The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon?s strengths and weaknesses.The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials.The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust..

The purpose of this study is to explore the Swedish site Funbeat which is a space dedicated to people who share an interest in exercising in general, and running in particular. By applying a netnographic analysis, I will investigate if Funbeat matches the criteria of a participatory culture and how the members manage to establish a collective intelligence within the community. In order to achieve this, I will analyze the interactivity between the participants which occurs in discussion threads concerning injuries related to running, in the sites discussion forum. The results will then be discussed in relation to previous research within the field for participatory culture, collective intelligence and interactivity.The outcome of the study revealed that Funbeat can be regarded as very good example of a participatory culture. By each member sharing their individual knowledge in matters regarding injuries, a collective intelligence was established.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how peace journalism was expressed in Swedish newspapers´ reporting on the war in Georgia 2008. We did this by analyzing whether the reporting was elite- or people-orientated depending on how suffering was expressed and how the war players were described.The method we used was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It was applied on news articles from four Swedish newspapers that covered three different happenings in the war in Georgia.We found out that the reporting was mainly elite-orientated, both when it comes to how suffering was expressed, as well as how the war players were described. The newspapers tended to focus on only one party?s suffering and one party as evil-doer, which is elite-orientated reporting and also an indication of war journalism rather than peace journalism..

This thesis is using the theory of participatory democracy to show how one can work to increase the participation in the society, between elections as well as during elections. For a couple of years now many traditional democratic countries have been struggling with low voting rates. Hence this, I find it interesting to study what has been done to cope with this problem. The government in Sweden had a project working on how to make more people involved in the democratic process, especially people that to a lesser extent participate in this process. In this thesis two projects will be studied, Möllevångsgruppen and Unga väljer Miljö i Malmö.

In the light of the problems the media industry are struggling with, local news reporting is only one of the challenges the news organizations are facing. When local editors is being moved to the cities the tie with the local community is being severed.The aim of this study has been to analyze how the inhabitants of Vilhelmina municipality talks about their experiences of local journalism. With methodological inspiration from the Critical discourse analysis (CDA) this study examined the discourses of local journalism, social media, journalism's role and municipal policy. The theorectical framework consisted theories of media and democracy, convergence culture and discourse theory.The survey was conducted with four focus groups interviews. The focus groups were divided in different cathegories based on the participants experiences, ages and employment.

In our bachelor thesis we have strived to examine the representation of journalism students in Nicaragua. The freedom of press is much lower compared to Sweden and the journalist profession is protected by a certificate. It is also a high level of corruption within the country. Our investigation concerns who has access to the journalist education and the goal is to compare that with the public in Nicaragua. To be able to examine the representation among the journalism students we have chosen seven different aspects to examine, the sex of the student, witch social class they belong to, their academic background, religion, ethnicity, geographical belonging and political view.

How can I make art that face people in their everyday lives, which is integrated into their lives, becoming a part of the discussions both in the mundane and in the room of society? Can I do this by working with performative interpretations that are participatory driven? I have explored how artists and participants can create spaces that are both open and confiden- ce-building, and how they at the same time enable us to question established norms. How to engage in dialogues concerning social, political and existential issues like; What is freedom for me - What is freedom to you? What is it that is important? Which topics are never upraised for discussion?The project is about putting thoughts, experiences and bodies (my own, the participants and the viewer?s) in relation to each other and to the location and context they are in. It ?s about creating a broader perspective where everyone?s voice is important and can take place.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the democratic situation and developement in Malung and Nyköping, through a perspective of participatory and deliberative democratic theories. The questions I?ve examined are On what priorities the actions of developing democracy are built? Which positive effects have been reached and what problems have arisen? What are the solutions they have found to the problems? How does one experience the results of the experiments and actions taken? What are the similarities and differences between the two cases? and What is their relationship to the theories mentioned above?The questions are answered through interviews with four central actors in each case and examined in relation to participatory and deliberative democratic theories and in comparison of the two cases.The results have been that even if none of the cases respond to one theoretical ideal, they have touches of both theories as well as representative theory. It shows, however, that in Malung the representative democracy theory is the strongest represented in actions and politics, while in Nyköping the participatory democratic theory is stronger. In short, the most positive and negative effects respond well to the theories..

Title:?Varför går man inte hårdare fram? ? En studie i krigsorienterad journalistik av Public Service från Ukrainakonflikten?Authors:Cemil Arikan, Staffan Florén Sandberg and Karl Henrik OlssonSubject:Undergraduate research paper in journalism studies, Dept. of journalism, media and communication (JMG) Gothenburg UniversityTerm:Spring 2014Supervisor:Mathias Färdigh, JMG, Gothenburg UniversityPages/words:48 pages/16701 wordsPurpose:The main purpose of the paper was to examine if and to what extent the conflict coverage of two Swedish public service news programmes from the ongoing Ukrainian conflict could be said to orientate towards either war or peace journalism.Method:Quantitative and qualitative content analysisProcedure:News broadcasts from Rapport 19:30 and Dagens Eko kvart-i-fem, covering the Ukrainian conflict, over a period of two months, were analyzed from the normative perspective of Johan Galtung?s peace journalism theory and Wilhelm Kempf?s theory of war and peace discourse.Results:Both Rapport and Dagens Eko were found orientating towards war journalism. Reports were given, in a great extent, to events of violence and verbal threats.

The purpose of this study has been to find out what possibilities the journalists at the newspaper Aftonbladet have to live up to the proposed ideas and values that defines journalism, as well as how these values are presented to the readers. With this as a starting-point we have studied what kind of society Aftonbladet presents to its readers as well as how this society is supposed to work and also what it`s like. To be able to answer this question we have first researched through theories and earlier studies, literature about journalism, media science, semiotics, history and laws. With the help of the investigation we found fitting tools to perform the analysis. With the theory as groundwork we have, through the qualitative approach analyzed seven news articles from seven Aftonbladet newspapers during one week.Our study shows that the Afonbladet?s journalists have not been able to present occurrences in society in a correct and impartial manner - because they exaggerate insignificant details and neglect to show real attention to serious societal structures by using sensationalism, dramatization and a very superficial approach to the stories that they are conveying.

Since the emergence of social media websites as an established part of our society, the landscape ofcommunication has undergone dramatic changes. Especially in the field of journalism, the impact ofsocial media websites, such as Twitter, has been the subject of discussions about the actual partsocial media play in communication and news reporting. The general opinion has been that socialmedia has revolutionized the way we communicate and that a shift in power is taking place as themasses now engage in, and affect, our societies way of spreading information. This study is acritical discussion about whether Twitter in particular, and social media in general, has affected thejournalistic field in the extent that many claim it has. By comparing theories about traditionalmedia, such as television and newspapers, with recent studies about Twitter, we conclude that it isto early to establish the role of social media.

The discussion about high culture and popular culture in our society has been going on for decades. In few places is it as loud as within culture journalism and the critics? society, where the question of what is good taste and what is dumb entertainment constantly gets brought to the surface. Film is a particularly vulnerable area, since it is such a universally appealing and rather young medium. In America and England several studies have been performed of the reviewing society and reveiwers? use of high and low art-discourse in their writing.

AbstractTitle: The war in Afghanistan ? a necessary evil? (Kriget i Afghanistan ? ett nödvändigt ont? En kritisk diskursanalys av New York Times ställningstagande till och framing av kriget i Afghanistan)Number of pages: 41 (41 including enclosures)Authors: Jenny Häggmark, Madeleine JanssonTutor: Christian ChristensenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall term 2011University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: Our main goal with this paper is to examine and describe how The New York Times have framed the war in Afghanistan in their editorials, and how their position on the war is reflected in the editorials. We are also interested in finding out if their position on the war has changed during the ten years of war. Are the New York Times editorials characterized by peace or war journalism?Material/Method: To fulfill our aim with this paper we are going to use a qualitative method of content analyzes, the critical discourse analysis, when we analyze the editorials selected.

Abstract Title: Krig och fred - 080808. Freds-, krigsjournalistik och propaganda i mediernas rapportering om Georgienkriget: en komparativ studie av Sveriges, Rysslands och USA:s press. (War and peace ? 080808. Peace Journalism, War Journalism and Propaganda in the Media´s Reporting on the Georgia War: a Comparative Study of the Swedish, Russian and American Press.)  Authors: Daniel Lövgren & Tatiana Makarova Tutor: Anna Roosvall Course: Bachelor Thesis: Media and Communication, PR Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to compare how the press in Sweden, Russia and the USA reported on the war in Georgia 2008.

A brush of paint on a grey compound wall can mean so much more than simply an addition of colour. It can meanan appropriation of public space, a shared public space enclosed by a wall now ?owned? by someone. It can meanan arisen conflict leading to debate about the right to use public space.The Wall Project is a Mumbai based beautification project that uses paint and outdoor walls to brighten uptheir city. The Urban Typhoon workshop is an activity set up in self-evolving neighbourhoods where municipalinterference is scarce.