Today we live in an interconnected world. Through globalization and the development of information technology one can say that, today everyone is our neighbour. The result of our actions can easily spread and affect people on the other side of the world within seconds.Meanwhile, Third World countries are developing into stable economies and Western European corporations are expanding like never before and setting up their organizations in these new markets.This of course is not unproblematic, it creates new challenges for international organizations especially when it comes to communication. An example of that same problematic communication presented itself for Arla Foods in what came to be called the Cartoon Crisis.In late September of 2005 a number of cartoons depicting the holy prophet Muhammed were published in a Danish newspaper. This event sparked scores of protest ranging from Morocco to the Philippines.

  The use of social media has increased in recent years and has become a part of everyday life.  Through  the  use  of  social  media  grows  new  opportunities   for  constructing  ones identity, this enables individuals  to selective self-presentation.  The social media trend has gone from largely consisting of a linguistic communication  to become directed towards a more visual form of communication,  this encourages individuals to be more visual in their self-presentation.  This study aims to create an understanding  of how individuals  present their  identity  through  visual  self-presentation,  more  precisely  via  Instagram.  Previous research  has  shown  differences  between  men's  and  women's  use  of  social  media.

To lead is to communicate, a main part of the leadership. 80 % of leaders working tasks involve communication of some kind. The ambition of this study is to analyze how four leaders of an international technique consulting company experience and handle community and technical development during their professional courses. The leaders have a various experience of leadership which adds depth and width to this study. To perform the study qualitative method has been used in the form of personal interviews.The result indicates that change is not always beneficial in every aspect of communication.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether social counselling via chat conversations could meet the criteria for a professional conversation, and how the six social workers who were interviewed felt that it had affected the profession and the clients who are seeking their help.Communication, professionality, power, roles and regions are the key topics of this study. A hermeneutic approach has not only influenced the interviews but also the content analysis that was used to encode the results.The interviews revealed that the chat conversations was a successful tool but not entirely without difficulties. The initial contact making between the client and the social worker favours the client, since she/he remains anonymous and that was the main advantage of the method. The biggest concern however was that in the anonymity it is not possible to report cases that the social worker are obligated to. The changing of forum does not necessarily affect the professionality but due to the faceless chat conversation an entire dimension of communication disappears because the loss of body language.

Consumption of meat and poultry has increased during the last ten years while the production in Sweden has decreased. Cheap imports are competing with Swedish products and consumers, restaurant and retail let the price decided what to purchase. Swedish food producers can become better at communicating the added values that meat and poultry produced in Sweden has. Social media gives companies a possible tool for communication in order to communicate and create a relationship with consumers. The rise of social media does not only affect consumer decisions making, but also corporate communication. The objective of this project is to investigate how social media can connect the farmer to the consumer.

In recent years, more and more people have started to live double lives. Blogs, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have created conditions so that we increasingly live virtual lives on the Internet. The gathering of people in this way entails both risks and opportunities for businesses. This study aims to explain how the phenomenon of social media has affected trade and service companies in a marketing and communication perspective. The idea for the essay came to us after we had observed how different behaviors in companies? concerning social media could vary a lot, and how we felt that this affected our personal view of the brands.

This paper presents the results of a workplace study of two smaller companies in the design industry. The core issue has been to investigate the companies use of technical tools and to what extent social praxis influence the daily work. The methods used are based on a qualitative analysis of interviews and observations. Various kind of work procedures, such as verbal and computerized, have been identified, but the most important occurrence was how spontaneous conversations between employees required certain flexibility, since the actors repeatedly were required to change focus and quickly perceive different information. For that reason, a thesis has been defined regarding how the use of spontaneous communication put an indirect need of a flexible working environment and also how this lead to more significant participation and exchange of information, as well as more awareness at the companies..

Problem: Companies are becoming more active in social media. They usechannels such as Facebook, to communicate and interact with theirenvironment. In connection with this, companies must also be prepared todeal with crises in social media. Previous research shows no clear guidelineson how companies can work in social media to prevent crises.Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how companiesin the communications industry can work with Facebook to prevent crises.We hope that our study can provide new perspectives and guidance on howcompanies can work with emergency communication for prevention.Methodology: We used a qualitative research to arrive at our results. Thismeant we got an insight into the complex world that companies are workingin.

Studies of modern communication media such as Cell Phones and so called Instant Messengers are popular today. This study focused on these modern techniques, focused on parents as a target group and on what is important for them in everyday communication.By exploratory using three focus groups it became clear that the children, and the link to them was the absolute most important thing for the parents. It became clear that this link to a great extent today exists through the mobile phone.In a following study a Mobile Instant Messenger called My Friends was introduced. It was used by two families during two weeks to see how it would change the communication within the family. The focus was to see how problems with availability were handled, it turned out that:My friends had a more obvious way of indicating availability than the Cell Phone had.

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding and knowledge of how Cubans living in Sweden experience the Swedish pattern of communication in relation to the Cuban. The questions asked by the authors were: Do the Cubans experience any differences or similarities between the Swedish and the Cuban patterns of communication? If that is the case, what are they and how would they describe them? The questions were answered through a qualitative method, based on interviews with five Cubans who were raised in Cuba and are now living in Sweden. Communication Theory has constituted the fundamental theoretical tool of analysis, complemented by Social Psychological Role theory. The results of the study have been analyzed using both phenomenological and hermeneutical methods.

AbstractTitle: Message sent ? SUDD AB:s internal communication in the digital age (Message sent ? SUDD AB:s interna kommunikation i den digitala tidsåldern)Number of pages: 40 (44 including enclosures)Author: Lea KaufmannTuthor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: HT 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: Analyze whether a small long distance company such as SUDD AB can obtain a well-functioned internal communication by using new communication technologies.Material/Method: The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with SUDD AB:s complete staff.Main results: Proven that internal communication is a complicated and very important process also within a small company. New communication channels do not necessarily guarantee an uncomplicated and efficient internal communication but the need to collaborate with old-fashioned channels persists.Keywords: communication, information, channels, effects, content, effectiveness.

AbstractTitle: Internal communication at IKEA ? A functional analysis of IKEA Uppsalas internalcommunication (Intern kommunikation på IKEA ? En funktionsanalys av IKEA Uppsalas interna kommunikation)Author: Fredrik JohanssonAim: The purpose of this study is to analyze the internal communication at IKEA Uppsala.Are the channels of communication working efficiently? How is the information received by the employees? Finally I will make a few suggestions on how the internal communication can be improved.Method/Material: The method used in this study is quantitative. The internal communication at IKEA Uppsala is analyzed based on the results of a questionnaire. 75 employees at three different divisions were given questions on how they appreciate the communication channels at IKEA in Uppsala. 50 answers were received.Main results: The results clearly show that even though the internal communication at IKEA seems to work well in general, a few of the channel needs to be improved.

AbstractIT can facilitate communication among individuals and connect people across geographical distances. On the contrary, citizens of the society who do not use communication technologies to some extent might feel excluded from the information society. As elderly citizens are already in a vulnerable position for the digital divide, communication technology becomes an important tool for interacting with friends and family. The social situation of elderly, 60 years of age and older, is a topic of current interest since they are the fastest growing age group in the world today. Further, social interaction becomes more important among elderly since it has a positive effect on well- being.

AbstractIT can facilitate communication among individuals and connect people across geographical distances. On the contrary, citizens of the society who do not use communication technologies to some extent might feel excluded from the information society. As elderly citizens are already in a vulnerable position for the digital divide, communication technology becomes an important tool for interacting with friends and family. The social situation of elderly, 60 years of age and older, is a topic of current interest since they are the fastest growing age group in the world today. Further, social interaction becomes more important among elderly since it has a positive effect on well- being.

Differences between groups or individuals in a society with regards to access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) are known as the digital divide. The digital divide pertains to differences in physical access to computers and the Internet as well as knowledgein using technology. Important factors affecting the digital divide are disabilities, age, gender, socioeconomical background, ethnicity and geography. The digital divide appears on several levels: internationally, nationally, regionally and locally. Individuals who, for some reason, have limited or no access to information and communication technologies risk, among other things, to experience social exclusion.