Studien belyser dagens spridning av falsk information på sociala medier och vad som händer när sådan information dementeras av användare på sociala medier. Denna uppsats är en fallstudie och undersöker vad reaktionerna blir från Facebook-användare när en publicerings osanning belyses i kommentarsfältet. En netnografisk metod har tillämpats för att samla in data. Kommentarer vid tre olika fall där falska publiceringar har spridits har undersökts. Kommentarer har samlats in från det sociala nätverket Facebook för analys. Studien konkluderar att kommentarer som belyser falsk information genererar en förhållandevis liten mängd interaktion. Samtidigt får dessa kommentarer i högre grad positiv respons än negativ. / This essay highlights the current distribution of false information on social media and what happens when users on social media dismisses such information. This essay is a case study and investigates what the reactions are from Facebook users when a published falsehood is highlighted in the comment section. A netnographic method has been used to collect data. Comments on three different cases where false information have been spread have been investigated. Comments have been collected from online social community Facebook for analysis. The study concludes that comments that highlight false information generate a relatively small amount of interaction. At the same time, these comments are more often positive than negative.

The main purpose of this study has been to explore and determine how the journalistic work was used by internet users to start and keep a discussion on the internet going. We started in the aftermath of a local arson in a town of Sweden, where a discussion on the internet forum Flashback and the local newspapers commentary fields was raised. We have used these discussions to study what part the journalistic work play in these events. To do that we used a critical discourse analysis and a rhetoric analysis to investigate how these discussions use news articles to make their point. We divided the comments into four different categories, which are comments about understandings of the event, comments that talked about the matters of fact, criticism pointed at the newspaper and comments that identify the offenders. The result of the analysis shows that both forums use journalistic work as facts in their discussions. Both also use earlier articles that were written before the arson, to make their point in the discussion.

Allt fler människor använder sig av Youtube och andra öppna internetmiljöer för att lära sig matematik. Enligt tidigare studier finns det en stor spridning när det gäller bostadsort och ålder bland deltagarna i dessa miljöer. Min undersökning visar att ett urval om 10 Youtubevideor om ekvationslösning och deras kommentarsfält också kännetecknas av en stor spridning av matematikdiskurser bland deltagarna. En studie av 85 dialoger i kommentarsfälten visar att i omkring hälften av dialogerna uttrycker sig olika deltagare på sätt som kännetecknar olika matematikdiskurser, medan i den andra hälften alla deltagare uttrycker sig på sätt som kännetecknar samma matematikdiskurs. De förra dialogerna slutar mer sällan med att deltagarna upplever förståelse, medan lärandet i de senare dialogerna begränsas av vad som går att uttrycka inom ramen för den rådande diskursen. Genom att utveckla begrepp och kategorier för att beskriva matematikdiskurserna lägger studien grunden för fortsatt forskning, både kvalitativa med intervjuer av deltagare och kvantitativa med större material. / The use of Youtube and other open internet environments for learning mathematics is becoming increasingly common. According to earlier studies there is a great diversity of ages and nationalities among participants in these environments. My investigation shows that a selection of 10 Youtube videos about equation solving and their comments sections also are characterized by a diversity of mathematics discourses. A study of 85 dialogues in the comments sections shows that in approximately half of the dialogues different participants express themselves in manners characteristic of different mathematics discourses, while in the other half all the participants express themselves in manners characteristic of the same mathematics discourse. The former dialogues more seldom end with experiences of understanding, while learning in the latter group of dialogues is limited by what is possible to express within the dominant discourse. By developing terms and categories for describing the mathematics discourses this study lays the foundation for further research, both qualitative research comprising interviews with participants and quantitative research on greater amounts of data.

Den 14 maj 2020 tillbringade Paolo Roberto kvällen i en lägenhet på Östermalm i Stockholm med en kvinna från ett av Europas fattigaste länder och greps på bar gärning i en polisrazzia. Stjärnkocken, skådespelaren och programledaren erkände sig skyldig till sexköp. I en intervju dagen därpå säger Roberto själv att kvinnan kanske var dittvingad. Nyheten väckte starka reaktioner i kommentarsfält på sociala medier. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur användare uttrycker sig i kommentarsfält under en kontroversiell nyhet om ett laddat ämne som skapar delade åsikter. Vi kommer därför att analysera hur användare i kommentarsfältet på Facebook reagerade på intervjun med Paolo Roberto i TV4. Det uppsatsen intresserar sig för är hur deltagarjournalistiken bidrar till den offentliga diskursen om det känsliga ämnet sexköp, samt andra diskurser som uppkommer. Studien har två frågeställningar; en som undersöker vilka reaktioner finns i kommentarsfältet och en som undersöker hur reaktionerna kan förstås i ljuset av diskurserna om sexköp och medieetik. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk baseras på deltagarjournalistik och diskursteori. Studien är en kvalitativ textanalys, och genomför den textanalytiska dimensionen av Anabela Carvalhos (2008) apparat för kritisk diskursanalys. Ur det empiriska materialet har mönster identifierats varav tolv stycken har analyserats djupare. Exempel på dessa är att många beskriver Robertos beteende som att ”gråta ut” och att styra narrativet. En stor del av kommentarerna lägger även skuld på TV4 för att de ”låter” honom göra detta. Vissa ifrågasätter TV4:s medieetik och publicistiska beslut medan några ifrågasätter sexköpslagen och den allmänna synen på sexköp vilket snabbt konfronteras av andra. Uppsatsen drar slutsatser som att diskursen om sexköp domineras av perspektivet att det är moraliskt fel att köpa någon annans kropp, att det inte är medieetiskt att intervjua en förövare på sättet TV4 gjorde och att det finns en efterfrågan på ställningstagande och/eller agendadriven journalistik. Till sist dras slutsatsen att uppsatsens författare sällar sig till den stora skara forskare som ser en demokratisk potential i deltagarjournalistik men känner besvikelse över att den i mångt och mycket går förlorad. / May the 14th of 2020 the Swedish celebrity Paolo Roberto spent the evening in an apartment in a fancy neighborhood in Stockholm with a woman from one of the poorest countries in Europe, and was caught in the act of purchasing sexual services from her. The star chef, actor and TV host confessed to the police later that night. In an interview the following day, Roberto himself says that he suspects the woman was not there willingly. The news of his crime generated strong reactions in comment sections on social media. The purpose of the study is to examine how users express themselves in comment sections under a controversial news article about an emotionally charged subject. We will therefore analyze how users in a particular comment section on Facebook reacted to the interview with Paolo Roberto in TV4. The thesis is interested in how participatory journalism contributes to the public discourse about the emotionally charged subject of sex purchases, as well as other discourses that we may encounter. The study aims to answer two research questions; one that examines what reactions the comment section contains and one that examines how these reactions can be understood in the light of discourses of prostitution and media ethics. The theorical framework of the essay is based on participatory journalism and discourse theory. The thesis is a qualitative text analysis and utilizes the textual analytical dimension of Anabela Carvalho’s apparatus for critical discourse analysis (2008). From the empirical material patterns have been identified and 12 of these were selected for deeper analysis. Some examples of these are that many describe Roberto’s behavior as “sobbing” and controlling the narrative. A large part of the comment section blames TV4 for “letting” him do this. Some challenge the ethics and editorial decision of TV4 while others disagree with the Swedish model for prostitution and the mainstream view on purchasing sex, which will quickly be confronted by others. The conclusions of the thesis are that the prostitution discourse is dominated by the perspective that it is morally wrong to purchase someone else’s body, that it is not ethical to interview a perpetrator the way TV4 did and that there is demand for agenda-driven journalism. Finally, the conclusion is drawn that the authors of the essay are part of the large majority of scientists who see a democratic potential in participatory journalism but are disappointed by the fact that it is not harnessed.

The essay To negotiate truth is a cultural analytical study of the boundary work that takes place in the comment sections, more specifically in relations to the climate change debate and Greta Thunberg’s climate activism. This paper deals with empirical material in the form of comments obtained from the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet’s and Expressen’s comment field on Facebook. The data-gathering method used for this paper is digital ethnography. This study aims to create an understanding of how argumentation is presented in open social arenas such as Expressen and Aftonbladet's comments field. The purpose of the study has been to show how the contested claims and facts are legitimized and negotiated in the comment fields. The theoretical framework has consisted of discourse theory and Boundary objects theory. The questions to be answered in the study is: In what way is truth constructed in the debate? How are the various claims of truth legitimized? In what way are facts and science used in the legitimization of the different claims of truths? The analysis shows that truth is constructed in many different ways, partly through what i choose to call denial and distrust discourse. The analysis also showed how climate research and the climate can be seen as a boundary object and be used to stabilize the denial discourse further. The result also showed that scientific evidence can be used in a variety of ways in the legitimization of the different claims of truth. On the one hand, there is a demand for more nuanced research to be presented in the media, this creates an image that there are two sides of climate science that are of equal importance. The analysis also showed how mistrust and doubt against established media, political processes and science in general can be used in the legitimization of various statements of truth. I also claim that Greta can be seen as a boundary object in the ongoing negotiation. The use of religious metaphors also proves to be of great importance in trying to undermine the climate issue and climate research in general.

The overall purpose of this essay, “‘I really hope you guys are enjoying this. Thank you so much for watching!’ - a qualitative and quantitative study of the interaction between YouTubers and their audience", is to study how YouTubers that play and comment video games interact with their audience, what kind of response these YouTubers receive and the interaction between viewers and fans in these YouTubers comment sections. This essay also studies if there is a difference between the response female and male YouTubers receive. The study is based on theories about fan culture, participation culture, collective intelligence, feminism and gender. A quantitative content analysis has been used to analyze 600 comments on six YouTube videos uploaded by six different YouTubers. The purpose of the quantitative analysis was to see what content of the comments most often occur as well as if the comment showed a positive, negative or neutral view of the YouTuber. The result of the quantitative analysis was used as a base for a qualitative critical discourse analysis, which also studied how the YouTubers behaved in the videos. The results of this study showed that the YouTubers mostly received positive comments about their personalities and their YouTube channel. They mostly received negative comments about the way they play the game. The female YouTubers received more negative comments than the male YouTubers, who in turn received more positive comments. The study also showed that YouTubers interact by talking directly to the audience and looking into the camera, by using the word “we” when talking about how they play the game as if they are playing with the audience, by asking the audience questions and by answering comments that the YouTubers have received. The YouTubers engage their audience by using strong expressions and by playing the game during a livestream. The YouTubers’ fans engage and interact by showing appreciation of the YouTubers and defend the YouTubers when they receive negative comments in the comment section of their videos. These ways which YouTubers interact with and engage their audience can be seen as part of a discourse about interaction and engagement online.