This study’s purpose is, through content analysis, to interpret the portrayal of the human-rights movement Black Lives Matter during the spring and summer of 2020. Further intentions include examining and explaining the portrayals of the Swedish and the American movements. Theories of Framing and Moral-Panic are used for understanding expressions and consequences of portraiture. Using a hermeneutic approach, 53 articles from four of Sweden's leading newspapers were interpreted. Main findings were that Swedish news media tend to portray the movement in Sweden in more opinion-based terms compared to the movement in the USA. The opinions were mainly expressed when reporting on the movement during demonstrations in Sweden while reports of the USA, mainly portrayed the movement in police- violence but balanced terms. Previous research contributed to an increased understanding of the research field and to problematizing the study's results in relation to its theoretical framework. Our conclusion is that Swedish news media tend to portray Black Lives Matter in more polarized terms if current affairs are taking place in a geographical vicinity. The movement in relation to violence is also portrayed differently depending on the country- specific history of the movement. Although patterns could be discerned, the relationship is complex based on the scope of the essay and empirical material. / Syftet med denna studie är att genom innehållsanalys tolka svenska nyhetsmediers porträttering av människorättsrörelsen Black Lives Matter under våren och sommaren 2020. Studien undersöker också potentiella skillnader i porträttering av rörelsen i Sverige och rörelsen i USA samt hur porträtteringen kan förklaras. Gestaltningsteori och teorin om moralpanik användes för att skapa förståelse för porträtteringens uttryck och konsekvenser. Med ett hermeneutiskt angreppssätt tolkades 53 artiklar från fyra av Sveriges ledande nyhetstidningar. Studiens främsta resultat visade att svenska nyhetsmedier tenderar att porträttera rörelsen i Sverige i mer åsiktsbaserade termer i förhållande till rörelsen i USA. Åsikterna tog sig främst i uttryck vid rapportering om rörelsen under demonstrationer i Sverige jämfört med rapporteringen i USA som främst porträtterade rörelsen balanserat och neutralt, men i termer av polisvåld mot svarta afroamerikaner. Tidigare forskning bidrog till ökad förståelse för forskningsfältet och till att granska studiens resultat i förhållande till det teoretiska ramverket. Studiens slutsats är att svenska nyhetsmedier tenderar att porträttera Black Lives Matter i mer polariserade termer om rörelse-aktuella händelser pågår i en geografisk närhet. Rörelsen i förhållande till våldsutövning porträtteras dessutom på olika sätt beroende på vilken historia rörelsen har i respektive land. Trots att mönster kunnat urskiljas är relationen dock komplex baserat på uppsatsens omfång och empiriska material.

Denna kvalitativa studie ämnar undersöka hur västerländska företag har konstruerat sin varumärkeskommunikation i samband med Black Lives Matter-rörelsen. Utifrån ett teoretiskt ramverk baserat på semiotik, visuell retorik och postkolonialism granskar studien retoriska strategier i reklamfilmer för att utläsa de myter företagen kommunicerar. Genom att respondera på samhälleliga förändringar kan företag skapa positiva associationer till sig själva, vilket utgår från den kulturella kontexten kommunikationen verkar inom. Varumärken har möjligheten att preservera, förvandla och utmana rådande maktstrukturer genom den reklampåverkan de har på mottagaren. Studien belyser således den problematik gällande hur företag kommunicerar värderingar och budskap utifrån en annan kultur. Genom en jämförelse av Gillettes hyllade respektive Pepsis kritiserade reklamfilm möjliggörs även förståelsen för hur mottagarnas reaktioner kan förstås i relation till Black Lives Matter utifrån ett postkolonialt perspektiv.    Analysenheterna granskas genom en kombinerad semiotisk och kritisk visuell analysmetod med relaterade verktyg. Studien visar hur Pepsis myt inte faller naturligt inom den kulturella kontexten, där den verkar förminskande mot Black Lives Matter-rörelsen. Varumärket sätts i centrum, då produkten blir en symbol för myten och tydliga maktrelationer kan avläsas. Gillettes retoriska strategier svarar istället på de kulturella koder som rörelsen utgår från, där varumärket tas ur fokus och reklamfilmen kommunicerar jämlika förhållanden. / This qualitative study intends to examine how western companies have constructed their branding communication in conjunction with the Black Lives Matter movement. From a theoretical framework based on semiotics, visual rhetoric and postcolonialism reviews the studies rhetorical strategies in commercials to read out the myths the companies communicate. By responding to societal changes can companies create positive associations to themselves, which is based on the cultural context the communication operates within. Brands have the opportunity to preserve, transform and challenge the current power structures through the advertising impact they have on the receiver. The study illustrates the issue concerning how companies communicate values and messages from a different culture. By comparing Gillette’s praised, respectively Pepsi’s criticized commercial, makes it possible to understand how the recipient's reaction can be understood in relation to Black Lives Matter from a postcolonial perspective.    The units are examined through a combined semiotic and critical visual analysis method with related tools. The study shows how Pepsi´s myth does not fall naturally within the cultural context, where it has a diminishing effect on the Black Lives Matter movement. The brand is placed in the center, as the product becomes a symbol of the myth and clear power relations can be read. Gillette's rhetorical strategies instead associate with the cultural codes that the movement conveys, where the brand is taken out of focus and the commercial communicates equal conditions.

Under året 2020 sker tre större händelser som får relevans och utrymme över hela västvärlden. Dessa tre händelser komplicerar det för potentiella ställningstaganden inom respektive fråga då de många gånger ligger i motsättning med varandra. Denna undersökning fann att vid TV4:s rapportering av Black Lives Matter i USA så skedde en rad val och indirekta ställningstaganden.Denna upptäck tyder på att man bör som lärare, och medborgare, idka källkritik även vid rapporteringar som förmedlas av traditionella svenska medier.

Our daily online conversations with friends, family, colleagues, and strangers weave an intricate network of interactions. From these networked discussions emerge themes and topics that transcend the scope of any individual conversation. In turn, these themes direct the discourse of the network and continue to ebb and flow as the interactions between individuals shape the topics themselves. This rich loop between interpersonal conversations and overarching topics is a wonderful example of a complex system: the themes of a discussion are more than just the sum of its parts. Some of the most socially relevant topics emerging from these online conversations are those pertaining to racial justice issues. Since the shooting of Black teenager Michael Brown by White police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, the protest hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has amplified critiques of extrajudicial shootings of Black Americans. In response to #BlackLivesMatter, other online users have adopted #AllLivesMatter, a counter-protest hashtag whose content argues that equal attention should be given to all lives regardless of race. Together these contentious hashtags each shape clashing narratives that echo previous civil rights battles and illustrate ongoing racial tension between police officers and Black Americans. These narratives have taken place on a massive scale with millions of online posts and articles debating the sentiments of "black lives matter" and "all lives matter." Since no one person could possibly read everything written in this debate, comprehensively understanding these conversations and their underlying networks requires us to leverage tools from data science, machine learning, and natural language processing. In Chapter 2, we utilize methodology from network science to measure to what extent #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter are "slacktivist" movements, and the effect this has on the diversity of topics discussed within these hashtags. In Chapter 3, we precisely quantify the ways in which the discourse of #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter diverge through the application of information-theoretic techniques, validating our results at the topic level from Chapter 2. These entropy-based approaches provide the foundation for powerful automated analysis of textual data, and we explore more generally how they can be used to construct a human-in-the-loop topic model in Chapter 4. Our work demonstrates that there is rich potential for weaving together social science domain knowledge with computational tools in the study of language, networks, and social movements.

The following writing describes my MFA thesis audio-visual collage project, Attraction. Please, watch the experimental cinematic work before reading this document. The total runtime is 55 minutes.

The current study aimed to uncover processes and experiences that led individuals to critically engage in racial justice activism, specifically the Black Lives Matter movement. A constructivist grounded theory approach was utilized under critical-ideological and Black feminist paradigms in order to build a practical theory related to developing critical consciousness about oppression facing the Black community. Black activists in the movement between the ages of 23 and 60 (N=12) participated in intensive individual interviews. The result of the study is a co-constructed theory of racial justice activism development (the Critical Consciousness of Anti-Black Racism [CCABR] model) that can be used to increase psychopolitical wellness for Black people. In this model, developing CCABR started with witnessing ABR, required three interconnected methods of processing ABR to increase agency, and led to critical action against ABR. Results indicated that CCABR is a cyclical process through which each of the stages build upon and support one another. The CCABR model is discussed with respect to how it converges with, diverges from, and expands upon extant literature. Recommendations and implications associated with the CCABR model are delineated.

Denna studie är en kvalitativ semiotisk innehållsanalys som behandlar ämnet organisationskommunikation och aktivism på Instagram. De två rörelser som har legat till grund för studien är Metoo och Black Lives Matter. Dessa rörelser och deras Instagram-konton, @metoosweden och @blacklivesmattersweden, är de analysobjekt som har använts i studien. Dessa konton har använts för att undersöka hur de använder Instagrams funktioner och visuella gestaltningar för att skapa engagemang gällande sin aktivism. Studiens teoretiska ramverk är identifikationsteorin och teckenläran semiotik. I undersökningen har fem inlägg från respektive konto analyserats, samt fem kommentarer på varje inlägg. Den utvalda metoden för undersökningen är en semiotisk bild- och textanalys. Studien visar att @blacklivesmattersweden använder sig av ett mer varierat visuellt innehåll i sina inlägg, i jämförelse med @metoosweden. Kontot @metoosweden förankrar sitt innehåll till en svensk kontext i en högre utsträckning än vad @blacklivesmattersweden gör genom bilder och text. Studien visar även att aktivism uttrycker sig i interaktionen mellan avsändaren och mottagaren i kommentarsfälten. Interaktionen är varierad i sitt uttryck, där den överlag innefattar olika infallsvinklar som är positiva till aktivismen som bedrivs.

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The purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of allies in social movements,in this case the Black Lives Matter movement in Sweden. The sociological relevance lies in understanding how allies balance being active in a movement that departs from an identity category to which one is an outsider, and what this means in terms of responsibility, privilege, and problems. 11 qualitative interviews with self-identified White allies constitute the data, which has been analyzed and interpreted in relation to theories of modernity and situated knowledge. The results indicate that the ally role is perceived as meaningful and rewarding, but surrounded by different aspects to carefully balance. These balances relate to the term interpretation privilege, a political term related to the concept of situated knowledge, and it both motivates and paralyzes the allies in their navigation in ally work.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate if Sweden's public service radio channel, Sveriges Radio, coverage of the Black lives matter movement was framed and/or affected by whiteness. They received internal criticism for their lack of knowledge of the subject and that they had too few employees that were in the minority groups.Theoretical Framework: The theories used in this study are the framing theory and thetheory of whiteness. Those theories will help us see how the coverage was performed, if it was framed to fit a certain agenda and if a supposed lack of diversity among the journalists could affect the reporting. Method: To further analyze how the Swedish public service, radio channel Dagens Eko reports Black lives matter in Sweden. By doing qualitative research we can answer how the news media has been following the movement and answer the critique they have received about the lack of diversity and knowledge in their reports.The result of this study proves the radio channel Dagens Eko has had an objective view on covering the Black lives matter movement. Viewing over hundred of their radio reports on both the movement and the death of George Floyd we have found that there are no tendencies of racist or insensitive reports from the radio channel.