In March 2011, following the self-immolation of a Syrian man named Hasan Ali Akleh, several demonstrations were staged across Syria, leading to the arrest of many Syrians in the town of Deraa. These demonstrations escalated into an ongoing conflict in most cities and towns, known as the “Syrian Conflict” (aka “Syrian Crisis,” “Syrian Civil War,” or “Syrian Uprising”). The conflict has resulted in the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II and the Rwandan genocide. According to recent published reports by many international organizations (e.g. United Nations, Amnesty International, Europa), 11.5% of Syria’s population has been killed or injured since the conflict erupted in March 2011, more than 500,000 people have died, over 5 million refugees have fled Syria since 2011, and there has been massive destruction in Syrian cities and towns. This dissertation draws on narrative theory, narrative features, narrative framing, media responsibility, and the representation of the Other to provide a theoretical and conceptual foundation and fulfill the dissertation’s objectives. To do this, it has established a theoretical and conceptual model of analysis specific to the event in question to investigate how the quotations and narratives of Syrian citizens, delivered as texts presented in translation in English-language newspapers, narrate, frame, and represent the Syrian humanitarian disaster. This dissertation also scrutinizes media responsibility of the selected English-language newspapers as revealed in the selected and translated quotations and narratives. The dissertation methodologically utilizes a qualitative narrative analysis research design, and analyzes a purposive sample of translated quotations and narratives in 404 news texts from the online versions of the three following English-language newspapers: the British The Guardian, the American The New York Times, and the Canadian National Post. The findings of this dissertation ultimately encourage a better understanding of the crucial role that translation plays in narrating, framing, and representing humanitarian disasters within global media outlets.

More than a decade has now passed since the concept of “gender mainstreaming” and polices addressing a gender perspective first appeared on the international agenda, yet evaluations on these policies’ implementation show that progress has been slow in the field of humanitarian assistance. As executive workers, the humanitarian field staff have in policy documents been identified as crucial actors in the “gender mainstreaming” work, however, no previous research have been found evaluating their achievements in the field. This study examines if formulated gender policies, within Swedish humanitarian organisations and agencies, are implemented and translated into action in the field. This was carried out by investigating Swedish humanitarian fieldworkers’ gender sensitiveness and experiences of working with a gender perspective in the field. The empirical material was collected from qualitative deep interviews with ten fieldworkers from four different humanitarian organisations/agencies. The interview data was then analysed by using a theoretical framework based on Gender theory, Postcolonial feminist theory and Policy implementation theory. The results show that even though most of the interviewed fieldworkers mean that they are aware of gender issues and the importance of using a gender perspective in the field, they have a general low understanding of the gender concept. An emerging “cultural sensitivity versus gender policy implementation” dilemma was valid and possibly affecting the informants’ attempts to act on formulated policies. Moreover, the method that the organisations/agencies use when educating staff on gender issues seem to have an impact on this dilemma. It became apparent that the fieldworkers underestimate their own responsibility in using a gender perspective in the field; at the same time the organisations/agencies overestimate their workers’ capacity to implement their gender policies. Much also indicate on how a still old-fashioned gender discourse is produced, and reproduced, in gender policy formulations and among the fieldworkers. In conclusion, it seems like a gap occur between the initial intention of a policy, its formulation, interpretation and the final intervention result. / Mer än ett decennium har passerat sedan begreppet "gender mainstreaming " och genus policys först dök upp på den internationella dagordningen. Trots detta visar utvärderingar att genomförandet av dessa policyer varit långsamt inom humanitärt- och katastrofbistånd. Som verkställande arbetare har personalen inom humanitär verksamhet i flera policydokument identifierats som viktiga aktörer för arbetet mot att implementera genus policys, dock har ingen tidigare forskning utvärderat deras faktiska utförande i fält. Studien undersöker huruvida svenska humanitära biståndsorganisationer- och myndigheters formulerade genuspolicys implementeras och omsätts till handling i fält. Detta görs genom att granska svenska humanitära fältarbetares genusmedvetenhet och erfarenheter av att arbeta med ett genusperspektiv i sina uppdrag. Det empiriska materialet samlades in från kvalitativa djupintervjuer med tio fältarbetare från fyra olika svenska organisationer/myndigheter. Materialet analyserades med hjälp av ett teoretiskt ramverk baserat på Genusteori, Postkolonial feministisk teori och teori kring policyimplementering. Resultaten visar att även om de flesta av de intervjuade fältarbetarna säger sig vara medvetna om begreppet genus, och vikten av att använda ett genusperspektiv i fält, har de en låg förståelse för innebörden av konceptet. Ett dilemma mellan ”kulturell känslighet” och ”implementering av genuspolicys” uppkom, där organisationernas/myndigheternas utbildningsmetod av ett genustänk möjligtvis har en förstärkande inverkan. Tydligt var att fältarbetarna verkar underskattar sitt eget ansvar i att använda ett genusperspektiv i fält, samtidigt som organisationerna/myndigheterna överskattar sina anställdas förmåga att arbeta efter de formulerade policyerna. Mycket tyder också på att en fortfarande ganska otidsenlig könsdiskurs produceras och reproduceras både i formulerade genuspolicys, och bland fältarbetarna. Sammanfattningsvis verkar det som att det uppstår en klyfta mellan den initiala intentionen av en policy, dess utformning, tolkningen av denna och interventionens slutresultat.

Venezuela faces today an unprecedented social and political collapse that extends beyond the critical economy and the violence; a deadly combination of severe shortages of food and medicine which makes it extraordinarily difficult for most Venezuelans to obtain essential medical care and the adequate minimal nutritional intake to ensure survival. The primary concern of this research is to answer the question of how do visual representations of Venezuela’s humanitarian disaster elucidate the deterioration of the quality of life of its younger citizens? This study aims to examine and better understand the effects and implications of Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis on its citizenry through the use of photography as a method of qualitative research, by paying particular attention to young Venezuelans and their role as social and political agents. The study of young people’s reali- ties through photographs provides an unique opportunity to appraise and comprehend real processes of social exchange; the ways in which visual images can be understood differently by different sub- jects in different socio-cultural spheres in the context of a humanitarian disaster. However, in order to enlarge the possibilities of conventional empirical research and withstand the intrinsic subjectivi- ty of qualitative research, these visual representations were inserted into photo-interviews. Both the photographs and the photo-interviews of this study were analysed and interpreted by using the ana- lytical approach of thick description. In this regard, this dissertation seeks to examine the length and complexity of an emergency situation by seeking to raise awareness and procure critical understanding about the colossal dimension of Venezuelan’s humanitarian crisis and its disastrous consequences on more than 30 million people.