Bakgrund: Saudiarabien har enligt statistik från WHO bland de lägsta suicidtalen i världen samtidigt som den saudiska regeringen misstänks underrapportera suicidtalen då detta är ett tabubelagt ämne. Det förekommer få vetenskapliga saudiska studier inom ämnet och massmedia övervakas av den saudiska regeringen. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka huruvida och i vilken utsträckning suicid speglas av saudiska suicidstudier och saudisk massmedia samt om speglingen mellan suicidstudierna och massmedia skiljer sig åt. Syftet gällde även att undersöka hur saudisk massmedia rapporterar om inhemska suicid utifrån den sociala representationsteorins förankrings- och objektifieringsbegrepp. Även en hypotes om underrapportering av suiciddata i saudiska suicidstudier och inom saudisk massmedia prövades. Material och Metoder: De saudiska suicidstudierna som framkommit genom en databassökning sammanställdes för att kunna beräkna suicidtalen. Sedan utfördes en sökning efter suicidrelaterade artiklar på saudiska tidningars hemsidor. Därefter gjordes en medieanalys enligt social representationsteori på de suicidrelaterade artiklar som publicerats på tidningen al-Hayats hemsida. Resultat: Bilden av suicid skiljer sig åt mellan saudisk massmedia och saudiska suicidstudier gällande antalet årliga suicid och könsfördelningen. Saudisk massmedia, i form av al-Hayat, målar upp suicidfenomenet som något skrämmande som främst drabbar utländska gästarbetare. Al-Hayat lyfter visserligen olika nyanser av suicid, men undviker att rapportera om aktuella suicidfall bland saudiska medborgare. De saudiska suicidstudierna ter sig rimliga avseende könsuppdelning, suicidmetoder och åldersspann, men inte avseende antalet årliga suicid och antalet saudiska medborgare kontra gästarbetare som suiciderar. Slutsats: Skillnader i suicidrapporteringen mellan saudiska suicidstudier och saudisk massmedia förekommer. Saudisk massmedia beskriver suicid som något skrämmande och rapporterar inte om aktuella suicid bland saudiska medborgare. Saudiska suicidstudier ter sig underrapportera antalet årliga suicid i landet. / Introduction: Saudi Arabia has according to statistics from WHO one of the lowest suicide numbers in the world. At the same time the Saudi government is suspected to report too low suicide numbers since suicide is a social stigma. There are few scientific studies on the subject and the media is constantly being monitored by the Saudi government. Aims: The aims were to examine whether and to what extent suicide is reflected by Saudi suicide studies and Saudi media and if there are any differences between Saudi suicide studies and Saudi media in this regard. The aim was also to examine how Saudi media reports about domestic suicides according to notions of anchoring and objectification of social representation theory. Also a hypothesis of under reporting of suicide data in Saudi suicide studies and Saudi media was tested. Material and Methods: The Saudi suicide studies, which were found through a database search, were compiled in order to calculate the suicide numbers. After that, a search for suicide related articles on the homepages of Saudi newspapers was conducted. Thereafter, an analysis of social representation theory was conducted for the suicide related articles which were published on the homepage of the newspaper al-Hayat. Results: The picture of suicide differs between the Saudi media and the Saudi suicide studies regarding the number of yearly suicides and the distribution between genders. The Saudi media, in form of al-Hayat, describes the suicide phenomenon as something frightening that mainly affects guest workers. Al-Hayat does put forward different aspects of suicide, but holds off from reporting of current suicide cases of Saudi citizens. The Saudi suicide studies seem reasonable regarding the distribution of genders, the methods of suicide and the age range, but not regarding the number of yearly suicides and the number of Saudi citizens versus guest workers who commit suicide. Conclusions: There are differences in the reporting of suicides between Saudi suicide studies and Saudi media. The Saudi media describes suicide as something frightening and does not report of current suicides among Saudi citizens. Saudi suicide studies seem to under report the number of yearly suicides in the country.

Little is known about ‘uninformative live-streaming’, a new genre of online streaming media that has become a new trend in China. In these real-time streams, streamers would not interact and communicate with viewers and not perform in front of cameras. The content is about uninterrupted trivial everyday activities, such as sleeping and studying for several hours. This thesis aims to obtain a comprehensive understanding of this media and to explore what motivates users to continuously watch it. This research employed qualitative methods of online observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect empirical data, through the cases of study-stream and sleep-stream. The concept of media life by Mark Deuze provides a general theoretical context of mediatized lifeworld. Based on Uses and Gratifications Theory and Compensatory Internet Use Theory, I described and explained the prominent features of uninformative live-streaming and examined the user motivation for it. The research results show that this authentic, less-interactive, and non-narrative live-streaming creates an undisturbed media environment, in which users can escape media distraction and media overload. The prominent user motivations for uninformative live streams are self-discipline and self-management, and compensation for the real-life deficiency of ‘non-social companion’. These findings offer new insight into user motivation and help to expand and improve related theories.

This thesis is a qualitative study that examines the correlation between the activist movement #MeToo and the possible effects it had on journalists’ professional conduct with regard to ethics, through the theoretical framework of journalism culture and patriotic journalism. The analysis is based on six semi- structured interviews with journalists that were involved in publications during the height of the #MeToo movement in Sweden. The study indicates that the movement influenced the informants, several found it difficult to differentiate the personal and work-related impact it had on them at the time. Their intense coverage of the movement was fueled by the engaged public, as well as the activist movement itself, which could be interpreted as market orientation or interventionism – or both. Their expressed solidarity with the movement’s values and goals, as well as the fact that their own industry had a specific #MeToo- campaign, positioned the journalists between their solidarity to the society and their professional identity.

Titel: Neutrala massmedierFörfattare: Jonathan Grönlund och Joakim Zakariasen Kurs, termin och år: C-uppsats HT 14Antal ord i uppsatsen: 8947 Problemformulering och syfte: Medierna har ett demokratiskt ansvar att informera medborgarna, speciellt inför ett val. Syftet med studien är att undersöka lokala morgontidningars rapportering av den lokala valrörelsen och se hur de uppfyller de journalistiska idealen objektivitet och mångfald. Metod och material: Kvantitativ innehållsanalys på fyra svenska morgontidningars pappersupplagor under valrörelsens tre sista veckor inför kommunalvalet 2014. Tidningarna är Norrländska Socialdemokraten, Sundsvalls Tidning, Nerikes Allehanda och Östgöta Correspondenten. Totalt har vi undersökt 193 journalistiskt bearbetade nyhetsartiklar. Huvudresultat: Svenska morgontidningar är ofta neutrala i sin bevakning av kommunalvalet. Generellt sett vinklas artiklarna på ett balanserat sätt gentemot de etablerade partierna. Sverigedemokraterna är det enda undantaget, med betydligt fler negativt vinklade artiklar än övriga etablerade partier. Något av de styrande partierna i kommunen är alltid det som förekommer mest i varje tidning. Partiet som förekommer mest är också partiet som uttalar sig mest i artiklar.Det finns flera sätt att mäta om proportionalitetsprincipen eller jämlikhetsprincipen råder. Om man sammanfattningsvis analyserar dessa sätt att mäta så ligger svaret någonstans mittemellan dessa båda. Dessutom finns det partier som inte riktigt passar in på någon av principerna, vilket kan bero på starkt profilerade lokala politiker eller att det finns ett stort nyhetsvärde i ett särskilt parti. Nyckelord: media, kommunalval, journalistiska ideal, objektivitet, mångfald, jämlikhet, proportionalitet, Luleå, Sundsvall, Örebro, Linköping.

This study aims to examine participation in the digital campaign #BlackoutTuesday to gain an understanding of the campaign's impact on university students’ awareness and participation in Black Lives Matter. Based on this, the study has two research questions: How have the students experienced that the #BlackoutTuesday campaign has affected their awareness of Black lives matter, and, for what reasons did the students feel that they participated in #BlackoutTuesday? With the help of slacktivism, networked publics, collective and connective action as the study's theoretical framework, we hope to gain a good interpretation of the results. To gather data, the study has used semi-structured interviews and to interpret the data, a thematic analysis has been used. The results that the study came to were that the students did not experience that their awareness was effected by #BlackoutTuesday. However, they still believed that they made a difference and that other people in their surrounding were affected in regard to awareness about Black Lives Matter. An unexpected discovery was also that many of the students connected Black Lives Matters, as an movement, solely to USA and not Sweden. The reasons for participation varied, but in this study, three main reasons were noted for the students participation. The reasons for participating were about the collective power, dissemination of information and taking a stand. With the results of the study we hope to create a better understanding of participation in similar campaign's and its effect on movements possibly society. However, more research is needed in this area to get a more thoroughly view of the field.

The overall aim of this thesis is to analyze the presence of nationalism and patriotism in the live reporting of the 2019–2020 season of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, reported by the Swedish national public service broadcaster, SVT. Thereby, the following research questions have been constructed: 1. Are patriotism and nationalism to be found in the live reporting by SVT of the 2019– 2020 season of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup? 2. If found, how is it manifested? The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of banal nationalism, patriotism, framing and us and them theory. The investigation has been limited to studying one of the several disciplines of cross country competitions. The material has been collected through ethnographic observations of the recordings online. For analysis, critical discourse analysis has been applied. The study shows a strong presence of both banal nationalism and patriotism in the live reporting of SVT. This can be concluded by the identified discursive and social practices in the text, such as discourses regarding justice and Swedish centrism. The results of this thesis are of importance for further comparative research projects of ideological reporting as well for sports media consumers to understand how ideology affects the reporting of a public service broadcaster.

This study investigates meditation apps from a user perspective. While focusing on the user, interviews with psychologists and an auto-ethnographic study of three different meditation apps were used to inform the research, enrich the findings and create an as wholesome as possible picture. The research aims to explore user’s motivations and experiences as well as the possible paradox of meditation through a smartphone in light of digital stress. Taking a user-centered approach, the theories informing this work include the Instrumental Theory of Technology; Theories of the self, including Foucault’s Practices of Selfhood and Lipton’s self-tracking practices; Existential Media Theory; and theories of the public and the private including the Publicization of the Private. This study shows that high achieving young adults use meditation apps as a convenient, accessible and cost-effective tool for self-improvement. However, users mainly see the apps as a stepping block and have the goal to eventually establish a meditation practice without using the phone. While users think that it would be better to meditate without an app, their meditation app allows them to fit the meditation practice into the context of their busy everyday life.

Between 2011 and 2019 around 900 British citizens left the United Kingdom to travel to Syria and join militant groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) (EPRS, 2018, p.33). After the fall of the so-called caliphate the issue of prosecuting and/or bringing citizens back was widely debated in Europe, especially in the UK, who was accused of taking a drastic measure to the dilemma, causing a political rift in the nation (NPR, 2019). At the center of the debate, both in the media and in parliament, was a young woman called Shamima Begum, who was deprived of her UK citizenship in 2019. This event lead to a debate on human rights and if Begum had had hers violated (The Times, 2019). Previous research has shown that the ethical media discourse on human rights is multifaced, contested and strong in its ability to incite certain worldviews in society (Sampaio, 2016, p.2). Furthermore, previous studies argue that women tend to be framed differently from men in the media when they are involved in conflict, terror or war (Sjöberg & Gentry, 2007, p.30). In addition to this, western media tends to use Muslim women as a symbol of difference by stereotyping them in terms of culture and religion (Brown, 2011, p.716). This study aims to trace the width and depth of UK media’s discourse on human rights issues and the debate on foreign fighters over the political spectrum, through the case of Shamima Begum. Building off of framing theory and previous research on the framing of females and Islam, it asks how the Guardian and the Times, two national British newspapers, prioritizes the aspect of human rights in their reporting on Begum’s case. This by asking what frames they construct and how these frames compare and differ between the two outlets and the years 2015 and 2019. The material, constituted by articles and images, was analyzed on the base of Critical Discourse Analysis and Framing theory. The results find four different frames used. These frames are the Naïve victim, the Imperfect victim, ISIS radicalisation and the Willing ISIS devotee. The frames propose opposite standpoints of the newspapers both in their view on Begum and her guilt, and ultimately her human rights, perhaps aligning their discourse with the polarized political one in the UK. The study also shows that aspects connected to Begum’s gender and religion to some extent are prioritized in the framing of her, ultimately affecting the view of her end her fundamental rights as a human being.

The present study explores Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s online communication on the microblogging platform Twitter. The study aims to present the populist characteristics embedded in the president’s tweets, as well as the strategies he uses in his communication on the social media platform. The pillars that structure this work are the different theories on the topic of populism, which address central points concerning the phenomenon’s characteristics, such as dichotomization between groups (the good and the bad people), a strong anti-establishment stance, creation of scapegoats and enemies, and the centrality of the leader. Additionally, theories that explain the relationship between populism and social media are also employed for the full comprehension of the problem at hand. The analysis examines Bolsonaro’s first year in office (2019) and focuses mainly on three different periods within that year. The data consists of 110 tweets submitted to analysis utilizing Discourse-Historical Approach, an analytical approach with a strong focus on context. The findings show how Bolsonaro’s communication on Twitter is immersed and dependent on strategies common to populist discourse, employing argumentative and discursive strategies that rely on the aspects such as topoi, the demonization of others, shifting of blame, positive self- and negative other- presentation, provocation and calculated ambivalence. This study contributes to the understanding of populist online communication in the Brazilian context, shedding light on the phenomenon of populism, in particular the current populist wave, outside the European and North American contexts, expanding the understanding about the topic to the global south.

Denna studie har i syfte att nå utökad kunskap inom genren true-crime, dess historiska utveckling samt senaste tillskott. Studiens metodik består av såväl en litteraturstudie av tidigare forskning som en narrativanalys av serien The Tiger King. Tre kompletterande frågeställningar har framställts i syfte att vägleda studien och dess disposition. Det teoretiska ramverket består av genreteori och teorier i narrativanalys från Gerard Genette och Ian Punnett. Litteraturstudien, som är presenterad kronologiskt, identifierar ett antal intentionsmässiga utvecklingar för true-crimes historia. Dessa intentioner består av sensation, verklighetsrapportering, underhållning samt oskyldighetsrevolution. Den narrativa analysen av serien the Tiger King är uppdelad och analyseras kronologiskt utefter sina sju avsnitt. Analysen tyder på en stundvis avsaknad av narrativa aspekter som är väsentliga för true-crime och inslag av såväl sensationella som underhållande intentioner. Resultaten av litteraturstudien och den narrativa analysen sammanställs för studiens tredje frågeställning där the Tiger King behandlas utifrån genrens historiska utveckling. Förändringar i narrativets tidsaspekter, mängden avbildade aktörer och porträtteringen av rättsväsendet identifierades i studiens jämförelseanalys. Genrens mest uppseendeväckande förändring var dess porträtterande av offer och anklagade, samt hur dessa roller blivit ombytta. Dessa resultat leder studien till en diskussion kring genrens framtida utveckling och att the Tiger King kan innebära att true-crime genren återgår till underhållande intentioner. Studien diskuterar slutligen huruvida utvecklingarna inom genren dessutom tyder på en större samhällsförändring av attityderna mot brott och straff.