<p>This essay analyses the act of reading August Strindberg’s novel En dåres försvarstal (A Madman’s defence). It reveals the writer’s motif and purpose with the text and it shows how a certain interpretation of the text is crucial for the writer’s intentions to become reality. But it also shows how this interpretation is threaten by several, both intertextual and extratextual, thematically and structural, factors. Those factors are logical effects of the writer’s motif and purpose and they inevitably creates an ambiguous narrative structure witch threatens to undermine, from the writers point of view, the optimal interpretation of the text. The essay also reveals several thematical and structural strategies that, in spite of the inevitable ambiguity, the writer make use of to prevent alternative interpretations and at the same time reinforce the one suited for its own needs.</p><p>Furthermore, the essay comment some other writings about the novel in the vast field of Strindberg research. It shows that there is a tendency to analyse the ambiguity of the text as an effect of some kind of unconscious crisis. It deconstructs these different kinds of interpretations and shows that there is an alternative, completely logical, way of reading the novel that also suits its writers intentions, although that kind of reading is threaten by the inner logic of the narrative structure.</p>

This essay analyses the act of reading August Strindberg’s novel En dåres försvarstal (A Madman’s defence). It reveals the writer’s motif and purpose with the text and it shows how a certain interpretation of the text is crucial for the writer’s intentions to become reality. But it also shows how this interpretation is threaten by several, both intertextual and extratextual, thematically and structural, factors. Those factors are logical effects of the writer’s motif and purpose and they inevitably creates an ambiguous narrative structure witch threatens to undermine, from the writers point of view, the optimal interpretation of the text. The essay also reveals several thematical and structural strategies that, in spite of the inevitable ambiguity, the writer make use of to prevent alternative interpretations and at the same time reinforce the one suited for its own needs. Furthermore, the essay comment some other writings about the novel in the vast field of Strindberg research. It shows that there is a tendency to analyse the ambiguity of the text as an effect of some kind of unconscious crisis. It deconstructs these different kinds of interpretations and shows that there is an alternative, completely logical, way of reading the novel that also suits its writers intentions, although that kind of reading is threaten by the inner logic of the narrative structure.

Political scandals are constantly abound in the media, rulers face the global tribunal of the mass media and are forced to defend their actions and above all, their position in society. This essay concerns itself with that defence – more specifi- cally with the defence of four Swedish politicians in high office during four different scandals. Gudrun Schymans’ eva- sion, Laila Freivalds’ dealing with the tsunami disaster in Thailand, Annie Lööfs’ tangle concerning representation notes and public documents and Tobias Billströms’ statements concerning undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. The essays purpose is to study how each and everyone of these politicians communicate and defend themselves, what rhetor- ical strategies are employed and how the two largest newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, frame and portray the scandals. This is in order to discern how current Swedish politicians work rhetorically in situations of crisis where one’s reputation is at stake, and how media mediate these scandals. This is examined with classical rheto- ric’s stasis theory and William L. Benoit’s theories concerning image restoration as the theoretical foundation. This is complemented with the theories of portrayal- and agenda setting to describe the newspapers’ depiction of the separate scandals. The method consists of a qualitative content analysis of news articles, video recordings and TV broadcasts of media appearances. Annie Lööf uses a number of different strategies in her apology, status coniecturalis is prominent initial- ly but however when new information disproves her statements, she moves to status qualitatis, and the state of purgatio, the state she primarily applies together with the defeasibility strategy. Tobias Billström limits himself to only one state and exclusively uses the weakest of status qualitatis states: deprecatio. Laila Freivalds applies primarily the defeasibility strategy but also uses the purgatio and deprecatio. Gudrun Schyman also uses the qualitative state purgatio but also the defeasibility strategy and the theory of image restorations mortification. The newspapers depict all of the scandals differently depending on political affiliation but not depending on gender. The conclusion consists of that an open strategy that changes in pace with the flow of new information should be employed, and that statements that later may turn out to be false should not be used in the defence. The defence should be reactive rather than static. Further it is apparent that political affiliation affects the portrayal and framing of the scandals in the case of both newspapers.

<p>In this essay I want to investigate how the <em>poodle strategy</em> affects a person’s credibility when he or she uses it. The <em>poodle strategy</em> is a strategy, which someone uses when he or she is scrutinized by the media. It’s primary purpose is to suppress further media coverage but it is also a strategy for defending oneself and hence rescuing one’s reputation either as a private person or as an official.</p><p>The essay’s research questions are:</p><ul><li>How has the strategy been applied for defensive purposes and what are the results?</li><li>To which extent can the Stasis theory and Benoit’s theory on Apologia be connected to the strategy?</li><li>Does the strategy affect the user’s credibility?</li></ul><p>To answer these questions four cases from the political sphere in Sweden where persons have been said to have “done a poodle” have been analyzed. In order to analyze the strategy and to judge how successful it has been these cases have been connected to the Stasis theory, Benoit’s theory on apologia and theories about credibility and trust.</p><p>Additionally this essay investigates how applicable the Stasis theory is as a model for analyses and how relevant analyses based on stasis theory are today. Furthermore it investigates wheteher a fusion of the Stasis theory and Benoit´s theory on Apologia can be profitable.</p><p>An important conclusion is that the <em>poodle strategy</em> is a strategy, which is more complicated than one might first think. Whether the strategy works depends on a series of factors; for example the person’s initial credibility (or ethos) and the morality of the actions. These factors need to be assessed before the strategy is put into use.</p>

In this essay I want to investigate how the poodle strategy affects a person’s credibility when he or she uses it. The poodle strategy is a strategy, which someone uses when he or she is scrutinized by the media. It’s primary purpose is to suppress further media coverage but it is also a strategy for defending oneself and hence rescuing one’s reputation either as a private person or as an official. The essay’s research questions are: How has the strategy been applied for defensive purposes and what are the results? To which extent can the Stasis theory and Benoit’s theory on Apologia be connected to the strategy? Does the strategy affect the user’s credibility? To answer these questions four cases from the political sphere in Sweden where persons have been said to have “done a poodle” have been analyzed. In order to analyze the strategy and to judge how successful it has been these cases have been connected to the Stasis theory, Benoit’s theory on apologia and theories about credibility and trust. Additionally this essay investigates how applicable the Stasis theory is as a model for analyses and how relevant analyses based on stasis theory are today. Furthermore it investigates wheteher a fusion of the Stasis theory and Benoit´s theory on Apologia can be profitable. An important conclusion is that the poodle strategy is a strategy, which is more complicated than one might first think. Whether the strategy works depends on a series of factors; for example the person’s initial credibility (or ethos) and the morality of the actions. These factors need to be assessed before the strategy is put into use.

SYFTE Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur föreningen Stockholm Pride kommunicerade efter pridefestivalen 2011. Festivalen gjorde ekonomisk förlust och föreningen kunde inte betala alla sina räkningar. (Enligt årsbokslutet gick man back med 3,9 miljoner kronor.) Man kan tänka sig att en sådan situation hotar förtroendet för Stockholm Pride hos festivalens besökare, volontärer, sponsorer, artister, olika aktörer och intressenter. Frågan hur man försöker återvinna förtroendet blir intressant. Hur kommunicerar Stockholm Pride? Hur försöker Stockholm Pride återskapa förtroende? TEORI Att återskapa förtroende är centralt för en organisation i kris. Trovärdighet, ethos, är kopplat till retorik och kan kommuniceras. Teorier om förtroende, kriskommunikation, försvarstal, försvarsstrategier och retorik används. METOD Fyra meddelanden publicerade på Stockholm Prides hemsida analyseras med image repair theory, en typologi om försvarsstrategier som grundar sig på den antika retoriken. Typologin undersöker hur en organisation försöker återskapa förtroende i en kris. RESULTAT Stockholm Pride gör ett på flera sätt välgjort försvarstal och agerar i enlighet med forskares rekommendationer: man går själv ut med information om situationen, bemöter medial kritik och intygar att man ska göra allt man kan för att ställa situationen tillrätta. Kanske undviker man en kris tack vare sin kommunikation. Dock kommunicerar inte organisationen med enad front och tar inte på sig skulden. Man ber inte om ursäkt utan att i samma veva försvara sig. Man framställer sig som ansvarig men oskyldig och skickar därmed dubbla budskap. Stockholm Pride gör inte en så kallad pudel.