Title: Constructing identity on Facebook.com ? A qualitative ethnographyNumber of pages: 40 (34)Author: Clara LindholmTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and communications studies CPeriod: HT (Autumn) 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of InformationScience, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose is to study how the social community Facebook.com canbe used in order to construct identity. The study follows three Facebook users in anobservation where they are able to document their thoughts and reflections in anprivate media diary. This study investigates their use of the medium and focuses onthe functions with which they are able to alter their profiles. The result consists of acombination of these reflections, interviews and a selection of literature relevant tothe subject of new media, the use of social internet communities and social sciencetheories.

After being excluded from the Swedish Social Democrat party in 1917, the Revolutionary Socialists founded the Social Democrat Left Party. From this point onwards, the Social Democratic hegemony and dominant position within the Swedish workers movement and political landscape was challenged. This thesis aims to investigate the power struggles between these two parties, the Revolutionary Socialists and the Social Democrats, and their desire to influence control of the unions. Taking cues from earlier research calling for a more localized look at this struggle, this thesis turns to a case study of union matters of the the Factory Workers Union Local 84, at Västerviks Tändsticksfabrik, a match manufacturer and largest employer in the Swedish coastal town of Västervik from 1925 to 1930. Organizational material including meeting protocols, annual reports and member registration lists from the local political parties, cooperative union organizations (VFS) and Local 84 serve as secondary data sources.

Aim. The aim of this study is to analyze the living conditions of physically disabled people from the viewpoint of sexuality issues with regards to personal assistance services, identity and attitudes in society on disability and sexuality. Background. Not much research is done on sexuality issues for physically disabled people. Even though we live in a society where sexuality takes up a lot of space in the media, the culture and is acknowledged to be of great importance for every person?s wellbeing, the sexuality of disabled people is often not recognized and discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the process of developing an identity as a skateboarder during adolescence. Our aim was to, from the actors? point of view explore what impact their values, experiences and thoughts have on their identity as individuals as well as a collectivity. We also investigated which symbols that are significant for this group. For this essay a qualitative method was used; we conducted nine individual interviews and one group interview with young skaters from the ages of 15-17.

The European Union is a self proclaimed leader in the field of climate change and has a common target for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. In spite of this, there are great differences between the member states capacity and dedication to the cause of implementing the Unions climate policy and reduce their emissions. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to an understanding of how different European states construct their identity in the context of climate change mitigation. By analyzing national documents from three European states and using tools deriving from discourse analysis, I aim to illuminate differences and similarities in their rhetoric. The result is that due to the states relationship to the European Union and the United Nations, there are great similarities in the way they construct mitigation and their identity.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish governments discourse on integration of immigrants and thereby examine what social reality it constructs. The aim is to examine how integration and immigrants are constructed within the discourse. The method and theory being used in this essay is discourse theory. As a methodological instrument we use the policy on functional impairment as a comparison. The material being analyzed in this essay is political documents on the strategy on integration policy and the strategy on the policy of functional impairment.

The aim for this essay is to investigate students attitudes to a local schoolboard with student majority to determin the level of functionality, relevancy and interest for this schoolboard among the students in a Swedish gymnasium in Örebro. This is done by distibution of a questionnaire form to a third of the students in the third grade . The results show that the attitudes overall amongst the students are positive, although the level of interest is low. One explanation for this low level of interest could be the lack of information from the school board to the students..

In this study we have investigated the news interview both from the perspective of the journalists and of the subjects of the interview.We have made interviews with 50 persons who participated as sources in the news and with 21 journalist who wrote the articles in the local newspapers Östran and Barometern in Kalmar, the 21 of November 2008.The journalists were asked to tell their story of how the articles where produced, how they prepared before the interviews, if they had an image of the articles in advance and if they were satisfied with the outcome of the article. The persons who had been interviewed were asked to tell us how they felt about the interviews, if they were satisfied with the outcome of the article, if they could consider being in the newspaper again and to give their opinion of local journalism.Most of the persons who had been quoted in the articles said that at least one or two things went wrong in the articles. Despite this they would not hesitate to be interviewed the newspaper again.Surprising for us was to see how often the journalists get ?served? with both the news and the subjects of the interview. It was for an example often that the Journalists visited press conferences and wrote articles from press releases.

Social media on the internet allows both public and private actors to communicate with each other. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the relationship between the public and the private in social media on the internet, specifically with emphasis on the identities which are shaped in this relationship. The social media explored in this study is the micro blog Twitter. Data was collected from the pages of three public and private actors on Twitter, specifically with concern to their interaction with public and/or private actors. The data was analysed with support in sociological theories on modernity, identity, self-identity, socialisation and Erving Goffman's theories on everyday expression.

Title: Identity management on Facebook: a qualitative study in approaches to personal identity between two different age groups on the most public stage of our time (Identitetshantering på Facebook: En kvalitativ studie om förhållningssättet till den egna identiteten hos två olika åldersgrupper på vår tids mest offentliga scen).Number of pages: 43.Author: Isabelle Kåge.Tutor: Amelie Hössjer.Course: Media and Communication Studies C.Period: Fall Semester 2010.University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: To identify differences in attitudes towards and management of personal identity onFacebook within two different age groups.Material/Method: Personal interviews, literature, electronic sources, Internet sources.Main results: Those in the younger age group present themselves differently depending on the person or persons with whom they are communicating. Those in the older age group however, present themselves in a more consequent matter based upon the visibility their actions have to all their friends on Facebook as a whole. The definitions of certain elements on Facebook, such as what constitutes private information or anexcess of photo-tags, differ between the two age groups. Comments and feedback differ in importance and effect between the two age groups. Those in the younger age group are more likely to modify their attitudes towards their identities based upon the functions of Facebook.

The aim of this thesis is to illustrate the principal problem of the study of national self-images and by questioning the congruent existence of one in the case of Sweden. Through the use of qualitative method and semi-structured interviews the ambition of the study is to compare and to understand the national self-images portrayed in a major Swedish town, Stockholm and to that of a smaller town on the countryside, Sjöbo. A social constructionist approach in co-operation with key temporal and spasial dimensions are used to penetrate the interviews at hand. The main conclusions drawn from this study highlights the difficulties in addressing the concept of a congruent national self-image. Several major discrepancies appear in the analysed material, mainly in the past and the external dimensions, both from a regional approach, but also very much within the local entities themselves..

Although English is commonly used in Swedish advertising, little is known about its effects. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how a Swedish or English language choice in product advertisements affects the effectiveness of the ad. Further, a local/global dimension of the advertisement was created to investigate how the results differ for local and global brands. Subsequently, an experiment was conducted where the effect of language choice on several well-established measures of ad effectiveness such as awareness, comprehension of the ad message, credibility, attitude and buying intentions was analyzed. In line with previous research, English in product advertisements is not completely comprehended since English is not the local language in Sweden.

With varied electoral success for anti-immigration parties across Western Europe, Sweden is often held as an example where anti-immigration parties have been less successful. This have caught the interest of many scientists around the world and have recently developed theories on a subnational level when testing Sweden?s municipalities, on why they have failed here but not in other countries. But in the election to 2010, Sweden now joins the rest of the Western-European countries in having an anti-immigrations party in the parliament.This paper has tested three theories on a Municipality that has shown evident support for the Sweden democrats, both in the local and the national election. This is done with a qualitative approach, made up from interviews with the local established parties.

What is discussed here are the events taking place in Sweden in 1885, a turbulent year in Swedish art history. It is shown how the conception of Swedish art, in creating a Swedish identity in art, was expanded.  Two exhibitions were analyzed, Akademiens för de fria konsterna Jubileumsutställning and Opponenternas utställning. While the artists exhibiting at the Academy were using traditional strategies and thechniques, several artists at Opponenterna, were using modern techniques they had learned outside the Academy, mostly in France. These techniques were: experimenting with perspective and the use of empty spaces in mediating ambiance. The third strategy was that of individualization by moving closer to the motif.

Local charges may induce people to change their pattern of consumption by influencing investments and acts in certain directions. Some charges could for example give people incentives to use less natural resources. This study investigates four different local charges and whether they benefit an economical management with natural resources or not. This is carried out by investigating whether there is a polarity between local charges that may influence environmental actions or goods, and effective pollution control set to achieve certain nationally determined environmental goals. The study includes two economic perspectives and investigates on the one hand whether local charges counteract governmental subsidies and on the other hand whether the charges vary between the different municipalities since large differences may lead to cost inefficiency.