The purpose of this study is to investigate whether Karlstad City Fiber Network visual elements in the form of a pair of speech bubbles fit into the organization's holistic external communication and branding. The study examines whether Karlstad City Fiber Network image of the organization and the speech bubbles match the stakeholders view and how the visual elements are perceived and recognized by stakeholders. The theory associated with the study is theories of corporate visual identity, image, identity and branding and visual communication. These three elements are important to be aware of when a generation of an effective external communications. Qualitative interviews with employees at Karlstad City Fiber Network and Karlstad municipality has undertaken to give an idea of ​​what the organization wants to achieve and what their opinions are. Karlstad City Fiber Network wants stakeholders to perceive the brand building marketing records as playful, with a twinkle in his eye and inviting to dialogue while the direct information shall be straight and free of jargon. The organization wishes that stakeholders see them as a safe choice as well as local and accessible for inhabitants of Karlstad. Karlstad City Fiber Network sees it as a great advantage to be taken of Karlstad Municipality, which also welcomes the urban network is municipal. Through focus group interviews with Karlstad City Fiber Network stakeholders, the inhabitants of Karlstad, it has emerged that the speech bubbles is not recognized, but it is only when the speech bubbles is put into a context, such as newspaper or newsletter that it can be linked to anything that advocates the municipality of Karlstad and dialogue. It is concluded that corporate visual identity is the link between the visual and the context of an organization's marketing. Stakeholders see Karlstad City Fiber Network as a credible organization that is simple yet eye-catching newsletters, but believe that their marketing is somewhat vague and confusing.

AbstractPresentation of the problem: The goal with this graduation project is to produce a new visual concept for the student newspaper Campus, this will be expressed in the form of page templates. The page templates will have a visual concept that appears through graphical elements. The client's wishes were that the student newspaper should be audience appropriate, attractive, inviting, reliable, modern and functional to work with.Theory: In order to implement the wishes and in a good way produce a consistent visual concept, we took a starting point in theory of graphic design. This theory has taken many of its principles from aesthetic theory, and therefore have we also used aesthetics to provide a deeper theoretical aspect. The principles we used in graphic design is; how to create a unity in the layout by using basic elements such as text, images, and white space. We have also looked at alignment-, form-, color-, contrast-, typography- and placement principles. The principles we have applied from aesthetics are color repetition, color contrasts, balance, visual harmony and depth.Method: The empirical studies consisted of a qualitative content analysis of student newspapers, followed by a focus-group study with respondents from the Campus newspaper target group. The purpose of the two studies was to, via a content analysis, get a general picture of the design language that is used on the market today. This, combined with theory, helped us to create a visual expression that stands outside the general form. It was done in four different dummies, these dummies were discussed by the focus-group.Results: Our first empirical study showed how student newspapers are designed today. With support of theory, the functioning principles was sorted out and used in the four dummies. During the focus-group analysis, opinions about the dummies were presented. We could therefore see what the respondents wanted in the page templates. Together with the client's wishes and analysis from the empirical studies, a new concept developed. It will be perceived as clean and structured together with attitude.

Mitt syfte är att visa att känslan av trygghet spelar större roll för undervisningsklimatet i klassrummet än disciplin. Vi bombarderas dagligen i media från olika tyckare som har åsikter om hur skolan skall skötas för att den ska bli bättre och hur misskött den är nu idag. Det är nästintill omöjligt att sålla i det stora informationsflödet och avgöra vad som är relevant för att ge eleverna bästa möjliga inlärningsklimat i skolan. Kan det vara så att en skola som ger eleverna en känsla av trygghet är den som ger bästa inlärningsklimatet? Genom att besöka några klassrum, studera hur lektionerna fungerade i verkligheten och sedan intervjua de berörda lärarna om deras syn på trygghet i klassrummet, fick jag bekräftelse på att så kunde vara fallet. Tyvärr är det så att disciplin är lättare att skapa än trygghet men då kan undervisningsklimatet bli lidande. Att ha en trygg miljö är ett bättre sätt att rusta eleverna för att möta den undervisning som de ska klara av under sin skoltid. Dessutom, om en elev har en egen grundtrygghet i sig själv när hon ska möta världen efter skolan så finns det en större chans att ungdomarna klarar sig bra. Utifrån resultat jag fick anser jag att en lärare som funderat på hur man skapar trygghet i klassrummet, arbetar som en demokratisk ledare och involverar eleverna i regelbyggandet och undervisningen, är den lärare som skapar ett bättre studieklimat.

Ingen hade nog förväntat sig att världen skulle drabbas av den Covid-19 pandemi som började spridas 2019, och som än idag hänger i juni 2021. En långdragen världsomfattande kris. Det är dock inte den enda typ av kris som kan uppstå, skogsbränder och skolskjutning är även exempel på kriser och något vi sett ske flera gånger tidigare. Kriser kräver övning och då skogsbränder och skolskjutning är något som varit återkommande är det viktigt att övning sker inför nästa eventuella kris. CriseIT-projektet är ett samarbete mellan Sverige och Norge, mer specifikt Värmland och Hedmark med syfte att ta fram verktyg och metoder för att utöka digital krisövning. Lärplattformen Canvas (Learning Management System LMS) har i en tidigare studie visats relevant som plattform för krisövning, då den uppfyllde önskad användarbarhet och gav rätt förutsättningar. En funktionalitet som CriseIT har efterfrågat är möjligheten till import av data, eftersom den saknas i dag.I en tidigare studie genomförde CriseIT en seminarieövning i Canvas, som då skrevs in manuellt via Canvas grafiska gränssnitt. Något som är tidskrävande och som önskas effektiviseras genom att i stället importera krisövningar till LMS:et. CriseIT’s mål är dock att kunna importera övningar oavsett LMS och de önskade därmed att även Moodle undersöktes för dess möjlighet att importera data. Två jämföranden genomfördes därmed i denna studie mellan lärplattformarna Canvas och Moodle av vad för funktionalitet respektive gränssnitt erbjuder, samt vilka möjligheter som finns för att importera data via Canvas REST API och Moodle Web Services API. Jämförelsen bygger på en komparativ metod och är baserad på åtta kriterier som kan tänkas ingå i en seminarieövning. Dessa kriterier testades via respektive lärplattforms gränssnitt, samt via verktyget Postman genom API-anrop bestående av testdata för att undersöka respektive API:s funktionalitet och möjlighet till dataimport. Ytterligare genomfördes ett tredje jämförande av vilka skillnader och/eller likheter som finns mellan Canvas LMS REST API och Moodle Web Services API.Resultatet av studien visade att Canvas via dess REST API kan importera alla önskade kriterier medan Moodle:s API Web Services i dagsläget inte innehåller funktionalitet för att importera några av kriterierna. Därmed genomfördes även en jämförelse av kriterierna via respektive lärplattforms grafiska gränssnitt för att studera om funktionaliteten fanns via gränssnittet. Resultatet av jämförelsen visade att både Canvas och Moodle via dess grafiska gränssnitt klarar av att genomföra alla åtta kriterier. Vidare visar resultatet av studien att Canvas REST API från ett tekniskt perspektiv är mer utvecklat än Moodle:s Web Services REST API.

Some of the most perceptive contributions to the geographic study of media and communication have been in areas of landscapes studies and geohumanities. To bring landscape and geohumanities insights together more explicitly with communication and media, this progress report draws on George Revill’s concept of an ‘arc of sound’, expanding the concept’s scope to an arc of communication – a dynamic trajectory connecting one vantage point to another through various translations and shifts. It is a mix of integration and translation that forms its own space, place and time, integrating elements of embodied performance, multiple sensory modalities, temporality, absence and excess. Arcs of communication often depend on collaboration and can produce transformations of identity. The concept of the arc of communication enables discovery of numerous threads connecting landscape studies to geohumanities while deepening geographical understandings of media and communication.

Maps showing immigration into Europe are a potential source of journalistic bias. Limited time and funding to create maps of migration can lead to dependence on data from institutions dedicated to controlling migration, in effect promoting a logic of surveillance directed at immigrants rather than a logic of hospitality based on respect for human rights. There are organizational and logistical barriers to overcome if migration is to be portrayed in ways that support thoughtful, democratic, rights-based deliberation but efforts need to be made to map migration in ways that reveal the geographical experiences of individual immigrants including their movement paths and the risks they face. This article examines unusual maps of migration, drawing on examples from news media as well as from non-governmental organizations, research teams, book authors, private companies, and entertainment media based in several European countries. The examples provide a foundation for concrete recommendations regarding the responsible use of cartographic visualization as a component of immigration news.

We call for a fundamental restruc turing of research paradigms in geography and media/communication studies to form a bridge between core concerns of the 2 disciplines. This endeavor responds to contemporary historical changes: mediated/mediatized mobility, technological convergence, interactivity, new communication interfaces, and the automation of surveillance. Long-standing concern with a set of issues we call representations, textures, structures, and connections provides a foundation for this interdisciplinary bridge. Integrating these concerns would produce a semi autonomous field, manifested through collaborations between geographers and media theorists.

Disconnection is a research topic that attracts increasing amounts of attention. However, there is a lack of research on how different forms of disconnection are related to the production of space and place. This chapter introduces the volume Disentangling: The Geographies of Digital Disconnection, which gathers 12 chapters from different disciplines. Bringing together key insights from the chapters, this introduction overviews the research terrain and presents an agenda for research into the geographies of digital disconnection. It discusses (1) the power geometries of (dis)connection; (2) the existential issues stemming from digitally entangled lives, and (3) how the ambiguities of (dis)connection are accentuated and exposed in time-spaces of social disruption (e.g., during the COVID-19 pandemic). The chapter also proposes disentangling as a complementary term for contextualizing issues of (dis)connection from a social and spatial perspective. Disentangling is ultimately a matter of rethinking and reworking the entangling force of connective media. 

IT-projekt har ofta ett bakomliggande syfte att bidra med ökad affärsnytta, ökad flexibilitet, effektivare arbetssätt, eller ökad kundnöjdhet. Uppföljning av affärsnytta förpassas ofta till förmån för klassiskt definierade framgångsparametrar inom projektledning, tid, budget och resultat. Mycket fokus hamnar på tekniska aspekter kring införande av system och affärsnyttan glöms bort. Vissa anledningar till att uppföljning av affärsnytta bortprioriteras anses vara att det är för svårt, råder oklarhet kring ansvar, och att affärsnyttor är av övervägande ogreppbar karaktär. Affärsnyttorna berör ofta flera olika verksamhetsområden vilket medför svårigheter gällande identifikation och hög kostnad för att involvera berörda resurser. IT-projekt initieras däremot grundat på explicita greppbara värden med tillhörande kostnadskalkyl som visar hur verksamheten kommer få igen investerat kapital. När affärsnytta inte är explicit uttryckt, utan har en ogreppbar karaktär leder det till låg prioritet, då kunskap kring mätning och styrning saknas. IT-projekt innebär en stor investering i tid, pengar, personal och den förväntade affärsnyttan har stor genomslagskraft. Uppfyllelse av affärsnytta kan påverka hela företagets lönsamhet. Teorier gällande Benefits Management Process (BMP) utgör basen för denvetenskapliga plattformen och har kompletterats medrelevant forskning vid behov.

Syftet med undersökning är att se vilka aktiviteter som behöver föregå för att möjliggöra framgångsrik uppföljning av affärsnytta inom IT-projekt så att måluppfyllelse kan säkerställas.Även undersöka om utformning av projektmål kan bidra till att underlätta uppföljnings aktivitet.Undersökningen genomförs som en kvalitativ studie där en verksamhet inom små och mellanstora företagssegmentet (SMF), undersökts då de bedriver ett aktivt IT-projekt gällande byte av affärssystem. Undersökningen resulterade i fem konkreta slutsatser som är av en förklarande och upplysande karaktär.

Undersökningen visar att:

• BMP möjliggör uppföljning av affärsnytta inom IT-projekt, men är inte en förutsättning.
• BMP kräver ett omfattande åtagande för att bidra till ökat värde för en verksamhet.
• En genomarbetad målformulering enligt akronymen SMART kan öka en verksamhets möjlighet till styrning och kontroll av dess projektmål.
• Tydligare koppling till identifiering och mätningsmetoder krävs för att maximera värdet av att ta sig an BMP.
• Systemleverantörs och kundrelationen behöver belysas inom BMP i takt med färre egna utvecklingsprojekt inom affärssystem initieras.

Brister i teorin rör konkreta metoder för att mäta affärsnytta och hur Key Peformance Indictors (KPI) kan användas på ett effektivt sätt. Tillsammans med att forskningen inte redogör för hur en verksamhet kan arbeta med uppföljning av affärsnytta i en kund- och systemleverantörsrelation. Explicit uttryckt när en verksamhet genomför upphandling av affärssystem ifrån en systemleverantör. Detta rekommenderas ligga till grund för framtida undersökningar.

The essay examines the members' relationship with feedback within two institutions, the Department of Geography, Media and Communication (GMK) and the Department of Educational Studies (IPS) at Karlstad University. Feedback is a communication tool used to promote organizational development. This individual development is essential for a university's business because of its members knowledge and skills are one of its most important assets. The importance of this kind of communication is manifested in the university's institutionalization of feedback and how it is integrated into the work routines. The problem area is comprised of how these institutions differ in the structure in relation to the classical hierarchical business structure, with a clear ranking between boss and employee, focusing on the role of feedback in this type of organization. Research that focuses specifically on this type of structure within an organization is currently underrepresented and therefore creates a research hole. The purpose of the paper is to examine the two mentioned institutions with a focus on feedback, its institutionalization and its integration into the work routines, and how the members relate to this process. To investigate the impact of this institutionalization of feedback, the following three questions were created:  How is criticism conducted within an organization where feedback is institutionalized?  How does the view of feedback differ from these institutions compared with companies with a classical hierarchical organizational structure? How does organizational culture affect the ability but also the willingness to criticize and to give and receive feedback? In order to answer these questions, relevant prior research in the area has been identified. The different theories chosen relate to five different factors: Channel selection, leadership, relationships, organizational culture and feedback, all of which are directly linked to the research area. Examples of these theories are Information Richness Theory (IRT) that emphasizes how different communication channels should be applied. Leader membership exchange theory (LMX) and Conceptual model of employee questions emphasize how personal relationships affect communication and how leadership structure within an organization affects feedback. An additional central component of how members relate to feedback is the organizational culture. This culture can be broken into three different categories; identification, trust and dedication. They all have an impact on the feedback process and should therefore be taken into account. Research related to feedback can also be found in the previous research section. The application of a survey gave the opportunity to draw general conclusions about the population. The questions in the questionnaire are anchored in the previous research and are operationalized in relation to the three research questions. The collected data showed that the institutionalization of feedback has a predominantly positive effect on members' relation to this. The members of the institution generally have strong and prosperous relationships with their colleagues and leaders. Members feel that they can freely express their views regardless of their professional position, and these views are respected, which is a consequence of the strong trust they have for their colleagues and leaders. Identification to the institutions is generally strong, which affects the members' commitment and the willingness to develop. Feedback requires a channel that can transmit complex information, which will simultaneously enable two-way communication and be personalized to achieve the desired effect. This relates to the institutions and feedback is transmitted primarily orally. This result shows that a thoughtful attitude to feedback has a major impact on the organization's activities.

The purpose of this study was to find out the generations millennials and baby boomers approach to the media's veracity and political neutrality. This was done using the following questions: What attitudes does Millennials and Baby Boomers have to the news media's veracity? Are there differences and similarities there when we look at the variables gender and political position?

To define the generations we used Cliff Zukins generation theory. There are several other theories with different definitions of generations, but we chose to limit ourselves to Zukins model because we considered this to be the most relevant to our purpose.

To obtain additional information about the generation's positions on various issues, we have also assumed Paula M Poindexters research on the issue, and Göran Bolins definition of Manheims theory. Finally we used Jesper Strömbäcks definition of the agenda setting theory when it was accurate.

We chose to conduct a survey in order to be able to reach as many respondents as possible. Because we wanted to compare two specific generations with eachother, we used a quota sampling. The answers gave us an overall picture of the different generational attitudes toward the news media.

The results showed that generational affiliation did not affect public confidence in the news media. When we added the gender variable, the result is different, the younger generation of women had significantly higher confidence than men in the same group. Both the younger and the older men had a more critical view of the news media content than women. This shows that gender is a significant variable in the issue of trust.

Political opinion also turned out to be an important variable. The biggest difference was shown in the generation of baby boomers where three quarters of the red voters had a fairly strong confidence in the news media. Those who vote blue in this generation had a significantly lower confidence.

The main difference depending on generational affiliation was shown in the question of how easy it is to spot fake news. Millennials believed it was much easier to determine authenticity in news than baby boomers. Only two percent of the older generation felt that it was easy to spot, the corresponding figure in the younger generation was 12 percent.

The majority of all respondents stated that they believe in a large or fairly large future increase of false news. This result did not affect the respondents' views on how easy it is to see if the news is false.

The conclusion we can draw is that the generational affiliation does not affect the question of confidence in the news media, however, it does have an affect in how easy it is to determine if news is true or false.When measuring confidence towards the news media, political opinion was the most important variable.

The climate crisis is one of the largest global challenges that humanity has ever faced. Despite the scientific consensus on the threat, action is not occurring on the pace or level needed to stave off the consequences. As climate change is made up by complex and conjoined causes and effects, the issue is also riddled with communicative challenges which those calling for action need to tackle. Climate change communication research has, however, mainly focus on how traditional news media frame the climate change issue and overlooks climate activist and movement groups. This despite these actors being key for shifting public perceptions and public opinion. Although research on other communication actors exist, it is far from extensive and the research field overlooks the publics perceptions of the sender in relation to the construction of climate messages. Through survey data and an experiment, this doctoral thesis explores the public’s inclination towards different protest action repertoires and addresses the research gap in the climate movement message construction. Herein, the actions and words of three subgroups within the larger environmental movement is considered as one part of a larger message whole. The groups chosen action repertoires are viewed as part of the activists’ performed message and the linguistic communication styles created by lexical choices related to emotional appeals are part of the activists’ verbal/textual message. The results indicate that there is much to be gained from adhering to an alignment between lexical choices and action repertoires. Alignment may be key for understanding why some movement subgroups are successful in inspiring certain actions whilst others inspire other actions. Communication-action alignment is a way to approach the interconnectedness of actions and words for complex and abstract issues that require message recipients to construct consonant mental models to break potential cognitive dissonance.

The purpose of this study is to find out how Swedish voluntary migrants communicate with friends in three different groups: friends that resides in the same country as the respondent currently lives in, friends in Sweden, friends in other countries around the globe and whether or not individual mobility, demographic factors or a sense of global citizenship affect the chosen mean of communication. The reason behind the study is to introduce a previously unstudied area into the field of geographically based media studies and hopefully contribute to a deeper understanding of the role played by different means of communication in shaping the dynamics of global friendship. The theoretical approach in this study will be from three different outlooks, migration, polymedia (including the second-level digital divide) and cosmopolitanism.

The study is based on data from the Institute for Society, Opinion and Media (SOM) and their survey questionnaire sent out to Swedish expatriates during fall 2014 / winter 2015, also known as Utlands-SOM. The total number of respondents are 2268. The study starts with basic frequencies to find out which media that are the most prominent, then binary logistic regressions have been made. The total number of dependent variables are 21 and these have then been analysed from seven independent variables; age, gender, education, travel patterns, years spent abroad, number of countries lived in and whether or not the respondent consider himself/herself being a cosmopolitan. This generates a total of seven tables (one for each media) with three models in each (contact with friends in current country of residency, contact with friends in Sweden and contact with friends in other parts of the world).

Amongst Swedish expatriates, e-mail and Facebook are the two most popular media for keeping in touch with friends, regardless of the friends location. The most significant demographic variable is age. Usage of video call, text message, chat, Facebook and other social media tend to decrease with age. Every year spent abroad decreases the communication with friends in Sweden, but increases the communication in the current country of residency. The number of countries lived in have a positive effect on communication with friends in other parts of the world. Cosmopolitan self-identity is found to be most significant when communicating with friends in other parts of the world, and it also affects e-mail the most. Level of education, which in previous studies have been found closely linked to a cosmopolitan identity, is found to have no significant correlation. Arguably, this is explained by the other means of communications negative relationship with the variable.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not American and British newspapers coverage of the famine at the horn of Africa 2011 developed and changed from a month before to a month after the UN declared famine on July 20th the same year. It also studies if and how the focus has changed in contrast to prior coverage of African famines, since the coverage of events is key for the world-wide response.

Questions asked in this paper is; To what extent did the frequency in coverage change after July 20th in correlation to theories of crisis reporting? How does both countries score on the positive/negative content scale in comparison with previous images of Africa and compassion fatigue? In what ways does the coverage differ prior to and after July20th in relation to crisis reporting? How is the reporting country framed in the articles, that is; what kind of attention does the country in question get for its actions?

This paper is based on theoretical approaches of news framing, news coverage on crisis and catastrophes, compassion fatigue (the gradual lessening of compassion experienced by an audience that has gotten used to a certain way of reporting). This study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis where the data has been collected through quantitative methods in order to create categories for frames as well as making it possible to compare data between both countries in a concrete way. Thereafter the results has been analyzed qualitatively.

The frequency in reporting amongst the 67 articles reviewed in this study increased after July 20th and that showed that a catastrophe will increase the coverage just as theories about crisis reporting predicted. The publishing in this study falls on the negative side of reporting, which is correct accordingly to theories on crisis reporting, but also to compassion fatigue and framing. The content barely changed, but for the American papers it became slightly more positive after July 20th. The British papers on the other hand increased their negative content. The outspoken primary focus on the countries ownportrayal were minimal, which is inconsistent with theories of African media portrayal.

Första säsongen av tv-serien 13 Reasons Why fick stark kritik efter att den lanserats på Netflix 2017. Tv-serien behandlar ämnena psykisk ohälsa och suicidalitet. Kritiken riktades främst mot hur dessa ämnen glorifieras och kan uppmana tittare att reagera destruktivt. Trots att psykisk ohälsa och suicidalitet inte är några ovanliga ämnen att representera inom populärkulturella verk har tv-serien fått oönskade negativa konsekvenser och kritik. Genom en kvalitativ textanalys med inriktning på representation och semiotik har vi analyserat det empiriska materialet utifrån diverse element som representerar psykisk ohälsa i första säsongen av tv-serien 13 Reasons Why. Detta för att undersöka hur psykisk ohälsa representeras i serien och huruvida den förtjänar den kritik som den har mottagit. Studiens syfte är att frilägga de representationer av psykisk ohälsa som kan leda till negativa konsekvenser för mottagaren av texten, som vi benämner som fallgropar. Att bilda kunskap kring hur psykisk ohälsa inte bör representeras är viktigt för att kulturproducenter ska kunna undvika fallgropar som kan få negativa konsekvenser för mottagare av deras verk. 

Med stöd från det teoretiska ramverket har vi kunnat identifiera fyra fallgropar som seriens skapare inte har lyckats undvika i representationen av psykisk ohälsa i tv-serien 13 Reasons Why.

In this short paper we describe the implementation of an IoT test-bed in an elementary school. We argue that by adding additional IoT senors to an existing IoT system it is possible to evolve an indoor climate control system into a indoor milieu control system aimed at improving the health and well-being for both pupils and staff who spend their days working in the school environment. Lastly, we call for multidisciplinary action as the domain IoT for health and well-being spans across several different knowledge domains.

Allt mer i organisationer kräver digital kunskap, t ex att utföra arbetsuppgifter eller att kommunicera med externa parter. Den omställning som sker från analogt arbete till digitalt kräver kunskap, både i organisationen och hos den enskilda individen. Därför har projektet VälTel 2.0 initierat ett arbetspaket som handlar om kompetenshöjande insatser. VälTel2.0 är ett EU-finansierat projekt som arbetar för att hitta morgondagens hälsolösningar genom att öka kunskapen om innovationsprocesser, digitalisering och välfärdsteknologiska lösningar. Syftet med att använda dessa lösningar är att göra vård- och omsorg mer jämlik ur ett patient- brukar-, och medborgarperspektiv. I projektet samarbetar Östersunds kommun, Region Jämtland-Härjedalen, Åre kommun, Mittuniversitetet och kommuner i Tröndelag samt olika IT- företag. Projektet är en fortsättning på VälTel-projektet, i vilket resultatet pekar på att offentlig sektor behöver bli bättre på att testa, implementera och utvärdera nya innovationer på e-hälso- teknologiområdet, bygga kompetens kring förändrade arbetssätt, samt skapa bättre förutsättningar för samverkan med näringslivet.

Teachers have demanding jobs in often stressful, high-paced work environments with heavy workloads. This has been shown to have negative consequences on health and job retention. This study aimed to ease the burden teachers experience in at least one area of their jobs – formative assessments. This was done by developing a timesaving design framework based on the insights gained from language teachers’ formative assessment practices which center on translanguaging, or strategic principles for using multilingualism in teaching. The framework, grounded in researched UX and UI design principles that reduce cognitive load, was used to create a rubric-based digital formative assessment (DFA) translanguaging tool prototype that was then tested for its impact on teacher workload. The results indicated that the developed DFA tool had the potential to reduce teacher workload with relatively high user satisfaction. One of the most significant findings from the study was that the learnability design principle had the greatest impact on the timesaving design framework. Further findings show that the DFA tool may be most effective if used in conjunction with other more traditional formative assessment processes. This study benefits teachers who use or want to use DFA tools, but mostly developers and designers who want to create more efficient systems using timesaving design principles. This study’s contribution is a timesaving design framework, which can be used to design and build DFA tools for translanguaging learning development.

In today's society an increased use of social networking sites can be seen, which can present difficulties in deciding what is private and what is public. The questions and issues being discussed in this essay are made to determining how students at Karlstad University relate to the information published on Facebook. Through an explorative research design and methodological triangulation in the form of a questionnaire survey and focus group interviews, the authors seek to answer and discuss the students' different approaches to the use of Facebook.The paper shows that students at Karlstad University sometimes have a low awareness of the information displayed to others and inadequate use of the privacy settings available on the page. At the end of the study the authors discern three different categories of Facebook users with different levels of consciousness.

Stroke is a globally increasing disease and speech and language deficiencies are common in stroke survivors. To facilitate medical caregivers in their professional work and to improve patients’ quality of life, technology can play an important role. However, the use and acceptance of technology are uncertain and more research is needed in this direction. This study evaluates the technology acceptance and adoption of an online speech and language assessment application. The evaluation-focused Design Science Research strategy was adopted for that purpose. Two physiotherapists, one occupational therapist and three speech therapists participated in the study. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as the theoretical base for interview questions formation and data analysis. The study findings show that the suggested application is useful and easy to use; however, it should be better synchronised with speech therapists’ daily work routines. The speech therapists stressed that the functionalities of the application should be designed in close collaboration with them, and it should be compatible with the already existing systems and services in place. Due to impairments after stroke, the patients have some specific preferences for software and hardware; such as a tablet with a touch pen is the preferred hardware. Additionally, the interface should have bigger text fonts and pictures, and highly contrastive colours in the graphics should be used for patients’ convenience. The user’s privacy and security, the patient’s current health, and their previous knowledge and experience with technology were also found important determinants for the intention to use the given technology.

Contact tracing has become a major weapon against fighting the spread of diseases like SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, the ability to inform potentially infected people always comes with a downside to privacy, as contacts traced could also be misused in other contexts. In this paper, we present CampusTracer, a novel contact tracing system specialized for university campus environments. Based on an in-depth analysis of existing contact tracing approaches and university-specific requirements, we elaborate a Privacy-by-Design solution to contact tracing that caters for most real-world requirements while preserving the privacy of its users in a best-possible way. 

Building on the notion of the Greek crisis as a discursive event and revisiting theories about the sociocultural role of television fiction, this chapter introduces the latter as a framing mechanism through which events of the social world are defined and assessed. By uncovering the dominant interpretative frames underlying the story, setting, characters and plot of the popular Greek television comedy Piso Sto Spiti (MEGA channel, 2011–2013), this analysis illustrates television fiction’s contribution to the construction of the root causes of the crisis as tied to the cultural traits of Greeks, the impossibility of change and the futility of an alternative, left-wing consideration of the crisis, as well as an attempt to morally assess the situation at hand.

Christopher Papakaliatis, a prominent figure in Greek television, propelled Greece into the global streaming arena with his series Maestro in Blue. Supported by the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME) and initially aired on MEGA TV, the show made history on 19 December 2022 as the first Greek drama to debut on Netflix. This study explores the significance of such turning points for small television nations, analysing textual choices, production strategies, and broader significance for the visibility of Greek television on the global stage. As such, the study contributes to understanding the evolving landscape of transnational television and its implications for small television cultures and industries.

This article investigates how the Eurozone crisis is thematically negotiated in a popular Greek television comedy. Inspired by the increasing interest in the ideological role of news media during the Eurozone crisis of the late 2000s, it turns the spotlight on the sphere of entertainment in an attempt to address the importance of fictional mediations and meaning-making processes. To that end, it proposes an understanding of television fiction as an accommodator and shaper of ‘hot moments’, instigating processes of self-assessment and evaluation of change. More specifically, the study examines the ways in which the family comedy Piso sto Spiti (MEGA Channel, 2011–2013) provides culturally based understandings of the Eurozone crisis by depicting it as associated with inherent flaws of the modern Greek and by assessing the possibility of change through a juxtaposition with national ‘others’. At the same time, it identifies ways that ideology leaks from television fiction in its interaction with other media discourses simultaneously circulating within a society.

This book explores fictional representations and narrative functions of animal characters in animated and live-action film and television, examining the ways in which these representations intersect with a variety of social issues. Contributors cover a range of animal characters, from heroes to villains, across a variety of screen genres and formats, including anime, comedy, romance, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Aesthetic features of these works, along with the increased latitude that fictionalized narratives and alternative worlds provide, allow existing social issues to be brought to the forefront in order to effect change in our societies. By incorporating animal figures into media, these screen narratives have gained the ability to critique actions carried out by human beings and explore dimensions of both the human/animal connection and the intersectionality of race, culture, class, gender, and ability, ultimately teaching viewers how to become more human in our interactions with the world around us. Scholars of film studies, media studies, and animal studies will find this book of particular interest. 

This study engages with the cultural consequences of the self-disparaging politics of television satire. It focuses on an emblematic program of Greek television fiction, Oi Afthairetoi (MEGA channel, 1989–1991) and the ways it both constructs and ridicules a particular version of the Greek self, the “Neoellinas”. By proposing a wider understanding of the political side-effects of television satire, which have so far been mainly addressed within the study of political satire, it turns the attention toward the role of satirical discourse in a public’s view on its national self in times of change or transition. More specifically, while it recognizes the contradictory impact that satire can have on society, it applies the concept of “satiric misfire” as a means to understand satirical endeavors which reinforce rather than counter the problematics they set out to fight against in the first place.

This article draws from interviews with creators of television fiction (directors and screenwriters) with professional experience in Greek private television and examines how and why fiction programmes are produced in a commercial context. By focusing on the first decade of private television in Greece, an era popularly remembered as the ‘golden age of Greek television’, this study makes use of accounts from ‘exclusive informants’ in order to complicate facile assumptions about the relationship between commercialization, ideology and entertainment. As such, this article aspires to update the (limited) scholarship on Greek television production culture and to contribute to the recent research focusing specifically on private television in Greece.

Christopher (Christoforos) Papakaliatis is one of Greece’s most recognizable and successful ‘television authors’ and Maestro in Blue, his latest creation, is the series that managed to turn Greece into a full “Netflix nation” (Lobato, 2019). Supported by the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME) and originally broadcast by private television channel MEGA TV, Maestro in Blue became – on 19 December 2022 – the first Greek drama show to launch into global subscription video-on-demand streaming platform Netflix, with the latter having already acquired the rights for the second season. Shot on the Ionian islands of Paxoi and Corfu, using the locations strategically in a way that combines Papakaliatis’ signature glossy aesthetic style, traces of Mediterranean noir and ‘weird’ wave, and established (cinematic) representations of Greek island idyll, Maestro in Blue is addressed in this paper as part of Netflix’s glocalization practices (Sigismondi & Ciofalo, 2022) and as an example of “television that travels” (Waade et al, 2020).

By combining a textual analysis of the first season of the drama series with an overview of its production context and a mapping out of its popular/critical reception, this paper engages with the question around the significance of a small television culture gaining international visibility, focusing on three concrete analytical dimensions: 

(a)   exportability, addressed through a close examination of the visual and storytelling strategies potentially contributing to the appeal of the series to international audiences, including the importance of locations to narrative, iconography and cultural specificity

(b)  extroversion, addressed through an analysis of the creative synergies and production strategies orchestrated in order to resonate with a global commercial logic and (international) distribution

(c)   visibility, addressed through a discourse analysis of the series’ reception in both Greek and international popular/cultural criticism, and expressed primarily through the notions of quality and (national) pride.

Drawing from cultural theory, geomedia studies, and media industry studies, and informed by previous research on streaming platforms, international TV flows and content diversity (e.g. Lobato, 2018; Lotz et al, 2022), the present paper aspires to provide an empirically grounded analysis of small television industries’ engagement with developments in international media production and transnational television theory. What is more, it aims to discuss the drama series in question as a potential game changer for Greek television (studies), thus contributing to a broader discussion about the pleasures and gains of international appeal.

Book chapter in Greek.

Book title in English: The Box: Images of modern Greece in private television

Popular geopolitics has recognized in popular culture a platform where geopolitical imaginations are created and discursive constructions of ‘self’ and ‘other’ take place. However, limited work has been done on the employment of specific methodological tools of Critical Discourse Analysis on popular culture texts. This article attempts a hands-on analysis on an episode of a popular product of Greek television fiction (Oi Aparadektoi), and constitutes a combination of theoretical discussion, on one hand, and data presentation and analysis, on the other. Building on a growing body of literature arguing in favor of popular culture’s value for study of politics, the main argument is that television fiction can, and should be, included in investigations of the (geo)politics of the contemporary world and the politics of (national) identity, while special focus is placed on how a discourse-oriented approach can be adopted for the study of products of television fiction.

The private life of a nation in crisis offers in-depth studies of the fictional reconstruction and negotiation of moments of heightened societal tension that take place throughout the life of a nation. Its constituent papers focus on the role of television fiction in representing and shaping either critical moments, events, or periods that disrupt the normal pace of life, or unresolved societal tensions that become part of everyday life. What is more, the papers investigate the socio-cultural consequences of representations, in terms of the interpretative lenses television fiction provides for understanding the events as such. The empirical focus is placed on television fiction produced and broadcast in Greece, a country that has recently received a large share of publicity because of its protagonistic role in the late 2000s Eurozone crisis and, at the same time, a media landscape with multiple aspects that still remain uncharted. The thesis contains case studies from different periods of Greek television fiction, from 1989 – the year of the launch of the first private channels in Greece – onwards, in an attempt to connect the overall project to the production context characterizing commercial television, another aspect of European television in the process of continuous exploration. Through a close analysis of specific television programmes, as well as a complementary study of the production culture of private television in Greece, this thesis aspires to contribute to the general question regarding the role of the media in critical, uncertain, or tumultuous times, with an emphasis on television fiction’s potential to recode their meaning and to reflect back on society.

Christopher (Christoforos) Papakaliatis is one of Greece’s most recognizable and successful “television authors” and Maestro in Blue, his latest creation, is the series that managed to turn Greece into a “Netflix nation”, both in the sense of a country being included in the global streaming service’s catalogue and in terms of a national television market being potentially “transformed by a foreign entrant affecting on many levels” (Lobato 2019: xi). On 19 December 2022, Maestro in Blue became the first Greek fiction show to launch on Netflix and the present review provides a critical reading of the series, based on an overview of its major strengths and weaknesses, as well as some additional reflections departing from the critical reception of the series, together with some concluding thoughts about the significance of small television nations being represented in the larger streaming universe.