AbstractBackground: Becoming a parent to a child in need of Neonatal Intensive Care can be a traumatic experience. During a time when the parents may need support, guidance and a sense of control ? the family might need to relocate to a hospital away from home if the child needs highly specialized medical care at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the parents? experience of having to change neonatal care unit.

AbstractBackground: Becoming a parent to a child in need of Neonatal Intensive Care can be a traumatic experience. During a time when the parents may need support, guidance and a sense of control ? the family might need to relocate to a hospital away from home if the child needs highly specialized medical care at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the parents? experience of having to change neonatal care unit.

Can the lack of functional cross-cultural communication among individuals within an international organization be the reason for cultural clashes to occur, and lead to conflict between two cultures within the same organization?Our aim is to try to create a potential model of how cross-cultural problems can be studied, in order to contribute to the solution of the problem. And to examine whether the theories, which form the basis of our model can be applied in reality.The research have assumed from the hermeneutical approach for a holistic view of the problem area. The deductive approach has been used in order to distinguish whether the theories can be applied to reality, and qualitative research method for collecting data.The focus lies within cross-cultural communications, which defines the various cultural factors that can affect organizational culture. Hofstede dimensions and the social structure are mentioned and cultural factors as language and religion.

The tsunami in Thailand in 2004, 9/11 and hurricane Katrina in New Orleans 2005 are all reminders that no organization is immune to crises, which also means that all organizations should be prepared and know how to handle a crisis if one was to occur. A case study has been conducted, on a crisis regarding a fire that occurred on the 31st of July 2014 in Västmanland, Sweden. Through Qualitative interviews empirical data was gathered and then analyzed together with our theories and previous research. The purpose of the study is to analyze how the municipalities affected and the County Administrative Board of Sweden handled and communicated with/to the public during the fire that spread in Västmanland 2014. Our study shows that a risk analysis and analysis of surroundings is crucial in anticipating a crisis event and that it is essential for organizations to undergo training to prepare organization members on how to handle a crisis. Another conclusion is that the need for information is large during a crisis event and grows throughout the entire course of the crisis. The crisis that we studied had a lack of information, but at the same time the public?s need for information is a need that can?t be satisfied during a crisis.

The study aims to examine the communication between older immigrants and nurses at several nursing homes.Emphasis has been placed on clarifying both parties? experience of communication regarding the older immigrant?s idiomatic difficulties. The following questions were used in the creation of the study: How does the older immigrant communicate with the personnel at a nursing home? How does the older immigrant enjoy their residence at the nursing home? How do language difficulties influence the older immigrant?s possibility to express their self?In the study eight qualitative interviews were made with four older immigrants who lives in nursing homes and four nurses working in a nursing home. The survey shows that the overall problem in the communication is the older immigrant?s lack of language.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the teacher's background affect students' approach to mathematics teaching. Characteristically, in Sweden today is that mathematics is perceived as difficult subject and that the number of foreign teachers has increased. The study examines a phenomenon which the relationship between the teacher's language accent and substance difficulties.The method used for data collection is questionnaires, in order to investigate the phenomenon as the relationship between the teacher's accent and substance difficulties.The investigation has been carried out based on the students' point of view, both secondary and primary school pupils. What difficulties have arisen in teaching?  What is the biggest obstacle to achieve the goals of mathematics, to understand the teacher's language accent first in order to understand the subject, or that mathematics is difficult in itself to be understood as a substance.The result clearly shows that the teacher's accent does not affect teaching and students' view of mathematics as a subject.

Face-to-face communication is always complemented with non-verbal signals that give us clues as to how a message shall be interpreted, but as communication is moved online the possibilities to express oneself becomes more limited.This paper focuses on the instant messaging client Windows Live Messenger and three of the non-verbal functions that it provides (nudges, winks and emotes). The purpose of the paper and its underlying study is to compare the senders' intentions with the receivers' conceptions when it comes to these functions.The study was done as a questionnaire with two different versions of the questions, one looking at the senders' intentions and the other at the receivers' conceptions.The results were then compared in order to look for tendencies. The results showed that the most common intention among the senders was also the most common conception among the receivers, but that the rest of the attitudes didn't match at all. The functions that are supposed to help the conversation flow often create ambiguity instead and lead to vagueness, misconceptions and annoyance..

Organizational democracy has been a popular research area in recent decades but the implementation in real organizations is slow (Kokkinidis, 2012; Verdorfer, Weber, Unter Rainer & Seyr, 2013). Several researchers (Schön Jansson, 2012; Falkheimer, Heide & Johansson, 2013) argue that communication practitioners have a key role in democratic processes and that because their job role is under constant change there are only a few modern studies regarding the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how communication practitioners in private and public organizations experience their role in the process of internal communication and to what extent they are aware of, and work with internal organizational democracy.The practitioners we interviewed had a strong feeling that they were a support function for the business and the organizational management. As a result of the study it is clear that communication practitioners are very loyal to their employers and to the organization they work for. They are, therefore, not neutral in their professional role and argue that their task is to represent the management's interests.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: This essay deals with The Swedish Red Cross Society and their work concerning strategical information and communication about HIV and AIDS in the Swedish context. In a broader sense the relation between the global and the local will be investigated and a discussion about what it means to work in an organization operating on a global arena will be held.Material/Method: This essay is based on relevant theories about culture and health communication which I have studied, selected and put together, with purpose to analyse The Swedish Red Cross Society and their informational work with HIV and AIDS- prevention. Furthermore I have interviewed four of the organizations co- workers to collect data about their experiences in working in the Red Cross organization with this specific mission. Moreover I and my colleague Hillevi Good attended at seminars and lectures to observe activities held by the organization and to get inside information about what people working with HIV and AIDS are discussing and considering as critical issues. The study holds a qualitative approach focusing on understanding this typical case rather then generalizing facts in a larger sense.Main results: The Swedish National Society of The Red Cross has a difficult mission in their work to inform the public about HIV and AIDS, although it is the perfect organization when it comes to communication due to their well-known profile and a huge geographical spread.

Background: Pervious research indicates that communication between patient and nurse has shortcomings. For the nurse, difficulties in care giving may emerge when the nurse and patient cannot understand each other. Research also shows that patients? participation in their care become more difficult by lack of communication. The care giving of patients who speak a different language is seen as a challenge by the nurse.

The students participating in my development work will work with a process book for handicraft studies. In the beginning of their studies, the students need practical knowledge about the development of the profession itself, but they also need to be challenged and learn how to solve problems on their own which will help them gain a deeper knowledge of the subject.    I focus on open questions to create a process with the students. This process is created when working with Solution-Focused-Education. Through ?assessment for learning? we can help the students to improve their self-assessment and understanding of the learning process.

AbstractTitle: PR and Politics- the role of the PR consults in Swedish politics (PR och Politik ?PR konsulternas roll i svensk politik)Number of pages: 34Author: Andia GhafouriTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: HT 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: To study the PR functions role in Swedish politics and what role it plays for the democracy.Material/Method: Interviews with PR peopleMain results: That the PR people have the right kind of network and the knowledge about how to influence political decisions and the public opinion. Their methods could be criticized from a democratic point of view since they are professionals and their ability to bring up issues in to the public agenda is stronger than ordinary peoples? ability, which could be discussed if it is fair in a democratic society, that people who get paid have more power to change than those who don?t.Keywords: Public Relations, Communication, Politics, Democracy, Information, Networks.

Organizational democracy has been a popular research area in recent decades but the implementation in real organizations is slow (Kokkinidis, 2012; Verdorfer, Weber, Unter Rainer & Seyr, 2013). Several researchers (Schön Jansson, 2012; Falkheimer, Heide & Johansson, 2013) argue that communication practitioners have a key role in democratic processes and that because their job role is under constant change there are only a few modern studies regarding the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how communication practitioners in private and public organizations experience their role in the process of internal communication and to what extent they are aware of, and work with internal organizational democracy.The practitioners we interviewed had a strong feeling that they were a support function for the business and the organizational management. As a result of the study it is clear that communication practitioners are very loyal to their employers and to the organization they work for. They are, therefore, not neutral in their professional role and argue that their task is to represent the management's interests.

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences of how the Swedishemployees union ?Unionen? communicates with its members, on one hand thosewho are members of local union clubs and on the other non-club members. Thenumber of non-club members has increased due to labour market changes implyingthat workplaces have been fragmented and hence affect the possibility to form localunion clubs.The questions posed in the study are: How does Unionen communicate with itsmembers? How does the communication differ between club members and non-clubmembers? What are the preferences of Unionen´s members as far as communicationwith the central organization? What kind of information do the members seek andhow do they find it? What values does Unionen represent? Are there differencesbetween the messages that Unionen is sends out and how members and non-clubmembers, respectively, perceive them?A case study method has been used applying both quantitative and qualitativeanalyses. Quantitative methods have been used in illustrating the number ofdiscussion subjects at Unionen´s website, the members needs for receivingcommunication and channel usage while qualitative methodologies have been usedin interviews with Unionen´s members, club chairmen and union representatives aswell as semiotic picture analyses and analyses based on methods of Uses andgratifications theory.One conclusion of the study is that two significant differences of communicationhave been found between members and non-club members.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are any similarities or differences between leisure-time pedagogs and primary school teachers' verbal communication with parents. Questions we ask ourselves is how the verbal contact looks like today, the desire for how it should be and the importance of verbal communication has.We chose to make a qualitative questionnaire study in the form of open questions to three leisure-time pedagogs, three primary school teachers and eleven parents were asked to answer.The results show that leisure-time pedagogs, primary school teachers and parents believe that verbal communication is important and significant. They believe that it is working well today, whether is via face to face, telephone or email. The verbal communication should be honest and straight between all parties. Parents believe it is important to know leisure-time pedagogs who take care of their children, in order to create a sense of security among parents.