Differences of opinion in political subjects is an unanswered phenomenon and does not seem to fade away as the world turns more gender equal. This study aims to deepen the understanding of what is known in the scholarly literature as a gender gap. The correlation between more gender equal views and peaceful attitudes in foreign policy’s, earlier found in four Middle Eastern society’s is tested on the population of Sweden. Public opinion surveys from the SOM-institute are analysed with frequency- and contingency tables. The results show a gender gap in Sweden and that the relationship between more peaceful attitudes in foreign policy’s and a more gender equal perspective is also observed in Sweden. That relationship provides no satisfying explanatory force to the gender gap. The phenomenon remains unsolved, but this study extended the understanding and provided a few suggestions on how further studies could embrace the question and fill the knowledge gap.

There is a current widespread knowledge about what factors that is of importance when explaining levels of individuals political trust. Unfortunately, the same knowledge is not at hand as to whether these ‘determinants’ of political have changed over time and if so how? In other words, can we assume that citizens form their trust in similar matters over time or has there been a shift? With the purpose of contributing to new knowledge about political trust, this thesis mainly explored if there has been a change in the effects of often argued to be strong determinants on political trust and secondly if there are any trends as to how these effects has changed over time. In order to realize answers to these most likely never posed questions, the theoretical framework departed from Mishler and Rose’s sectioning of cultural and institutional theory which entail very different views on the origin and dynamic of political trust. Later the two theories were operationalized into cultural and institutional related variables in accordance to available variables found in “The SOM Institute Cumulative Dataset 1986-2019”. Through numerous multiple linear regression analyses utilizing Swedish data between 1998 and 2019 it shows that the effect of most explanatory variables on political trust changes, but since these effects were small from the start there are reasons to question what weight the changes are carrying. Onwards, by performing interaction analyses the thesis was able to conclude a handful of positive and negative linear trends arching over the 22-year period meaning that some explanatory variables have become increasingly and decreasingly important when explaining the variation in political trust, which in turn indicates that the Swedish population on average tends to form their trust slightly different in 2019 as opposed to in 1998.

This paper has had the ambition to answer the question does people’s perception of group difference affect their sense of societal cohesiveness? Using survey data from a Swedish 2015 study conductedby the SOM-institute this study looks at people living in Sweden’s perceptions of differentgroup identities to see which elements come at play in forming an over-all sense of societal cohesion.This study combines theories on social capital in relation to group identities to create anadvanced model to test the data in. The analysis confirmed that people’s discernment of other groups indeed affects the level of societal cohesiveness, and that respondents who felt a stronger emotional connection towards groups with another economy, education and culture were more likely to feel like a part of the Swedish society and to be more trusting of others.

Public service broadcasting is a longstanding broadcasting institution in Sweden. Being the most consumed and highly trusted media broadcasting institution on the market, it suffers both challenges and acclaim. It has become a highly politized matter. For the first time since its founding, trust and attitudes towards the public service broadcasting companies are starting to slowly dwindle and are being questioned. Representatives from parliament parties are calling for abolishment and restructuring, and the consumers are abandoning the public service broadcasting channels for commercial competitors. This is especially noticeable amongst youth. The aim of the study is to identify and analyse what factors can be relevant for understanding attitudes towards public service broadcasting. With a theoretical background in Markus Prior’s post-broadcast democracy, James G. Webster and Thomas B. Ksiazek’s audience fragmentation theory, and Strömbäck’s definition of media trust, a theoretical framework regarding consumption and factors concerning attitudes was constructed. Through this, the value of a public service broadcasting system could be charted, and consumer attitudes be understood.   The study consists of data from a nationwide survey. The data was analysed with binary logistic regression analysis, performed on two samples, one representing the Swedish population at large, and one representing youth. This to observe whether or not there were any differences between what factors constitute trust and positive attitudes towards public service broadcasting. Main findings include that youth is much less politically polarised than the population at large. Factors such as education, gender, and regularly consuming public service broadcasting content were also shown to be significant for attitude formation. From this, I could derive that the Swedish population, despite increased polarisation, still has very high levels of trust in, and positive sentiments towards the public service broadcasting company SVT.