The study centers around The Scandinavian Socialist Federation and its newspaper based in Chicago called Facklan. This newspaper and its association has not been thoroughly researched before in a qualitative manner and existed in a time when communism started to spread around the world which makes them both interesting to research. A qualitative text analysis will allow a study that aims to examine how the newspapers content built or strengthened a feeling of fellowship within the federation. This will be researched through three aspects – communist, swedish and as a federation. With a contextualizing chapter the study is set into a historical period. This enables the reader to understand the context around the federation and its newspaper. Furthermore the study uses Benedict Anderssons idea of imagined communities. The source that has been used to enable this study is a digital archive made by Minnesota historical society, in which Facklan is included. The results show that Facklan indeed did build or strengthen a feeling of fellowship amongst its readers. It did this primarily by connecting the Comintern´s ideas and values with the news around Sweden and the federation. It is difficult to point out how deeply this affected the federation but it most likely brought the divided federation closer together and possibly enabled the merging with another American-Scandinavian socialist federation.

The aim of this study has been to, through a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis, determine which meaning nationality is given in news reports in Swedish daily press, and how it creates the event as a scandal. Focusing on two major scandals in cross country skiing, articles from the Finnish scandal in Lahtis 2001 and the revealing of doped Russian skiers in 2016 has been analysed. The theoretical framework for the study has been Stuart Halls representation theory, the framing theory, and theories regarding media scandals and nationality. The results from the quantitative and qualitative analyses has been divided into four themes: Imagined communities, Us and them, Individual and corporate and Fallen star. The results show that nationality is given meaning through the creation of imagined communities. It creates a gap between us and them, a sense of the nations parting from each other in form of cultural and moral aspects. There is also a difference between the representation of the countries. In the Russian doping scandal, Russia is considered as a doped nation, with a systematic doping where little guilt is to be put on the skiers themselves. In Finland, the nation stands for the people and is not in any ways to be associated with the doping scandal. Instead, the skiers get all the blame and little notion is made about the doping as being organised. This has also made the scandals to be divided into individual or corporate doping. As for the framing of the event as a scandal, attributes as “cheating” and a portrayal of the skiers as fallen stars is represented. By revealing the names of the suspected dopers it increases the news worth. An unexpected outcome was that the Russian dopers was not mentioned by name as often as the Finnish, which could enhance the event as a scandal even more. Furthermore, doping scandals could be studied in many different ways and is an interesting subject to immerse oneself in.

This is a multimodal discourse analytical study about national identity in russian film posters specifically in regards to four themes, posters that demonstrates wars, conflicts, violence or weapons. The aim of the study is to illustrate how national identity is portrayed in russian film posters, in relation to these four above themes from the start of the Soviet union 1922, until the end of the union 1991, plus four years ahead. This is studied by looking at how these four above themes are emphasized during different time periods, how the common history is described during different time periods, which similarities and differences that can be deduced from this, and how the question “who are we as a nation?” can be deduced from the pictures. The study also discusses the problem regarding media and its potential to influence, with a focus on the film media and the film poster, since these mediums have a huge potential to create a certain imagined community. For this reason it becomes important to understand who controls the media, since the one with control also beholds the power to decide what the nation identity should consist of, and how it should be portrayed. The study shows that the national identity in russian film posters is portrayed with a strong interconnection to wars, conflicts, violence and weapons during the whole investigation period, but how these themes are portrayed differs between the early/mid Soviet period and the late/post-Soviet period. The early/mid period puts a focus mainly on a strong patriotism where the soldier and the hero are frequently used motifs, which could be interpreted as motifs that are meant to eliminate questions about death in relation to wars. This could be seen as a result of an autocratic state controlled media. The late/post period instead emphasizes a criticism interconnected with conflicts with a focus on motifs like blood and dead bodies, that could be interpreted as motifs that demonstrate the tragic consequences of a violence. This could instead be seen as a result of a media that has been affected by a public sphere that has opened up, where the citizens are allowed to voice their opinions. The similarities is henceforth that the whole investigation period emphasizes a russian hegemony that puts a focus on the “russian” of the nation. The study recommends further studies in the area, either by investigating more themes in regards to film posters and national identity, or by investigating how another country portrays the national identity or the common history, there amongst war memories, in a media material. / Det här är en multimodal diskursanalytisk studie om gestaltning av nationell identitet i ryska filmaffischer, specifikt kopplat till fyra teman, affischer som gestaltar krig, konflikter, våld eller vapen. Studien har som syfte att illustrera hur nationell identitet uttrycks i ryska filmaffischer, kopplat till dessa fyra ovan teman från Sovjetunionens start 1922, till efter dess fall 1991, och fyra år framåt. Detta studeras genom att titta på hur dessa fyra ovan teman har betonats under olika tidsperioder, hur den gemensamma historieskrivningen har gestaltats under olika tidsperioder, vilka likheter och skillnader som går att utläsa från detta, samt hur frågan om “vem är vi som nation?” kan utläsas ur bilderna. Studien diskuterar även problematiken kring media och dess påverkanspotential i speciellt avseende till filmmediet och filmaffischen, då dessa medium har potential att skapa en viss föreställd gemenskap. Problematiken blir därmed vem som har kontroll över filmmediet, då den som har kontroll är den som besitter makten att bestämma vad nationsidentiteten ska bestå av och hur den ska gestaltas. Studien visar att den nationella identiteten uppvisar en stark koppling till krig, konflikter, våld och vapen under hela undersökningsperioden, men hur dessa teman gestaltas skiljer sig dock åt från tidiga/mitt Sovjettiden till sena/post-Sovjet tiden. Den tidiga/mitt perioden lägger främst fokus på en stark patriotism där soldaten och hjälten är vanligt förekommande motiv, som kan tolkas som motiv som ska eliminera frågor om död i samband med krig. Detta kan vidare tolkas som ett resultat av att en autokratisk stat har kontrollerat media. Den sena/post perioden betonar istället en kritik i samband med konflikter genom ett fokus på motiv som blod och döda kroppar, som kan tolkas demonstrera de tragiska konsekvenserna av ett våld. Detta kan istället tolkas som ett resultat av att media har påverkats av att en offentlig sfär har öppnats upp, där medborgare får lov att uttrycka sina åsikter. Likheterna är dock att hela undersökningsperioden betonar en rysk hegemoni som lägger fokus på det “ryska” i nationen. Studien rekommenderar fortsatt forskning av området, antingen genom att undersöka fler teman kopplat till nationell identitet i filmaffischerna, eller genom undersökning av hur andra länder länder gestaltar den nationella identiteten eller den gemensamma historien, däribland krigsminnen, i ett medialt material.

By comparative analysis of Swedish cultural policy (including art policy, heritage policy and Church policy) during the Riksdag periods of 1970-73, 1991-94, 1994-98 and 1998-2002 the relationship between cultural policy and the concept of the nation as a homogenous cultural community (defined by either an ethnic or a state-framed concept) is explored. Neoinstitutional analysis of cultural policy as an organisational field is combined with analysis of how the nation is conceived as an imagined community, and what values it strives to uphold to show how these values and concepts are institutionalised in its cultural policy and how this supports the legitimacy of the State as a nation-state. In the early seventies, when a general cultural policy was first established in Sweden, most of its fields were already institutionalised and bound by strong path dependencies, binding art policy to protecting universal aesthetic values within the state-framed nation and heritage policy to ethnic particularism while Church policy stood between universalism and ethnic particularism (which infected the relationship between Church and State). These contradictions were managed by strong borders between the fields. In the early seventies these were overlaid with a general cultural policy focused on universal civil values within the state-framed nation. Since then the conflict between Church and State has been defused and the norms of heritage policy have become closer to those of cultural policy at large by the claim that cultural heritage should be used to uphold civil values (e.g. democracy and tolerance). In the late nineties cultural policy has again become less integrated by new government initiatives with specific goals. Civil universal values remain dominant while concepts of the nation are increasingly multi-ethnic. / Genom jämförande analys av svensk statlig kulturpolitik (inklusive konstpolitik, kulturarvspolitik och religionspolitik) under riksdagsperioderna 1970-73, 1991-94, 1994-98 and 1998-2002 undersöks relationen mellan kulturpolitiken och föreställningen om nationen som en homogen kulturell gemenskap som i vissa fall tänks inkludera dess innevånare och i andra fall en etnisk grupp. Nyinstitutionell analys av kulturpolitik som organisatoriskt fält kombineras med analys av hur nationen konceptualiseras som en föreställd gemenskap och vilka värderingar den upprätthåller för att visa hur dessa värden och koncept institutionaliseras i statens kulturpolitik och hur denna bidrar till att upprätthålla nationalstatens legitimitet. När en enhetlig kulturpolitik etablerades i Sverige i början av 1970-talet var de flesta av de ingående fälten redan låsta i sedan länge etablerade stigberoenden som band konstpolitiken till upprätthållandet av estetiska värden inom ramarna för en med utgångspunkt i staten definierad nation samtidigt som kulturarvspolitiken bundits vid etniskt partikularistiska nationskoncept och kyrkopolitiken slets mellan universalism och etnisk partikularism (vilket komplicerade kyrka-stat-relationen). Motsättningar hanterades genom kraftiga institutionella gränser mellan fälten. Till dessa fogades en övergripande kulturpolitik baserad på universella civila värden inom ramarna för den statsdefinierade nationen. Sedan dess har konflikten mellan kyrka och stat lösts upp och kulturarvspolitiken integrerats i den generella kulturpolitiken bl.a. genom organisatoriska reformer. I slutet av 1990-talet tycks trenden mot en allt mer integrerad kulturpolitik dock ha vänt bl.a. genom direkta men begränsade regeringsinitiativ. Den domineras fortfarande av universella civila värden, men också av alltmer mångetniska föreställningar om nationen.

The Bachelor dissertation What do you mean national self-image? is a discourse analysis of the relationship between Swedish news providers. The study aims to investigate how Swedish-language print media interact with the main provider of Swedish news in English, The Local Sweden, and what it reports as the “essence” of the nation and its people.   The investigation has been conducted through the implementation of Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse analysis and uses intertextuality, stereotypes, social representation, as well as nationalism and the imagined communities as its theoretical framework. The material selected for the analysis comprises publications by Swedish-language print media from the year of 2014, which engage in a dialogue with The Local Sweden beyond the generic interaction of news. The dissertation concludes that Swedish-language print media approach The Local Sweden’s news coverage in two ways: in agreement or in opposition of what has been reported. When The Local Sweden has published something with the intention of capturing the “essence” of Sweden and its people, they bring attention to the Swede’s hugging culture, their food and souvenirs, as well as their knowledge of language. The results of the study suggest that The Local Sweden manages to provide new information on the subjects, which then leads to Swedish-language print media responding with entire articles dedicated to these topics. The articles convey a sense of fascination and curiosity toward the findings and confirm that The Local Sweden has been correct in their observations. However, when The Local Sweden publishes something with the intention of presenting Swedish news rather than the specific “essence” of it, they find different angles in news stories than what has been covered by Swedish-language print media. The results of the study suggest that by doing so they set themselves apart and provoke Swedish-language print media into responding by incorporating a comment for and/or relating to them as a news provider. The comments convey that Swedish-language print media question The Local Sweden’s validity as a valuable member in covering Swedish news.

Participation as Pedagogy – Imagined Race and the Exhibit of Swedish Peoples-Types. This essay will analyse and give a deeper picture of the ”The Exhibit of Swedish People-Types” by focusing on the pedagogical ideals that formed the exhibit as an participatory media. The exhibit was led by the famous race-biologist Herman Lundborg and toured Sweden in 1919 displaying the racial constitution of the Swedish population using material gathered by the public itself. The exhibit has been described as an important tool in popularising eugenics in Swedish society during the early 20th century with the ambition of gaining funds to create the first race-biological institute and to influence policy-making. Nevertheless there has not been a single study which has focused solely on the exhibit and how the pedagogical ideals that permeated it affected the relation between the public and the media itself nor the political implications of this relation. I will show that the interactive participation enacted through the exhibit both defined a hierarchical relation between public and race-biological expertise, as well as it articulated a new “imagined community”, i.e., an “imagined race”. This participatory relation was not only key in creating the exhibit but also had implications on how the public should position itself and act in relation to society at large regarding eugenic matters. This gives me an opportunity to deepen our historical knowledge of the eugenics-movement and main-line racebiological networks in early 20 h century Swedish society. This essay also contribute to the history of participatory media and the popularisation of science.