Information influence is a hostile action exercised by foreign powers with the aim of increasing polarization in society and undermining democracy. In their mission to protect democratic freedoms and rights, and in their interactions with citizens, our Swedish police officers experience the consequences of the distrust and polarization caused by information influence. The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine how future police officers perceive information influence and to examine the democratic challenges that may appear. Empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with six future and newly graduated police officers. Data analysis is done by using a phenomenographic approach. The results of the study show that future police officers perceive information influence as a game with our fundamental democratic rights, contributing to polarization and being difficult to combat. In the long term, these future police officers also believe that information influence can negatively impact democracy. They foresee that information influence may create challenges for them in their professional duties by contributing to conflicts in their interactions with citizens, sometimes to the extent that dangerous situations may arise. Furthermore, the future police officers reflect on the possibility of personal value conflicts occurring in their professional practice, especially in situations where they are tasked with protecting freedom of speech.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-32139 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Sundqvist, Sara |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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