Since the emergence of social media websites as an established part of our society, the landscape ofcommunication has undergone dramatic changes. Especially in the field of journalism, the impact ofsocial media websites, such as Twitter, has been the subject of discussions about the actual partsocial media play in communication and news reporting. The general opinion has been that socialmedia has revolutionized the way we communicate and that a shift in power is taking place as themasses now engage in, and affect, our societies way of spreading information. This study is acritical discussion about whether Twitter in particular, and social media in general, has affected thejournalistic field in the extent that many claim it has. By comparing theories about traditionalmedia, such as television and newspapers, with recent studies about Twitter, we conclude that it isto early to establish the role of social media.

This work represents a first attempt to articulate my practice as a composer. Through a phenomenological perspective and with the support of the philosophical concept 'Weak Thought', I approach the idea of music as meaning in itself, beyond language. My exploration of these ideas is developed through three perspectives: partly through analysis of my own work, partly through a brief presentation of the concept of 'Weak Thought', and lastly through a series of subject-specific reflections..

AbstractThis thesis was conducted by Jenny Jansson and Maria Madsen, students at the Faculty ofTechnology and Science and the Innovation and Design Engineer programme at KarlstadUniversity, during the spring 2008. The thesis covers 22,5hp for each student. AnnaHolmquist and Chandra Ahlsell at the company FOLKFORM were the ones who requestedthe theis, their company are located at Stora Skuggan in Stockholm. Tutor for this thesis wasLennar Wihk and the examiner was Monika Jakobsson of Karlstad University.The given assignment came from FOLKFORM and the aim for the thesis was to create afurther development of two already existing lamps from an earlier collection at FOLKFORM,?Jaipur? and ?Modern Times?.

Democracy is said to uphold the dearest values and be the most moral system. But it cannot be characterized as a rigid "syste" but a continuously changing political framework, under which aims and values can be fulfilled - and replaced.The increasingly diverse and ever-changing environment of contemporary democracies forces change upon the systems' natural evolution, which makes their future features uncertain and unforeseeable. A powerful change-force doctrine does however claim change is mainly (or merely) caused by the power of ideas; the elite power over ideas can thus provide a natural foundation for the analysis of the direction of development for democracy. This study aims to provide such a foundation by reconstructing empirical and normative descriptions of democracy at two certain points in time, following extensive government studies.As a tool for analysis, this study identifies values of substantial and procedural character central to democracy theory and discourse. It further creates ideal types of democracy based on these values, to which the nature of democracy is measured.

One of the main goals in this study is to investigate how young children's identity formation and social relationships are depicted by today's consumer society.  In order to reach the goals of the study I also concentrated myself on questions regarding the reflection of symbolic aspects consumption in younger children's interaction and preschool-teachers' ideas about how and in what ways children's consumption patterns are created and developed nowadays. In order to answer the presented research questions I used the theoretical arguments of researchers in the field of pedagogy Gert Biesta in connection with the ideas and concepts of the consumer society characteristics developed by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman.The thesis' methodological approach consists of a combination of semi-structured interviews with teachers and observations of children's interaction, which contributed to a systematic investigation of the thesis' problem area and served as a tool for obtaining answers to the research questions.The results demonstrate that consumption occupies a lot of space in young children's lives, which means that it greatly affects their social relationships today. Both consumption and knowledge of the known brands prove to be the child's path to the desired community on the one hand, and the children's way to the consumer world on the other (hand), which in turn points to an obvious dependence between children's consumption and their social relationships.The results also show that there is a tension between the perception of identity formation as preschool-policy-document on the one hand and the attitude of the identity prescribed by consumer society norms and regulations on the other..

In this Bachelor?s essay we discuss whether eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) is perceived as advertisement or as normal information, which is not influenced by any company, on the platform Facebook. The information which we were interested in is the one spread by normal users, and user?s perception of it. To find our results we have conducted a study in which we have used the method interview, which gives qualitative results.

This study treats cultural policy, it´s view of the value of literature, and how this view varies within different fields of cultural policy. The aim of the essay is to find different competing approaches through an investigation of texts from three different fields within cultural policy. The fields investigated are: The publishing subsidy of the National Council for Cultural Affairs, which values above all quality literature. En bok för alla, concentrates on spreading quality literature to new groups in society. Centrum för lättläst, which values that the contents of a text are successfully delivered to, and understood by, the reader.

A paranoid and shameful reading of Inger Christensens novel Azorno.The contagious feelings of paranoia and shame played a vital part in my first reading of the novel Azorno, written by the Danish poet Inger Christensen. In this essay, I?m letting those emotions direct the ?understanding? and analysis of the novel. In earlier research the focus has been to comprehend what the novel ?really is about?, and even though it has been mentioned that the form probably is a way to make the reader a visible constructer of  the novel?s ?meaning? the understanding has never been created by the affects that occurs during the reading.

In order to rescue a distressed submarine crew, the Swedish Navy is able to use a deep submergence rescue vehicle, DSRV. This mini submarine ascends, docks to the downed submarine and picks up the whole crew. The submarine rescue ship HMS Belos has a special crane located in the aft of the ship to lift the surfaced DSRV aboard, which then docks on to the on board pressure chambers located below deck. During inspections the aforementioned crane has shown to have problems with cracks in the structure, most of them located in the bolted joint between the top part of the crane and the two leg parts. A simulation of the forces acting on the structure in heavy sea condition was conducted; these values were then used as input values in a Finite Element Method, FEM, analysis of the joint.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how the temperance movement IOGT in Karlstadcampaigned for people to vote for a referendum on alcohol in 1922 and how it has been tackled bythe local press. To answer the purpose a qualitative text interpretation has been used from IOGT'smeetings protocols and the local press used are the two largest newspapers in Karlstad during thisperiod of time, Karlstads-Tidningen and Nya Wermlands-Tidningen. The type of examinationperformed is called interpretive case study where it has been used a theoretical basis. Thetheoretical point is Habermas Bourgeois publicity also been used by Lars Båtefalk in his thesisStaten, samhället och superiet. Can the temperance movement be said to take part of the publicsphere?The results show that IOGT during this period have grown large enough to be a part of the publicwhich Båtefalk mean was not the case around 1900.

Want to help making the world a better place? Do it with HypOCycle!HypOCycle is a bachelor thesis that started in September 2007. The project is owned byLars-Johan Hjertz and Erik Westerlund.HypOCycle is probably the only bike in the world that has a linear pedal movement. Themovement comes from a new engine technique that hasn?t even been brought to themarket yet.

For several years has there been a leading line from the government and the municipalities in Sweden to invest in schools and school grounds. The outdoor environment of schools has been rediscovered and given a greater importance. Investments have been made both practically with reconstruction and in a research context. Although, my work started with an assumption that these investments were mainly made at primary schools, and that secondary schools were set aside. The thesis This is my schoolyard.

In what French philosopher Gilles Deleuze labelled Control Societies, mechanisms reminiscent of censorship ? that is, restriction of information that administrators of power wish to regulate the spreading of ? are present in the concept of copyright. This kind of censorship has the advantage of not being scrutinized by public eyes in the way that the work of institutionalized censorship agencies such as the Swedish Statens Biografbyrå was. It is not unlikely that expanded possibilities for punishing anyone who spreads copyrighted material will result in larger and larger areas that may not be accessed, as the avoiding of conflict and repressive actions will emphasize the behaviour to take detours around information that is deemed taboo and therefore suspicious and dangerous. The ACTA trade agreement is one proposed tool for such extended possibilities for punishment.This essay does not however claim that copyright and censorship are the same ? but rather that the institutional execution of power that was previously a matter of state censorship has a lot of similarities with current and prognosticated application of copyright laws by corporations.

In what French philosopher Gilles Deleuze labelled Control Societies, mechanisms reminiscent of censorship ? that is, restriction of information that administrators of power wish to regulate the spreading of ? are present in the concept of copyright. This kind of censorship has theadvantage of not being scrutinized by public eyes in the way that the work of institutionalized censorship agencies such as the Swedish Statens Biografbyrå was. It is not unlikely that expanded possibilities for punishing anyone who spreads copyrighted material will result in larger and larger areas that may not be accessed, as the avoiding of conflict and repressive actions will emphasize the behaviour to take detours around information that is deemed taboo and therefore suspicious and dangerous.The ACTA trade agreement is one proposed tool for such extended possibilities for punishment. This essay does not however claim that copyright and censorship are the same ? but rather that the institutional execution of power that was previously a matter of state censorship has a lot of similarities with current and prognosticated application of copyright laws by corporations.While claiming to protect the individual, the disciplinary power executed actually aims to protect the one executing it; the purpose of the power structure is to replicate itself..

This essay is a comparative analysis of ideas about how Islamic terrorism is understood in terms of narrative. The narrative being studied is Occidentalism, Orientalism and postcolonial theory; based on these perspectives are possible explanations analyzed of what Islamic terrorism is all about..