The relatively new phenomenon of binge watching presents a dramatic shift from the norm of traditional television viewing. However, is this ubiquitously popular media marathon that contains negative connotations really bad for you? A survey administered to 157 television binge-watchers identified the role of stress and self-control in influencing both the gratifications sought and the consequences of binge watching through the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The current study found that binge watching to avoid problems is a commonly employed strategy for individuals to cope with stress. However, engaging in binge-watching behavior as a coping mechanism to purposefully avoid problems can result in feelings of guilt and regret. It is also surprising that self-control has no impact on one's binge watching gratifications. The findings of this thesis encourage future researchers and binge watching lovers to view this new behavior from a new perspective and to practice it with caution.

Participatory design approach emphasizes user involvement to contribute to interactive systems throughout the design process. The potential user participates in many activities in different physical meetings and workshops. This approach helps the designers to develop better tools to support users work but it is difficult to get them to co-design at the same place and time for many reasons. I have also experienced this kind of difficulty in the school projects involving users in the design process. Many new technologies nowadays have been introduced and used for different purposes so I have asked myself how I can use this to get control over this kind of difficulty. And how to bring people together online to co- design instead of having any physical workshops. Today, many online technologies are used to facilitate PD activities and bring the potential users together regardless of time and space. Some researchers have investigated online media platforms that people are familiar with, for example Facebook to reach their users. Some of them use online tools developed for conducting participatory design online.This study investigates how to design remote/online meeting formats to engage people with different media habits in the early stages of participatory design to get inspiration for redesigning a website. It is very important for a participatory design at a distance to understand and adapt to individual media habits and technological skills because this aspect is crucial for the success of bringing the participants together online and persuade them to contribute including making them willing to involve and perform their online work tasks. The project facilitator should get to know already in the beginning of the project about different communication ways that each participant prefers and usually uses in their daily life. To make sure that the facilitator can reach the potential users and bring them to collaborate online and give their contribution to a design in time. This study shows also that the relation between the participants and the temple or the facilitator is crucial for the success of getting them to contribute. Another aspect that the facilitator needs to take into account is to know about the users’ technological background. This can be used as basic information to choose online tools or media platforms to design online meeting formats to engage people in the design process. The tools that match the participants’ skills make them focus more on their work tasks rather than technical issues. But even if someone has high computer skills, it does not mean that he wants to work with whatever tools in some online activities, the facilitator has to adapt according to what they prefer or give them choices and flexibility. In addition, it is not enough only to observe and provide different channels for the participants to get feedback. It is hard to observe people working online and not everyone says what they think to the facilitator. To know how the users interact with and think about different online meeting formats during the design project by doing feedback interview after each PD stage helps the facilitator to improve online meeting formats for the next steps. The facilitator gets possibilities to repeat and clarify some issues during the project, encourages the participant to continue or contribute more, and prepares them for the next steps. The participants get better understanding of the project and motivation to move on.

Anchored in affect theory, how power is understood through feelings rather than logic (Schaefer 2016), and civic imagination, the desire to create shared spaces to communicate hopes for the future (Jenkins, Peters-Lazaro & Shresthova 2020, s. 183), this paper aims to discuss two questions: How are political and/or social messages reproduced in entertainment media? What effect does it have to implement political messages and/or social issues in entertainment related media content?  Two music videos from Taylor Swift’s discography will be analyzed through a multimodal analysis: The man (2020), which addresses the gender equality issue, and You need to calm down (2019), which addresses hatred directed towards the HBTQ+-community. Edutainment, education through entertainment, is understood to be a good way of achieving attitude changes in society, since it targets the audience’s emotions rather than their rational mind, which is a more effective way to create engagement (Usdin, Scheepers, Goldstein & Japhet 2005). The media habits of younger generations are understood to adhere foremost to the individual’s interests, and media content is evaluated by its ability to entertain or its use for personal development (Boczkowski, Mitchelstein & Matassi 2018; Galan, Osserman, Parker & Taylor 2019).     This paper concludes that infotainment/edutainment imitates current discourses as well as challenge these from the perspective of civic imagination and the thought of a better future, with the help of storytelling through characters that are meant to evoke interest and engagement through emotions. / Med resonemang förankrade i affektteori, att makt upplevs och förstås genom känslor (Schaefer 2016), och begreppet civic imagination, strävan efter att skapa gemensamma utrymmen för att diskutera möjliga framtider (Jenkins, Peters-Lazaro & Shresthova 2020, s. 183), ämnar uppsatsen undersöka två frågor: Hur reproduceras politiska och/eller sociala budskap i nöjesmedia? Vilken effekt uppnås av att implementera politiska budskap och/eller sociala frågor i nöjesrelaterat medieinnehåll?   Med multimodal analys som metod analyserar uppsatsen två musikvideor från Taylor Swifts katalog: The man (2020) och You need to calm down (2019) som behandlar jämställdhetsfrågan respektive hat mot HBTQ+-rörelsen. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkt består i edutainment, kunskapsförmedling via underhållning, som Usdin, Scheepers, Goldstein och Japhet (2005), menar är ett bra sätt åstadkomma en attitydförändring i samhället, då det spelar an på mediekonsumenternas känslor istället för att presentera fakta och argument. En förståelse för dagens medievanor hämtas från Boczkowski, Mitchelstein och Matassi (2018) och Galan, Osserman, Parker och Taylor (2019), som beskriver att mediekonsumtion utgår från individens intressen och bedöms efter sitt underhållningsvärde och utvecklingsvärde.    Uppsatsen landar i förståelsen att infotainment/edutainment spelar an på befintliga diskurser, och utmanar dessa med hjälp av civic imagination för att introducera en alternativ, bättre värld, genom att berätta berättelser genom karaktärer för att engagera mediekonsumenternas känslor.

The study researches the media habits and attitude of the Swedish youths toward the Swedish film industry. By using official sources and literature about the Swedish film industry and media statistics it becomes clear that Swedish film attracts a minority of the Swedish cinema attenders, and that the media habits of the Swedish youths favors foreign movies. It becomes clear that youths have a relatively negative attitude towards Swedish movies, which is seen as dull in comparison to foreign movies.

This study explores the relationship between media and nostalgia – the longing of a home and a time left behind – among Brazilian citizens who live in Stockholm. At present, the flow of immigrants is characterized by a high level of interconnection. Contemporary immigrants, especially those who live in global cities such as Stockholm, have easy access to the latest technologies, which significantly increases their access to home country media and also communication with home country though social networks. Which a Media Ethnographic approach including survey and short interviews, it shows how the respondents use Information and Communication Technologies in order to get information from Brazil.

Tillgängligheten av sociala medier (SM) och ökningen av användandet har bidragit med konsekvenser som påverkar användarna negativt. Som konsekvens är det vanligt att användare försöker minska sin användning av sociala medier på egen hand genom att radera applikationer eller försöka avstå från att använda sina SM. För att minska stressen, behovet och den tid som användare spenderar på sina SM har de aktiverat digitala interventioner (DI) i sina smarttelefoner. DI i smarttelefonen är ett verktyg som är tänkt att upplysa och förhindra att användaren utför ett beteende som den vill motverka. I studien har upplevelser av att använda DI i smarttelefoner vid sociala medieanvändning undersökts med hjälp av en kvalitativ intervjustudie. I slutsatsen presenteras insikter om att användare upplever att DI kan vara ett bra hjälpmedel för förändring av sociala medievanor, men utmaningen är att det huvudsakliga ansvaret ligger på användaren. DI kan behöva erbjuda mer stöd för att undvika att deras användare faller tillbaka i osunda sociala medievanor. I studiens slutsats presenteras fem insikter om hur DI kan stödja användare till förändring av sociala medievanor. / The availability of social media (SM) and the increase in its usage have contributed to negative consequences affecting users. As a result, it is common for users to attempt to reduce their social media usage on their own by deleting applications or trying to abstain from using their SM. To reduce stress, the need, and the time spent on social media, users have activated digital interventions (DI) on their smartphones. DI on smartphones is a tool intended to inform and prevent the user from engaging in a behavior they wish to counteract. This study examined the experiences of using DI on smartphones in relation to social media usage through a qualitative interview study. The conclusion presents insights that users perceive DI as a helpful tool for changing social media habits, but the challenge lies primarily with the user. DI may need to offer more support to prevent their users from relapsing into unhealthy social media habits. The study's conclusion presents five insights on how DI can support users in changing their social media habits.

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