This essay researches video games and learning. The academic interest in video games is steadily growing and this teacher‟s degree unifies interactive game play with the learning possibilities of the media. The study compares the Swedish upper secondary school curriculum Lpf94 with Gee‟s educational theory. The correlations are analyzed for compatibility, and Bioware‟s 2007 video game Mass Effect is applied to see what elements are capable to teach playing students English. A qualitative methodology is used according to Malterud‟s template analysis style and follows a top-down fashion. The material is analyzed through a triangulation system where each piece is read as a text and is compared and interpreted. The results show that Lpf94 and Gee‟s theory has a generally high compatibility. English learning is viable since Mass Effect provides the player with a language simulator that puts the language in a logical environment. Although the game script is static, the study shows that Mass Effect includes vocabulary training, a pragmatic understanding of language, and a tool for class room teaching.

The purpose of this essay was to analyze rhetorical features of Swedish drug advertising and see if drug advertising could be misleading or not. The study was primarily concentrated on how pills were described and that was the overall picture of pills created in commercials. The essay uses theories of narrative, semiotic, argumentation and theories concerning social communication in advertising. In this study fife TV-ads were analyzed: Alvedon, Ibumetin, Treo, Bamyl, and Ipren. The analysis showed that drug advertising has the potential to be misleading mostly because the overall picture of pills which creates in commercials is strong and kind heroes. / Reklam för receptfria läkemedel är tillåten i Sverige även om vissa experter, politiker och vanliga konsumenter ställer sig kritiska till reklamens form och innehåll. Det finns en oro om att läkemedelsreklam kan leda till felaktig medicinering. I denna studie genomför jag en retorisk kvalitativ analys av reklamfilmer för receptfria värktabletter för att se om oron är befogad och om reklamen har potential för att vara missvisande. Resultatet visar bl.a. att det i reklamfilmerna åstadkoms en uppfattning om värktabletter som starka och snälla hjälten vilket kan vara starkt vilseledande då dessa kriterier strider mot verkligheten.

This survey's main purpose is to highlight how the two Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter writes and describes four different school shootings. We wanted to find out if there is a general pattern of how school shootings are reported by the media. Two of the shootings occured in USA, Columbine and Virginia Tech, and two in Finland, Kauhajoki and Jokela. The analysis aims at three areas: the whole event, the perpetrator and the victim.   We have used a qualitative content analysis with a semiotic model to examine the articles in the survey. The theories in the study is based upon views on social constructionism, media logic, stereotypization, representation, morale panic/media panic and media events. With the foundation of our chosen theories we have seen a certain amount of articles that is slightly perfunctory and you can tell a template have been layed upon many articles.   One of our conclusions from our survey is that Aftonbladet is a more frequent user of indecent and powerful metaphores and metonymies than Dagens Nyheter. For example is the term bloodbath used a couple of times by Aftonbladet but not by Dagens Nyheter. We have also found out that the perpetrator is generally described as a stereotype when his bad qualities are strenghten and his good qualities are ironed out.

The purpose of this thesis was to study how journalism is represented in graphic novels, what roles are represented and if journalism in graphic novels is good or evil. The goal was also to see if there were any similarities or differences over a period of time. This was done with a qualitative analysis of two graphic novels written and drawn by Frank Miller. When we did the analysis we focused on pictures and texts that directly had a connection to the journalistic role. We used a semiotic approach to analyze the two graphic novels were our main focus where on what connotation, what denotation and what stereotypes could be found. This study establishes that stereotypes are used to represent journalism in a negative way. Journalists are also the cause of more harm than good. When you put journalism into the narrative technique of good versus evil they are clearly evil and use their power to undermine the heroes of the story. The journalists are put into stereotypical roles such as the female news reporter who is all looks and no brain, or the overzealous male reporter who tries to tell the truth but no one will listen to him. It is also clear that journalism is represented in a way that describes it as a phenomenon that spreads panic because the journalists in many cases come to their own conclusions without having all the facts. The study also shows that over a period of fifteen years the role of the journalist is the same but the way they are represented is very different.  Because of the larger rivalry from other news sources the media is forced to find new ways to attract an audience. Therefore the newer graphic novel portrays a sexualisation of the journalistic role.

No description available.

Works on semiotic dynamics and language as a complex adaptive system in general has been an important lane of research over the last decade. In this study, the mean-field naming game model developed in the course of the pioneering research programme of Luc Steels and colleagues is modified to include probabilistic word choice based on weighted lists of words, instead of either deterministic or totally random word choice based on (ordered) sets of words. The parameters&rsquo / interaction and this interaction&rsquo / s effect on time of convergence of the system and size of individual lexicons over time are investigated. The classical model is found to be a special case of this proposed model. Additionally, this model has more parameters and a larger state space which provides additional room for tweaking for time- or space-optimization of the convergence process.

In the age of multi-literacies, contemporary theories and devices are required to decipher increasingly complicated challenges which are presented by the digital technological revolution. Some of the existing approaches and frameworks of could inspire us but are not well equipped to address the complexities and multi-perspectives of the eccentric challenges that scholars face on diverse issues. Therefore, I present the critical semiotic order theory (CSOT) as a new eclectic theory to analyze discourse and moving and still images critically, semiotically and using systematic orders simultaneously.The theory has four hypotheses: 1) the positive and negative order hypothesis; 2) the zero value order hypothesis; 3) the chaos order hypothesis; 4) the semiotic indices order hypothesis. The theory was applied to three movies, and was successful in unearthing numerous perceptions and some were microscopic semiotic communicative indices and related them to polycentric Occidental ideologies.Hollywood has made over a thousand movies negatively stereotyping (NS) Arab/Muslim identities and voices (AMIVs) and the images in the vast majority are demeaning (Shaheen, 2009: 2). This research sets to find out whether the misconstruction of Arab/Muslim identities and voices (AMIVs) in three Hollywood movies are ordered, patterned, systematic, and related to ideologies and agendas of polycentric Western individuals, agencies, institutions and governments.The three movies showcase dozens of discursive microscopic critical semiotic orders and patterns of NS of AMIVs in discourse and still and moving image such as being: angry, dangerous, dirty, primitive, uncivilized, dishonest, cowards, fanatics, slaves, extremists, savages, liars, sorceress, killers, terrorists, mad dogs, child terrorists, suicide bombers, etc. The racism touches Arab/Muslims' (A/Ms) characteristics, personalities, races, cultures, traditions, histories, stories, folklores, costumes, images, etc.The analysis showed that there was a systematic pattern and order of NS of AMIVs within and across the three movies, and the NS is related to ideologies and agendas of polycentric Western individuals, agencies, institutions and governments for socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political investments in a vast complex web that some of it can go to hundreds of years in making. Nowadays, NS of AMIVs is done by many Westerners for various ideological agendas and investments, and they have appointed themselves as judge, jury and prosecutor.

ABSTRACT Title: Elle & Café – a study of fashion magazines cover pages. Number of pages: 38 Author: Greta Simonsson Tutor: Amelie Hössjer Course: Media and Communication Studies D Period: Spring Semester 2008 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Aim: The purpose of this essay is to:  Analyze the cover images from the 2007 editions of the magazines Elles and Café, using semiotic analysis.  Analyzes eventual resemblances or differences between the two magazine's cover images based upon the result of the semiotic analysis. Material and methods: The study of Elles's and Café's cover pages has been done using a model built upon semiotic analysis, developed with the purpose of suiting observation and examination of cover pages of fashion magazines. The cover pages were analyzed from the categories character, context, and environment. Main results: The main results include the observation that both Elles and Café chooses well-known figures from women's fashion industry as prime characters on their covers. In Elles, all main characters are famous women emerging from the music, television and fashion industries. The women in Café are known for similar professions. However, the men in Café are associated with politics, sports and music. Men and women are, through the ideals and styles conveyed in the magazines, associated with gender-specific roles, contrasting and contributing to, a problematic contemporary definition of gender, identity and ideal. Keywords: Fashion magazines, semiotic analysis, identity, gender ideal and information society.

Naujajame romane modernių bruožų yra daug: laiko ir erdvės moduliacijos, personažo „mirtis“, prasmės atsisakymas ir t.t. Tačiau vienu svarbiausių tampa pasakojimo lygmuo ir pasakotojo funkcijos. Todėl pagrindiniu šio magistro darbo uždaviniu tapo: atskleisti pasakotojo pozicijų kaitą romane, kodėl tokios pasakojimo moduliacijos yra taikomos, kaip veikti jos priverčia patį pasakotoją ir skaitytoją, kokie yra santykiai tarp pasakotojo ir personažų. Kūrinys, kurį šiame magistro darbe analizuojame, yra A. Robbe-Grillet Labirinte. Šis romanas yra pasirinktas, nes jis – geriausias Naujojo romano pavyzdys. Šiame romane darbo autorius stengiasi atskleisti: kuo pasakotojas naujajame romane yra modernus, kaip jo modernumas yra kuriamas, kokie yra jo santykiai su personažais, daiktiškąja aplinka ir skaitytoju. Atsakyti į šiuos klausimus yra pasitelkiama naratologinė bei semiotinė teksto analizė. Tyrime šios dvi strategijos padeda atskleisti, kodėl pasakotojas tampa pačia svarbiausia, siužetą lemiančia pasakojimo figūra ir kodėl pasakotojas, skirtingai nuo tradicinio romano visažinio pasakotojo, naujajame romane tik bando tapti naratoriumi, tačiau patiria nesėkmę. / There are a lot of modern traits in New Novel: the modulation of time and space, the death oj subject, refusal of the meaning etc. Besides that, the main trait of New Novel is the level of narration and the functions of narrator. That is why the main object of this magister work is: to show the modulation of narrator‘s positions, to show why these modulations are used, to show how these modulations make act the narrator and his addressee. The main novel, we analyz in this magister work is A. Robbe-Grillet In the Labyrinth. This novel was choosed because it is the best example of the New Novel. In this novel the author trys to explain: how modern is the narrator in the novel, how this modernism of the narrator is creating, what is the type of communication between the narrator, the subjects (the subjects are human and the items) and the addressee of the novel. The methods of narratology and semiotc is the way to answer to these questions. These two strategies help to show, why the narrator becomes the main figure in the novel, who determines the plot of the novel and why the narrator, on the contrary to he traditional type of narrator who knows-all, just tries to be like him, but he didn‘t succeed. In the Labyrinth the narrator doesn‘t know anything.

Studiens syfte var att, med utgångspunkt i ett designteoretiskt multimodalt perspektiv, beskriva, analysera och tolka hur tre förskolepedagoger designar lärandesammanhang, kring ämnet matematik. Förutom detta var också syftet att få insikt om hur lärandesammanhangets design kunde förstås och tolkas i termer av lärande och meningsskapande. Den metod jag valde var uppbyggd kring en icke-deltagande videoobservation med ett kvalitativt upplägg där målet var att försöka förstå det som ägde rum genom relevanta tolkningar. I resultat och slutsatser framkom det till exempel att förskolepedagogerna använder en mängd semiotiska resurser och teckensystem i form av fysiska redskap tillsammans med ansiktsuttryck, tal och handrörelser i kommunikationen med barnen. Dessutom framkom det att barnen också använde sig av ett antal olika semiotiska resurser och teckensystem i arbetet med att skapa mening kring de olika lärandesituationerna. Det blev också tydligt att barnens tidigare erfarenheter fick en betydande roll då barnen använde de tidigare erfarenheterna som ett tankeredskap i de meningsskapande processer, designade av förskolepedagogerna, de deltog i. / The study's purpose was, based on a design theoretical multimodal approach to describe, analyze and interpret how three preschool teachers design learning contexts, on the subject of mathematics. Besides, this was also the aim to gain insight on how context of learning designs could be understood and interpreted in terms of learning and meaning. The method I chose was built around a non-participating video observation with a qualitative approach where the goal was to try to understand what took place through the relevant interpretations. The results and conclusions that emerged was that the preschool teachers used a variety of semiotic resources in the form of physical tools along with facial expressions, voice and gestures in their communication with the children. Moreover, it appeared that the children also used a number of different semiotic resources in their work of creating meaning around the different learning situations, designed by the preschool educators, they participated in. It also became clear that the children's previous experiences had a significant role as they also used past experiences as a tool in the meaning-making process.