Many of us have grown up hearing or using words meant as insults or negative adjectives that were in fact names for social groups. Most of them have gone unquestioned in the mainstream consciousness, but the term Gay in the generally negative meaning has in the past years been given attention as offensive and homophobic, with debates emerging in response over whether or not this is true, particularly on the internet. It is the articles and forum threads from these debates that make out the empirical material for a qualitative study as I ask what these people?s thoughts are about this term and how it is perceived.After a qualitative coding and analysis of these texts, and interpretation of the results based on Erving Goffman?s theory of Phantom acceptance and stigma terms, Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, Ferdinand de Sassure?s theory of signifier and signified and how it connects to the community and Baudrillards theory of simulacra, this is the principal conclusion that I have drawn:For some of the people in this debate, the term Gay and its use is about homophobia and heterosexism, though mostly it?s not overt but a subconscious part of the continued dehumanization and stigmatization of homo- and bisexual people. This is a position I callThe socially focused skepticism.

There are no guidelines regarding how companies should design status updates on Facebook which attain good readability and engage the readers. Half the Swedish population are Facebook-users, but companies have yet to publish comprehensible messages on Facebook which effectively include the recipients. Inclusion is not just a matter of accessibility, but also of readability.Therefore, I studied how status updates should be designed on Facebook in order to increase the readability and to engage the readers. My target group is 22-32 year olds, since the company I worked with wanted to target this group. I conducted my research through literature studies, interviews with the client, analysis of past status updates, questioned an expert in social media, and organized a group interview with the target group.My research shows that status updates should contain information that is topical, informative and relevant to the target group.

Polaris Eyewear is one of the world's leading companies in innovative eyeweardesign. My assignment has been to, in collaboration with them, expand their range with a pair of children's glasses, while maintaining the innovative character they are so known for.The problem with childrens eyewear today is that most of the time the glasses tries to mimic the adult eyewear and the ?childish? type of designing is spared. From an ergonomic point of view, a child's nose is smaller than an adults and therefore needs a different type of shape and nosebridge. In addition, children have softer ears, which means that they need a different type of shaftend as well.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Skogsstyrelsens event Skogens Dag as an information channel by looking at information use and information behaviour during the communication process of the event. This is done by examining the aims of Skogsstyrelsens information distribution during the event in relation to its outcomes. The evaluation is focused on long term effects on the target group and it is restricted to Skogens Dag in Borås 2005. The question this thesis intends to answer is: How does the event Skogens Dag function as a tool for information distribution? The theoretical background gives an account of the communication process as well as the relevant aspects of marketing, social marketing, campaigns and public relations, as these are communication attempts that can use an event as a medium.

The aim of this study was to examine musculoskeletal disorders among dental hygienists inrelation to work postures (sitting, standing, and altering) and to study differences in thegroups regarding numbers of disorders, locations and degrees. A mail questionnaire wasdistributed among 200 dental hygienists in the region of Skåne. The response rate was 79 %.The majority of the dental hygienists were working in a sitting position. Only43 dental hygienists were altering their working position and two were working in a standingposition. The results showed that 85 % of the dental hygienists have experiencedmusculoskeletal disorders in the last 12 months.

The essay deals with questions concerning the reasons, difficulties and subjects for rejoicing which various people experience when visiting "voluntarily" old, lonely people in the congregation of Trollhättan. What knowledge is developed and which values are formed? How is aging and solitude experienced? The visits are co-ordinated by two lay workers employed by the Swedish Church. The study is built on oral interviews in April and May 2003 from a questionaire using open questions. The research group consists of six women between 65-80 of age with 1-30 years´ experience.Inner reasons, contact with other people in similar situations, positive responses to visits, and meetings in the visiting service group seem to be the principal driving forces.

The theoretical background in this essay made clear that the students? knowledge about physics improve, and they express a more positive attitude towards physics as a subject, when they have access to a more laboratory-based learning style. The aim of this study is to research how the placement of the lab relative to the lecture affects the students? experiences and level of knowledge. The study involved students in year eight and was carried out during four weeks.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa undersökning är att jag vill beskriva och analysera homosexuellas komma-ut-processer. Datainsamlingsmetoden som använts är intervjucitat med kvinnor från den skrivna litteraturen, Lesbisk identitet, Dubbelliv och Komma ut, samt livsvärldsbaserade temaintervjuer med tre av mina vänner. I intervjuerna har jag utgått från dessa olika teman; upptäckt, resans gång och dagsläge. Jag har även med ett par citat från egna erfarenheter.Mina teorier jag har använt mig av är, Fuchs Ebaughs Exitprocess, Pennebakers begrepp Disclosure och Inhibtion, jag har även använt mig av interaktion, roll- och stigma inom socialpsykologi. Jag kommer att göra ett försök till att beskriva och analysera dessa områden inom mitt ämne; komma-ut-process i sin helhet, Vad är det som påverkar kvinnornas agerande i en komma-ut-process och hur personer i det sociala nätverket involveras i en komma-ut-process.

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the knowledge about the comprehensibility of the easy-to-read civic information. In the study I present my analysis of the content of four easy-to-read texts from four government authorities. The analysis constitutes the starting point for interviews with the target group ? people with a minor mental retardation ?, but it also reveals some possible difficulties for the intended readers. In the empirical study ten persons from the target group were asked to read a text and the comprehension was tested by oral questions about facts in the text.

The aim of this paper is to investigate to what degree the groups in our inquiry work independently. It is a qualitative research, which points to a well?functioning unit, that by definition is not self-governing, but has many traits of self- government. We have reached to the conclusion, that complete self?government does not have to be the best solution, if you want both quality and efficiency.

Our thesis focus on how retirees perceive Tv4s news casts of economy news where we focused on five different aspects: What is the relationship between the news cast and the viewer and how does the viewer express their understanding of the news cast and the way it is constructed? What are the viewers attitude towards the news content and how do they find the news cast useful for them personally?We choosed retirees as our target group due to their vulnerable economic position in today?s society and TV as an important medium for them due to the digital divide. The study was performed with twelve qualitative interviews and one group interview where six retirees took part.We discovered a big interest for economic news in the target group. The majority had a sympathetic view of the news cast they saw but they also expressed skepticism toward the economy segment and/or news castings. The majority expressed a lack of trust for the journalists and the experts brought in to share observations and make announcements, and the financial business overall.

The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.

This thesis aims to identify bottlenecks in the internal communication of aSwedish public library. Specifically, it addresses the behaviour of the library staff when they seekfor work-oriented information through interaction with their colleagues. A fundamental assumptionof this study is that the information-seeking process depends on organisational culture. I have madean exploratory case study in a medium-sized Swedish public library, where relevant issues areidentified and correlated with the culture of the organisation.I have used Schein's three-level model to describe the culture of the library; this model definesculture as a set of basic assumptions and the actions of people as expressions of their culture. Datafor the study were gathered using several approaches, including interviews with the library staff andobservations of them.

This thesis aims to study brand change, which can be of interest since a brand during its lifetime can be expected to meet a lifecycle consisting of five phases; innovation, introduction, growth, maturity and recession. In order to avoid the recession phase and the sales decline that follows there is a need for a change of the brand.In order to study brand change, theoretical framework is compared to two real world cases that have gone through an active change.The conceptions of positioning, repositioning and revitalization are clarified. Positioning deals with how brands are located in customer?s minds as well as on the real market. Repositioning implies a change of the current position and is also often a move towards a new market segment.

The essay discusses a process of change at probationservice office. The purpose of the change was to decrease specialisation and increase flexibility of the probation officers. The change encountered several problems where the correctional supervisor was percieved to act unsurely and indecisively whilst parts of the staff constructed and implimented several courses of action to prevent the process of change..