There are lots of theories about participatory democracy, but rather few examples of how to create it in practice. In the 1930´s, scientists at the Chicago School, implemented some projects within the Chicago Area Project, with the aim to decrease the youth delinquency in the socio disadvantaged areas surrounding Chicago. In this thesis, I assess wether these projects, and in particular the one at the Russell Square Area, have some common features with the thoughts of two of the most famous participatory democrats, Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber. My question is if the Chicago Area Project could be seen as an experiment in participatory democracy. I find that participatory democrats could benefit from the experiences of the Chicago Area Project.

In Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave theory about populism as a political communication-style they claim that one can find this in the rhetoric of political parties. In their study of Belgian politics they found that the extreme-right party Vlaams Block has embraced this populism to a larger extent than other parties. Based on this theory this thesis aims at finding populism as a communication-style in three different Swedish political parties with the purpose to see if the extreme-right party ?The Sweden Democrats? will show populism to a larger extent than other parties, as was the case in the Belgian study.Based on Jagers and Walgraves operational definition of populism as a political communication-style this thesis applies it to the rhetoric of three different parties being ?The Social Democratic Party?, ?The Moderate Party? and ?The Sweden Democrats?. This is done in order to be able to clarify on the one hand if their theory is applicable to the Swedish case and on the other hand to what extent populism as a communication-style exists in Swedish political rhetoric.The method for this thesis has been a qualitative text analysis since and leads to the result that Jagers and Walgraves theory of populism as a communication-style is applicable to the Swedish case and that ?The Sweden Democrats? to a larger extent uses this political communication style, than the two other parties..

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.

The purpose of this study is to discover and explain the influences of media coverage of organizational crises on crisis communication, and vice versa. The study also shows how mediated crises develop, and how media framing and news sources affect this development.Carried out as a case study of three Swedish mediated crises, the methods used are quantitative and qualitative content analysis of media content from four Swedish newspapers and four organizations' press releases from the studied crises.Mediated crises develop through their specific pattern regardless of, but not independent from, the organizations' crisis communication. The crisis communication is used as an elite source in media reporting from the crises, but it can not control the mediated crises. However, it influences framing, and the possibilities to influence media reporting are better in the pre-crisis phase and the culmination..

Many media buyers annually spend money on advertising which will not be of benefit to their own brand; the fact that consumers confuse from which brand they have heard or seen commercials, comes as news to nobody. The phenomenon of media confusion has however earned much less attention. As a greater part of the total marketing budget is being spent on the media investments, on behalf of the actual advertising production, the more interesting it turns out to maximize the effects of the media expenses. The search for optimization is somewhat practised today by brand managers who are daringly adding a few more media channels to support their TV-campaigns. Buying ad space in TV is nevertheless much more expensive than the radio equivalent.

The way in which media discusses religion has changed over time. Due to the separation of state and church in 2000, the Swedish state to a lesser extent legitimizes its political ruling with references to religious concepts. As a result, a higher tolerance towards religious minorities can be said to have taken place. This is an ambiguous change however, where critique raised towards religious practices and expressions of minorities also occurs to a higher extent. The public debate is in large part conducted through the media, but is also seen to be produced and reproduced through the media?s discourse.

This case study is an attempt to give empirical support to Georgio Agambens theory, regarding how the exceptions from the constitutional order should be regarded as a constant element in modern societies. The purpose was to investigate if Agambens theory is valid in the Swedish context. The exception, as definied by Agamben, is a reappearing phenomenon, which implies that the constitutional order is fragile. Individuals and groups are transferred into ?homo sacers?, meaning people that is to be regarded as legally naked, and offset from the rest of society.What then is it that make the legal norms fragile? In this thesis I will discuss the causality of moral panic.

Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study the critics own views upon their profession and upon the development of criticism, and to thereafter set this in relation to contemporary theory and debates.Material/Method: A qualitative study pursued through personal interviews. The results are categorized and split into different themes.Main Results: Through media convergence and a changed media culture the conditions for criticism have also been altered. But in spite of various negative prophecies, these changes cause no serious threat to criticism. New forums and new forms of criticism actually increase the importance of the traditional ditto as the authoritative voice that holds the field together. Still, there are questions and fears about a future seemingly less and less predictable.

When it comes to investigating the motives behind activism, the members of political study have a lot to say. I aimed to critiqually rewiev this in my thesis. I asked the question ?What do the actor themselves claim lay behin their decision to become motivated?? To highlight this complex dilemma, I sought to discuss new social movement theory by comparing it to reality. This includes a literate examination on contemporary political science approaches, and a study of two organisations in the south of Sweden, choosen not to despise any excisting theory, but to give it a sense of reality.

In December 2004 an earthquake coursed waves that hit Thailand. Over 5000 people died, and Sweden was the tourist country that has been effected the worst. The catastrophe precipitated Sweden in crises and the demand became high for Swedish government to act. Swedes followed the development via media, why media became the crucial element for how the public perceived politicians? acting.

This study is based on an inductive approach where the collected empirical data has been categorized in themes on which we have based the discussion in this paper. Using a qualitative method, nine appropriately selected respondents were questioned with an unstructured interview guide. The transition to a society characterized by interaction has caused a greater part for bilateral communication between consumer and consumer but also between consumer and company. The increased usage and integration on Internet has resulted in so called social media channels. User generated material is published on these media channels which leads to discussions about companies, products and services.

The purpose of this study is to discuss how journalists think about the interaction with the audience in social media and the fact that it can make the traditional audience feel excluded. The study shows how journalists on P4 Kalmar is experiencing audience interaction in social media and describes how aware the journalists are about the digital divide. The results show that all of our interviewed journalists think that the interaction with the audience through social media works well and that there is awareness among journalists about the digital divide. The results also show that many of the interviewed journalists had not reflected on that parts of the audience can feel excluded by the interaction taking place in social media, but some of them could understand if parts of the audience felt that way. We consider our study as part of a research field on journalist?s interactivity with the audience through different types of media, but also as source of inspiration for future research on how the digital media becomes one with the community..

The goal of this essay is to analyse how women belonging to a right wing political discourse talk about feminism and equality. This analysis will be used to determine if right wing feminism exists. The analysis is based on Laclau and Mouffe´s  discourse theory as the primary base. The focus is articulation, antagonism and hegmony; the central terms of Laclau and Moffe´s theroy. The material consists of five interviews with representatives of women wings of liberal political in Sweaden; Liberala kvinnor, Centerkvinnor and Moderatkvinnor.The study shows that there are different opinions regarding feminism in the liberal political discouse, and that those opinions have an antagonistic relationship.

This bachelor thesis explores earlier findings regarding the Nextopia effect and the choice of media for advertising, and how these phenomena influence consumer attitudes toward the ad itself as well as the brand. It also explores the effect of advertising future products and advertising in two different media on the third person effect. Lastly, it addresses the effect of advertising of future products and media choice on the attitude of potential investors..