Social media has made it possible to have a conversation in real time through audio, images and text, with anyone worldwide. The easy availability of social media has created a new society. Companies and organizations have the opportunity to interact with their audiences and their target in a way not previously possible. Welcome to the Web 2.0 world!Social media is a collective name for the communication channels that allow users to communicate directly with each other in real time through text, image or sound. Examples of social media are blogs, SMS, Skype, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Linkedin and Myspace.The purpose of this essay is to explore social media's role and opportunities in terms of being able to influence companies and organizations marketing communication. We have used a qualitative approach and our thesis is based on a qualitative text analysis study where we have analyzed 13 articles (the articles are from scholarly journals, magazines and trade/professional) from 2007 to 2009.

AbstractTitle: Foreign news coverage. Does the media influence the action in international crises? (Utrikesbevakning. Påverkar media agerandet i internationella kriser?)Number of pages: 39Author: Charlotta AndréssonTutor: Professor Lowe HedmanCourse: Media and communication studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Date of submission: 2007-01-03, autumn term of 2006Purpose/AimThe purpose of the essay is partly to examine if foreign news coverage influence the political agenda setting and the incentives of the public?s willingness to give charity for humanitarian crises.

Abstract Title: PR consultants and bloggers; a win-win situation? -  A study of PR consultants? new adaptations in the labour market due to the emergence of fashion bloggers. Authors: Cecilia Girell, Sandra Kjellstro?m Tutor: Ylva Ekstro?mPurpose: With the expansion of the Internet, fashion bloggers have gotten more power. A few companies have understood this powerful and reasonable cheap marketing channel. Despite this, most companies still feel powerless, but what has happened to the work of PR consultants in this constant changing media environment? The ones whos purpose is to act as intermediaries between companies and various media channels.

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediatization of Swedish politics on a municipal level. We live in a world were media affects many aspects of life. One of those aspects is the communication between the citizens and the politicians.Our main research questions are:To what extent do politicians communicate with journalists and who initiates these contacts?Do politicians talk to some types of media rather than others?What factors make a politician choose to speak to media?To what extent do leading Swedish municipal politicians use media strategies?To answer these questions we have used various theories to help us understand media?s role oftoday. First we explain the transformation that has taken part in Swedish media over the last century, from political party press to independent media companies.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.

AbstractTitle: External communication and brand strategies in Swedish municipalities? Author: Philip Hagne & Einar Svensson? Tutor: Jessica Gustafsson? Purpose: The aim of this thesis was to study and obtain greater understanding on how Swedish municipalities use external communication and branding strategies to gain and attract more residents. The key questions to be answered in this thesis were: What does the external communication look like in the selected municipalities? Are the selected municipalities trying to establish their own brand? What does the work on creating the brand look like??Method/Material: This thesis is based on material collected trough interviews with people working with external communication in eleven swedish municipalities. The selected municipalities where divided into two groups based on their negative or positive population growth between 2005 and 2012.

Swedish authorities have been dealt a mission by the Swedish state, where each agency works on the basis of their assignment. Communication has become more and more important for authorities, there are several reasons for the use of communication and they may differ from authority to authority. Some authorities claim that the purpose of the communication work is to create awareness and recognition among citizens. A communication form that has become increasingly important for government agencies is social media, according to the government authorities should implement social media in their communication work because it is very important that the authorities are available where the citizens are. Previous research has focused on the risks and opportunities that the social media generates for the public sector.

This study aims to map out the degree of mediatization present in the communication between Swedishpublic service journalists and politicians in the 2014 election campaign. In doing so we chose to look at thepresence of media logic in their communication with each other. Specifically, we have used the pre-electioninterviews with the party leaders from Sweden?s two biggest parties. Furthermore, we have chosen to focuson Sveriges Radio, the Swedish public service radio company.Sveriges Radio concists of four different radio channels, of which we have chosen to focus on the channelsP1 and P3, the first having a somewhat more ?serious? profile, focused on producing quality news and otherjournalistic products, while P3 is leaning towards a younger audience and describes its own work as ?soft,humorous and important radio?, mixed with music and other forms of entertainment.

Because social media is personal and reaches users directly, it has become an important means of communication for companies trying to reach out to their audience (Nygren & Wadbring, 2013). Especially the possibility of interactivity has been discussed as social media's big advantage. But how much two-way communication is actually possible on social media? This is a quantitative study that focuses on how Swedish Facebook users in the ages of 16-25 interact with companies on the social network. The aim was to contribute with increased information and knowledge about how the users mentioned above interact with the companies as well as how the users perceive the companies communication and presence on Facebook.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to describe the social media usage of five European official national tourism organizations (NTO). The essay proceeds to discuss and evaluate the findings, whilst reflecting on the advantages of social media usage from the point of view of an official national tourism organization.Method: The authors used three different methods of research: one structured observation to study the national tourism organizations? everyday work in social media, one field stimulation to study if and how different NTO respond if a prospective visitor makes them a direct question via social media and finally an email interview to gain insight into NTO?s underlying strategies and policies about social media usage.Theoretical framework: The theories that have been used in this paper include the Uses and gratifications model, theories of one-way and multi-way communication, theories of social media and relationship marketing.Conclusion: By making use of social media the company releases some of its control to the customers as the latter can express their opinions freely in this type of media. One of the advantages of social media is that the platform favors dialogue and feedback. Social media can be used for traditional one-way communication, but works best as a supplement to the regular marketing activities, allowing the activities on social media platforms to focus on branding and building long-term customer relationships.

The purpose of our study is to see how an organization, and also a administrative authority, communicates by using social media. The organization in this case is the Swedish Police, because of their paradoxical problem with confidentiality versus openness and transparency. The Police has over a hundred Facebook-accounts, where they try to have a open dialogue with their publics without breaking the law of secrecy. Our general purpose of the study is also to see what the pros and cons are of having a own media channel, instead of the traditional media and their often anticipation twists.The result of the study showed that the three different police precincts, which we investigated in our essay, are working in three different ways. The gap may affect their overall reputation and trust gained by their publics.

Title: Nätdejting för olika åldrar (Netdating for different ages)Author: Henri NekmouchePurpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what influence the medium Internethas had on building up relationships between people who have dated online, and tocompare two different age groups.Method/Material: In this study the author has conducted personal interviews with sixpeople who all have experienced Internet dating, and had their first contact with agirlfriend/boyfriend online. The questions asked were designed to help answering thepurpose of the study.Main results: This study shows that in general there is a positive view of Internet datingamong both groups. They appreciate the opportunities it provides, as they get to knowthe other persons personality first. Even so, it should be noted that they still tend to be abit ashamed to talk about Internet dating, and some don?t want to be associated with it.The communication pattern tend to be pretty much the same among both groups.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to describe the social media usage of five European official national tourism organizations (NTO). The essay proceeds to discuss and evaluate the findings, whilst reflecting on the advantages of social media usage from the point of view of an official national tourism organization.Method: The authors used three different methods of research: one structured observation to study the national tourism organizations? everyday work in social media, one field stimulation to study if and how different NTO respond if a prospective visitor makes them a direct question via social media and finally an email interview to gain insight into NTO?s underlying strategies and policies about social media usage.Theoretical framework: The theories that have been used in this paper include the Uses and gratifications model, theories of one-way and multi-way communication, theories of social media and relationship marketing.Conclusion: By making use of social media the company releases some of its control to the customers as the latter can express their opinions freely in this type of media. One of the advantages of social media is that the platform favors dialogue and feedback. Social media can be used for traditional one-way communication, but works best as a supplement to the regular marketing activities, allowing the activities on social media platforms to focus on branding and building long-term customer relationships.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to describe the social media usage of five European official national tourism organizations (NTO). The essay proceeds to discuss and evaluate the findings, whilst reflecting on the advantages of social media usage from the point of view of an official national tourism organization.Method: The authors used three different methods of research: one structured observation to study the national tourism organizations? everyday work in social media, one field stimulation to study if and how different NTO respond if a prospective visitor makes them a direct question via social media and finally an email interview to gain insight into NTO?s underlying strategies and policies about social media usage.Theoretical framework: The theories that have been used in this paper include the Uses and gratifications model, theories of one-way and multi-way communication, theories of social media and relationship marketing.Conclusion: By making use of social media the company releases some of its control to the customers as the latter can express their opinions freely in this type of media. One of the advantages of social media is that the platform favors dialogue and feedback. Social media can be used for traditional one-way communication, but works best as a supplement to the regular marketing activities, allowing the activities on social media platforms to focus on branding and building long-term customer relationships.

AbstractTitle: See each other on the Internet or on a café? A survey about social consequences of Internet usage. (Umgås på Internet eller på ett café? ? en studie om Internetanvändningens sociala konsekvenser.)Number of pages: 34 (including enclosures).Author: Carolin Johansson.Tutor: Else Nygren.Course: Media and communication studies C.Period: Fall 2007.University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose is to get increased knowledge about the social consequences that may come up when young people at the age of 16-20 are using the Internet.Material/Method: The material consists of a questionnaire that I made with questions about Internet usage that 84 young people from five classes (from three different upper secondary schools) answered.Main results: To have access to a computer and Internet and the fact that broadband is more inexpensive now than before leads to an increased usage of the Internet. I found out that chatting, music/movies, searching for information and using the Internet for entertainment is what most of the participants spent the most time on while using the Internet.