The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of political party organizations' digital communication by investigating what and how Swedish political youth associations communicate on TikTok. The purpose is realized through a case study of two youth associations, Moderata Ungdomsförbundet (MUF) and Sveriges Socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbund (SSU). The material is collected from a three-month period (November 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024) and the method of the thesis is a combination of quantitative multimodal content analysis and thematic analysis. The theoretical framework provides an understanding of the youth associations' conditions and expectations as an organization, as well as the media logics and norms that they need to adhere to in their communication. In the result it became clear that what the youth associations communicate differs. The most frequently communicated content from SSU consisted of entertainment content, closely followed by political content. MUF mostly focused on political content, but entertainment was also seen. Like previous research, only a small part of the material consisted of personal content. In terms of how the youth associations communicate, there was a similarity in that both associations used a comic style frequently, something that is typical for the platform and thus becomes a way for the youth associations to adopt the current style on TikTok. Similar to previous research, however, there was a lack of interactive tendencies on the part of MUF, which the platform invites. SSU appeared to use the interactive style in about half of the material. Similar to previous studies, we found that both SSU and MUF were diligent users of affordances such as music, audio, text, hashtag and location features. Tendencies we could see in how the youth associations communicated were also that they use platform trends and vernaculars frequently, which differs from previous research. We could thus state that both youth associations showed an adaptation to the platform dynamics.

This thesis examines readership communities on the social media application TikTok, and more specifically videos published under the hashtag SpicyBooks, where users discuss the literary genre of romance. Together with the closely related #BookTok, #SpicyBooks has had a profound impact on the book market. Correspondingly, the formation of readership communities on the app should be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the changes of and within literacy among young adults. This study examines the top 130 featured videos under #SpicyBooks, which are thematically divided into categories analysed in three separate chapters. Taking its cue from affect theory, the thesis examines how the affect of shame is produced, represented and mediated in the videos. Furthermore, the study maps the various reader positions conjured by shame, and surveys how the video creators present themselves in the prevailing ideas and norms of aesthetic taste and social gender that circumscribes the literature discussed in the videos. By focusing on how the social media users and readers represent themselves, rather than how libraries and librarians can make themselves visible on social media, the study proposes a methodological shift, which might begin bridging the generational gap between libraries and their potential users.

This research explores if Sweden, a country with high trust in the political system could be challenged by social media. The study focuses on one spectrum of social media, TikTok, that exploded during the covid-19 pandemic and is proof of how fast social media develops and reaches out to human beings. The study addresses a research gap regarding this new social media platform as it examines exposure to political content and impact on political behavior. Specifically, the study focuses on first-time voters voting behavior in the Swedish election 2022. This thesis is based on a digital survey sent out to 139 respondents during November 2022. The result indicates that there is a relationship between viewing time on TikTok and voting behavior among young voters in the Swedish election 2022. The study ends with a discussion about how specific political content the respondent was exposed to on TikTok could have had an impact on the political behavior in the Swedish election 2022.

The social media platform TikTok is becoming an increasingly emerging space akin to a search engine, where news and information are shared and discovered, particularly amongst young adults. Whilst the majority of scholarly research on media trust in TikTok has concentrated on practices by professional journalists and news organizations, the entities represent only a fraction of the diverse actors, contributing to the platform's news-sharing media landscape. Notably, citizen journalists play a pivotal role in generating and disseminating war-related content on TikTok. TikTok personae have the ability to build strong relationships with followers. Such relationships, which carry great audience loyalty potential, are investigated through parasocial interaction in combination with the uses and gratifications theory. This study is a reception study of a young audience based primarily in Austria and Sweden which aims to investigate media trust in war-related content amongst ordinary individuals. Through focused interviews with 18 to 28-year-old TikTok users, reactions to viral videos will be assessed in order to establish trust factors and gain insights into their user behavior and news consumption habits on the app. Findings indicate that the TikTok algorithm influences young adults and they approach citizen- generated news content cautiously due to potential viral motives amongst creators, particularly when addressing sensitive topics such as the Israel-Gaza crisis. However, they recognize the value of opinionated content as a tool for young people to build an opinion on political topics. Keywords: Citizen Journalism, TikTok, War, Social Media Trust, Israel-Gaza Crisis, Para Social Interaction, Uses and Gratifications

The main purpose of this paper’s research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a Media Sharing Network (MSN) in building small businesses. The effectiveness is measured by means of raising the website traffic numbers. Due to its’ novelty, there is a lack of research on TikTok, creating a research gap requiring further investigation for this MSN. Therefore this social media is used as a tool for data collection for this paper’s investigation. In addition, the effectiveness of the various features is evaluated to identify the one most fit for the set task of raising brand awareness through MSNs.

Syftet med denna studie var att bidra till ökad kunskap kring applikationen TikTok då det är en plattform som just nu ökar i popularitet, särskilt i åldrarna 16 – 25 (Svenskarna och internet 2020). Samt att få en inblick i hur kvinnor bemöts i applikationen. Vi valde att fokusera på hur unga kvinnor i åldrarna 16 – 25 bemöts och talas om i kommentarsfälten under sina egna videor, och om det fanns något samband mellan vilken typ av video de lade upp och den sortens kommentarer de fick; samt om det fanns tydliga skillnader mellan hur män och kvinnor uttryckte sig mot, och / eller, om de unga kvinnorna. Urvalet för undersökningen var tio kvinnliga TikTok-konton i åldern 16 – 25, den så kallade generation z. Metoden som användes var en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där vi med hjälp av ett analysschema analyserade sammanlagt 2000 kommentarer under de valda TikTok-kontonas videor. Resultatet visade att män och kvinnor uttrycker sig annorlunda, samt fokuserar på olika saker när de kommenterar kvinnornas videor. Kvinnor visade sig vara mer positiva än männen, samtidigt som de även skriv mest negativa kommentarer direkt riktade mot kvinnornas utseende. Männen däremot skrev framför allt negativa kommentarer som då var riktade mot kvinnornas åsikter, typiskt kvinnliga normer, sexistiska kommentarer, samt i princip allt innehåll som kunde beröra männen själva. När det gäller sambandet mellan videornas innehåll och kommentarerna, så fanns det ett visst mönster, men i grunden verkar det handla mer om vem personen bakom videon är och vilket syfte TikTok-kanalen har.

Bakgrund: Sociala medieanvändningen har ökat och blivit aktuellt för folkhälsan. Kön, ålder och utbildningsnivå ingår i begreppet socioekonomiska skillnader och kan kopplas till användning av sociala medier. Modellen KASAM används som förklaringsmodell till hur meningsfullhet, begriplighet och hanterbarhet kan kopplas till användning av sociala medier. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka samband mellan användning av sociala medier och utbildningsnivå hos kvinnor i åldrarna 18–30 år samt om det finns några skillnader i användning av sociala medier i åldersgruppen 18–24 år samt 25–30 år. Metod: Genom en kvantitativ ansats samlades data in genom elektroniska enkäter och 109 respondenter besvarade denna. Dataanalysen genomfördes med hjälp av frekvenstabeller, korstabeller och chi-två-test för att finna samband och skillnader mellan variablerna. Resultat: Majoriteten av respondenterna använde Instagram och YouTube i tidsintervallet 31 minuter eller mer medan majoriteten som använde TikTok, Twitter samt Facebook befann sig i tidsintervallet 0–30 minuter per dag. Användningen av Instagram, Twitter, Facebook och YouTube var inte signifikant med utbildningsnivå medan TikTok hade signifikanta samband. Inga signifikanta skillnader fanns i användning av Instagram och Twitter. För Facebook var resultatet nära på signifikant och för TikTok och YouTube fanns signifikanta skillnader. Nyckelord: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, utbildningsnivå, YouTube, ålder / Background: The consumption of internet has increased and have become something that is topical for public health. Gender, age, and education level are included under the concept of socioeconomical differences, which can be connected to the usage of social medias. Sense of Coherence is used to describe how meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability and can relate to social media use.  Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate whether there exist connections between usage of social media platforms and education level among women in the ages 18-30 years old, and if differences in consumption of social media occurs in the age group 18-24 years old and 25-30 years old.  Method: Through a quantitative approach, data was collected with the help of internet surveys, and 109 respondents answered the survey. Data analysis was made using frequency tables, cross tables and by chi-2-tests, to find correlations and differences between the variables.    Results: Most of the respondents used Instagram and YouTube in the time interval of 31 minutes or more, while the majority that used TikTok, Twitter and Facebook were found in the time interval 0-30 minutes per day. The use of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were not found to be significant to education level, while TikTok had significant correlations. No significant differences in usage of Instagram and Twitter were found. For Facebook, the result was close to significant, and for TikTok and YouTube significant differences were found.  Keywords: Age, education level, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube

This study investigates the impact of trustworthiness, perceived expertise, and parasocial relationships on Swedish consumers' purchase intentions on TikTok, focusing on influencer marketing. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of understanding of consumer behavior on TikTok in the context of influencer marketing. While TikTok has become a popular platform for influencer marketing due to its high engagement rates and entertaining marketing concept, limited research exists on the factors that influence consumer purchase intentions on the platform. The study aims to understand the factors that influence consumer behavior on TikTok and its impact on purchase intentions, using the theory of persuasion. The method used in this research is a quantitative study where the authors used a survey method to collect primary data from 138 Swedish consumers. STATA was used to analyze the data, and the findings reveal that the trustworthiness and parasocial relationships of influencers significantly impact purchase intentions, while perceived expertise has no significant impact on the platform TikTok. This study's results can guide marketing professionals and influencers to develop effective influencer marketing strategies on TikTok, which offers immense marketing opportunities for brands seeking to reach younger audiences with high engagement rates.

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Sammanfattning Datum: 2023-05-31 Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi, 15 hp Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, Mälardalens Universitet  Författare: Nathalie Indiketiya Hewage (01/05/11) Wilma Pasanen (01/08/31)                                Oliwer Tomczyk  (96/03/30)                             Titel: Våra plattformar och köpintentioner - En kvantitativ undersökning om Konsumenters köpintention på Facebook och Tiktok Handledare: Sara Melén Hånell Nyckelord: Social media marketing, tillit/förtroende, tekniskt förtroende, köpintention, sociala medier, riskbenägenhet, upplevd kontroll, teknisk effektivitet, Facebook och Tiktok  Forskningsfråga/or: Hur påverkar reklam konsumenters köpintention på Facebook och Tiktok beroende på kön och ålder?  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka sambandet på reklam mellan Facebook och Tiktok samt konsumenters köpintention. Studiens resultat bidrar till en bättre förståelse för huruvida köpintentionen ändras beroende på plattform och demografiska faktorer, mer specifikt kön och ålder.  Metod: För att besvara forskningsfrågan valdes en kvantitativ forskningsmetod med en deduktiv ansats. Studien tillämpade sig av en enkät som samlade in totalt 150 svar, där svarsfrekvensen låg på 98%. Slutsats: Studien resulterar i att konsumenters köpintention på plattformen Facebook främst påverkas av teknisk effektivitet, riskbenägenhet samt tillit och förtroende. Medan konsumenters köpintention på plattformen Tiktok främst påverkas av teknisk effektivitet, riskbenägenhet, tillit och förtroende samt slutligen upplevd kontroll. / Abstract Date: 2023-05-31  Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University  Authors: Nathalie Indiketiya Hewage (01/05/11)  Wilma Pasanen (01/08/31)                               Oliwer Tomczyk (96/03/30) Title: Purchase intention and our platforms - An quantitative study of consumers purchase intentions on social media  Supervisor: Sara Melén Hånell Keywords: Social media marketing, trust/commitment, technical trustworthiness, purchase intention, social media, risk propensity, perceived control, technological efficiency, Facebook and Tiktok. Research questions: How does advertising affect consumers purchase intention on Facebook and Tiktok depending on gender and age? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between advertising on Facebook and Tiktok as well as consumers purchase intention. The study's result contributes to a better understanding of whether purchase intention changes depending on platform and demographic factors, more specifically gender and age. Method: To answer the research question, a quantitative research method was chosen with a deductive approach. The study applied a survey that collected a total of 150 responses, the response rate was 98%. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that consumers purchase intentions on  Facebook was primarily influenced by technical efficiency, risk appetite and trust and confidence. While consumers' purchase intention on the Tiktok platform is primarily influenced by technical efficiency, risk propensity, trust and confidence, and finally perceived control.