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.

Who will win? Popular and literary framing in media coverage of Nobel Prize in Literature by Magnus Wennerberg Autumn 2013Instructor Mats Ekström The question at issue in this essay is how does mass media frame Nobel Prize in Literature? The starting point is to study whether game framing is occuring in media coverage of Nobel Prize in Literature. Previously, game framing has been studied in coverage of politcs, contrasted against issue framing. Game framing means that media frame politics as a game, a contest between Politicians about power. This kind of framing is supposed to be used by media in purpose of attracting larger audience.

ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear Politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

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.

This essay sets out to compare political participation in two e-petition systems: The Malmö initiative in Malmö, Sweden, and Better Reykjavik in Reykjavik, Iceland. The main question of the essay concerns the aggregative and deliberative qualities of the Malmö initiative and Better Reykjavik, as well as the relationship between aggregation and deliberation. This main question is divided into four subqueries that lead the empirical analysis. These are: (1) Which similarities and differences in terms of design are there between the Malmö initiative and Better Reykjavik? (2) To what extent have these systems mobilized an aggregative political participation? (3) What similarities and differences are there concerning aspects of deliberation? and (4) What is the correlation between aggregation and deliberation like in the two e-petition systems?The method in use is a comparative cross-sectional study with a 'most similar research design'.

From a democratic viewpoint, the way in which the media frames politics is essential. Should issue frames be left out in favor of other types of frames, it could result in voters struggling to make informed decisions come Election Day. What is more, research shows that game frames may cause lack of confidence in Politicians and declining political interest. Against this background, the present study aimed to find out how two broadsheets, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and two tabloids, Aftonbladet and Expressen, framed politics in connection with the 2014 Swedish parliamentary elections. The thesis also intended to identify possible differences between the two newspaper types and to make tentative comparisons with previous studies so as to be able to comment on framing developments.

Abstract"The war on terror" has resulted in numerous exceptions from the constitutional order. This thesis is an attempt to give empirical support to Georgio Agambens theory that these exceptions should be regarded as a constant element in modern societies based on a constitutional order. The results of the case study of the empirical exceptions in the American context give Agambens theory validity. The exception is a reappearing phenomenon, which implies that the constitutional order is fragile. What then is it that makes the legal norms fragile? In this thesis I will discuss the causality of moral panic.

Political consumption is a manner of impinging politically that has become more frequent lately. Adolescents seem to be attracted by the idea of expressing oneself politically through ones wallet. The purpose of this analysis is to elucidate this essay?s participants? manner of expressing political consumption and analyze how they discuss motives against and for political consumption with a sociological perspective. To accomplish this, this essay will aim to answer the following questions: In what manner do the participants express their political consumption and what are their motives for and against political consumption?  In order to answer the essay?s purpose and questions, two focus group interviews have been made.

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.

AbstractThe Municipality Council decided in 2010 to develop a comprehensive energy efficiency strategy with financial and methodological support from Energimyndigheten (The Swedish Energy Agency). The strategy should include 3 major parts: an inventory of the 2009 energy use defining the current situation, the 2014 and 2020 goals for energy use, and an action plan for goal achievements. According to Energimyndigheten, the strategy must include all municipal administration premises, vehicles, and all majority-owned companies (as Laholmshem, the municipal housing company).The report describes the inventory work in order to obtain the 2009 energy use and the sources of information used. The inventory values are used as the base year values for the 2014 and 2020 goals. The inventory showed that information about the vehicles is dispersed in the municipal administration and no clear structure exists with respect to mileage and fuels used.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine why smaller municipalities[1] in Sweden experience difficulties when implementing the 16 environmental objectives that are designed to solve Sweden's environmental problems.The theoretical framework used for this dissertation is implementation theory which provides three conditions that need to be met in order to have a successful implementation.  These three conditions have shaped the research questions that examine if Torsby municipality has the "understanding," "ability" and "will" needed to implement the decision correctly.  The dissertation employs a case study method to examine why Torsby municipality has experienced difficulties implementating the target: programmes and strategies for planning, which is an interim target to environmental objective number 15: A good built environment.  Qualitative text analysis and interviews with Politicians and civil servants from Torsby municipality and the county administration board of Värmland have been conducted in order to answer the research questions.   The material used for this dissertation is mostly from the government bills that are the foundation of the Swedish environmental policy and the documents and reports about the environmental objectives that the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish Environmental protection agency (Naturvårdsverket), and the Environmental objectives council (Miljörådet) have released.The result of this dissertation supports previous research which has shown that smaller municipalities have problems implementating the environmental objectives due to a lack of financial resources. This dissertation also shows that the problems can be due to a lack of understanding the purpose of the objectives.  This leads to a lack of political will to implement the objectives.  Since the municipalities do not have the political will to implement the objectives the appropriate resources needed for a successful implementation are not appointed and therefore the municipalities are not able to fully implement the environmental objectives. [1] Municipalities with less than 20 000 inhabitants..

The application of the LSS law and how the public organization (Municipality of Hudiksvall) later had to reform their organization to fit the new demands is the foundation to this master's thesis. An internal evaluation was performed due to this reorganisation process within the social care department (LSS unit). The aim was to investigate and evaluate if the reorganization resulted in a better working environment and if the work load (distribution of work) became more evenly divided between the different unit managing directors. The primary empirical information to this master's thesis is collected from that evaluation report. The main aim of this master?s thesis is to answer if the organisational choice between specialised or de-specialised working tasks has an effect (experienced and measured) on the level of stress among the unit managing directors.

This is an essay about the political development of Iraq after the overthrow of the Baath regime by the coalition forces in 2003. Almost seven years later, the political scene is still characterised by chaos, even though the country entered a new phase with the adoption of democratic thinking and a new openness to the world. The unstable political situation is a product of inter-ethnic conflict and the interference by neighbouring countries. Iraq is up against two formidable tasks ? building democracy and building a nation.

This thesis aims at analyzing why the municipality of Flen, in the eastern part of Sweden, has experienced strong depopulation for the last forty years in spite of its relative vicinity to Stockholm. The study uses current theories on regional developement, population theory and theories on regional enlargment to help explain and to evaluate the different regional factors that affect the developement of Flen on the local level. The thesis is primarily focused on the subject of regional policy and strategies to meet regional depopulation. The study also gives a presentation of the strategies of major regional institutions as well as analyzing what impact regional policy have on local policy in the municipality of Flen.Interviews with local officials, Politicians and other people representing the population of Flen were carried out to achieve a better understanding of the specific challenges that the municipality faces and of the measures that are taken to meet them. Regional policy in Sweden prioritises measures that promote regional enlargment to link the housing and labour markets together with the regional infrastructure.

70 percent of Sweden´s municipalities say they do not have vacant rental flats and a shortage is emerging, during the same time are 1.1 million young people ready to enter the housing market. In order to curb the housing shortage, have the Swedish Politicians since the postwar period chosen to stimulate the market with subsidies to increase new production and to control that what is built is in the right direction. The construction industry is perceived as conservative, and many argue that the state keeps it under their wings, which has led to that the development not has progressed in the same way as other, non-subsidy regulated industries.The purpose of ours bachelor thesis is to provide an overall picture and describe the underlying problems of the housing shortage at the rental market. In addition, we want to present theories about where possible actions could take place in the market, by illuminate the problem from the differente actors perspective.To fulfill our purpose and provide a deeper understanding of the problem we have chosen a qualitative approach. We interviewed nine different actors on the Swedish housing market, two managers, two to representatives of Halmstad Municipality, a representative for the construction operators and four different interest groups.