion. The study emphasises the need for a critical mindset among information consumers. It suggests avenues for future research, including examining other actors and assessing a potentially more profound impact of the influence operation.