ABSTRACTEnglish translation of the title: The woman’s right to life – A multimodal critical discourse analysis of abortions rights in RFSU: s external communication.  A topic that has sparked more controversy in recent times, is the abortion rights of women. Lately ideas surrounding the abolishment of abortion rights have been more normalized in society. Restrictive abortion laws have been implemented in countries such as the USA and Poland. The aim of this study was to investigate how the organization RFSU is communicating reproductive rights, specifically the abortion rights and abortion resilience discourse, as well as their organizational identity. The study also aimed to investigate how an organization can encourage people to engage and participate in a digital environment. To answer these aims, two main categories of theories were used. The first category focused on social movements theory and framing, which helps to understand how social movements are presented on social media. The second category focused on external communication and visual identity and provided a perspective on how an organization can use external communication to portray the abortion rights discourse and increase participation among recipients in digital social movements. A qualitative method was used, combining a multimodal critical discourse analysis process with Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. The results of the study showed that maternal mortality, abortion, and sexual information were common themes communicated on RFSU’s Instagram. The results also showed that the abortion rights discourse was usually mentioned in relation to the abortion resilience discourse. However, abortion rights were portrayed as necessary for women’s reproductive rights and threatened by the increasing prevalence of abortion resilience ideas in society. The abortion resilience discourse was represented as a problem due to the danger that restrictive abortion laws pose to women’s lives. Participation was encouraged using hashtags that encouraged people to forward the information on social media or took place in real life and afterwards posting on social media. The organizational identity was portrayed using the same red colour and realistic photos, creating recognition for the organization. In conclusion, abortion rights were portrayed as necessary due to the increasing prevalence of abortion resilience ideas in the world.  Keywords: Abortion, Abortion rights, Multimodal critical discourse analysis, external organization communication, Participation

Research suggests that society is facing continued increasing economic inequalities where structural forces such as neoliberalism and globalisation are behind the emergence of a new group of globally super-rich. Since media is a place where social class is expressed, depicted and represented, it can have a particularly important role regarding what discourses about the global upper class are generated. The purpose of this study is to critically examine how the portrayal and re-contextualisation of the global upper class can produce discourses, by specifically analysing semiotic elements in the film Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund. The following research question was formed: What discourses are produced about the globally super-rich in the film Triangle of Sadness?  The theoretical framework of this study has a critical point of departure, according to which media is not a neutral means of communication, and through various expressions media can produce discourses that serve certain groups and interests. This framework also includes contrasting the concept of culture industry to other perspectives such as Bourdieu’s field theory, which serves the study as reflective perspectives that can provide generalising arguments about the role that the film industry plays in a society. The method used in this study is a multimodal critical discourse analysis, which permits a rather detailed analysis of a choice of semiotic resources in the chosen film. The selection of empirical material was made by first watching the film as a whole, then identifying relevant parts for analysis. The sequences were chosen based on where the super-rich are in focus and portrayed in the film. The analysis is structured by the identified discourses in regard to the representation of the super-rich. The result of the study is that Triangle of Sadness produces five discourses about the globally super-rich: The extreme wealth of the global super-rich, the global super-rich as wicked, the fall of the global super-rich, the super-rich as vulnerable and the super-rich as powerless. Overall, the film is a mockery of the super-rich. An explanation for why Östlund produces this discourse, according to Bourdieu, could have to do with his position as a consecrated avant-garde in the production field.

The purpose of this study is to examine how three volunteer organizations present volunteer projects on their websites to identify who is constructed as central in the description of the project and which role is created for the reader. This study uses Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and Post-colonial theory as a theoretical framework to analyze visual and textual elements from three project descriptions. The findings indicate that the project descriptions of two of the organizations highlight the volunteer worker, while at the same time using a tourism discourse in creating the reader’s role. The findings also show that the third organization highlights the beneficiaries of the volunteer work, while creating the reader role of a friend. Additionally, the findings indicate the existence of underlying collective beliefs that can be connected to post-colonial structures in two of the project descriptions but not in the third. The conclusion is that who is highlighted, and the role created for the reader, differ between the three organizations. Two of the organizations focus more on the volunteer worker, and this coincides with the occurrence of Othering. The third organization focus more on the beneficiaries, with no occurrence of Othering.

Uppsatsens syfte är att genom en multimodal kritisk diskursanalytisk metod undersöka representationen av personer med funktionsnedsättningar i två olika situationskomedier, från två olika tidsperioder. Dessa är Different Strokes, från mitten på 1980-talet, och Speechless från 2016. Fokus ligger på en karaktär från respektive situationskomedi, Kathy från Different Strokes och JJ från Speechless. Vidare är syftet också att diskutera kring huruvida representationerna kan förstärka olika stereotyper och fördomar i samhället. Urvalet består av fyra (4) avsnitt från respektive serie, det vill säga totalt åtta (8) avsnitt. Personer med funktionsnedsättningar avbildas allt som oftast på ett stereotypt vis, oftast med själva funktionsnedsättningen i fokus. Bilden som förmedlas via medier har idag stor påverkan på mottagaren. Uppsatsen kommer fram till att situationskomedierna avbildar personer med funktionsnedsättningar på ett förhållandevis stereotypt vis, vilket i relativt stor mån kan påverka hur mottagaren uppfattar personer med funktionsnedsättningar. Slutligen kommer uppsatsen också fram till att det är av största vikt att avbilda personer med funktionsnedsättningar på ett respektfullt vis. Detta kan, med stor sannolikhet, leda till att redan existerande stereotyper och fördomar förstärks och därmed också stigmat i samhället. / The purpose of the study is to investigate the representation of people with disabilities in two different sitcoms, from two different time periods. The analysis is made by a multimodal critical discourse analysis method. The sitcoms are Different Strokes, from the mid 1980s, and Speechless from 2016. The focus will be on one character from each sitcom, Kathy from Different Strokes and JJ from Speechless. Furthermore, the purpose is also to discuss whether the representations can reinforce different stereotypes and prejudices in society. The selection consists of four (4) episodes from each series, i.e. a total of eight (8) sections. People with disability are often depicted in a stereotypical way, most of the time with the disability it self in focus. The image that is conveyed via the media has a great influence on the recipients today. The study concludes that both sitcoms depicted people with disabilities in a relatively stereotyped manner, which to a relatively large extent can influence how the recipient perceives people with disabilities. The study also concludes that it is of the utmost importance to depict persons with disabilities in a respectful manner. This may otherwise lead to the strengthening of existing stereotypes and prejudices and thus stigma in society.

The My Stealthy Freedom (MSF) movement on social media has garnered over 1 million likes on Facebook and continues to make headlines in major media outlets. The founder Masih Alinejad routinely speaks out against obligatory veiling in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This study analyses hijab and the MSF movement from a Marxist feminist perspective, evaluating the emancipatory potential for women. The study attempts to untangle Islam from the discourses around the oppression of women to find the material roots of oppression upon which the discourse has been built. The legislation of women’s clothing and women’s bodies has a long history, with just the hijab having been made compulsory and forbidden three times in Iran within the previous century. Through the use of Multimodal Critical Discourse analysis, photographs and videos from the MSF movement are compared to hijab propaganda by the IRI to identify whether the concern of the MSF movement is limited to obligatory hijab, or if it places within the broader movement for women’s emancipation. The results show that despite the visual emphasis on the hijab, the MSF movement has a broader aim emancipating women as expressed by the activists of the movement.

Denna studie är en kritisk diskursanalys av utvalda texter och förpackningar från glassföretagen Järnaglass och Gute Glass. Syftet är att synliggöra hur etiska värden kommuniceras i varumärkeskommunikation och problematisera hur språket kan reproducera social ojämlikhet och föreställningar om etisk konsumtion i en svensk kontext. Studien tar anspråk inom det socialsemiotiska fältet. Tillvägagångsättet har varit att utifrån berättelseanalys samt den multimodala analysen kvalitativt närgranska texternas och förpackningarnas semiotiska resurser. Metoderna synliggör utmärkande värden som företagen väljer att identifiera sig med och diskurser kring etisk glass. Studieresultatet visar att företagen genom varumärkeskommunikation kan skapa identifikation med värden som exempelvis ärlighet, ursprung och framgång. Dessa värden korrelerar med samtida diskurser kring mat som ska betona det personliga, småskaliga och självförverkligande. Utifrån det kritiska perspektivet synliggör studieresultatet att dessa värden och diskurser har möjlighet att reproducera föreställningar och normer om hur konsumenten förväntas agera etiskt och hur vi idag uppnår status. Dessa föreställningar och normer som cementeras genom samtidens varumärkeskommunikation och våra konsumtionsval kan därmed reproducera maktförhållanden som kan bidra till social ojämlikhet i samhället. Slutligen påvisar även studien att samspelet mellan etisk varumärkeskommunikation och människors konsumtionsval kan göra oss passiva i hur vi tar ställning i politiska och miljömässiga utmaningar.

The climate crisis and the consequences that follow have forced humanity to explore the collective actions that must be taken to curb global warming. As a way to reduce ones carbon footprint, many choose to consume with greater care for the environment, and the interest for sustainable clothing has therefore significantly increased. With a rising interest in sustainable shopping, businesses need to adapt to meet the new customer demands. A sub-genre within the apparel industry that differ from the grand average regarding their sustainability communication is the outdoor brands, where environmental awareness plays a significant role in the brand identity. The outdoor brands clear evidence of sustainable communication and their dependance on consumption creates an interesting paradox that this essay intends to investigate further. This essay intends to investigate how a Swedish outdoor brand with a strong sustainable identity, Klättermusen, exercises sustainable communication through Instagram. The purpose of this essay is more specifically to explore how Klättermusen uses Instagram to create and maintain a sustainable brand identity. To help us do so, we present the following research questions: - How does the brand Klättermusen create a sustainable identity on Instagram?- What discourses can be discerned in Klättermusens marketing via Instagram and how has sustainable communication taken shape within these over time? The theoretical framework for our essay consists out of four theories, including Bauman’s theory about the consumer society, Ulrich Beck’s theory about risk society and reflexive modernity, strategic communications theory and greenwashing. These theories enable an analysis of how and why sustainable communication is conducted in a specific way and what consequences that follow. The essay is carried out methodically through a multimodal critical discourse analysis, that enables both a deep and more comprehensive analysis of the linguistic and semiotic resources used in Klättermusens marketing through Instagram.The result of our analysis presents how Klättermusen with linguistic and semiotic resources creates the eco-friendly identity that they are known for. Through both word choices and visual framing that connotes sustainability Klättermusen places themselves in a green context that goes well along with their core values. The material contains both examples of clear and indistinct sustainable communication, along with occasional elements of strong commercial character that make it possible to question the authenticity of Klättermusen’s true devotion to sustainability. The conclusion of our analysis is that the brand Klättermusen by small semiotic and linguistic measures successfully put themselves in a green context and create a sense of corporate social responsibility with the consumer. We do not believe that Klättermusen need to take drastic measures to maintain their sustainable image in reference to their other well-known environmental efforts. The conclusion further argues that the mix of strong sales marketing and a clear sustainable communication sheds light on the difficulties combining a consumption dependent business with an advocation for minimal environmental impact. Regardless of the challenges a sustainable identity comes with, we want to establish that Klättermusens way of maintaining a sustainable image is a response to a growing interest for environmental issues that also reproduces a general perception of how a brand should communicate to gain the consumers trust and how to be perceived as a brand that values social responsibility.

Hållbarhet är idag ett välanvänt begrepp som förekommer inom flera områden. Vad hållbarhet anses vara må uppfattas som självklart, men hur begreppet och diskursen konstrueras, är inte lika självklart. Genom att se till två aktörer, med olika ambitioner, inom andrahandsmarknaden undersöker studien hur reklam bidrar till konstruerandet av uppfattandet av hållbarhet på olika sätt. Tidigare forskning visar att medierna formar och speglar samhället och att uttryck av hållbarhet idag används som täckmantel i form av grön retorik. Den visar även att kapitalism och ekologi har naturliga motsättningar, att vi måste konsumera mindre och lära oss se ”skräp” som resurser, något som andrahandsmarknaden kämpar med att förhålla sig till. Vi undersöker i denna studie Tradera och Myrornas förmedlade budskap av hållbarhet, med bakgrund i aktörernas intressen som vinstdrivet och ideellt. Syftet är att se hur reklam inom andrahandsmarknaden bidrar till konstruerandet av hållbarhetsdiskursen. Detta genom en multimodal kritisk diskursanalys av reklamfilmer från respektive aktör.   Resultatet visar att de olika aktörernas förmedlade budskap bidrar till hållbarhetsdiskursen på både traditionella och kreativa sätt. Traderas reklamfilm visade sig uttrycka underliggande budskap av ekologi som dessvärre hamnar i skuggan av kapitalistiska och materialistiska värderingar. Myrornas reklamfilm utmanar på många olika sätt dessa traditionellt kapitalistiska och materialistiska värderingar. Dessa olika uttryck av hållbarhet utgör till viss del konstruerandet av hållbarhetsdiskursen. Det visar även att särskilda budskap kan verka ideologiskt gynnsamma och att detta är något som aktörer utnyttjar. Vi drar slutsatsen att hållbarhetsdiskursen innefattar svårtolkade budskap som samexisterar och problematiserar vår relation till ett hållbart agerande. / Modern use of the term ‘sustainability’ is broad and varies across multiple industries. The general idea of sustainability is perceived as certain, yet sustainability discourse and the pillars of the term remain fluid. By looking at two stakeholders, with different ambitions, within the second hand market, the study is examining how advertising contributes to the different ways sustainability perceptions are constructed. Previous studies show that media both shapes and reflects our society, highlighting today’s use of the term sustainability is often to “green wash” communication. Studies also shows that capitalism and ecology have natural contradictions. Second hand markets face the challenge of raising awareness to change perceptions for society's to consumer less and begin to see “waste” as a resource. In this study we examine the message of sustainability, mediated by Tradera and Myrorna, in relation to their role as profit-driven, versus not for profit organisations. The purpose of the study is to examine how advertisement within the secondhand market, contributes to the construction of sustainability discourse. This is carried out through a multimodal critical discourse analysis of commercials. The results show that the different stakeholders' messages contribute to the sustainability discourse in both traditional and creative ways. Tradera’s advertisement expressed underlying statements of ecology, shadowed by capitalistic and materialistic values. However, Myrorna’s advertisement in many ways challenges these traditional capitalistic and materialistic values. To some extent these different expressions construct the discourse of sustainability. This further highlights that ideologically specific messages could work, however this is often exploited by businesses. The conclusion drawn from this study displays that the sustainability discourse involves messages difficult to interpret, which infers parallels to the convoluted relationship of society’s aim to advance sustainable development.

This study aims to investigate the representation of Latin America in verbal and visual text in Swedish textbooks for Spanish teaching. More specifically, this analysis examines how much of the text is represented by Latin American people in comparison to European people, how Latin Americans are represented and how large the prevalence of each form of representation is, as well as which verbal and visual patterns are present in the textbooks. A quantitative content analysis was used to examine the study's question regarding the extent of the different text forms. The method of the analysis for the remaining questions surrounding the representation of Latin Americans was based on a multimodal critical discourse analysis with a social semiotic approach. The result indicates that Latin Americans comprise a smaller proportion of the extent of text than Europeans. Based on the results of the analysis of representation, the textbooks differed to some extent in the representation of Latin Americans, but the common patterns made visible were that Latin Americans are most often portrayed as impersonal and socially distanced in relation to the recipient. Finally, the result of analysis is problematized in relation to the didactic implications that can be brought about while teaching and the importance of teachers having and teaching critical literacy is highlighted.

This thesis explores the role of rap music as a platform for articulating anti-government discourse in Turkey between 2014 and 2019. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to examine two specific rap songs from the period – Rant Hilafeti (The Caliphate of Profit) by Ozbi and #SUSAMAM (#ICANNOTBESILENT) by Şanışer and eighteen other artists –, the study delves into how the various commodities forming rap music – lyrics, visuals, and musical sounds – collaborate to construct and convey this counter-hegemonic narrative. The thesis posits that rap music gained prominence during this period as a powerful tool for dissent, owing to its ability to resonate with marginalised groups and challenge the dominant narratives propagated by the government. Leveraging CDA and MCDA methodologies, the analysis exposes how the songs utilise linguistic, musical, and visual strategies to critique government policies, challenge authority figures, and galvanise resistance among listeners. The findings underscore the significance of rap music as a form of political expression and its influence on public discourse. The analysis highlights rap's capacity to bridge individual experiences with broader societal issues, fostering a sense of collective identity and resistance among marginalised communities. By examining the specific case of rap music, the thesis contributes to a broader understanding of the nexus between music and social movements in the Turkish contemporary political landscapes.