This paper deals with design semiotics, focuses on product design (light design) from the perspectives of social semiotics (van Leeuwen, 2005; Kress a van Leeuwen, 2006), multimodality (Kress, 2010) and product design (Norman, 1988, 2004a; Monö, 1997), and perceive design as a multimodal process of choices as well as a result of materialization of meanings. The theoretical chapters are dedicated to definitions of particular approaches and terms, which are applied within the empirical parts afterwards. These rely on the theories mentioned above and the design phases established by Riley (2003, 2004), which we linked with given theoretical approaches (the discourse phase with social semiotics; the conception phase with multimodality and emotional design; the inception phase with multimodality; and the reception phase with social semiotics and product design). Semi-structured interviews were held with three designers engaged in light design - Jan Plecháč, Jakub Pollág and Karel Matějka. The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare practices of designers from their own perspectives, considering intended product meanings (purposes), used modes and highlighting different design levels. Key words Social semiotics, product design, emotional design, multimodality, materialization

When describing the company’s ethos and brand, the creative director of Swedish oat drink producer Oatly, John Schoolcraft, routinely declares the company’s intention to be not a brand, but a voice. As popular activist causes become utilized by companies and commodified for advertising use, identifying the ways in which communication is used to create meaning becomes a relevant skill. This thesis takes Schoolcraft’s statement as a basis of inquiry into the ways in which a company can present itself through language. Through a multimodal discourse analysis of three different semiotic materials produced by Oatly in Germany; the text of a 2019 petition, two 2019 advertising posters and a selection of product packaging collected during the summer of 2020, the thesis seeks to identify the relevant discourses evoked by Oatly, the ways in which Oatly is represented within those discourses and the way in which Oatly’s semiotic resources might serve to create a myth of Oatly, the voice, not the brand. The relevant discourses represented in the texts were sustainability, food consumption and production, government power and the empowerment of consumers. In these discourses Oatly positioned themselves (as well as the reader) as an agent of change, trying to affect progress. The discourses were often found to be connected to Oatly as a brand, but somewhat removed from Oatly’s products. A potential myth of Oatly as a leader in a political effort, might be substantiated within a small sphere of influence amongst consumers. As the research design relies largely on the author’s own interpretations of the material, none of the inferences from the analysis may be considered absolute or objectively true.

Eric Louw, Jesper Stömbäck, and W. Lance Bennett call the trend in late-20th century political journalism "mediatisation", where the televisualisation of Western elections favours episodic, dramatic, fragmented, and event-driven reporting. This "hype-ocracy" results in narrow and shallow frames that entertain rather than enlighten. This thesis, titled "Desperately Seeking Depth", examines this trend in both international and local news about South African elections. While scholarship of Western elections on TV news is blossoming, analyses of news coverage of South African elections is sparse. There is particularly little analysis of the visual dimensions of TV news coverage, which remains a methodological challenge for media and communication scholars. This thesis draws together a comprehensive analysis of South Africa's general elections on international and local television news over two decades. It develops an innovative, multimodal analysis method dedicated to television news and adds meaningful data to the overall study of South African media and politics, and international communication. It combines analysis of previous studies of each election with the original analysis of over 150 news broadcasts to uncover the news narratives about the South African general elections between 1994 and 2014. This thesis demonstrates the difference between global and local journalism about South African elections. Restricted by mediatised news values that favour episodic reporting, Western journalists present entangled, contradictory narratives over the years. The fixation on 1994's violent-turned-miracle election narrative ignored the complexities of the new democracy, while an increasingly detached approach in covering the 2009 and 2014 ANC victories left journalists perplexed and unable to explore deeper narratives. Meanwhile, South African channels become progressively more hesitant to investigate controversial topics or criticise the ruling party. Avoidance of important issues such as the 1994 election violence, the AIDS crisis in 2004, and Zuma's Nkandla fiasco in 2014 results in narrow reporting that limits the substantive information available during the election periods. All channels to some extent seek narratives that attempt to explain and explore South Africa's complex democracy, but these narratives are often contradictory. The decline in journalists' engagement with political leaders and citizens means that the full picture of the elections is reduced to a few easily digestible frames that confirm neoliberal news values. This thesis offers a new model for the analysis of TV news coverage of elections that can provide the basis for future studies. "Desperately Seeking Depth" ultimately uncovers a picture of news industry that, both locally and globally, works as an echo chamber of sound bites that focused on elite voices.

Digital technology has changed the nature of how humans live as a society with lives orbiting a digital core of internet, smartphones, social media etc. There is now not only a physical world but a digital one too. This far-reaching transformation also applies to cultural institutions to digitize their activities, a result of responding to the expectations of a contemporary audience. The aim of this study is to examine the digitization of art- and cultural heritage in a digital world. The essay examines the digital activities of the Swedish National Museum of fine art that has developed before, during and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is done through visual analysis and the theoretic framework of postphenomenology and social semiotics. The study finds that cultural heritage can be digitized in many different ways but that the digitization can’t replace the physical encounter with an artwork. Yet it can constitute new ways and perspectives on how to experience, see and discuss traditional works of art. Digitization of cultural heritage can therefore work to enhance its general interest, disseminate and influence an increase in availability of knowledge about cultural heritage and art history.

Several studies show that students with a mother tongue other than Swedish are disadvantaged in the meeting with text rich mathematical tasks. This is especially so when the tasks have a context that is linked to Swedish culture and tradition that is unknown to the students. This study examines how multilingual middle school students respond to text-rich mathematical tasks. More specifically, the study has investigated multilingual students' difficulties and resources in meeting text-rich mathematical tasks.To answer the questions, qualitative interviews were conducted with a total of eight pupils who, on the basis of four text-rich textbook tasks, had to reason and reflect on the content, language and problems of the tasks. The theoretical approach to analyze the empirical material was social semiotics. Social semiotics is about how people communicate, create meaning and interact with the outside world through different social and cultural contexts. In these social and cultural contexts, humans creates so-called resources that are available to interpret, communicate and create meaning.The results of this study indicate that multilingual students encounter linguistic, cultural and contextual difficulties in the mathematical text-rich tasks. Furthermore, the results of this study also show how these multilingual students use different semiotic resources in their encounter with the text-rich mathematical task such as; dynamically thinking through two languages in parallel, pointing at words, pictures and using a mental “number-exchange”, where the students exchange the mathematical numbers, from Swedish to their native language to cognitively calculate the mathematical numbers.

The thesis is devoted to analyzing the successful communication of some of the best Czech food bloggers on the social medium Instagram on which the topic of food is trendy. However, I noticed that many food bloggers profiles do not share only food photos, but also their personal photographs. Therefore, my thesis is also devoted to discovering which topics are between analyzed Instagram posts and on the food bloggers profiles the most common. In the communication analysis I focus on how the food bloggers communicate with their followers through texts, photos, hashtags, and how they react to the comments. I also analyze the emoticons and hashtags that they use. In the theoretical part, my thesis focuses mainly on Instagram, it's characterization, functions and methods of how to succeed in this social medium. It also focuses on different aspects of the photograph, "reading" the image, and social semiotics. The social semiotics approach is essential for my research because, on Instagram, the meaning is transmitted by not just one mode, but more modes - all of them are listed above. The empirical part uses qualitative research methods, which is based on content analysis of 3 successful food bloggers - @made_by_kristina, @cukrfree.cz, and @kitchenettehome. I analyze 12-13 most successful posts from their...

Den här studien ämnar undersöka hur försäkringsbolaget Hedvig representerar sig själva som annorlunda via sitt Instagramkonto, med tonvikt på vilka semiotiska resurser respektive positioneringsstrategier Hedvig använder i sina Instagraminlägg. Studien utgår ifrån teorier inom marknadskommunikation samt socialsemiotik. Det empiriska materialet består av åtta Instagraminlägg från Hedvigs Instagramkonto som valts ut genom ett målstyrt urval. För att analysera materialet används metoden multimodal kritisk diskursanalys (MCDA). Studiens resultat visar att Hedvig använder sig av flera visuella och textuella semiotiska resurser såväl som flertalet positioneringsstrategier för att representera sig själv som annorlunda. Detta görs dels genom att Hedvig påvisar en avslappnad inställning till försäkringsobjekt, dels genom att företaget förmedlar en stor tillit till sina kunder samt anammar deras livsstil. Detta resulterar i att Hedvig rekontextualiserar vad försäkringar respektive försäkringsbolaget Hedvig är. Hedvig lyckas därmed differentiera sig från andra försäkringsbolag, möjligen till den grad att de själva inte längre upplevs som ett sådant. / This study aims to analyse how the insurance company Hedvig uses Instagram to represent itself as different, with emphasis on which semiotic resources and positioning strategies Hedvig uses in their Instagram posts. The study draws from market communication theories as well as social semiotics. The material consists of eight posts from Hedvig’s Instagram account selected through purposive sampling. These are analysed using the method multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA). The results show that Hedvig uses several visual and textual semiotic resources as well as multiple positioning strategies to represent itself as different. This is done through Hedvig showcasing an unbothered and relaxed attitude towards insured objects and by conveying a great deal of trust in its customers and embracing their lifestyle. This results in a recontextualization of insurances and of Hedvig as an insurance company. Hedvig thereby successfully differentiates itself from other insurance companies. This is, however, done to an extent where Hedvig is possibly no longer seen as an insurance company.

The context of this study is the ongoing change and development of vocational professions in Swedish pre-schools, the objective of which is to increase the quality of education. Amongst the different professions are the development leaders. The highly-qualified development leaders focused on in this study all work in development teams in the municipality of Malmö. The teams consist of eight professionals, each one with their own specific field of competence.The aim of this study is to contribute to increased knowledge and understanding of how certain development leaders articulate discourses on their own practice. In addition to that, I discuss how the development leaders construct their professional subject in the light of the dominant discourses. The empiric material consists of five interviews carried out with as many development leaders. As part of the interviews the development leaders were asked to visualize their ideas of the task and profession. The findings were analyzed against a theoretical framework consisting of discourse theory and post structuralism. Furthermore, a multimodal, social semiotic perspective has been used in order to understand the narratives of the verbal and visual data. The intention of combining the two semiotic resources is to present a diverse and complex material which provides multiple presentations of how the professional subject is being constructed.The results show that the development leaders construct their professional subject mainly in relation to knowledge and learning. To be accepted by the staff of the pre-schools, the development leaders construct a professional subject characterized by humility, self-distance, sense of humour, flexibility and the ability to listen. The development leaders also express that certain values, pedagogical theory and philosophy are important in constructing their professional selves. Through the subject positions taken, the development leaders participate in the construction of discourses on development leaders in Swedish pre-schools. In constructing the discourses and their professional subjects, the development leaders take part in the formations of knowledge and learning in Swedish pre-school.

Sport coverage is a large part of the traditional media's content, and soccer is the sport that is covered the most. Today, social media offers a new arena where football is monitored, and football clubs now have the opportunity to construct their own coverage. The aim was to study the representation of soccer players in social media from a gender perspective. The essay is structured through a case study design, thematic and semiotic analysis of Djurgården IF's Instagram account with three themes that were identified as Matchpresentation, Goalcelebration and Victory celebration. Through a theoretical framework consisting of social semiotics, gender theory, and gender stereotypes, the meaning of the images. Using the study's selected semiotic resources which were camera angle, distance, attributes and surroundings, posing, individually and groups, gaze and colour.  The result has been made and demonstrated that Djurgården IF tends to both challenge and (re)produce stereotypes and that there are indications that social media offer an opportunity to prevent stereotypes. In this way, it is made visible what representation soccer players should get, regardless of gender. The study's conclusion visualizes that there is ambivalence about social media having the potential to challenge and (re)produce gender stereotypes from a gender perspective. Media still contributes to strengthening norms and stereotypes in society. / Sportbevakning är en stor del av de traditionella mediernas innehåll och fotbollen är den sport som bevakas mest. Idag erbjuder sociala medier en ny arena där fotbollen bevakas, och fotbollsklubbarna har numera möjlighet att konstruera sin egen bevakning. Syftet var att studera representationen av fotbollsspelare i sociala medier utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Uppsatsen är uppbyggd genom en fallstudiedesign, en tematisk och semiotisk analys av Djurgården IF:s Instagramkonto med tre teman som identifierades som Matchpresentation, Målfirande och Segerfirande. Genom ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av socialsemiotik, genusteori och könsstereotyper tolkas bildernas mening. Med hjälp av studiens utvalda semiotiska resurser som var kameravinkel, avstånd, attribut och omgivning, posering, individuellt och grupper, blick och färg.  Resultatet har analyserats och påvisat att Djurgården IF tenderar att både utmana och (re)producera stereotyper samt att det finns indikationer som visar på att sociala medier erbjuder en möjlighet att förhindra stereotyper. På så sätt synliggörs det vilken representation fotbollsspelarna ska få oavsett kön. Studiens slutsats visualiserar att det sker en ambivalens kring att sociala medier har potential att utmana och (re)producera könsstereotyper utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Medier bidrar fortfarande till att stärka normer och stereotyper i samhället.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how female athletes are constructed in advertising that uses femvertising. This is done through a multimodal critical discourse analysis of Nike´s commercial “Dream Crazier” to understand which signs, in the form of participants, language, attributes and color which acts as semiotic resources to create meaning. The study also puts this in relation to intersectional perspectives to see how femvertising challenges socially constructed femininity. The questions that the study aims to answer are how are female athletes constructed in Nike´s commercial and what semiotic resources are used in the construction? And what intersectional categories can be identified in the commercial and what significance might they have in challenging socially constructed femininity? The results show that multiple themes about femininity are visible in the commercial. These are “women as emotional”, “gender norm-breaking, and “these female athletes break barriers, so you can do too”. These themes are reinforced by the commercial utilizing semiotic resources that show different participants with various attributes and how these are polarized as feminine and masculine. The different intersectional categories that were identified can all be seen challenging socially constructed femininity by deviating from stereotypical norms of what femininity is. The study also concluded that several intersectional categories are shown, but there is an underrepresentation of marginalized groups.