Purpose: This study has been conducted with the purpose to examine representations of men and masculinity ideals in advertising for male grooming products. This study also aims to investigate how the male representation has changed during the 2000?s.Theories: The theoretical framework of this study is based on established theories and past research about gender, masculinity, advertising and visual communication.Methodology: The study has had a quantitative approach and is based on content analysis of print advertisements published in the Swedish lifestyle magazine Cafe? during the years 2003-2012.Conclusion: The result of the study suggests that the representation of men was not versatile, many of the advertisements showed the same representation pattern, which indicated that the metrosexual was the most common depicted masculinity. Past research shows that the notion of men and the male representations in media has gone through major changes during the last decades. However, the results of this study did not find any signs that the male representations were going through any significant change in the examined advertisements.

The purpose of this study was to analyze recent appropriations of works of art in advertising. Why was art infused into magazine advertisements, how were the works of art tampered with to achieve commercial goals, how well did they function together with the ad copy? What did these advertisements want? What did the artwork contribute to the commercial message? These were some of the questions asked in the study that involved a closer look at four appropriations: one based on a battle painting by the Swedish 1900th century artist Carl Wahlbom, with a commercial message printed on top;  one a collage including an 18th century portrait of Marie Antoinettte by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun; one advertisement was influenced by Dutch 1700th century still lifes, and, finally, one paraphrased Velázquez?s famous painting Las Meninas from 1655. Companies behind the advertisements featured a Swedish trade journal, a fashion exhibition in Paris, a shop for kitchen utensils in Stockholm, and an up-scale department store in Madrid.The ads, in different ways based on works of art, were evaluated as reasonably successful commercial messages. These ads, however, hardly qualified as works of art in their own right ? if that was the intention.

This Master?s thesis is an analysis of metaphors in relation to actors, and of discourses used in the copyright-debate in two major Swedish daily newspapers and one American: Göteborgs-Posten, Svenska Dagbladet and New York Times during the years 2001-2006. We aim to answer the following questions: Which metaphors were being used in the copyright-debate to create the archetypal villain, hero, winner and loser in editorials, debate and letters to the editor in the three newspapers? Which discourses did those metaphors relate or conform to? Which similarities or differences could be found when comparing the two countries? newspapers regarding representations and constructions of villains, heroes, winners and losers in the copyright-debate? Firstly we distinguished who the actors in the debate were, following parts of Theo van Leeuwen?s actors? analysis. Secondly we distinguished which metaphors were being used to describe the actors as either villains, heroes, winners or losers.

A current issue today is to try to implement creative design as a way to solve wicked problems in scientific contexts such as HCI. Since the problems are wicked, they have no given solution which makes the traditional methods inadequate. In these cases, creative design can be an alternative. Creative design is not used in scientific contexts because it is viewed as something unaccountable.In this essay we argue that creative design not necessarily have to be unaccounted. We discuss various views of creative design and translate theory to a practical context.

In this essay I will look at the independence of the Swedish municipalities. By looking at articles for the biggest journal in Sweden on this subject Kommun aktuellt I will look at the discussion for the years of 1978 and 1998 to see if one can draw some parallels in the debate and see if some subjects are always returning in the agenda for the independence. The autonomy of the Swedish municipalities is a very important part of the Swedish welfare model. The municipalities handles for example both the primary schools and the social welfare services. Both these institutions are money draining and the municipals right by law to claim local tax does far from all the time cover its expenses.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken.The purpose of this study was to analyse if there are in-store consumer behaviour differences between the consumers that use ASF and the consumers that not use ASF in store. More precisely this study had two objectives. The first objective was to create a conceptual model depicting the various behavioural effects that the use of ASF may result in. These variables were tested empirically in order to analyze if the use of ASF influence in-store consumer behaviour. The second objective was to analyze if there are differences in the routes taken by the consumers in store, in relation to whether the consumers use the ASF or not..

In this essay, the aim is to empirically and theoretically study the parliamentary debate of the child pornography law. The empirical part is an attempt to discover eventual underlying gender stereotypes in the debate. A text analysis is conducted with material consisting of motions from members of parliament and of protocols from the parliamentary debate. In this material we try to find latent and manifest expressions of gender stereotypes. There are several stereotypes, which effects the argumentation and prejudice of the debate, like stereotypes of the victims, the perpetrators and their characteristics.

This Master?s thesis presents a descriptive study of the intellectual process to describe images in such a way that they can be incorporated into written information systems. The purpose of the thesis is to concentrate on the scientific development for the last two decades, in the area concerning the description of images so that they can be organized and incorporated into information systems and possible to retrieve when searched for. Library and information science (LIS) has a strong tradition of turning to the iconographical theories of Erwin Panofsky and to semiotics according to Roland Barthes, for models and theories for the interpretation of images. The question for this thesis is whether LIS in this scientific field, has deviated from these models and theories, or are Panofsky and Barthes and their scientific work still providing for intellectual and practical guidance for LIS within this area..

 SammanfattningI takt med att världen krymper och gränserna mellan världens länder suddas ut ökar möjligheterna för små- och medelstora företag att snabbt slå sig in på den globala marknaden. De företag som inom de närmaste åren efter sin etablering får en snabb tillväxt på internationella marknader brukar benämnas Born Global företag. Det är just denna kategori av företag vi har valt att undersöka. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka faktorer som gör det möjligt för ett Born Global företag att överleva en tidig internationalisering. De traditionella teorierna om internationalisering domineras av Uppsalamodellen som förespråkar att denna process sker gradvis hos företagen.

Problem: When opening a newspaper today there is a good chance that the headlines have something to do with recent developments in the global climate debate. This development is forcing companies to take action. The problem for many companies, including Thule, is that they are unaware of the environmental work conducted throughout their value chain and also what they need to do to become green. Thule, a company with a strong focus on profitability and growth, will not make environmental issues a part of their core strategy unless it can be shown that economic incentives exist. With this thesis we will try to build a case that will help Thule, and also other companies, see the possibilities a green venture brings with it.

Aim: The nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, raised global criticism against nuclear power. In Sweden, the criticism has not been very visible and the government now allows a renewal of the nuclear power plants. The purpose with the study is to have a closer look on how Swedes in position of power motivate their positive attitude to nuclear power and how they conduct themselves to each other and to their opponents. The rhetorical perspective will be in focus for the analysing.Method: Four different artifacts represented by Swedes in position of power having a positiveattitude to nuclear power were chosen. Three rhetorical theories (the rhetorical arena, stasis andethos, pathos and logos) were used with the research question in focus.Result & Conclusions: The analyses resulted in conclusions about the strategies used by the participants such as: the importance of contexts, meaning for example that the greenhouse effect legitimizes nuclear power as a source of energy with important benefits.

The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss a case of political steering, specifically Managment-By-Objectives (MBO) in Swedish municipalities, from a democratic perspective. The essay examines a discrepancy between MBO in the Swedish municipalities and democratic theory.To fulfil the aim of the study one leading politician and one leading civil servant from five municipalities have been interviewed on this matter. This material is discussed in the light of a democratic theory constructed specifically for this essay. The democratic theory consists of three main democratic values in the democratic process: debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability.The main conclusion is that there is a contradiction in the use of MBO and the democratic values of debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability. MBO has resulted in a lack of debate and transparency and furthermore, it has made it increasingly more difficult to demand political accountability..

Previous studies have pointed out the potential risks involved with targeting homosexual consumers by using ads with homosexual imagery in mainstream media. Many of these studies have indicated that there may be drawbacks with exposing heterosexuals to these kinds of advertisements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether this is true for all groups of heterosexual consumers. An experimental study was carried out to examine the effects of explicit homosexual imagery on a heterosexual group with a generally positive attitude towards homosexuality. Empirical evidence suggests that homosexual imagery does not elicit any negative reactions among these heterosexual consumers.

AbstractBackground: Countries can be seen as brands (nation brands) with brand values that transmitto the country?s products. Country-of-origin (COO), the brands nationality, links the productto an associative network of cultural shared national stereotypes. Through associating thebrand with a country or a region, the credibility of the brand can increase and strengthen thebrand. Therefore COO is used in marketing to position a brand.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how luxury fashion brands communicatetheir national identity through analyzing their advertising.

It always has been a need for the abiltiy to create color proofs. When an error occurs late in the production process, itis allways complicated and difficult to correct the error. In this project, digital proofs been made and discussions havebeen held with several people in the printing industry, in order to examine how well excisting digital proofs, meet thedemand of the market. And how close the digital proofs can come to the actual printsheat from the press. The study hasbeen shown that the one thing that has had the most influence on the outcome for the quality of a digital proof, is theprintshop operator?s knowledge about color management and proofing systems.