Studien ämnar att utröna vilka semiotiska verktyg som används för att konstruera en bild av UlfKristersson på hans Instagramsida samt hur budskap blir personifierade. Detta görs genom en kvalitativ textanalys i form av en visuell textanalys. Inom detta ämne visar tidigare forskning på att trovärdigheten är av stor betydelse eftersom innehållet granskas kritiskt. Allt mer kreativa metoder och teorier skapas för att få publikens uppmärksamhet, dock blir detta en utmaning för demokratin, menar Edgerly och Thorson (2020). De beskriver den nuvarande media omgivningen som kaotisk och att det finns ett överflöd av politiska aktörer som konkurrerar om publikens uppmärksamhet. Detta är inte endast något som påverkar medborgarskap, men även demokratin, särskilt med det nya fenomenet “politiska influerare”. För att analysera den politiska kommunikationen ur ett visuellt sammanhang ämnar studien att använda en visuell textanalys. För den visuella textanalysen användes en socialsemiotisk metod för att tolka och förstå samband mellan semiotiskt material eller visuella element och förstå hur och vilken mening som skapas genom den visuella kommunikationen. En retorisk analys användes också för att se vilken retorik som används genom den visuella kommunikationen. I enlighet med analysen kunde slutsatsen dras att de teman som identifierades ger åskådaren en bild av Ulf Kristersson där han representerar det politiska partiet “Moderaterna”. Denna representation sker genom personifiering där Ulf Kristersson står för argument och teman som partiet vill reflektera. Dessa argument identifierades genom denotation och konnotation samt kategorisering för att gruppera bilder med liknande grundlig kommunikation, exempelvis bilder som kopplar an något om den svenska militären eller Ulf Kristersson hemma med sin familj. / This study means to find what semiotic tools are used to construct an image of Ulf Kristersson on his Instagram page, and how messages are personified. This is done through a qualitative textanalysis in the form of a visual text analysis. In this subject, earlier research indicates credibility is of importance because content must be thoroughly examined. More and more creative methods and theories are created to catch the attention of the audience, this, however, becomes a challenge for democracy, argues Edgerly and Thorson (2020). They describe the current media environment as chaotic and that there’s an abundance of political figures competing for the audience’s attention. This is not something that only affects citizenship, but also democracy, especially thanks to the new phenomenon “political influencers”. To analyze political communication in a visual manner, the study aims to use a visual textanalysis as its method. For the visual text analysis, a social semiotic method was used to interpret and understand the connection between semiotic material or visual elements and understand how and what meaning is created through the visual communication. A rhetorical analysis was also used to determine what rhetoric was used through visual communication. With the analysis, the conclusion could be made that the themes that were identified give the viewer an image of Ulf Kristersson where he represents the political party “Moderaterna”. This representation is done through personification where Ulf stands for the arguments and themes that the party wants to reflect. These arguments were identified through denotation and connotation as well as categorization to group photos together that communicate the same basic themes, such as pictures that show the Swedish military in some way or Ulf simply spending time with his family at home.

“De konflikt-gestaltade partiledarna” är en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladets gestaltning av Stefan Löfven, Ulf Kristersson och Jimmie Åkesson den sista veckan innan riksdagsvalet 2018. Studien fokuserar på förekomsten av konflikt-gestaltning och typ av tonalitet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur gestaltningen yttrar sig och vilka likheter och skillnader som finns mellan de tre partiledarna och mellan de fyra tidningarna. De teorier och tidigare forskning studien utgår ifrån är teorierna dagordningsteorin och gestaltningsteorin samt forskning om tabloidisering, partipress, political bias, nyhetsvärdering och nyhetsurval. Dessa teorier och tidigare forskning hjälper studien att förklara och förstå de val tidningarna gör när de gestaltar partiledarna. Vart fjärde år är det riksdagsval i Sverige. 2018 års riksdagsval blev ett utav de jämnaste valen i svensk historia. Tidigare forskning visar att medier har stor makt över vad medborgare anser vara viktigt och vad medborgare har för bild av det politiska samhället. Vilken typ av bild det svenska folket fick av Stefan Löfven, Ulf Kristersson och Jimmie Åkesson i de största svenska tidningarna inför valet är därför viktigt att undersöka. Resultatet av studien visar att det förekommer mycket konflikt-gestaltning och negativ tonalitet i de texter i tidningarna där de tre partiledarna nämns. Kvällstidningarna Aftonbladet och Expressen använder sig av mer negativ tonalitet än vad morgontidningarna Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet gör. Tidningarna skiljer sig även åt vad gäller vilken person de fokuserat på den sista veckan innan valet. Stefan Löfven är huvudfokus i Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet och Jimmie Åkesson är huvudfokus i Aftonbladet och Expressen. Resultatet mellan de tre partiledarna har inte lika stora skillnader. Det man dock kan konstatera är att Stefan Löfven nämns mer i texter med positiv och balanserad tonalitet än de andra två partiledarna. Jimmie Åkesson nämns något mer i texter med negativ tonalitet. Slutsatserna i studien är att det råder stora skillnader mellan morgon- och kvällstidningarna. Detta speglar den tidigare forskningens slutsatser kring tabloidisering, olika styrfält och partipress. / "The conflict-framed party-leaders" is a quantitative content analysis of Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet's framing of Stefan Löfven, Ulf Kristersson and Jimmie Åkesson the last week before the general election in Sweden 2018. The study focuses on the occurrence of the conflict-frame and type of tonality. The purpose of the study is to investigate how the framing looks and what similarities and differences that exist between the three party-leaders and between the four newspapers. The theories and previous research this study is based on is the framing theory, agenda-setting theory and research about tabloidization, party press, political bias and news selection. These theories and previous research help the study to explain and understand the choices the newspapers make when framing the three party-leaders. Every fourth year there is a general election in Sweden. The 2018 general election became one of the most even elections in Swedish history. Previous research show that media have great power over what citizens consider to be important and what kind of image citizens have of the political society. What kind of image the Swedish people received of Stefan Löfven, Ulf Kristersson and Jimmie Åkesson in the largest newspapers before the election is therefore important to analyze. The results of this study show that the conflict-frame and negative tonality generally occurs a lot in the framing of the three party-leaders. Aftonbladet and Expressen use more negative tonality than Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The newspapers also differ in terms of which person they focused on the last week before the election. Stefan Löfven is the main focus in Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and Jimmie Åkesson is the main focus in Aftonbladet and Expressen. The results between the three party-leaders do not have as much differences as the newspapers. What we can note however, is that Stefan Löfven is mentioned more in texts with positive and balanced tonality than the other two party-leaders. Jimmie Åkesson is mentioned a bit more in texts with negative tonality. The conclusions of this study are that there are major differences between the newspapers. This reflects the findings of the previous research on this subject.

The thesis ”Crime, the evening press & Kristersson - A multimodal critical discourse analysis of Ulf Kristersson and the evening press within crime and justice” aims to analyze the role the evening press is playing in the portrayal of Kristersson in the field of crime and justice, aswell as analyze Kristersson's use of discursive tools when discussing various events in said field before and after the 2022 election campaign. Applied theories include framing theory and populist rhetoric, in order to explore how media frames Kristersson, as well as studying Kristersson’s populist political style. A multimodal critical discourse analysis is employed in order to analyze quotes, pictures, and the structure of the selected articles. The analysis revealed a broad use of discursive tools, among those a strategic use of transitivity. Kristersson tends to diffuse the distribution of responsibility, either to evade accountability or to protect other actors. Additionally, he tends to avoid mentioning any active subject, highlighting victims of a crime or making his statement cryptic and unclear. Generally, Kristersson was portrayed either in a neutral or positive way, often bolstering a character beneficial to him. The articles often feature pictures portraying Kristersson in a suit, sometimes accompanied with a Swedish flag in the background. These images can create and reinforce an image of him as a patriotic and dependable leader. Furthermore, surrounding articles often contribute to this image and amplify the message he intends to convey by presenting related topics with relevant pictures.

The aim of this thesis is to achieve a deeper understanding of how media portrays politicians and examine whether media is gender-biased. This is done by carrying out a case study within the Swedish context, which compares print media’s portrayal of the Moderate party’s former leader Anna Kinberg Batra with their current leader Ulf Kristersson. A quantitative content analysis is applied on 330 articles from four Swedish newspapers. By examining previous literature, a theoretical framework is constructed using theories on framing, the gender system as well as media’s treatment of female and male politicians which is later operationalized. In brief, the results of the study show there are differences in certain parts of media’s portrayal of Kinberg Batra and Kristersson, however they were not always as substantial and obvious as previous literature had indicated.

This study examines how the discourse on gang crime can be observed regarding the rhetoric of the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, Research in the subject indicates that gang crime is most often explained by family situations and that gang violence can be partly explained by social learning theories. The research also indicates that the criminal policy in Sweden has clearly changed recently, and that crime is described as a result of immigration. By using the discourse analysis method, the purpose of the study has been to understand Kristersson’s explanation of gang crime based on parts of various speeches and interviews in which he has participated. Furthermore, I’ve studied how Kristersson’s discourse places itself on an analytical level made by criminological theories. The results of the study show thatKristersson’s discourse, for the most part, places itself at the meso- and macro-level as an explanatory factor for gang crime and that the dominant theories in his discourse consist of social ecological theory, the theory of subculture and strain theory.