The insufficient amout of research regarding social media use in municipalities was in part why this study was conducted. This study examined how Swedish municipalities interact with its followers through Facebook’s different post types to create engagement. Grunigs excellence theory stood as the base for the theoretical framework. The method used was a quantitative content analysis. Data was collected from 30 different municipalities’ Facebook pages. The study found that municipalities use Facebook to engage their citizens in some ways more than others and that municipalities, in some regards, do not use Facebook to its full potential. To reach the various ways of engagement, municipalities need to be aware of how to achieve that. Such as what format best suits the engagement that the municipalities wish to achieve. Posting a larger variation of formats should be implemented in order to take advantage of all the benefits that the different formats provide.

This dissertation focuses on media coverage and public opinion about United States foreign policy during a time of national crisis. It seeks to better understand the nature of news content by exploring the concept of press independence through the lens of two theories of news media: indexing and echoing. Focusing on the current U.S. military engagement with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the present study tracks media coverage between June 2014 and June 2015 across six distinct print and online news outlets. This content analysis reveals that the press offered limited criticism of policies, particularly early in the intervention. Print and online news media covered U.S. policy in similar fashion, each relying more on nongovernmental sources than on Washington elites. Combat and non-combat policies were more likely to appear together in the same story in print news than in online news and print offered more justifications for policy positions than did online news. This dissertation examined how news media affects public opinion by experimentally manipulating news coverage of U.S. policy toward ISIL. Based on a national sample, the current work utilized a 2 (high/low in-group threat)X 2 (high/low in-group strength) experiment to explore the mediating role of group emotions on support for foreign policies. Guided by intergroup emotions theory, this study found that group anger mediated the relationships between in-group threat and a host of combat and non-combat policies, while group anxiety did not. On the other hand, in-group threat and in-group strength interacted to predict group anxiety, resulting in two moderated-mediation models, which predicted support for negotiating with ISIL and modern racism toward Muslims. This experiment demonstrates that these group emotions operate in divergent ways, and that group emotions on the whole function differently than individual emotions when predicting political attitudes.

Proxemics is an area of study devoted to the interrelated theories of man's use of space as a special elaboration of culture. Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist, has begun to draw these theories together in his work dealing with proxemics. It is the purpose of this study to determine whether certain dimensions of interpersonal conversations vary with the distance between the conversants. Three distances were used as experimental variables. Intimate distance was set at nine inches, personal distance at three feet, nine inches, and social distance at eight feet. A total of fifty-four subjects was used with nine pairs situated in each of the three distances. Conversations between dyads were tape recorded and subjected to content analysis. Eight categories were established to cover certain dimensions hypothesized to exist in interpersonal communication. Data from the content analysis were subjected to statistical interpretation with six out of eight hypotheses revealing significant differences. The hypotheses and principal findings are as follows: Hypothesis 1. Frequency of references to the speaking situation will vary with the distance variables. A significant difference was found. Intimate distance conversants referred least to the situation and social distance conversants referred most often to the situation. Personal distance subjects' references were closely allied with the expected frequency. Hypothesis 2. Time orientation as revealed by verb tense will vary with the distance variables. This hypothesis also revealed a significant difference. All subjects chose to use the present tense most often. Intimate and personal distance conversants preferred the future tense second and the past tense last. Subjects in social distance chose the past tense second and the future tense least. Hypothesis 3. Frequency of references to self and others will vary with the distance variables. No significant difference was found. Hypothesis 4. Total pause time will vary with the distance variable. Total pause time did not differ. Hypothesis 5. Signs of tension (such as laughing, coughing, sighing) will vary with the distance variables. A significant difference existed in this category. Intimate distance conversants revealed the most tension releases, social distance the second most, and personal distance the least. Hypothesis 6. Types of statements will vary with the distance variables ("asking" and "giving" information). A significant difference was found. Subjects placed at intimate distance gave and asked for the most information. Subjects in social distance ranked second in both "giving" and "asking" for information and personal distance subjects ranked third in both categories. Hypothesis 7. Frequency in changing the topic of conversation will vary with the distance variables. Different distances did affect the changes made in the topic of conversation with intimate distance deviating the most from the expected frequency and personal the least. Hypothesis 8. Frequency of short vocal reinforcements {such as "oh, " "really, " "huh") vary with the distance variabIes. A significant difference was found. Intimate and social distance conversants used the most reinforcements and personal the least. Some general conclusions can be made about the selected aspects of conversations within the three distances. Intimate distance might be observed to be most uncomfortable for subjects. More tension releases, changes in the topic of conversation, and vocal reinforcements existed than in the other distance conversations. The situation was seldom mentioned perhaps indicating avoidance. The most information passed between these subjects suggesting a rapid speaking rate and nervousness. Social distance also appeared to be less than comfortable for subjects by ranking second in several of the categories. Personal distance had the least vocal reinforcements, topic changes, references to the speaking situation and amount of "giving" and "asking" of information. It is concluded that personal distance is the most appropriate distance for casual conversation between two strangers placed in a situation encouraging verbal interaction.

<p>Outsourcing has over the years become more important when organizations increasingly focus to become best-in-class within their specific area. With this goal, outsourcing may be used to support core activities or dispose of activities judged as non-core for the organization. With these different ways to apply outsourcing, outsourcing may be used with various motives depending on the organizations goal. To better understand these motives, the aim of this paper is to acquire a deeper understanding of underlying motives organizations may have prior to make an outsourcing decision. This study is carried out through a content analysis of press releases published between 2005 and 2010. The results reveal three mayor motives that appear with a higher frequency in the study. These are; motives to gain competence/technology, motives to gain quality and motives to gain a higher flexibility.</p> / <p>Outsourcing har de senaste åren ökat i signifikans då organisationerna hela tiden flyttar fokus mot att nå en best-in-class position på marknaden. Med det målet kan outsourcing användas för att stödja kärnverksamhet eller för att avyttra aktiviteter som bedöms ej tillhöra kärnverksamheten. Dessa olika sätt att tillämpa outsourcing beror på organisationens bakomliggande motiv vad gällande mål med den outsourcade aktiviteten. Målet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för de bakomliggande motiv som leder till ett outsourcing beslut. Studien är utformad som en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av publicerade pressmeddelanden mellan åren 2005 och 2010. Resultaten visar på tre motiv som uppträder med en högre frekvens i studien. Dessa motiv ämnar till att få; tillgång till kompetens/teknologi, erhålla högre kvalitet samt till att ge den egna organisationen en högre flexibilitet.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-156)

Outsourcing has over the years become more important when organizations increasingly focus to become best-in-class within their specific area. With this goal, outsourcing may be used to support core activities or dispose of activities judged as non-core for the organization. With these different ways to apply outsourcing, outsourcing may be used with various motives depending on the organizations goal. To better understand these motives, the aim of this paper is to acquire a deeper understanding of underlying motives organizations may have prior to make an outsourcing decision. This study is carried out through a content analysis of press releases published between 2005 and 2010. The results reveal three mayor motives that appear with a higher frequency in the study. These are; motives to gain competence/technology, motives to gain quality and motives to gain a higher flexibility. / Outsourcing har de senaste åren ökat i signifikans då organisationerna hela tiden flyttar fokus mot att nå en best-in-class position på marknaden. Med det målet kan outsourcing användas för att stödja kärnverksamhet eller för att avyttra aktiviteter som bedöms ej tillhöra kärnverksamheten. Dessa olika sätt att tillämpa outsourcing beror på organisationens bakomliggande motiv vad gällande mål med den outsourcade aktiviteten. Målet med denna studie är att öka förståelsen för de bakomliggande motiv som leder till ett outsourcing beslut. Studien är utformad som en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av publicerade pressmeddelanden mellan åren 2005 och 2010. Resultaten visar på tre motiv som uppträder med en högre frekvens i studien. Dessa motiv ämnar till att få; tillgång till kompetens/teknologi, erhålla högre kvalitet samt till att ge den egna organisationen en högre flexibilitet.

Several factors can affect the childbirth experience among parents. Previous research showed that parental education was insufficient. Parents who participated in both regular parental classes and psychoprophylaxis education were more satisfied with the psychoprophylaxis education compared to those who participated in only traditional parental classes. Psychoprophylaxis should be more considered as it could help the woman to handle her pain and contribute to increased self-esteem. The aim was to describe and illustrate the parents' childbirth experiences when psychoprophylaxis was used as childbirth preparation. The material for the study was collected through seven semi-structured interviews analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Three self-rated scales were used to illustrate the experiences of childbirth, pain in childbirth and psychoprophylaxis. The results showed that childbirth experience with psychoprophylaxis was individual. The psychoprophylaxis was a help when coping with labor pains for the mothers but also for the fathers to manage the mothers labor pain. Parental cooperation and midwifery support was important when using the psychoprophylaxis. Complicated deliveries with interventions and separation between child and parents contributed to a negative birth experience, despite using psychoprophylaxis and support from the midwife. The parents meant that there was a need for psychoprophylaxis and several mothers could not imagine giving birth without the use of psychoprophylaxis.

Currently, Communicative Language Teaching has been popular around the world andhas a profound effect on second language acquisition since the 1970s. ForCommunicative Language Teaching to be successful, there is a need for appropriateteaching materials.This paper analyzes speaking tasks in Chinese and Swedish textbooks for grade 8，Gofor it and Magic. The analysis presents content analysis, providing a general overviewof speaking tasks found in both textbooks. First, task description is analyzed, whichprovides the pupils with the topics of tasks in both textbooks. It will be seen if thetopics are real-life. Second, types of speaking, text type, cognitive processes, focus,classroom organization are quantitively analyzed to see if there are differentapproaches to Communicative Language Teaching between Chinese and Swedishtextbooks.Through comparison of these six aspects in different textbooks, there are three similarapproaches to Communicative Language Teaching: First, they both have real-worldtopics under which there are many real-world speaking tasks. Second, the dialoguesplay a main role in both textbooks. Third, pair and group work have dominantposition in these two books.Also there are three different approaches to Communicative Language Teaching: First,the Chinese textbook is directed towards accuracy while the Swedish textbook isdirected towards fluency. Second, the Chinese textbook focuses on form whereas theSwedish textbook focuses on meaning. Third, there is an information-gap approach inthe Chinese textbook where tasks based on information gap are obviously labeled.However, it cannot be found in the Swedish textbook.

Sustainability reporting aims to inform stakeholders of the companies’ activities within environmental, social and economic issues. The reporting is a tool to increase transparency and it shows the company’s effort to take responsibility and account for its actions. Assurance of sustainability reports is an increasing trend that strengthens the credibility of the reports. There is a risk, however, of management taking control over the assurance process. In order to improve the quality of the sustainability report and its usefulness for the stakeholders, reporting and assurance standards have evolved. The purpose of the study is to describe and analyse the assurance statements of sustainability reports of public listed companies in Sweden. The findings allow the evaluation of how the assurance process influences accountability and transparency. The study is a content analysis of eleven assurance statements from 2010. The findings are categorized and analysed by assurance provider: accountants and consultants. The difference between the assurance statements were mainly due to the assurance standard used. The assurance statements provided by the consultants were more descriptive and stakeholder oriented compared to the accountants. We highlight the importance of the assurance process’ usefulness and discuss the limited level of assurance applied in the engagements. We argue that, an open and standardized assurance process increases transparency that enables stakeholders to make own judgements whether the company takes responsibility and accounts for its actions. Transparency also creates incentives for the reporting company to be accountable. To increase transparency and accountability, it is essential to involve stakeholders in the assurance process.

Although the United States is considered to have one of the safest food supplies in the world, consumers have become increasingly alarmed with the subject of food safety as each crisis-related outbreak is scrutinized. With the onset of an agricultural-related food crisis, the media plays a vital role in publicizing both facts and opinions. Because of the relationship between agricultural risk communication and the media, it is essential to study the level of bias in the news reporting of these agricultural risk-associated events. The purpose of this study was to analyze the coverage and level of bias of the Salmonella outbreak associated with tomatoes in associated press (AP) newswires during a six-month period in 2008 through a descriptive content analysis. A comprehensive search yielded 57 usable articles written during a six-month period surrounding the outbreak; these articles were analyzed using the Hayakawa-Lowry News Bias categories. A total of 1,444 sentences were coded into nine categories: (a) report attributed, (b) report unattributed, (c) inference labeled, (d) inference unlabeled, (e) judgment attributed favorable, (f) judgment attributed unfavorable, (g) judgment unattributed favorable, (h) judgment unattributed favorable, and (i) other. Data indicated a significantly higher number of report sentences as compared to judgment sentences. Report sentences are considered both verifiable and factual. Thus, data indicated a low level of bias. Additionally, although journalists were objectively reporting information regarding the Salmonella outbreak, per capita tomato consumption for 2008 decreased. In the wake of a crisis, objective reporting is crucial. Journalists have an obligation to report information that is objective, factual, and verifiable. Understanding how the media tells agriculture‘s story can help bridge the gap between the industry and those reporting the issues.