Abstract: The purpose with this study is to analyse the political debate about freedom of speech in Sweden and Denmark, after the caricatures of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed that the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten published in September 2005. For this debate four political parties have been chosen. These are: Socialdemokratiska Partiet and Moderata Samlingspartiet in Sweden and Socialdemokraterne and Venstre in Denmark.An idea analysis has been chosen as method, and dimensions as an analysing tool. The overall result of the analysis is that right- and left political parties in Sweden and Denmark are more alike, than different in their political debate about free speech. They all wish for total freedom of speech, and see that as the foundation of the democratic society.

The thesis explores how the category religion is used discursively in Swedish public debates and in what way the discourses can be related to debate-positions. The thesis also exploresquestions of power and how social identities are negotiated: which identities are madepossible ? and encouraged ? by the discourse, and which are being excluded?The specific cases chosen are: (i) the election of Omar Mustafa as a substitute member of the governing board of the Social Democratic party in April 2013, (ii) the appointment of Elisabeth Svantesson as Minister of employment in September 2013, (iii) the debate concerning male circumcision (2011-2013), and, (iv) the debate about Jewish home education(2012-2013).The theoretical and methodological perspectives used in the thesis are discourse analysis and Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of social fields, usually interwoven together. Discourse analysis is mainly used to explore how the category of religion is attached to central binaries in the debates such as faith/politics, private/public, secularism/fundamentalism, etc., and also how chains of equivalences are established. Bourdieu?s theory of social fields is used tocontextualize the discourses in the specific debates and relate them to orthodox and heterodox debate-positions.

The empirical material of this study consisted of tweets by four leading politicians in Sweden: Carl Bildt of Nya Moderaterna, Annie Lo?o?f of Centerpartiet, A?sa Romson of Miljo?partiet and Jonas Sjo?stedt of Va?nsterpartiet. The aim of the study was to examine how they use Twitter as a political tool and what that says of the mediatization of politics. What content did they publish, how did the content differentiate between them and what political messages and other subjects occurred in their tweets? Does the political debate become fragmented because they?re only allowed to use 140 characters on Twitter? The theoretical framework and method applied for the research was based upon critical discourse analysis (CDA), with special interest in ideology and mediatized discourse.The result of the study showed that the content they published consisted mostly of criticism towards political opponents, rather than of independent political opinions.

This paper has its aim to investigate in which way the theory about the dynamic of the triadic nexus, presented by Brubaker, needs to be revised. In the first place this theory is presented and after then applied on the triad formed by: the Hungarian national minority in Transylvania, Romania and Hungary. Through the empirical evidences, that are presented here by following up the political relations and its dynamics over time between the three fields, is shown that the theory is usable for the case in question. Further as we approach the more actual development of the political life in the triad appears a need to deal with one more field which would be for example the NATO or/and EU.This means that Brubakers theory has to be revised so it would take in account a forth field and that of an international organization/institution. The arguments for this needed change is put forth through empirical evidences on the political relations that the two states has with NATO or/and EU and the huge influence these have on the states..

The aim of this essay is to examine whether democracy in St Petersburg isconsolidated or not. Since studies of democratic transition have been rarelyconducted on post-communist cities, this study seems fruitful. Using the Linz andStepan theory, where democracy is considered consolidated when it has become?the only game in town? and Orttung's three criteria legitimacy, politicalpolarisation and policy effectiveness; this essay analyzes people's attitudes,political behaviour, the rule of law and civil society in St Petersburg. Theory isused to interpret the material mainly consisting of two interviews and newspaperarticles.

Purpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to (1) analyze the amount of exposure disability sports get in Swedens biggest newspaper (Aftonbladet), (2) look at how Aftonbladet portraits disability sports and it?s athletes, and finally (3)  to see if there has occurred any change over time (during the last eight years). Material/Method: The first method used is a quantitative analysis to measure exposure.The second method is a quantitative content analysis which is used to analyze how disability sports are portrait.The third method is rhetorical and is also used to analyze how disability sports are portrayed. Main results: The study has shown that disability sports get very little exposure in Aftonbladet. The articles in the newspaper that cover disability sports are portrayed from a personal point of view without much focus on the athletes achievements regarding his or her sport.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

The aim of this study is to explain and analyse political steering of public libraries in Swedish municipalities and the roles of politicians and administrators in this process. To fulfil this purpose five municipalities have been studied. It is argued that both politicians and administration have to be included in a study of steering and that the relation between politicians and administrators should be seen as an interplay. Planning and evaluation are discerned as the two main activities in the steering process. The material in this study consists mainly of information collected through interviews with library responsible politicians and library managers in all five municipalities.The results show that libraries are considered politically uncontroversial and that politicians see little need for political interference and steering.

Before the general election 2006 all of the Swedish parties represented in the Parliament held their political party conference. At each political party conference, the leader for respectively party held their opening speech, a speech that was covered by the press. This essay deals with how the press covers these speeches. Analysing how the different speeches were covered by the press, some tendencies regarding how the press report could be visualised. In this comparison the ?quantitative content analysis? was used.

The subject for this thesis is to analyze the Swedish political the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) through the use of history theories. The purpose is to examine the following two questions:1. what types of history consciousness is present in the source material2. the use of history (historiebruk) shown in the source materialThe source material has consisted two official party publications, Sverigedemokraternas principprogram from 2005 and 2011.The main theoretical frameworks for the analysis has consisted of the typology for use of history as presented by professor Klas-Göran Karlsson together with selected theories connected to history consciousness, not the least the model presented by Bernard Eric Jensen.The result of the analysis shows frequent examples where the use of history and history consciousness is present in the rhetoric used in the source material. By tracing the use back to the theories selected Sverigedemokraterna?s deployment of use of history and history consciousness is interpreted and discussed..

Marks do not only work as an acknowledge of the effort that has been made under a long period of time, but also as a receipt for eligibility to further studies. Within the political debate, marks have often caused a big discussion among the political parties. That is due to the obvious difference between the political parties on the left, and their counterparts on the right. However, there is one thing that they all have in common. Everyone of them have plans of measure within their political agenda, regarding the use of marks.The aim of this study has been to try to understand the way pupils think about marks.

The subject this thesis will investigate concerns the matter of how political ideologies exist within public libraries with a focus on the democratic ideal. Public libraries are part of the political system and we want to show how political ideologies take their shape in public libraries and the possible consequences of this. With the help of three major political ideologies, liberalism, conservatism and socialism we investigate how the democratic ideals of these ideologies are expressed in documents that describes activities the libraries will and have performed. In order to identify these ideologies we use discourses in cultural policy as a bridge between the investigated documents and the political ideologies. As an analytical tool we have developed a model that describes the relation between text, discourse and ideology which we use in our analysis.

AbstractAim: The aim of the study is to analyze ten different columns written by Linda Skugge, in order to see what kind of rhetorical means she uses to get her message across. It is also to examine if, and to what extent, these means are of female nature, and to see what kind of persona Skugge uses in order to be trustworthy.Method: Rhetorical analysis of ten columns written by Linda SkuggeMain results: The study has shown that Skugge´s rhetorical strategies differ from the ones recommended in theories about female speech. Skugge writes with a lot of character and emotionally based arguments, which, according to the theories, is more of a male way of speaking. Skugge gives an impression of being strong, competitive and offensive in her character, but also reveals that her role is consciously chosen in order to receive respect and to gain power.Number of pages: 42Course: Media- and Communication studies DUniversity: Department of Information science, University of UppsalaPeriod: Spring 2005Tutor: Amelie HössjerKeywords: rhetoric, rhetorical analysis, feminist studies, persona, Linda Skugge.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Swedish society has gone through a great change. Firstly with the personal computer and then with the internet moving in to everyday life, a new arena for interaction with society evolved. Work, education, doing bank errands and reading or discussing the news, just to name a few, now all take place in the virtual world online. Not to mention social media sites such as twitter, instagram or facebook, the last of which has over half of the Swedish population represented as members.   Companies, corporations, interest groups, political parties and politicians must be aware of the massive impact that a post spread through social media can have.    This thesis will, with the text analyzing tool, argumentation analysis, and on the theoretical platform of political communications theory, analyze three of the most viral Swedish political posts spread over 120 000 times each, to see if there are any combined qualities that point to the fact that there is a formula for getting a post to become a viral success on social media.    The main result showed that of the three posts analyzed, all were built up around a factual thesis, argued for with foremost example arguments, not only appealing to the logical branch of argumentation but also to the ethical, and that they tended to be of high relevance and sustainability. The conclusion must therefore be that these are all qualities that tend to be of relevance for making a political post on social media into a viral success..

This is a qualitative study about Art transformation and commodification in the digital age. The study applies a rhetoric analysis with the aim to understand how art sellers, gallery owners and entrepreneurs take part in this transformation process through their websites? presentation texts ?about us?. The analysis is related to communication theories but it is also inspired by other theories such as Gramsci?s hegemony theory and Bourdieu?s cultural critical theory.