À partir d'enquêtes effectuées entre 2007 et 2013, cette thèse interroge les usages des objets rituels en milieu mitsogho au Gabon, leurs itinéraires dans les espaces ruraux et urbains, ainsi que les rapports de force qu'ils engendrent au sein des familles, des communautés et, à l'échelle nationale, dans les sphères publiques du culturel et du politique. Dans cette perspective, notre étude décrit et interprète les passages de ces objets d'une génération à une autre dans le cadre lignager ; leur sortie des frontières coutumières ; leur circulation entre les divers marchés par lesquels ils transitent ; les agissements de leurs propriétaires ou utilisateurs (comme, par exemple, les initiés et les nganga-misoko) ; les conflits qu'ils suscitent et véhiculent. L'analyse des pratiques et des discours que nous avons observés et recueillis, nous révèle que, selon l'itinéraire emprunté, ces objets transmettent des significations socialement partagées sur la maladie, les sorts, la mort, l'échec, le chômage, qui se cristallisent souvent sur et autour les diverses figures de la sorcellerie. De par leur conversion en pièces aussi muséographiques et patrimoniales, ces objets ont acquis également la qualité contemporaine de biens culturels. / From the written documents, numerous assessments, and field surveys performed from 2007 to 2013, I shall analyze in this Thesis the religious and ritual objects among the Mitsogho people in Gabon, the meaning that they receive in their itinerary between cities and villages, as well as ratio of power that they create in families, in the community, and at the national level including the collection of these objects by the political body. In other words it is a matter of understanding the multiple, the transmissions of these objects from one generation to another in the framework of lineage, in the trans-border exit as defined by the initiated people, for functions beyond the context of manufacturing, and their circulation between the markets and customers (the initiate people and the nganga-misoko, for instance), and just as implicit or explicit battle that affect them. Through the local speeches, we can see that the objects embody a sort of social and symbolic meaning the initiate people, according to the path they follow, and that sicknesses, curses, death, failure, and unemployment etc…often crystallize on the use of religious and ritual objects, word of a so-called witchcraft.

Objektivitet anses vara en central del av journalistik i en demokratisk och västerländsk värld, som bör vara ett vägledande ideal för de yrkesverksamma i deras arbete med att samla och presentera information. Deras professionella uppgifter består bland annat av att återge en sann bild av verkligheten, att visa lojalitet mot medborgare samt att vara opartiska och oberoende. Kritik riktas stundtals mot journalisters brister i att presentera nyheter som fullt ut följer objektivitetens principer, med argument om att journalistiken påverkas negativt av ökade kommersiella intressen. Sport är en genre inom nyhetsrapportering som har ett lågt anseende och utesluts från mer prestigefylld journalistik, som detta till trots är populär att konsumera ur ett publikperspektiv. Denna undersökning har haft sportjournalistikens låga status tillsammans med människors förhoppning om att fylla särskilda behov med hjälp av sportkonsumtion, som utgångspunkt för att vidare studera objektivitet inom området. Med detta som bakgrund ämnar studien att klargöra och belysa om publiken har förväntningar på objektivitet i sportjournalistik och i sådant fall vilka förväntningar.   Metoden som tillämpats för att kunna undersöka publikens åsikter kring ämnet är kvalitativ, detta i syfte om att skapa djupare förståelse för publikens attityder och uppfattningar. Fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer har genomförts där de personer som intervjuats har representerat en grupp sportintresserade unga vuxna i åldern 20–30 år, med totalt 24 deltagande, samtliga bosatta i Karlstad, Sverige.   Resultat av studien visar att publiken gör skillnad på vilka krav som kan ställas på att följa journalistiska etiska riktlinjer utifrån; medial kanal, enskilda sportjournalister, public service, kommersiella kanaler och lokal- och nationell nyhetspress. Ett samband kan i denna studie synliggöras mellan publikens uppfattning om sport som en nyhetskälla av lättsam och underhållande natur, som således skapar lägre förväntningar på att objektivitetsidealet efterföljs. Det bör poängteras att olika faktorer inom journalistisk objektivitet, förväntas att uppnås av publiken med väldig variation. Trovärdigheten hos sportjournalister tenderar att bedömas av publiken efter huruvida de uppgifter och resultat som presenteras är korrekta medan ett oberoende mot de som bevakas anses vara mycket svårt och ovanligt att uppfylla.   En annan viktig aspekt som belysts i studien är att sportjournalistik berörs av det geografiska läget för nyhetsredaktionen, där ett prioriterat medialt utrymme för lokala och nationella lag tillsammans med redaktionernas beroende av goda relationer till föreningar och lag, uppfattas som orsaker till bristande objektivitet.

Syfte och frågeställningar: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur unga personer som lever med psykisk ohälsa uppfattar sin användning av Facebook och hur de resonerar kring betydelsen av Facebook i deras vardag. Vi vill även belysa hur de uppfattar att de påverkas av samhällets krav kring ideal, normer och känslan av tillhörighet genom Facebook. ● Hur beskriver unga människor som lever med psykisk ohälsa sin användning av Facebook? ● På vilka sätt uppfattar unga människor att Facebook kan utgöra ett verktyg för tillhörighet och delaktighet för personer som lever med psykisk ohälsa? ● På vilka sätt uppfattar unga människor att de normer och ideal som förmedlas via Facebook utgör ett hinder för tillhörighet och delaktighet för personer som lever med psykisk ohälsa? Metod och material: Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ metod där det empiriska materialet samlades in genom 6 semistrukturerade intervjuer med unga personer med psykisk ohälsa. Huvudresultat: Studiens resultat visar att Facebook känns som en trygghet där Facebookgrupper ökar tillhörighetskänslan och används för att få tips och hjälpa andra i svåra situationer. Kraven att behöva leva upp till samhällets ideal kan påverka känslan av utanförskap.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur unga i åldrarna 16-25 uppfattar dold reklam på Instagram och hur deras inställning är till reklamfenomentet, samt den generella användningen av Instagram som ett socialt medium. I detta fall är den dolda reklamen på Instagramkändisars konton i form av sponsrade tävlingar. Denna studie har genomförts med sex fokusgrupper som metod och har sedan analyserats med hjälp av identitet, uses and gratification, representation, tvåstegshypotesen och medialisering som teoretiskt grund. Resultatet av denna studie är att den dolda reklamen i form av tävlingar på Instagram uppfattas och tolkas som reklam. Inställningen till den dolda reklamen är i första anblick negativ, trots detta har ändå en majoritet av respondenterna deltagit i tävlingar. Är priset tillräckligt bra så försvinner därmed bilden av att dold reklam är något negativt. Utöver detta kan man dra slutsatsen att Instagram som plattform används dagligen, ofta som ett tidsfördriv eller i syfte att få bekräftelse eller att inspireras. / The purpose of this paper is to find out how young people in the ages 16-25 comprehend and perceive native advertising on Instagram and how their attitude is to the advertising phenomenon, as well as the general use of Instagram as a social media. In this case, the hidden advertisement is on Instagram celebrity accounts in the form of sponsored contests. This study has been conducted with six focus groups as a method and has since been analyzed using identity, uses and gratification, representation, two-step flow of communication and mediation as a theoretical basis. The result of this study is that the native advertising in the form of contests is perceived and interpreted as advertising. In the first instance, the attitude of the hidden advertisement is negative, yet a majority of respondents have participated. If the price is good enough, the attitude of native advertising as something negative disappear. In addition, it can be concluded that Instagram as a platform is used daily, often as a pastime or for confirmation or inspiration

Phytosterols and their glucosides (sterolins) have many therapeutic indications e.g. immune modulation, hypercholesterolaemia and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In this study sterolslsterolins in three BPH phytotherapeutics (Hypoxis hemerocallidea, Prunus africana and Serenoa repens) and related products were investigated. The aim of this study was to develop, evaluate and apply TLC and HPLC methods for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of sterols and sterolins. A new optimum TLC method was developed for good visibility and separation of phytosterols and sterolins and could be used to qualitatively compare sterol/sterolin content. A published HPLC method to determine the bioavailability of β-sitosterol in humans was used in a new application to quantitatively determine phytosterols in plant extracts. A new and sensitive method to determine hypoxoside (norlignan diglucoside unique to Hypoxidaceae), by isolation from the crude methanol extract with solid phase extraction (SPE) and HPLC quantification using fluorescence detection (excitation wavelength of 230 nm and emission wavelength of 345 nm), was developed. The developed TLC and adapted HPLC methods were applied to determine the stability of phytosterols, subjected to increased temperature and gamma irradiation. Phytosterols in isolated form were more stable than the phytosterols in plant material. The data from the accelerated stability tests could be used to estimate the shelf-lives of the BPH phytotherapeutics and related sterol containing products. The HPLC method to determine β-sitosterol in serum, was evaluated during a pilot study of a clinical trial, to test the bio-equivalence of different phytosterol containing products. The method was found not sensitive enough to determine β-sitosterol in serum, notwithstanding improvements made, Le. changing the extraction ratio; experimenting with higher dosages, and different products. As result, the proposed clinical trial could not be performed, in the future, serum could rather be analysed by gas chromatographic methods. TLC and HPLC analyses of medicinal African potato tea, indicated that it contained hypoxoside, but not β-sitosterol or β-sitosterolin. β-Sitosterol (accepted to be the active of H. hemerocallidea) might not be the main active in African potato tea. Hypoxoside and a compound (red spot compound), noticed on TLC plates of acetone extracts of Prunus africana, Serenoa repens, Moducare®, Harzol®, Immunochoice® and Nutricare®, were extracted with water. This general presence of the red spot compound could point to a possible important function. Preparative TLC was unsuccessful to isolate the red spot compound, but column chromagraphy was successfully applied. From the proton and carbon NMR spectra, it was concluded, that the compound was definitely not a steroid and could either be a coumarin or an isoflavanoid, with a sugar unit (possibly a rhamose) attached to it. Further analyses to elucidate the structure failed due to decomposition of the compound. Further work on structure elucidation is required and possible therapeutic activity should also be investigated. The sterols and sterolins in H. hemerocallidea and related herbal medicine can be qualitatively and quantitatively analysed with the developed TLC and adapted HPLC methods. This provides natural medicine industry with necessary procedures to ensure proper quality, safety and stability. / Dissertation (MSc (Pharmacology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Pharmacology / unrestricted

In contemporary society, political satire shows are prominent programs that seem to resonate with the viewing public. This thesis seeks to observe the meanings that generation Y attach to the Canadian political satire show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Focusing on the Canadian context, this research examines how members of generation Y view political satire shows, specifically This Hour Has 22 Minutes and if this show caters to their attitudes, concerns and interests more so than traditional news media. The theoretical framework guiding this study is the uses and gratifications theory. This research implements a qualitative phenomenological research approach in the form of focus groups. This study concludes that this generation still maintains, however, that when looking to be informed, they connect more with traditional news media given that these programs provide them with all the facts and stories in a more reliable manner. This study contributes to the field of communication because it demonstrates the rationale and experiences of generation Y in relation to political news.

L’une des principales sources de changement dans le système de santé est actuellement la numérisation et la mise en réseau technique, se traduisant par le développement de la télémédecine. Si cette « médecine à distance », utilisant les TIC, a pu se résumer en quelques expérimentations menées essentiellement dans le cadre hospitalier, le gouvernement entend lui donné une nouvelle impulsion. Elle doit constituer un facteur clé d’amélioration de la performance du système de santé. Son usage dans les territoires doit incarner une réponse organisationnelle et technique aux nombreux défis épidémiologiques, démographiques et économiques auxquels fait face le système de santé aujourd’hui. Cette recherche apour but de contribuer à établir le sens social et politique du développement de la télémédecine. Il s’agit de cerner de façon systématique et dans leur ensemble les dynamiques qui conduisent ce changement, tout en mettant en avant les conséquences dans la démarche de soin classique au niveau des usagers. Analyse des politiques publiques et étude du changement technologique se fondent dans l’approche choisie de la sociologie politique des usages. Ancrée au confluent du modèle des politiques publiques et de la sociologie de l’innovation, la recherche a permis d’identifier et d’expliquer les principales dynamiques conditionnant le processus de développement de la télémédecine, en partant des politiques publiques jusqu’à la mise en place des technologies. La télémédecine est la fois le moteur et le résultat de la réformede la modernisation du système de santé. Son référentiel est fortement imprégné par les exigences de rationalisation et de gestion du réseau socio-sanitaire et demeure principalement légitimé par des critères de rentabilité et de performance qui sont probablement incompatibles avec l’efficience clinique et thérapeutique des services de soins. La télémédecine pourrait rendre de nombreux services dans la gestion des activités humaines et professionnelles, par une gestion davantage réfléchie, concertée et planifiée du changement technologique / One the main source of change in the health service system is the digitization and Networking technique wich can be seen in the development of telemedicine. If this « medicine at distance », using ITC, could be summed up in a few experiments in the hospital field, the government wants to give it a new impulse. It must be the key to improve the health service system. Its use in the territories must embody an organizational and technical answer epidemiological, demographic and economic numerous challenges, to wich the health system has to face nowadays. This investigation is aimed at contributing to settle the social and political meaning of telemedicine development. One has to identify systematically and in the whole the forces which lead to this change, while at the same time highlighting the consequences in users the classical approach. The analysis of the public politics and the study of the technological change convey in the political sociology uses. Anchored between the public politic model and the sociological innovation, the investigation has allowed to identify and explain the main dynamics which influence the telemedicine development process, starting by the public policies to the implémentation of technologies. The telemedicine is both the impulse and the result of the health service system modernization reform. Itsrepository is strongly influenced by the rationalizing of the requirements and the management of the health and social network and remains mainly legitimized by profitability and performance criterias which are probably incompatible with clinical and therapeutic efficiency of health services. The telemedicine could make many services in the management of human and Professional activities, thank to a management more thought, concerted, planed of the technologic change

Background: With the emergence of new social platforms, nascent strategies of Viral Marketing utilizing User-generated Content has developed. TikTok is a new social media based on User-generated videos, where content is mainly expressed in the form of #challenges. Given its nascent nature, marketers lack clear directives of how to capitalize on #challenges by engaging the user base, in their pursuit of reaching virality. As the underlying motivations behind the participation of #challenges are unknown, further research is required. Purpose: The purpose of this study is therefore to explore what motivates Gen Z users to participate in #challenges on TikTok and how companies can utilize these motivations to structure their own #challenges’ in marketing campaigns.   Method: This is an exploratory qualitative study inspired by grounded theory where sixteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews were held with participants classified as Gen Z. Qualitative content analysis was used to develop a revised model of Uses and Gratification Theory.   Conclusion: The results suggests that the Uses and Gratification theory could be used in explaining the underlying motivation for participating in #challenges on TikTok. By drawing connections between Uses and Gratification Theory and empirical data, a revised model was found to include the six traditional forms of motivations with structure as an added seventh prevalent motivation on TikTok. The results propose the motivators factors to participate in a challenge to be intertwined but suggest Entertainment to be a superseding motivator. Suggestions of elements that marketers could implement in their campaigns were thereafter derived.

Over the last years, the music industry has been disrupted by music streaming services which shifted the focus from owning music to accessing it. While the previous research focuses on the economic aspects, the social and cultural consequences remain largely unexplored. Existing research from an audience perspective is often focusing on one particular practice around music streaming and is mainly coming from and focusing on northern EU-countries. However, a broader contemplation of the sociocultural practices around music streaming is still missing. This thesis examines which sociocultural practices have emerged among urban and middle class Millennials in Germany when using the market-leading streaming provider Spotify and which affordances and gratifications these are based upon. The study is based on ten semi-structured interviews with German Millennials aged between 20 to 30 years. Three of these study participants are using a free Spotify account and seven the premium version. By conducting a thematic analysis against the theoretical background that interlinks practice theory, affordance theory and uses and gratifications theory, the practices are described and examined based on the underlying affordances and gratifications.The study found sociocultural practices around the themes social setting, listening mode, Spotify networks and music collection and outlines the underlying affordances and gratifications. During individual listening situations, users engage in the practices of mobile listening and mood management, while listening in social settings focused around navigating the group dynamics and the creation of context-sensitive playlists. The users also aim to create an unstructured and undisrupted music flow but are mainly listening in a passive manner while carrying out other activities. Due to social norms and privacy issues, the participants either reject the network function or build only small networks through which they were sharing and discovering music as well as creating playlists with friends. Lastly, users were building, organizing and maintaining individual music collections.

Trustworthy and accessible news content is fundamental to democracy and demanded by groups within social spaces of varying structures. News outlets have always, and continue to be in a state of development, adapting to social changes and accommodating the advances new technologies afford the structure of the industry of news.The aim of this thesis is to research the news consumption habits of Spanish undergraduate students at a time when the print newspaper industry, for many years the key disseminator of news relied upon by the general public, is in a state of financial crisis and its future, in its current form, is in jeopardy.Using a quantitative survey of 144 students and supported by a linked theoretical framework of News Consumption, Social Space and Uses & Gratifications, the study illustrates a generation of news consumers with a healthy appetite for news, whose cultural, economic and social capital are manifested via the diverse portfolio of news media they elect to consume from. Adopting a gratifications approach reveals that the efficiency and comfort mobile devices provide users for news consumption is one of the determining factors when deciding upon which forms of news disseminators respondents wish to engage with; user agency takes precedence over the notions of trust felt for the integrity of journalistic publications.The study provides a unique insight into the news consumption habits of Spanish undergraduate students enrolled in private university education, which although not representative of the wider population, is a study of an increasingly significant social group in Spain, their news consumption choices and the relation to the social space they inhabit.