The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how opinions and values are expressed in BTJ’s reviews of children’s literature. According to debates reviewed and interviewed librarians, many consider BTJ to be too directing when it comes to the libraries’ purchases of books. Therefore I find it important to study how the reviews are written. Two questions are asked: In what ways do the reviews communicate opinions and values? Has the communication of opinions and values changed over time? The theoretical starting-point is taken from theories about non-fiction and rhetoric. The method is a rhetorical text analysis focusing on the ways in which the reviewers persuade the readers of their message. Reviews of 40 children’s books from the years of 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2006 are analysed through a model of four rhetorical aspects. The result shows that there are many possibilities to express opinions and values in the reviews. This can be made through the choice of subjects, the arrangement of the text and the use of rhetorical figures. The historical perspective shows that there has been a small increase in the use of rhetorical resources from 1976 to 2006. This probably has to do with the fact that the reviews have been lengthened over time. / Uppsatsnivå: D

There is an ongoing discussion amongst Swedish politicians about how the Swedish police will be able to handle increased organised criminality represented in the growing threats of terrorism. In May 2006 representatives from the seven parties of the Swedish parliament debated the question whether the Swedish security service and Swedish police should be permitted to use increased surveillance with the purpose of preventing severe criminality.The question of increased surveillance is a matter often connected to matters of personal privacy. The aim of this master’s thesis is to study which arguments are being used for and against the proposed law that would permit surveillance with the purpose of preventing crime, as well as examine members of Parliaments view on privacy.The methodology used in this thesis is both argumentation analysis and rhetoric analysis. These two tools are used to examine the minutes from a parliamentary debate about the bill mentioned earlier. The results show that several arguments for and against the new law emerged during the debate. Politicians supporting the new law argued that the police force at present is ill-equipped against the increasingly organized criminality and that increased preventional surveillance is necessary in order to protect people in society. The opponents maintained that the bill results in infringement on the integrity of the individual and that there is no need for this sort of surveillance. All members of the parliament state that privacy is very important. Still, politicians supporting the new law claim that in some particular cases privacy must be sacrificed in aid of solving crime. They also state that infringement of integrity can be avoided thanks to measures taken whilst creating the bill. The results also show that there are different opinions among the Swedish parties concerning the possibilities of maintaining a balance between surveillance and privacy. Some parties claim it is impossible while other parties mean it is possible as long as the legal security is satisfactory. / Uppsatsnivå: D

In this Master's Thesis a rhetorical analysis is applied to reading suggestions in the database Boktips.net. Boktips.net utilize the Internet for readers advisory by offering public libraries in Sweden to use and participate to its contents. The aim is to examine how library staff writes about literature in Boktips.net. The empirical material is delimited to reading suggestions on fiction for adults. Areas in focus of the analysis are rhetorical context, disposition, style and components from the point of view of content: summary, evaluation on portrayal of characters and setting, narrative, language use, genre and themes, entertainment, insights and external information. The writers generally use a well-reasoned disposition of the texts and several of them apply diverse stylistic devises that make for the intelligibility and aesthetic qualities of the texts. A width of aspects of the books is frequently covered. In rhetorical perspective nonetheless some texts contain problems of covering only few aspects of the books, lacking in argumentation or not completing the lines of arguments. It is concluded that reading suggestions are of help to library users if made well known. Research showing that readers choose books based on sought after reading experience, together with rhetorical techniques, are used to draw a picture of what the reading suggestions might include and in what way, with emphasize given on writing both personally and professionally. Argumentation is conducted for providing recommendations on writing and opportunity for discussion among the writers to help them improve. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The subject of this master thesis is to identify discourses regarding children’s literature in one of Sweden’s largest library magazines, Biblioteksbladet. The subject is furthermore to look at how the child is portrayed within these discourses and if the discourses change over time. The theoretical and methodological background is Norman Fairclough´s critical discourse analysis (CDA). A selection of 62 texts, published in Biblioteksbladet between the years of 1945-2009, was analyzed. Three discourses were identified: a pedagogic discourse, a literary discourse and a psychological discourse. The pedagogic discourse looks upon the literature as a means of teaching children valuable knowledge and good values. The literary discourse emphasize the literary qualities of the children’s books and The psychological discourse emphasize the children’s emotional needs and own opinion of the literature. The pedagogic and literary discourses share a similar view of the child, as someone in need of help and guidance, as opposed to The psychological discourse where the power relationship is more equal. The pedagogic discourse and psychological discourse contain distinct changes that can be linked to the surrounding social practices. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The cultural policy area has a tendency to be seen as a consensus area, where there are no big conflicts between the parties. The aim of this master’s thesis is to study the moderate party’s cultural motion 2005/06Kr:233 with the party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt as first author. If consensus rules, the party’s ideology should not be visible in the motion, but the assumption in the thesis is that it is visible. The main issue is to find out which obvious ideological features the motion contain, in which of Jenny Johannisson’s three discourses the moderate party’s cultural policy best fits into and what consequences there could be with the party’s cultural policy. A short cultural policy background as a consensus area is presented along with the moderate party’s history and ideologies, neo-liberalism and conservatism. The method used is argumentation analysis. The theoretical starting point is Jenny Johannisson’s three discourses of cultural policy, which is partly based upon the researcher Dorte Skot-Hansen’s theories of cultural policy in the Nordic countries. The analysis shows that both neo-liberalism and conservatism are clearly visible in the motion. Conservatism is strong regarding the argumentation concerning cultural heritage and the traditional cultural arts. Neo-liberal concepts like market, competition, supply and demand, the individual and the individual’s freedom of action and choice are strong throughout the motion. The neo-liberal features of the moderate party’s motion best fits in Johannisson’s alliance discourse, which is marketing oriented. The consequences of a moderate party’s cultural policy are probably an even more marketing oriented cultural policy than they have today. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine the discourses about Malmö public library that can be identified in several documents published by the library, articles, and various WebPages. Furthermore, our intention is to study the relation between the library’s identity, image and profile. The questions posed in the study are: Which identity discourses are Malmö public library giving expression for? What kind of conflicts between these discourses can we find? How is the identity, image and profile of the library in relation to one another? How does Malmö public library profile and market itself as a non-profit organization? Our theoretical and methodological building ground is in the discourse analytical field, with Enesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s theories about discourse and society, as a starting-point. The method used is discourse analysis. The results of the analysis is that the library is influenced by two major discourses, the educational/informational discourse, which can be characterized by the concepts high culture, reading, books, adult education, tradition, nostalgia, production. The other major discourse is the joy/experience discourse which can be characterized by the concepts popular culture, new medias, experiences, renewal, future, consumption. Furthermore, our result implies that these two discourses operate in different levels within the organization. The educational/informational is more frequently seen in documents of a very broad and general function, hence the joy/experience discourse is observed on a more concrete level of the organization. This led us to the conclusion that a gap between identity, profile and image existed. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The aim of this master’s thesis is to categorize the publisher readers’ views about reading to distinguish a conceivable change of these reviews compared to a historical context during 20 years. I will examine a number of reviews of children’s literature written by publisher readers from BTJ in order to distinguish the assumptions that readers have about children’s reading from how these assumptions appear. The reviews that have chosen is from the years 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006, with the purpose of studying if there are any legible changes in these assumptions for the past 20 years. These reviews have been analyzed using a theoretical model developed from a model by Maria Nikolajeva about children’s literature and two central processes about reading that appear in the historical exposition in chapter three. The method that was used for the analysis was a dimension analysis developed from the idea and ideology analysis. The result shows that publisher readers make different assumptions about for example learning and teaching, language, pictures and quality. It was difficult to distinguish a change in the readers’ reviews; the amount of quotations was too small. But one important thing was that the older reviews focus on reading as for education, but the more recent reviews instead focus on reading for pleasure. And the result also shows that the processes are central in the readers’ assumptions. In the first field assumptions about education and reading as an inspiration for action were frequent. The assumptions of the second field focus on reading for pleasure and they also maintain that books should inspire children to read. The result of the third field was unsatisfactory: The assumptions presented in this field were about that there is a similarity between how children read and how adults read. In the fourth field the readers’ make assumptions that indicate a difference between how children read and how adults read. The most important aspects within this field are about quality and language. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The society of suburbs is frequently discussed in media, which often focus on the problems related to these areas. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine how Swedish contemporary youth literature may contribute to create, strengthen and articulate social representations of the society of suburbs. The analysis is based upon six youth novels published during 2003 to 2007. The theoretical framework consists of two parts and is based on Anthony Giddens’ theories about late modern society in which the youth novels in our study take place, and those living conditions that this society creates. The other part is the theory of social representations. Shortly this theory deals with how people in society together form a collective idea of the world that surrounds them. They develop this idea together and in that way make it into a form of common sense. The method is based upon textual analysis. A model of analysis is constructed with its basis in the theories of Giddens. The themes of the model of analysis are derived from concepts central to Giddens except for the last theme, and these are life styles, limitations, expressions of emancipation and the suburb as place. The conclusion suggests that the literary description of the society of suburbs may contribute to strengthen and articulate negative social representations that are often build on prejudice, but it may also contribute to create and spread other representations and by that give a more nuanced and profound description.

Studien undersöker hur maskulinitet-femininitet ur ett organisatoriskt perspektiv, med fokus på det polska rättsväsendet, kommer till uttryck i en jämförelse mellan två skönlitterära verk, av Marek Nowakowski (1984) respektive Zygmunt Miłoszewski (2011). Särskilt undersöks om det föreligger en rörelse mot en ökad grad av femininitet i det narrativa. Metoden bygger på kvalitativ textanalys med en hypotetiskt-deduktiv ansats. Särskild tonvikt läggs på studiet av värderingars indirekta manifestationer i ritualer och symboler. Resultatet visar på att femininitet är något mer manifesterad hos Miłoszewski men att detta i huvudsak beror på att det finns kvinnliga chefer, som respekteras i sin yrkesroll och som formar vissa ritualer och symboler i feminin riktning. En stark och sexuellt färgad objektifiering av kvinnor som individer, tillsammans med övervägande maskulint färgade symboler, ger istället en påtaglig slagsida åt det maskulina. Slutsatsen är att det inte föreligger någon dramatisk skillnad vad gäller maskulinitet-femininitet mellan de två verken, något som finner stöd i teorier om trögrörliga värderingar men mer lättföränderliga symboler och ritualer / Porównując dwa dzieła literatury pięknej, Marka Nowakowskiego (1984) i Zygmunta Miłoszewskiego (2011), niniejsza praca ma na celu przeanalizowanie jak wyrażają się w owych tekstach męskość i kobiecość pod względem teorii organizacji i zarządzania, skupiając się na organach ścigania i wymiarze sprawiedliwości. Szczególny nacisk położono na pytanie o ewentualny wzrost wskaźnika kobiecości w narracji. Analiza treści została przeprowadzona metodą hipotetyczno-dedukcyjną. Pośrednie objawy wartości w rytuałach i symbolach zostały szczególnie przeanalizowane. Wyniki analizy pokazują, że kobiecość jest nieco mocniej reprezentowana w powieści Miłoszewskiego. Obserwację tę można w dużej mierze wyjaśnić samym faktem istnienia w tekście kobiet menadżerów, poszanowaniem kobiet w pozycjach menadżerskich i tym, że kobiety te kształtują niektóre rytuały i symbole, zmacniając tym samym wskaźnik kobiecości. Na ogół kobiety są jednak traktowane przedmiotowo. Razem z symbolami o zabarwieniu bardziej męskim, przyczynia się to do interpretacji tekstu w kategoriach zdecydowanie męskich. Analizy zatem wykazały, że różnica w wymiarze męskość-kobiecość jest niewielka, co znajduje poparcie w podstawowych teoriach o większej nieelastyczności wartości, w przeciwieństwie do bardziej podatnych na zmiany symboli i rytuałów.

This study is about how body activists use the social media platform Instagram to convey activistic messages and also how these activist’s messages relate to gender stereotypes in the patriarchal society. The aim of this study is to investigate how semiotic resources are used to convey activistic messages through text and images respectively. The study is based on thirteen posts from four different Instagram accounts run by self-appointed body activists; @sarasongbird, @fitnessfeministen, @lindamariie and @stinawollter. The study adopts with a qualitative text analytic approach with a semiotic framework. The theoretical approaches of this study are gender, third wave feminism and gender stereotypes. The results of the analysis showed that there were some consistent similarities in how activists conveyed their messages, but also some differences. The results are presented through six themes; normalization of the body, sexualisation of the body, community informative, stereotypes and norm breaking. The analysis also shows that the activists both challenge and sustain gender stereotypical attributes.