The aim with this independent degree project of master thesis is to find what the user opinions of the intranet in a county council is. The paper seeks how the question about how the culture in the organisation was affected by the use of the intranet. An important part is to explore the expectations and acceptance of the intranet and get a picture of which functions and services support day-to-day work with good quality. One goal is to find out how the intranet users feel that the communication, information and usability can be developed.The Focus group interview is a qualitative method that has been applied for gathering data from the respondents, who participate in the investigation from the county council. The used method is unstructured Focus groups containing the three dominating categories of staff in the county council.

The purpose with this study is to gain understanding about student´s view of mathematical education, in the later years of nine-year compulsory school, and the motivation factors that can be identified when student´s gives opportunity to express their own thoughts due to the mathematical education. From experiences we have gained during the practical part of our teachers education we got the impression that student´s think that the mathematical education is boring and uninteresting. Through qualitative methods such as survey and discussions in Focus group we have analyzed student´s views of mathematical education and pointed out witch motivation factors that are expressed when student´s gives opportunity to influence over their own education. The results are shown from the answers and comments that student´s gave, during the survey and Focus group, and is divided into two main parts, both with focus on motivation ?Mathematics and motivation? and ?Student´s influence and motivation? and also a summery part ?Motivated for mathematical education when the student is given influence over the education?. The study showed that student´s wants to have more difference in the work methods that are used in their mathematical education such as problem solving, games, more work in groups and pairs and more use of IT. In conclusion the study also gives suggestions to other studies that can be made in the same genre as this study in the way that IT can be used in mathematical education and how student´s interest can be used in the education to gain more motivated student´s..

The purpose of this Master Thesis was to study the reader in the informal reading group. To fulfil our purpose we have used the following questions: how did the reader become a reader and what does her reading look like, why do people choose to participate in a reading group, how may the group influence the individual member in her reading and interpretation of a book, does the reading group have a therapeutic function, how does the informant find the group dynamics and different roles in the reading group, and finally how does the informant experience the discussion in the reading group. We have used two studies about reading groups, one by Elizabeth Long and one by Jenny Hartley. Our theory is divided into reading and group psychology. We have interviewed seven women belonging to different reading groups.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of Focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

In this essay we discuss the broad area of website usability from a tourism perspective. Our goal was to investigate the usability in smaller and bigger tourism websites. We have declared what website usability means and the importance of involving the users when designing a user interface. In a pilot study, we conducted three interviews with people who work with usability and then used the information we got to form questions to use in a Focus group interview. In this Focus group, we asked three people to assess two Swedish tourism websites, one bigger and one smaller, to find out if they were considered usable and if there was any difference in usability depending on the size of the site.

The objective of this qualitative study was to contribute to the understanding of how musical activities affect the participants' well-being and empowerment and to investigate which fac-tors contribute to that effect. Invitations were sent to 13 adult participants in a rock music school in the middle part of Sweden. 7 persons (4 men, 3 women) participated in the study. 4 themes were discussed in Focus groups to highlight how informants were affected by the ac-tivity and what factors were important in the context. Results showed that music activities impact on participants' well-being and empowerment through several factors.Themes that appeared were: 1) focus on the present through music, 2) personal development, 3) meaningful leisure activity 4) the group properties.

What does the Swedish church Västerås stand for today according to the employees and how do they want to profile themselves to the target group? What image and what expectations does the target group have of the Swedish church Västerås? How can the Swedish church Västerås communicate uniform, with the intent to create mutual value with the target group?The purpose of the study is to make recommendations to the Swedish church Västerås for their prospective communication plan by examining their profile and target group's image and expectations of the organization. The study also aims to examine how the Swedish church Västerås can communicate their brand uniform.The study applies a qualitative research with deductive approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a sample of the employees and Focus groups with a sample of the target group.Better match between profile and image means that SkVs employees better understand the organization and can communicate more uniform which leads to a stronger brand identity. If SkV understands what is relevant for their target group, they can reduce the total cost of customer delivered value and thus increase the total value.

At first glance, the group CEO's (koncernchefens) legal position looks easy. It is the CEO?s responsibility to lead and make decisions on matters which affect the entire group, all while defending the company?s best interests. However, when one looks closely at how the Companies Act (Aktiebolagslagen) regulates how a company should organize itself, as well as the options available to manage the group, one rea-lizes that simply appointing a group CEO does not necessarily make the company compatible with the Companies Act. A group CEO threatens to reduce both the Board and CEO's legal administrative districts which are not in accordance with legal and commercial principles.In order to introduce a group CEO it requires a detailed investigation of the group's legal relationships.

The food industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Swedish e-commerce today. However, e-commerce still represents a very small part of the total food sales in Sweden. Experts have noted that, in order for e-commerce to expand in this field, Internet food sales must increase.The aim of this study is to form an understanding of why Swedes do not purchase more food products online. The theoretical framework consists of various marketing theories concerning consumer behavior and the acceptance of new innovations. The methodology used for the purpose of this study has a qualitative approach and in order to answer the questions at hand two Focus groups were assembled.

The aim with this independent degree project of master thesis is to find what the user opinions of the intranet in a county council is. The paper seeks how the question about how the culture in the organisation was affected by the use of the intranet. An important part is to explore the expectations and acceptance of the intranet and get a picture of which functions and services support day-to-day work with good quality. One goal is to find out how the intranet users feel that the communication, information and usability can be developed.The Focus group interview is a qualitative method that has been applied for gathering data from the respondents, who participate in the investigation from the county council. The used method is unstructured Focus groups containing the three dominating categories of staff in the county council.

Title The User Created Fire ? Risks and Opportunities with Crisis Communication in Social Network SitesAuthor Charbel SaderCourse Master Thesis in Media? and Communication Studies, Department of Journalism and Communication, University of GothenburgSemester Spring semester of 2013Tutor Nicklas HåkanssonNumberof pages 75Purpose To find a deeper understanding of the digital media?s role in Swedish society in relation to crisis communication.Method Qualitative approach using Focus group interviewsMaterial Semi structured Focus group interviews with a total of 18 participants in five groups. The Focus group sessions were made during February, March and April 2012.Main results The main findings in this study are that users expect the communication flow in social network sites (SNS) during a crisis is to be a shortcut to information without a detour through organizations or traditional media. Although we find personal gratification, like interpersonal communication, quick information and sharing feelings and experience with others by using SNS during a crisis, users also tend to be hesitant about the credibility of the shared information. Alongside the user created content, we look to professional media experts and organizations as a guarantee for the veracity of the shared information.

This Masters thesis is concerned with the complex planning process of setting up a citizen bureau in a public library. The aim is to find out how citizen bureaux are designed and to suggest a simplified model of strategic planning. The planning process is studied from a business perspective in the library context, and this perspective is also used to study citizen bureaux and their written plans elsewhere. A combination of qualitative methods are used: observations, Focus group discussions and interviews. Observations in the public library showed a great need for an environmental analysis as well as structure to the planning process.

The aim of our study is to research what the future help-needs and expectations on the civilian society are among Swedish soldiers before they are sent on their first deployment abroad, especially to Afghanistan. The fact that Sweden sends soldiers to a warzone is something that is new nd research according the help-needs from the returning soldiers are missing.This study is based on a qualitative method where the data consists of four Focus group interviews with at least two participants in each Focus group from three different military bases in Sweden. The results indicate that the soldiers´expectations on the civilian society are low but that they would like to have more support from the civilian society. An important notice during the study, we encountered the fact that the participants in some way feel stigmatized. The results also show that they want the Swedish armed forces to be in charge and provide the care for the soldiers where health professionals involved have som military background.

Poverty among children has received a great deal of attention in the media the past few years. The group in which poverty among children has increased most is among single parents; therefore we have chosen to examine this group in this study. The purpose of this study is to take part in single parents and their children?s experiences of living within a very tight budget and the strategies they use. We found it interesting to put this information in relationship to the consumer society we live in today.

This thesis is a discourse analysis analyzing public library librarians' talk on the subject of public library meeting places. Within the field of Library and Information Science the public libraries' functions as social meeting places have been scrutinized for more than a decade. Researchers in the Nordic countries in particular have looked at library users' use of the library space and have highlighted the sociologic dimensions of the public library and the meeting place functions. Few however have paid much attention to the library personnel's point of view. The discourse analysis perspective is about language use and how people construct the reality.