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This study aims to examine how the Swedish government owned gambling company Svenska Spel constructs ideas of winning, thrills and rewards through semiotic resources in televised commercials. Furthermore, this study investigates how the construction of winning, thrills and rewards relates to the gambling law's requirement for moderation. The theoretical frameworks used in this study are social semiotics and neoliberalism and the practiced method is a multimodal discourse analysis. This study´s material consists of three commercials from three different gambling services all owned by Svenska Spel which are Bilen (eng. tr. The Car) produced by Keno, Kontoret (eng. tr. The Office) produced by Triss, and Drömhuset (eng. tr. The Dream House) produced by Lotto. The results show that all commercials contain elements of winning, thrills and rewards that allude to “a good life” through themes of luxury, freedom, class, power, misery and warnings. The results also indicate that the commercials in some ways violate limits related to the gambling law’s requirements for moderation.

The prevalence of distressing content on social media raises concerns about users' mental well-being, prompting the use of trigger warnings (TW) and content warnings (CW). However, varying practices across platforms indicate a lack of clarity among users regarding these warnings. To gain insight into how users experience and use these warnings, we conducted interviews with 15 regular social media users. Our findings show that users generally have a positive view of warnings, but there are differences in how they understand and use them. Challenges related to using TW/CW on social media emerged, making it a complex decision when dealing with such content. These challenges include determining which topics require warnings, navigating logistical complexities related to usage norms, and considering the impact of warnings on social media engagement. We also found that external factors, such as how the warning and content are presented, and internal factors, such as the viewer's mindset, tolerance, and level of interest, play a significant role in the user's decision-making process when interacting with content that has TW/CW. Participants emphasized the need for better education on warnings and triggers in social media and offered suggestions for improving warning systems. They also recommended post-trigger support measures. The implications and future directions include promoting author accountability, introducing nudges and interventions, and improving post-trigger support to create a more trauma-informed social media environment. / Master of Science / In today's world of social media, you often come across distressing content that can affect your mental well-being. To address this concern, platforms and content authors use something called trigger warnings (TW) and content warnings (CW) to alert users about potentially upsetting content. However, different platforms have different ways of using these warnings, which can be confusing for users. To better understand how people like you experience and use these warnings, we conducted interviews with 15 regular social media users. What we found is that, in general, users have a positive view of these warnings, but there are variations in how they understand and use them. Using TW/CW on social media can be challenging because it involves deciding which topics should have warnings, dealing with the different rules on each platform, and thinking about how warnings affect people's engagement with content. We also discovered that various factors influence how people decide whether to engage with warned content. These factors include how the warning and content are presented and the person's own mindset, tolerance for certain topics, and level of interest. Our study participants highlighted the need for better education about warnings and triggers on social media. They also had suggestions for improving how these warnings are used and recommended providing support to users after they encounter distressing content. Looking ahead, our findings suggest the importance of holding content creators accountable, introducing helpful tools and strategies, and providing better support to make social media a more empathetic and supportive place for all users.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role and practices of journalism in moderating comment sections on social media. The study addresses the following questions: How do journalists determine which comments to delete and which to keep in the comment section? Why does journalism engage in moderation? What problems and solutions exist? And how do approaches differ between private news media and public service in regulating comment sections? The study is conducted using qualitative interviews as a method, based on six interviews with journalists from both private news media and public service. We have thematically analyzed the empirical material using analytical tools from discourse psychology, dividing it into three prominent interpretive repertoires. These are the journalist's democratic dilemma, the journalist's role as a content moderator, and the journalist as a protector. The analysis is supported by theory and previous research on the journalist's role in society, the changing role of journalism, the journalist's role as a content moderator, and journalism and participation. The results of the study show that all participating journalists had an editorial policy to rely on. Although the journalists reflected on the democratic factor and the public's right to freedom of speech, they felt they could moderate the comment sections as long as it was supported by their policy. All interviewees believe that moderating the comment sections is necessary to find a balance between allowing freedom of speech and democracy to flow while preventing the comment sections from being overwhelmed by hate and threats. Something they found necessary to maintain their legitimacy. Additionally, they wanted to protect their news subjects so that the public would dare to participate in the news without fear of facing hateful comments. Furthermore, it emerged that the journalists we interviewed who work for private news media were more relaxed about moderating the comment sections and removing comments. The interviewees who worked for public service were more cautious and wanted full support from the policy before removing comments.

The inclusion-moderation thesis argues that, as radical parties become included in coalition governments, their positions and rhetoric will moderate as a consequence of compromising with, and adapting to the parties they are governing with. With lacking empirical evidence, however, the effects of inclusion on radical parties are still not clear. The Sweden Democrats (SD), a Swedish radical right-wing populist party, became the country’s second largest party after the election of 2022 and received considerable influence through the “Tidö-agreement” with the new coalition government. They are thus a recent example of a radical right populist party gaining influence in Europe. This paper examines the rhetoric of the SD’s party leader, Jimmie Åkesson, before and after the election of 2022 through qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that no moderation has taken place in their radical right populist rhetoric after inclusion. Furthermore, the nativist aspect of their rhetoric seems to have become far more pronounced, and increasingly influences other aspects of their rhetoric as well.

The objectives of this study include examining whether distress tolerance (DT) mediates the relation between students' perceived social support and their engagement in self-regulated learning activities associated with engaging help of others. Further, this research examines whether gender or race moderate the relations between social support and self-regulation or social support to DT. Finally, the research examines whether the mediation of the association between social support and self-regulated learning is moderated by either gender or race. DT fully mediates the relationship between social support and self-regulated learning. This study revealed that there are certain subskills of self-regulated learning (i.e., effort regulation, peer learning, help seeking) on which social support does not have a direct effect but is mediated by students' levels of distress tolerance, with students with higher levels of distress tolerance appearing to be able to engage with support. However, without direct examination of the direction of the relations given the cross-sectional nature of the research, it may be as well that students who perceive greater support from their social environment have greater ability to tolerate a certain amount of distress. This was related to higher inclination to reaching out to others for peer learning or help seeking as well as utilizing effort regulation strategies for learning to achieve academic goals.

For 25 years, I have worked in a high school education system, where for the final 2 years of schooling, teachers at each school write their own programs of work and write their own assessment items. They then mark and report on this assessment. There are no final public statewide exams, and as an outcome students right throughout the State are ranked for University entry. What follows is an exploration into the procedures that are put in place to ensure that each and every student is treated fairly and equitably. I will discuss the various levels of moderation that take place between schools, the processes that aid in keeping a level playing field for all concerned.

For 25 years, I have worked in a high school education system, where for the final 2 years of schooling, teachers at each school write their own programs of work and write their own assessment items. They then mark and report on this assessment. There are no final public statewide exams, and as an outcome students right throughout the State are ranked for University entry. What follows is an exploration into the procedures that are put in place to ensure that each and every student is treated fairly and equitably. I will discuss the various levels of moderation that take place between schools, the processes that aid in keeping a level playing field for all concerned.