Since the 1970s voting behaviour has changed. Party identification and class voting has declined. As the electorate becomes more volatile, campaign strategy and party image becomes essential. Political communication and mass media now play an important role in election campaigns. Therefore, researchers take an interest in the impact of media on public opinion.

Title: Under the surface - Fredrik Reinfeldt and Stefan Löfven in a comparative photo studyAuthors: Jon Demred, Fanny Wijk & Olivia WikströmLevel: Bachelor of JournalismLocation: University of GothenburgLanguage: SwedishNumber of pages: 39This thesis compares how Stefan Löfven was being portrayed in Swedish media the week after the generalelection 2014 with how Fredrik Reinfeldt was portrayed in the first week after 2006?s General election.There has been made a lot of research on how politicians are portrayed in the media, but most of theresearch focus on text portrayal. This thesis focus on something different, it compares how the two ?winners? were portrayed in news photos.A semiotic approach was used to analyse news images in the newspapers Aftonbladet, Expressen, SvenskaDagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. It was important to not only look at the pictures, but also the outer context, i.e the headlines, had to be analysed to come to any conclusions.Fredrik Reinfeldt was portrayed more positive and more as a winner than Stefan Löfven was.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the Swedish media framed the political party, the Swedish Democrats, two weeks prior to the election of parliament in 2014. This essay starts with the historical background of the political party, the Swedish Democrats, and continues with the theoretical framework for the essay. The theoretical framework consists of three theories: framing, media logic and media?s role in the democratic society. The essay?s main problem is presented as the question: What media image was there of the Swedish Democrats before the election of parliament in 2014? The main problem is answered by using a quantitative content analysis on the essay?s empirical material, 68 news articles from four Swedish daily newspapers.

In 2010 Swedish political parties used commercials broadcasted on TV for the first time in order to gain votes in a General election. In connection with the election the parties were criticized for not succeeding to formulate a story to the voters that conveyed how they wanted to change Sweden. In this paper I use central concepts from rhetoric, storytelling, postmodernism and psychology to formulate three demands each on the narrator, the story and its reception. Using the resulting image of what distinguishes a good narrator, a good story and a good reception as a starting point, I investigate to what extent the critique was justified. My findings indicate that the degree to which the commercials fulfill these demands vary greatly.

In the past decades the level of education of the Swedish population has steadily risen. This paper asks questions about the level of education level among members of the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen. The answers are found by studying biographic data over members of parliament between 1971 and 2006. In 1971 a new riksdag, enkammarriksdagen which consists of one ?House?, was founded.

This essay will cover the Swedish electoral system with a focus on the proportional representation andthe process involved from the conversion of votes to seats in the parliament. This process consists ofseveral methods which are created by political decisions as well as mathematical formulas and is notalways perfect in terms of equalization. An increment of six adjustment seats would have made theGeneral election of 2010 more proportioned. Despite this, the Swedish electoral system is wellconstructed and the essay will highlight areas which could be subject for improvement as well asexplaining fundamental concepts of the process..

Already in 1988, different levels of participation in the election between different districts of big cities in Sweden were noticed. The problem with low political participation in specific areas has almost always been theoretically explained through an individual perspective. This study is therefore focusing on the problem from a contextual perspective. The hypothesis for the study is as follows, in the case of Malmö the level of participation in elections are affected by social environment in which segregation will be the single highest factor. The dependent variable, participation in the election was tested by the independent variables representing social environment; origin, education, gainfully employed and income.

In the Swedish General election of 2006, the citizens were faced with the fact that there were two parties that called themselves a ?workers´ party?. It was not just the Social-Democratic Party, which we usually identify as a traditional workers´ party, it was also the Moderate Coalition Party, which we usually identify as a traditional conservative party, which during this suffrage also called them self the ?new moderates?. The central and the main election pledge for the new moderates took its standpoint in the idea that everybody should have a job.

AbstractTitle: From old rightwing-ghost to the new labour party ? The new conservatives political communication during the Swedish election 2006Authors: Pontus CarestenAim: The aim of the essay is to study how the conservative party communicated during the election campaign in 2006. I wish to find out how political parties work in todays society and how the communication has changed over time. To get relevant results I will also see how the theories and empirics interact. The purpose is further to illustrate the new conservatives? campaign work from a senders point of view.Method/Material: I have chosen a qualitative method which consists of three interviews with relevant key persons.

The main purpose of this study is to examine if variations in voter turnout for the European Parliament elections in each member state is affected by the rate of national party polarization on the EU-dimension of party politics. The theoretical background assumes that a high level of polarization generates higher voter turnout since more alternatives are presented to the electorate. This makes it easier for the electorate to find a party that represents their preferences. This will, in turn, increase the likelihood that they will participate in the election.This study uses a research design based on a quantitative analysis with data from each member state, except those with compulsory voting, in the European Parliament elections of 2004 and 2009. The results of the analysis indicate a relationship between high levels of party polarization and lower turnout in the European Parliament election.

In this examination project I look into what ways upper secondary school students conceive themselves as politically influenced before they voted for the General election of 2010. The purpose is to examine which influences the upper secondary school surroundings and the classes of civic education are contributing with to students before they voted. As a method, I have used personal, semi-structural interviews on eight upper secondary school students who all voted for a party represented in the parliament. I have asked questions about how they believe their parents, the surroundings of their school and the classes of civic education have influenced them. To separate which influences primarily the upper secondary school and the classes of civic educations have had on the students, I have selected two comparison groups of four students in each.

This essay examines the Swedish party Miljöpartiet de Gröna and their election campaign 2006. Focus is set on the local organisations in the region of Skåne by examining how they have carried through their campaigns as well as if they have experienced any obstacles in their campaign work. The primary research aim is to give a theoretical contribution as well as an increased knowledge of the local organisations work in the election campaign.Mainly this is a qualitative examination that revolves around the experiences of the organisation members. The material has been collected by interviews and a question survey. For analyse a concept device that correspond with campaign work- and election theory through a partly rational point of view has been constructed.

Syftet med studien är att utifrån Sverigedemokraternas valkampanjfilm undersöka hur de planerade kommunikationsverktygen profil, identitet och image tolkas utifrån tre olika perspektiv. Under studiens gång har vi genomfört strukturerade intervjuer med tre medlemmar inom Sverigedemokraterna, en semiotisk filmanalys av partiets valkampanjfilm och utfört enkätundersökningar med 100 röstberättigade elever vid Erik Dahlbergsgymnasiet. Studiens resultat visar att Sverigedemokraternas profil stämmer överens med valkampanjfilmens identitet. Gällande image anser partiet att allmänhetens tolkning inte stämmer överens med partiets profil. Ett problem som Sverigedemokraterna säger sig ligga i att media har kommunicerat en felaktig bild av partiet. Vår semiotiska filmanalys visar att Sverigedemokraternas budskap framgår tydligt i valkampanjfilmen genom att visa hur invandringen kostar mycket, samtidigt som pensionärerna blir drabbade. Studiens resultat visar även att mer än hälften av eleverna på Erik Dahlbergsgymnasiet hade en negativ inställning till Sverigedemokraterna och 70 procent ansåg att individerna i valkampanjfilmen framställs orättvist..

The purpose of this study is to survey how the Sweden Democrats? success in the latest election to the Swedish parliament has changed teaching in social science. The main question is: in what way has the success of the Sweden Democrats influenced social science teaching? This leads to following sub-questions: 1) how do the social science teachers define the Sweden Democrats, 2) how do teachers relate to the Sweden Democrats in the classroom, 3) has there been a change in students? political opinions and 4) were there any discussions or proposals from the school administration which followed the parliamentary election of 2010? To answer these questions, interviews were made with four teachers. The main conclusion of this study is that the Sweden Democrats? success led to a simplification of teaching because phenomena and opinions that were previously taboo nowadays are normalized and thus have its place in the classroom.

The political landscape is constantly changing and influenced by outside forces. The strong connection to the traditional media has evolved to include a new important part, social media. A good way for the politics to utilize social media is through their youth associations, whose main purpose is to engage young people and spark their interest in politics. Due to the increasing influence of social media, the politicians, parties and various actors have to adapt to its demands, to be able to gain visibility on these platforms. One way to adapt is to become more entertainment driven, because these platforms are a safespace where people find time to relax and have a good time. With a growing emphasis on simplified, engaging and more fun political massages, political communication has changed its form. This phenomenon is referred to as ?politainment? and encapsulates the merging of politics and entertainment. The purpose of this study is to examine and measure the frequency of politainment in Swedish political youth associations political communications.