The purpose of this study is to analyze how two Swedish news media, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, reported on the coronavirus (COVID-19) before and after WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The research questions examined were 1. how did the two chosen news media report about the coronavirus? 2. Is there a difference between how they reported before WHO declared it pandemic and after?  This study is a qualitative analysis of 12 strategically selected articles, three that were published by Dagens Nyheter before WHO declared a pandemic and three by Dagens Nyheter after the declaration and three that were published by Aftonbladet before the declaration and three by Aftonbladet that were published after the declaration. To understand our empirical material, we chose the following theories for our study; framing, agenda setting, crisis journalism, media logic and storytelling techniques. In our analysis we could see a pattern in all the articles we analyzed. It shows that all the articles we analyzed are unique and sensational as we live in a pandemic that has never happened before in modern time, that's why they all came at the top of the agenda. The reporting in the two news media portrayed a troubled and uncertain time, from which it can be seen that the alarming emphasis in the reporting of the corona is recurring in several of the articles. Our analysis also showed that Aftonbladet has a more dramatic and dramaturgical storytelling technique as it is an evening newspaper and the articles from Dagens Nyheter are written shorter and more concretely.

This study examines how Media Logic of YouTube and Twitch affects individual creators who works with creating content on the two platforms. It touches upon the different structures of Media Logic that exists over social media platforms and a little bit on how they have changed over the years. Most importantly it examines what a content creators work process and structure looks like and how that is affected by the different Media Logic structures. This subject is original since there is not previously made another likewise study around this particular subject. This not only makes it an exploratory study but more importantly starts the conversation about the subject. By writing about this subject, it gives creators a voice that could both help other creators in the future, but also make creators feel heard. In today’s society there is a lot of content creators on both platform and it’s a growing industry. So, when talking about their creative process and how the platforms in any way impacts that, it can open up for even more conversations such as how viewers perceive content differently depending on the platforms Media Logic of how creators perceive themselves on the platform. The study has an overall abductive approach and to gather the information, five semi-structured interviews took place. Within these interviews it was possible to get a preliminary insight into how a few content creators feel about their jobs and the platforms they use in their work. The collected data was gathered and analysed together with information collected about the platforms and theory of choice, Media Logic. It was then possible to reach a tentative conclusion. The results showed that even though the creators were not previously aware of Media Logic they all indirectly were affected by it. They could be affected through the way they choose to structure and plan their videos or in how they decided to express themselves online; all five of the content creators that participated in the study were in one way or another affected by the logics of the platforms YouTube and Twitch during their content creation process. In collecting this it created a stable ground for future researchers that wants to investigate the area.

Paywalls have quickly become a large part of the media industry and are constantly evolving. Most news media today use a form of paywall to be able to earn revenue off their content. In this study we have made a qualitative text analysis where we compared themes between COVID-19 articles behind paywalls and articles which are free to read on Aftonbladet and Expressen. By using theories concerning news value, news selection and media logic, we were able to examine what kind of themes we could find in the articles placed behind paywalls and compare that to the articles that is free to read.   The results showed that there were more differences than similarities between the content that is placed behind paywalls and the content that is free to read on Aftonbladet and Expressen. When the articles were free to read, they frequently had content that focused on the simplification of information from the authorities, calming articles where experts are not worried and articles about the individuals and their role in a crisis. For the articles that were placed behind paywalls, clickbait captions were more frequently used, probably because of a financial aspect. Most of the articles that were placed behind paywalls had a negative tone where words such as death, panic and worry were involved. According to this result, we came to the conclusion that the articles in the analyzed online newspapers have two different media logics: one for the news that is placed behind paywalls and one for the news that is free to read.

I den här studien undersöker jag hur SVT arbetar i sociala medier för att nå ut till, och interagera med sin publik. Studien syftar till att belysa detta utifrån SVT som public service-företag och hur de når ut till sin publik i ett digitaliserat medielandskap. Ett medielandskap präglat av tvåvägskommunikation i Webb 2.0 utmanar SVT som TV-bolag att nå publiken utanför det traditionellt avsedda medieutrymmet. Studien gjordes med hjälp av en netnografisk metod där tre programproduktioner av SVT analyserades. Materialet och resultatet analyserades vid sidan av tidigare forskning inom fältet, och utifrån de teoretiska perspektiven produktiva publiker och medielogik. Resultatet visar att alla tre produktionerna bjuder in publiken, men att det är olika hur de vidare interagerar med den. Förståelsen för publiken i sociala nätverk visade sig inte finnas där i alla forum, men det var tydligt att den produktion som faktiskt interagerade med publiken skapade en närmare relation till den. Vidare initierade resultatet en argumentation om SVT:s ompositionering till public service media, och arbetet i relation till dess professionella uppdrag och värderingar. Det fanns många likheter i resultaten i jämförelse med tidigare forskning rörande sociala mediers möjliggörande att nå ut till och aktivera fragmenterade målgrupper och bristen på förståelse av publiken i sociala nätverk. / In this paper I examine how the Swedish public service broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT) works with social media in the sense of how they reach out to, and interact with, the audience. The study aims to shed light on this from the view of SVT as a public service company and how they reach out to their audience in a digitalized media landscape. A media landscape characterized by two-way communication in Webb 2.0 challenges SVT as a TV company to reach the audience outside the traditionally designated media space. The study was done using a nethnological method where three productions of SVT were analyzed. The material and the results were analyzed alongside previous research in the field, and from the theoretical perspectives of productive publics and media logic. The result shows that all three productions invite the audience, but they differentiate in further interactions with the audience. The understanding of the audience in social networks did not appear in all forums, but it was clear that the production that did interact with the audience created a closer relationship with them. Furthermore, the result initiated an argument about SVT’s repositioning to the public service media, and the work in relation to it’s professional mission and values. There were many similarities in the results compared to previous research on social medias enablement to reach and activate fragmented audiences and the lack of understanding of the audience in social networks

This thesis explores an understudied area in political communication research by examining populist communication on the social media platform TikTok. Specifically, the study focuses on content related to the Sweden Democrat party during the 2022 election. This thesis also proposes an integrated methodological and quantitative empirical framework for analyzing the multi-dimensional relationships present in political communication on digital social media. By identifying key hashtags used by followers of the party during the time of the 2022 election, including the campaigning leading up to it and the government formation following the election, new empirical data consisting of 250 TikTok videos and their accompanying information was collected. Firstly, the data was used to map SD tagged content on TikTok. Secondly, while difficult to measure, a framework was created to code and operationalize populist characteristics within the TikTok posts. Through quantitative content analysis and linear regression, the study examines the relationship between TikTok affordances and populist communication. Affordances are used to describe what an object, or in this case, a technology, can be used for and let a user do. Finally, the data collected was used to determine potential relationships supporting that populist style communication is favored by social media affordances. The results show that videos on the topic of immigration and videos from accounts with many followers were significantly related to virality. However, limitations in studying content on TikTok, due to the platform’s API were highlighted, as well as the difficulty of handling and coding video data from the platform. Overall, this study contributes to the field of political communication by demonstrating the multi-faceted relationship between media logic, social media affordances, and populist communication.

Since the birth of social media, journalism has been challenged through an increasing social media popularity. Newsrooms have consequently established a presence in social media of their own. A number of studies have examined the effect of social media logic on journalism and concluded that it makes the the news more entertaining at the expense of informative purposes. However, sports journalism has thus far been unexplored in this regard. This study explores how the already entertainment focused journalistic genre is affected by a move to social media, specifically TikTok, in a news value perspective. It also investigates what purposes a sports newsroom could have with a TikTok presence. Through a quantitative content analysis partly based on Harcup and O'Neills news values, and in light of social media logic, the study examines and tries to explain the differences in news values between the content on Sportbladet's web and TikTok account. The analyzed material is from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The findings show significant differences between the news values in the two distribution platforms, including a majority of agenda friendly, audiovisual and entertaining posts on TikTok and web articles including conflict, power elite, follow-ups and drama. Thus, a split up of news values is suggested: social and traditional. Additionally, two possible purposes with a TikTok presence are identified: marketing towards a younger audience, and establishment on a future main platform for news distribution. The social effects of both eventualities are discussed.

This thesis aims to conduct a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of news articles and tweets discussing the climate protest that occurred on October 14th, 2022, where activists threw tomato soup on Van Gogh’s “Sunflower” at the London National Museum. The purpose is to investigate the media logic and the underlying social and cultural factors of iconoclastic actions that shaped the media discourse surrounding the event. The research questions this thesis aims to investigate are: RQ1: How are news values emphasized in media coverage of the tomato soup incident, as reflected in both news articles and Twitter posts? RQ2: Through the lens of media logic, how do media discourses shape perceptions of the climate action? RQ3: ​​How do affiliations with culturally significant artifacts and the climate shape the discursive representations of the protest in news articles and tweets? The sample consists of 34 tweets and 15 news articles. It is analyzed according to Van Dijk’s and Faircough’s CDA frameworks and the concepts of mediatization, media logic, iconoclasm, affiliation (as defined by Stoler (2022)) and news values. The results of this study suggest that the event had significant news value due to the iconoclastic tactics. Further, the media logic is seemingly involved in shaping the news into a sensationalistic story with little focus on the cause of the action. Lastly, the discourses surrounding the event on the platforms can be discussed in light of affiliation to provide an understanding of the discourse.

Climate change is affecting every country on every continent and weather events are becoming more extreme. Natural disasters are three times more frequent today than they were 50 years ago, and natural disasters are more intense and complex. An important aspect of climate change and natural disasters is journalism, as it is partly the one that reports on these events and informs society. This study examines the discourses represented in articles about natural disasters from two different years - 2009 and 2018 - and in two different geographical locations - Australia and Sweden. It also examines whether climate change discourse is present, and if so, how it was then represented. In this paper, the analytical method of discourse analysis was used along with media logic and the psychological climate paradox. The study concludes that the three most common discourses in the sample are natural disaster discourse, climate change discourse and security discourse. The climate change discourse was neither the most nor the least present discourse. The most striking similarities between 2009 and 2018 in terms of climate change discourse is that the discourse was not more present in either the 2009 or 2018 material, the amount was the same. The most striking difference was that in the 2018 material, climate change discourse was present throughout the text, whereas in the 2009 material it was only present in certain parts, for example in a graphic element.

Uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur äldreomsorgen skildras i media och hur denna framställning görs. För att besvara syftet gjordes en innehållsanalys med kvantitativ och kvalitativ ansats. För att analysera och förstå resultatet användes tre teoretiska perspektiv: medielogik, dagordningsteorin och socialkonstruktivism. Uppsatsens material inhämtades från två dagstidningar varav den ena utges lokalt och den andra på riksnivå för att ge en bredare uppfattning om medias framställning av äldreomsorgen samt att se om någon skillnad sågs i de olika tidningarna. Urvalet av artiklarna publicerades under två separata månader 2015. Uppsatsens resultat visar tre framstående teman inom äldreomsorgen som ofta förekom i medias framställning och dessa var i huvudsak negativa med fokus på brister. I de två tidningarna var likheterna mellan framställningen mer framträdande än skillnaderna. / The aim of this study was to investigate how elderly care is portrayed in media. A content analysis with quantitative and qualitative approaches was made to answer the research questions. To ana-lyze and understand the results three theoretical perspectives were used: social constructivism, media logic and agenda theory. The study material was collected from two newspapers, one of which is published locally and the other at the national level, in order to gain a broader under-standing of the media's representation of elderly care and also to see the differences in various newspapers. We used the articles published during two separate months in 2015. Study results show three prominent themes in elderly care that are frequent in the media - the depiction is largely negative, with a focus on shortcomings. The portrayal is similar in both newspapers.

This study addresses issues concerning religion in the public sphere, brought about by the debates over the perceived resurgence of religion and the post-secular. The aim is to analyze the participation of religious actors in the public, using three newspaper debate pages as the empirical material. Building on theories by Casanova, especially his concept of public religions, as well as mediatization theory and Habermas' writings on religion in the public sphere, 639 opinion pieces signed by religious actors were analyzed. The mixed-methods content analysis was conducted in two steps: first a quantitative overview of the religious actors published, to what extent and on what issues. The second step consisted of three qualitative case studies based on the results of the first step: an argument analysis of the debate over same-sex marriage; an exploration of the specific position of the Church of Sweden and the idea of the national church as a public utility; and finally a discourse analysis of articles by Jewish and Muslim authors. These were analyzed on the basis of criteria for public religions developed from Casanova’s theory and from the media logic of debate articles. While the results show no clear increase in the number of religious actors during the period under scrutiny, one notices a clear presence of Muslim and Jewish actors, eventhough Christians of varying denominations dominate the material. There are also clear differences between the different religions: minority religion contributions are limited in terms of issues and scope, while Christian groups write about more varied issues. Muslims often relate to negative media discourse towards Islam, while Jewish signatories write on a limited number of themes closely related to the group itself. In many articles, one found a meta-debate over the place of religion in the public sphere even when specific issues were debated. The contribution of this dissertation is to critically discuss the concepts and assumptions underlying the debate over the place of religion in the public sphere. It stresses the importance of media perspectives as well as empirical studies for analyzing issues of authority, visibility, private/public and religion in late modern, mediated contexts. / The Impact of Religion - Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy