Title: Digital christmas greetings - the viral communicators, public sphere and democracy(Digitala julhälsningar - de virala kommuniktörerna, offentligheten och demokratin)Number of pages: 41Author : Anna-Sara TorgnysdotterTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse : Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring, semester 2010University: Devision of Media and Communications, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this study is to see if social media could be an arena for the usersto increase democracy and the public sphere. Studying the role and possibilitys of the individual.Is there a space for any one to act and debate?Method: A qualitative analysis based on interviews with ten users of social media - viralcommunicators. They were discussing public and private sphere, democracy, norms andbehavior in social media.Theoretical platform: The theoretical basis has its roots in sociology: Ervin Goffman´sidea on self-presentation and social interaction, Manuel Castels´ theories of the networksociety and Jürgen Habermas idea of the public spehere.Main result: The viral communicators are ambivalent in their use of socialmedia. They are users because they want to be but also because they feel forced to - professionalor private.

The society of today is overflowed with information and commercials. There is a thick media noise that the marketers finds hard to penetrate. Bearing this in mind, we can see that Event Marketing, witch is marketing through events, has grown to be a popular form of communication as it has an ability to work its way through the existing media noise. Through events a company can strengthen its brand and image as well as form a lasting relationship with its consumers. What other functions does Event Marketing possess? In what context is Event Marketing an appropriate marketing strategy to use? These are two questions that we aim to answer through this essay.To be able to answer these questions we interviewed the marketing manager of two different companies, L´oréal and TeliaSonera.

Social media has made it possible to have a conversation in real time through audio, images and text, with anyone worldwide. The easy availability of social media has created a new society. Companies and organizations have the opportunity to interact with their audiences and their target in a way not previously possible. Welcome to the Web 2.0 world!Social media is a collective name for the communication channels that allow users to communicate directly with each other in real time through text, image or sound. Examples of social media are blogs, SMS, Skype, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Linkedin and Myspace.The purpose of this essay is to explore social media's role and opportunities in terms of being able to influence companies and organizations marketing communication. We have used a qualitative approach and our thesis is based on a qualitative text analysis study where we have analyzed 13 articles (the articles are from scholarly journals, magazines and trade/professional) from 2007 to 2009.

The last few years a lot of media air time has been devoted to training, sports, health and weightloss on a more personal level then before. The new media arena is beeing used at its´ maximumto broadcast wievs on how we should eat, look, exercise and live. This thesis is trying to makebetter understanding on what people in general think is important when it comes to physicaltraining and motivation with the aid of digital media and IT systems. The thesis describes aworkshop that was conducted within the frames of Participatory Design and the outcome of thatworkshop. The workshop was conducted with a group of lead users (in this case instructors at avery large fitness center in Umeå, Sweden) and the main question was ?How can IT be used toachive a positive effect on physical exercise if motivation is the focus??.

This thesis deals with the leisure-time reading of fourteen men with two different occupations, teachers of technology and directors of companies. The main reasons for writing the thesis are that very little is written about mens reading habits and also statistics that tell that mens reading decline regardless of educational level. The purpose has been to compare the reading and relations to literature between the two groups of men and to find out if any differences have to do with factors such as social background or age. The questions we have asked our collected data has been what, how and why the men read. We have tried not to investigate the work-related reading although we are aware of the difficulty in separating this from the leisure-time reading.

The HBTQ-society is not a homogeneous group; it contains a range of different sub-groups. QX is Sweden?s biggest magazine aimed at members of the HBTQ-society. The purpose of this study is to analyze if the magazine is more directed towards gay men or women ? both by examining how many men versus women appear in QX, but also by looking at the different ways in which the articles are more relevant to either men or women, such as by tone, language or choice of subjects.In this study, we have analyzed twelve issues of QX, from January 2012 to December 2012, in order to get the most current results as possible.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate and understand how technology students handle information especially when they are working with their Masters thesis. A further purpose is to examine how technology students use library resources of the Linköping University. The research method used is grounded theory, where description of the method is an integral part of the study. Twelve qualitative interviews were made with newly qualified graduates from the engineering programs of Linköping Institute of Technology. The respondents were divided into two groups, A and B, with six in each group.

Support group activities for children with mentally ill parent´s, without a parallel parent group, is by far the most common form in Sweden. The activities have primarily focused on increasing the frequency of the protective factors around children. Of course, parents and the families are also influenced of children´s participating in these activities. Most studies examining support group activities for children from the child's perspective. The experiences of parent?s perspective have not been well studied.

Introduction: Pregnancy, obesity, aging and certain diseases are examples of conditions thataffect the body, its constitution and composition. Simpler methods to estimate bodycomposition are needed to complement more advanced traditional methods to better identifythe health status without sacrificing accuracy and precision.Objective: To validate the results of body composition from bioelectrical impedancespectroscopy (BIS) against results from the study reference method, dual energy X-rayabsorption (DXA), in overweight and obese lactating women after childbirth.Method: The design of the LEVA-study (Lifestyle for Effective Weight loss during lactation)consisted both intervention and longitudinal follow-up, which gave the opportunity tovalidate the absolute values (accuracy) and the ability to detect changes (precision). Themean difference between methods was tested statistically by paired t-test. Bland-Altman plotsused to examine the degree of agreement between BIS and DXA, but also distribution andany systematic differences. Association between methods was measured by using Pearson´scorrelation coefficient.Results: Between BIS and DXA, absolute measurements of the variables fat-free mass (FFM)and fat mass (FM) showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001).

Examensarbetet syftar till att jämföra nya alternativ till olika system för användning i laborationer i reglerteknikkurser för olika studentkategorier. Det skall utredas vilket av ett antal alternativ till mjukvaruplattformar som är bäst lämpat att användas vid reglerteknikundervisningen i ITN:s reglerlaboratorium vid Linköpings universitet. Tidigare laborationer i berörda kurser skall även modifieras så att dessa kan genomföras i de nya systemen.Examensarbetet resulterade i en rad modifierade laborationer och system att tillämpa i dessa. De nya systemen medför att all reglering sköts direkt från en dator istället för tidigare variant med externa apparater som programmeras. På så sätt kan större fokus läggas på regleringen i sig och inte de system som tillämpas för att utföra den..

This study aims to highlight the activities and needs of students in order to explain how mobile services can provide support and facilitate students on a daily basis. The empirical data is based on discussions with a focus group combined with already existing research concerning the areas of mobile service development, contextual-awareness and ubiquitous computing. The results from the focus group show that students have a need for mobile services to help and support them in their ordinary tasks and activities. In the discussion of this report we bring up aspects of development and what to think of when dealing with students..

The aim of this essay was to study how the communities work with groups as a support to children with addictive parents, and to increase my understanding of the groups meaning as a support. My main questions have been: How are the child group sessions formed? What kind of experience does the group leaders have regarding their functions? The study is a qualitative investigation that has been turned to prefessionals in the subject area and  is based on 6 interviews and secondary sources. The material has been analyzed from a narrativ theory as well as a salutogent perspective. Research shows that children growing up in an addictive environment often have decreased psychological health and are overrepresented amongst those who developed a future addiction.

The aim for this study was to examine betweenship as a phenomenon by focusing on identity. There is not very much research done on betweenship. I have used a qualitative phenomenological approach, based on four qualitative interviews. The four interviewees were all experiencing betweenship. To analyze their stories I used two theoretical frameworks; identity and affinity groups.

International media groups and the freedom of speech are two issues that have been questioned during the last years when large media groups control a large amount of public-oriented information. The masters thesis at hand considers three debates that illuminate Bonniers and AB Mariebergs hereinafter referred to as the Bonnier Media Group positions on the media market. The objective of such a study is to establish in the face of the theory on hegemonia, for example from which factors the media actors deduce their argumentation when discussing the above-mentioned topic and the meaning of such a discussion in our time. The thesis also discusses whether freedom of speech and free opinion are affected by the increasing power of the Bonnier Media Group and if they, as a result, have diminished their own cultural and liberal assets, features that are firmly associated with the company. I conclude that various features have come to change the media market during the last years.

The background for this degree thesis is a need to replace the existing seal used to protect equipment containing secret or sensitive equipment used by Swedish Defence. The target design should satisfy both the need for tamper evidence and reduce Life Cycle Cost. In developing a new design for a seal, additional benefits such as improved logistics support and indication of attack methods such as heat and solvents have been considered.The lack of guiding principles for end users of seals became evident during the interviews. Major concerns for the future are education of users, information about actions if a seal is broken and user liability.The design work was divided into several phases. A feasibility study was performed including investigation of theory of labels, materials and possible technologies.