La tesi affronta la questione delle culture civiche presenti su internet a partire dal dibattito teorico sulla rete e le sue implicazioni in relazione al discorso e alla prassi politica. Nella prima parte verranno messi in luce i presupposti delle riflessioni più recenti che tematizzano la possibilità che il web, in quanto luogo di discussione e partecipazione tendenzialmente libero e inclusivo, possa rappresentare l’incarnazione del modello idealtipico di sfera pubblica borghese, magistralmente elaborato da Habermas (1962). Grazie all’interattività, ai bassi costi di produzione e distribuzione, a una nuova struttura di comunicazione many-to-many, le nuove tecnologie digitali sembrerebbero consentire la realizzazione di una intersoggettività pura, autenticamente orientata all’intesa reciproca e non contaminata dall’agire strumentale dei sistemi politici ed economici. Tuttavia, se si analizzano le ricerche empiriche finora condotte (tra gli altri Whilelm 1999, Tsaliki 2002, Wright e Street 2007), si osserva che, accanto a contributi che evidenziano una notevole capacità deliberativa delle discussioni online, ne esistono altrettanti che, al contrario, mettono in luce un gap profondo tra l’ideale normativo e la prassi concretamente messa in atto. Attraverso un doppio binario, induttivo e deduttivo, si tenterà di provare come la contraddittorietà radicale di tali risultati empirici sia in ultima istanza riconducibile alle problematicità insite nel modello habermasiano e alla sua inadeguatezza nel cogliere la complessità dei processi della partecipazione politica che hanno luogo sulla rete. A partire da questa constatazione, si dimostrerà come la sua applicazione possa ancora essere feconda a patto che si ipotizzi di considerare l’ideale di sfera pubblica habermasiano come uno dei paradigmi che ancora informano gli immaginari sociali moderni (Taylor, 2005), piuttosto che come ideale contro-fattuale (Dryzek, 1990) rispetto al quale commisurare criticamente le imperfezioni del reale. Ne discenderà una traslazione della prospettiva analitica, sintetizzabile nel passaggio da un approccio normativo – prescrittivo, rigidamente ancorato a una determinata concezione del “dover-essere”, a un approccio culturale - diagnostico che invece indaga la contingenza del reale alla luce delle sue precondizioni sociologiche e culturali (Nieminen, 2006). Nella seconda parte, si analizzerà il caso empirico del blog curato dal comico italiano Beppe Grillo (www.beppegrillo.it) attorno al quale si è sviluppato un movimento politico altamente articolato ed eterogeneo, capace di promuovere incursioni sempre più frequenti nella politica istituzionale. L’analisi empirica scaturirà dall’applicazione di un modello analitico che attinge al paradigma delle culture civiche proposto da Dahlgren (2009) e in parte lo riformula alla luce del concetto di mediazione sviluppato da Silverstone (1999). Attraverso l’analisi del contenuto dei post del blog e di un corpus di interviste realizzate su lettori del blog e attivisti del movimento, si tenterà di dimostrare come il fenomeno sviluppatosi attorno a Beppe Grillo abbia funzionato come una “public sphericule” (Gitlin, 1998), una piccola sfera pubblica capace di maturare una propria cultura civica, contraddistinta da autonomi processi di mediazione e di valorizzazione del quadro socio-tecnologico a disposizione. / The notions of deliberation and the frame of the discourse theory of democracy (Habermas, 1996), have inspired a substantial strand of studies focused on the internet’s democratic potential (See e.g. Kellner (1999), Rheingold (1993), and Wilhelm (1999)). The central accomplishment of these various contributions lies in the assessment of the extent to which dialogical exchanges taking place in the cyberspace conform to the normative requirements of the ‘counter-factual ideal’ of public sphere (Dryzek, 1990). However, the contradictions that appear when analyzing practical research findings from a comparative global view, pose a dilemma that deals more with theoretical assumptions rather than with the empirical methods applied. The basic aim of the thesis will be the proposal of a cultural turn in the analysis of online public spheres, inspired by the model of “civil cultures” developed by Dahlgren (2009). For this purpose, two major lines of reasoning will be developed. On one hand, the theoretical roots of the concept of deliberation and the long wave of criticisms drawn out by them, will be explored in order to underscore the intrinsic shortages of the notion. It will be argued that the model of “civic cultures” seems to offer a more adequate analytical frame in order to make sense of the pluralized and fragmented online environment. In fact, its original assumptions offer a real antidote to technological determinism. If it is true that technology only makes sense within a social context from which it receives symbolic and pragmatic meanings (Lievrouw, 2002), we can think of civic cultures as a ‘community of practices’ (Wenger, 1998) within which specific ways of using and interpreting technologies are carried out in order to achieve political and civic purposes. On the other hand, the theoretical path will be supported by the references to an empirical case study that will show how the model can be conveniently used to study what is concretely happening in the living public spheres of the internet. The case study will be focused on Beppegrillo.it, an Italian weblog acting as a communicative platform for the development of a civic and political movement which is lead by Beppe Grillo, a well-known comedian.

This paper deals with online political discussion on social networking sites. Drawing from Habermas’ concept of the public sphere and former adaptations of public sphere theory to Internet research, the study examines to what extent political discussion on social networking sites displays public issue focus as well as deliberative, liberal and communitarian characteristics. The empirical analysis is a case study that scrutinizes two opposing Facebook pages created in the context of the topic ‘Stuttgart 21’ – a construction project that evoked a local civic protest movement in the city of Stuttgart in the south of Germany. Using an ethnographic approach, the study takes into account the architecture, culture and discussion style on the two pages and aims at describing the pages in terms of their degree of reciprocity, contestation, ideological homogeneity, rationality and contextualisation with the offline protest movement. The results show two polarized pages that lack deliberation and dialogue, but feature ideological homophily and identification. The results back the fragmentation theory of Internet audiences, while not maintaining the fear of losing the common ground in society. On the contrary, the study suggests that civic political engagement on social networking sites should be discussed in the context of radical democratic processes. It concludes that the utilization of social networks in order to politically inform, stimulate and mobilise scalable publics is desirable.

Sedan Internet förändrade hur världen kommunicerar har den teknologiska utvecklingen i dess kölvatten och i synnerhet de sociala medierna inneburit ett paradigmskifte i vår vardagliga kommunikativa verklighet. Även organisationer har hakat på utvecklingen. Men för många råder ovisshet om hur sociala medier påverkar deras verksamhet. I synnerhet våra svenska myndigheter som har att förhålla sig till offentlighetsprincip, yttrandefrihet och ett genomgående medborgarperspektiv. Mot denna bakgrund ville vi undersöka hur sociala medier påverkar arbetet med samhällskommunikation inom en kommunal förvaltning. Vi har därför gjort en kvalitativ studie av en kommunal förvaltning inom Kalmar kommun genom att intervjua de som arbetar med Facebook samt deras ledning. Våra huvudteorier är hämtade från Kent Asp, Jürgen Habermas och John B. Thompson. Vi har kommit fram till att Facebook är en samlingsplats för flera olika typer av interaktion med möjlighet till dialogisk masskommunikation genom nätverk. Medieinnehållet är ett konstant flöde av främst fatisk kommunikation men som för en myndighet öppnar för effektiv kriskommunikation. Informatörsrollen blir mer strategisk och medborgardialogen decentraliserad genom ökad kommunikation via Facebook. Sociala medier skapar ett nytt interaktionsfält som förstärker den borgerliga offentligheten och ökar möjligheten till deliberativ demokrati. På så sätt minskar tendensen för en mediekrati och ökar myndighetens makt över massmedierna. / Since Internet changed how the world communicates the technological development that followed and especially the social medias has meant a change of paradigms in our everyday communication. Even organizations have followed the trend, but for many there is an uncertainty about how social media affects their operations. Especially for our Swedish administrative authorities that have to act according to open records, freedom of speech and the citizen perspective. With this in mind we wanted to study how social medias affect the work with communication to society within a municipality. We therefore have made a qualitative study on Kalmar municipality by interviewing the ones who use Facebook as a work tool and their management. Our main theories are from Kent Asp, Jürgen Habermas and John B. Thompson. We have concluded that Facebook is a meeting place for several types of interaction with possibility to have dialogical mass communication through networks. The media content is a constant flow with mainly phatic communication that for an administrative authority opens up for effective crises communication. The public relations officers role becomes more strategic and the dialogue with the citizens becomes decentralized through increased communication through Facebook. Social medias create a new field of interaction that enhances the public sphere and increases the possibilities for a deliberative democracy. In that way the tendencies for a mediacracy decrease and the administrative authorities power over media increase.

The Swedish election year of 2010 has just begun and the political actors are mobilizing their communication efforts to win the votes of the public. The political campaigns of 2010 have the potential to be the first where a new channel for political communication has the potential to make a difference – the social media. This paper aims to describe in what ways a Member of Parliament, Nina Larsson (FP), together with the PR-agency Hello Clarice are using social media to conduct political campaigning on the web. It also aims to study if the professional consultants of Hello Clarice have any influence over Nina Larsson’s political communication. The theoretical framework which is the base for this study are theories of an extended public sphere in the age of mediation. The information age has created new forms of interaction between humans over geographical distance which also is a key starting-point in Manuel Castells theories of the network society. This theory is therefore a theoretical foundation of this paper. The paper also uses theories of political communication and the idea of the professionalization of political communication. The research was conducted with a netnographic approach with observational studies of Nina Larsson’s two blogs and her activities on the social network Twitter. As a compliment to the observational studies research has also been conducted trough qualitative interviews with both Nina Larsson and representatives from the PR-agency Hello Clarice. The results show that Nina Larsson’s political communication has to a degree been affected by the professional consultants of Hello Clarice. The paper has also shown an indication of the potential of social media in use of strategic political communication, in which different channels serve with different purposes. Our research has also shown that in this specific case social media can decrease the communicative distance between politician and citizen. / Valåret 2010 har precis tagit sin början och de politiska aktörerna mobiliserar sina kommunikationsinsatser för att på bästa sätt kunna vinna väljarnas förtroende och i slutändan röster. Årets valrörelse kan också bli den första där en ny kanal för politisk kommunikation är av betydelse – de sociala medierna. Denna uppsats syftar till att beskriva på vilka sätt en riksdagsledamot, Nina Larsson (FP), tillsammans med en kommunikationsbyrå, Hello Clarice, arbetar för att bedriva politiskt kampanjarbete i de sociala medierna. Uppsatsens mål är också att undersöka om kommunikationsbyrån påverkar de politiska budskap som Nina Larsson kommunicerar i de sociala medierna.  För att skapa förståelse för det som studeras baserar sig studien på ett övergripande plan i olika teoretiska synsätt om utvidgningen av det offentliga rummet som skett i samband med medieutvecklingen. Informationssamhällets utbredning har skapat nya förutsättningar för interaktion mellan människor i ett geografiskt avstånd. Manuel Castells teorier om nätverkssamhällets framväxt, i vilket dessa interaktiva aktiviteter sker, är därför också en övergripande teoretisk utgångspunkt för studien. För att skapa förståelse för de aktiviteter som studeras grundar sig studien också i teorier om politisk kommunikation och tankesätt om professionaliseringen av den politiska kommunikationen. En netnografisk ansats har använts för att bedriva observationsstudier av Nina Larssons två bloggar och av hennes konto på mikrobloggen Twitter. Studien har också kompletterats genom kvalitativa intervjuer med Nina Larsson och med representanter från kommunikationsbyrån Hello Clarice.  Studiens resultat visar att Nina Larssons politiska budskap delvis har påverkats av kommunikationsbyrån Hello Clarice. Studien visar också de sociala mediernas potential för att bedriva strategisk politisk kommunikation där de olika kanalerna som Nina Larsson kontrollerar tjänar olika syften. Syften som sammantaget ska stärka de politiska mål som Nina Larsson har. Våra observationer av Nina Larssons kanaler visar också att de sociala medierna kan fungera som ett verktyg för att minska det kommunikativa avståndet mellan medborgare och folkvald, vilket i detta specifika fall visat sig genom att Nina Larsson visat en vilja till dubbelriktad kommunikation.

This study analyzes the representation of women and modernization in Tunisian society by looking at Tunisian films produced in Tunisia after 1980. Study aims to develop a new concept to understand modernization process of women in a non-western, Muslim, and North African society through representations in films. Women&rsquo / s modernization process has been analyzed through the qualitative analyses of five Tunisian films by focusing on conceptualization of women issue as one of the main elements of Tunisian modernization. More presicely, the study examines stages of women&rsquo / s modernization on the one side, and representation of this process in films on the other. In conclusion, I argue that examining written literature alone is not enough to understand women&rsquo / s modernization process in a non-western society. Expansion of modernization is not rapid and equal in the Tunisian society. If taking place in the public sphere, having a paid job and having education are taken as the indicators of women&rsquo / s modernization, it is seen that lower class women face with problems in every stage of Tunisian modernization. At that point, attending to visual sources like cinema which has the ability to reflect the society can give us convenient information about this process.

The aim of this paper is to examine how the press describes the public and private role of the Swedish monarch in texts that report about the biography Carl XVI Gustaf – den motvillige monarken (Sjöberg et al. 2010) when it is published in November 2010. The examined period ranges between the days just before the release and a fortnight after. The analysis is limited to standard Swedish papers: a daily, Svenska Dagbladet, and an evening paper, Expressen. Questions asked in the study are: In what ways do the analysed texts raise a discussion about the monarchy’s importance or function in the society of today, that is a public debate on the monarchy? To what extension are status symbols used in the constructing of royalty, that is what Jürgen Habermas (2003) describes as representative publicity? What similarities and differences are found when comparing the news articles in the daily and in the evening paper? The method used to answer the aim and questions is the critical discourse analysis, as Norman Fairclough (1995) describes it, and the theoretical perspective of the essay is Jürgen Habermas’ (2003) theory about the bourgeois public sphere. The result shows that the news articles in the daily unsurprisingly construct only a public who wants to debate on the monarchy. The evening paper instead addresses its readers both as cultural consumers, which the study sees as representative publicity, and as civilians who want to discuss the monarchy’s importance or function of today’s society. Important to notice is that when the evening paper is challenging the monarchy it’s always made in an implicit manner. The public role of the monarch is in both the daily and the evening paper said to be powerful and his public role is said to influence his private role in different ways. It is also obvious that the focus in Expressen is upon the most intimate sphere of the privacy of the monarch. The description of the private room is important here, in addition the spatial portraying uses status symbols when constructing royalty. Finally, the analysis shows that the monarch simultaneously portrays both as an ordinary human being and as a very special person in exclusive surroundings. Earlier research has proved that Swedish media wants to describe royalty like this.

This essay concerns graffiti, and in particular graffiti removal regarded as iconoclasm. Graffiti is described as a visual symbol laden with both negative and positive values, and sometimes as a meaningful expression in the urban public space. One problem with graffiti as a field of study is the diversity of both the meaning of the term as well as the diversity of the phenomenon itself. Therefore I have defined the term graffiti as follows: words and images painted on public walls by a person usually in an unauthorised manner. Specific examples of graffiti and related phenomena are presented. Within the Swedish anti-graffiti discourse the pejorative term klotter (scribbling) is used to describe what I above define as graffiti. A short analysis of this discourse is followed by case studies of specific examples of graffiti removal that can be regarded as iconoclasm.

The study examines the phenomenon of the December protests in Russia when thousands of citizens were involved in the protest movement after the frauds during the Parliamentary elections. There was a popular opinion in the Internet media that at that moment Russia experienced establishment of civil society, since so many people were ready to express their discontent publically for the first time in 20 years. The focus of this study is made on the analysis of the roles that social media played in the protest movement. As it could be observed at the first glance, recruiting and mobilising individuals to participation in the rallies were mainly conducted via social media. The research analyses the concept of civil society and its relevance to the protest rhetoric and investigates, whether there was a phenomenon of civil society indeed and how it was connected to individuals’ motivation for joining the protest. The concept of civil society is discussed through the social capital, social and political trust, e-democracy and mediatisation frameworks. The study provides a comprehensive description of the events, based on mainstream and new media sources, in order to depict the nature and the development of the movement. The structure of the protests is analysed through the new social movement theory. Also, various approaches to engagement of people in the social movements are presentedl, including political marketing framework. The research was conducted in several main stages, using content analysis, survey and interviewing as main methods. The main conclusions of the study: relatively minor impact of social media in the engagement of people in the protest, a narrow section of the population as the audience of social media protesters (for them civil society mostly played a role of a customer need), and yet a significant potential of ICT in the future political life of the country.

Den offentliga sfären är ett begrepp som genom historien har definierats på en rad olika sätt. Detta har medfört att litteraturen om den europeiska offentliga sfären (EPS) har antagit en rad olika utgångspunkter. Vilket tidigare studier visar på finns det inom litteraturen på detta område ett antal brister i så väl operationaliseringar som konceptualiseringar. Denna kandidatexamen syftar till att, genom en litteraturstudie, utforska dessa olika konceptualiseringar kring EPS och även till att utreda huruvida forskningsfältet har förbättrats inom de olika områdena.   Vårat resultat visar på att många metodologiska och konceptuella problem återstår inom forskningen om EPS och även att det finns en generell avsaknad av diskussion och kritik mot forskningens egna tillvägagångssätt. Vi vill också hävda att det Habermasiska perspektivet, och även forskning med fokus på massmedia och ett empiriskt perspektiv, är allt för dominerande. / The public sphere is a term which historically has been defined in various ways. This has caused the literature on the European public sphere (EPS) to take on many different viewpoints. As shown by previous studies, the literature on this subject has several flaws as well in its operationalization’s as in its conceptualization’s. This bachelor’s thesis sets out to, through a literature review, explore the different conceptualizations of the EPS as well as review whether the field of research has improved in the various areas.   Our findings conclude that many methodological and conceptual issues remain in EPS research and there also seems to be a general lack of discussion and critique against the research’s own approaches. We would also argue that the Habermasian perspective, as well as research with a focus on mass media and an empirical perspective, is too dominant.

This is a history of returned soldiers of the Great War in Toronto covering the period from when they began returning home in 1915 through to the end of demobilization in late 1919. Based largely in newspaper research, the focus is the discourse of returned men, as they were frequently called, and the role they played in Toronto and in Canada more broadly. The dissertation examines veterans' attitudes, the opinions they expressed, the goals they collectively pursued, the actions they took and their significance as actors and symbols in the public sphere. The study shows that during and immediately after the war returned soldiers played a prominent role in public debate over conscription and wartime politics, the status of non-British immigrants in Canada, the Red Scare and re-establishment policy. In exploring these topics the study elaborates on the identities veterans collectively adopted and constructed for themselves as comrades and citizens. Class, definitions of masculinity, British-Canadian ethno-nationality and experience as soldiers all affected formulations of veteran citizenship and comradeship. Returned soldiers' representations of their citizenship resonated powerfully in Canadian society. The experiences and symbolism of returned soldiers generated interest in civilian society that granted them easy access to the public sphere and encouraged pro-war politicians to use returnees to promote the war effort. Veterans took advantage of their access to the press and public stages to broadcast their own views and claim that their service gave them special rights to intervene in public affairs. Comradeship was vitally important to returned soldiers and set them apart from civilians, but it was neither a simple nor stable category. Veterans' debates and the history of veterans' associations testify to the fact that collective service in the war did not erase civilian identities and create a stable platform for united collective activism after the war. Furthermore, comradeship sometimes existed uneasily with the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Parliamentary methods were fundamental to veterans' activism, but their politics were also performative, often pursued and proclaimed at street level, and a minority of veterans threatened and engaged in violence they claimed was justified.