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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The fact that music evoke emotions inside us is something that probably all of us are willing to agree on. Music can make us laugh, cry, dance - every possible expression of emotions can be created through it. Perhaps may the ultimate song be the one that make us feel all of these emotions at once, and make us want to listen to it, over and over again. Some songs and music videos blow up and create millions or even billions of views. At times, music can be more than just a song, making people want to sit down and discuss its meaning for hours. The song This is America and its music video is a good example of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to explore the elements of this particular video, how it alludes with the current political context and the aftermath that have aroused from it.

To explore the reason behind the enormous popularity of this video, we composed a comprehensive research question, that goes “How are we to understand the meaning in This is America?”. From the background of our research summary, we were able to find that the ambiguousness and the potential of a wide interpretation of a popular cultural phenomenon, is what lays the ground for its popularity. Through history, it can be said that music, that have been made from alienation, have a possibility of becoming even more popular. With our research summary in hand, we broke down the music video This is America into sections, in order to learn its meaning and signification, and to understand its popularity. The video and its lyrics, brings up subjects such as gun politics in the United States, the remaining traces of slavery, and how people of colour still suffer from oppression. The enormous popularity of the video probably comes from the wide range of subjects and signs that it addresses. Basically anyone who watches it will see something they recognize, regardless of if the person is five or 105 years old. Children recognize the dances from the video game Fortnite, while the elder recognize the character Jim Crow, who they associate with the segregation in the United States in the beginning of the 20th century.

A music video can tell us more than we originally think, which is also what this essay points to. If given an additional look, a music video might be able to give an insight to a world that is unknown to us. It may even open the door to provide a portrayal of society that regular media rarely presents.

Young adults spend a lot of their time on social media where they share their lives with friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, ect. Wesch (2009) explains that things posted on social media such as YouTube can be viewed by anybody, everybody, and nobody, anywhere in the world all at once. This becomes a problem for young adults as several different audiences blend into one (i.e. context collapse) (Brandtzaeg, Lüder & Skjetne,2010). For example, how would it feel if your mother saw a video of you at a party which was posted for friends to joke about? However, Brandtzaeg and Lüders (2018) states that is not the only problem. Social media also blurs the line between the present and the past. One example can be a friend commenting on a silly post on facebook you made years ago, then it appears in everyone's feed again making it seem as if you have posted it recently. Both of these problems make young adults change how they chose to self-presentate themselves on social media. In addition, since social media is asynchronous as content does not take place in real-time, it provides time to be more strategic as well as for more polished forms of self-presentation and self-censorship(Gardner & Davis, 2013; Lindgren, 2017). With foundation in this, this study is going to examine which strategies young adults use that are related to self-presentation on the occasion of facing context and time-collapse. The study will focus on to what extent the participants use the tactics mentioned in earlier literature as well as how different aspects relate to the tactics one chooses to use. In order to create an understanding of context- and time collapse previous research has been examined. Furthermore, previous research about self-presentation in general and self-presentation on social media inparticular is examined to connect to how self-presentation can be disturbed by context- and time collapse. Finally, theories and research about privacy is used to gather an understanding of how young adults experiencecontext and time collapse as a problem for their privacy. Through a survey, data have been collected from 226 respondents to be examined, presented and analyzed. The respondents were born between the years 1997 and 2004. The result showed that all of the strategies were used yet the extent varied depending on the strategy. However, the most commonly used strategies were connected to self-censoring. Moreover, there are relations between the strategies and for example gender, how long one had social media, how one perceives oneself etc.However, surprisingly the relations were for the most part weak even though some stand out as a bit stronger. 

One measure that groups of people have always taken is to ostracize the individuals who violate social norms. This is still going on today, even in digital form. Cancel culture is a prevailing internet phenomenon on social media where public figures are banned from influence after saying or performing a, according to the public, wrongful act. The phenomenon is, to say the least, debated and controversial but nevertheless lacks detailed scientific work. The purpose of this study is to investigate young adults' participation in cancel culture and to shed light on possible reasons why they maintain and conduct cancel culture on social media, which was carried out with the help of the main question: 

- How do young adults in Sweden reason about their participation in cancel culture on social media and why do they choose to participate?

Through a qualitative interview survey, where eight respondents shared their experiences and opinions on their participation, conclusions could be drawn. The results showed that the interviewees' reasoning was positive in the sense that their participation had positive consequences for themselves and that they participate partly to show their position and thus be part of the group, and partly to command the justice that the judiciary has failed to do.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how homosexuality is being represented in the popular TV-series ​Friends.​ This study consists of scenes from three different episodes in which homosexuality is the main theme. A qualitative text analysis will be the foundation of the essay where the semiotic tools denotation, connotation and anchoring are significant. The analysis applies several theories such as myths, stereotypes, masculine theory and performativity. Using these tools the scenes were examined and interpreted by the authors. The results suggests that homosexuality is abnormal and is not something that the characters strive for. Homosexuality is used to make fun of rather than for diversity purposes.

Im Verhältnis von Medien, Technik und Menschen gewinnt Unkontrolliertes an Terrain: ›Intelligente‹ Objekte scheinen nach eigenen Gesetzen zu handeln, im gesellschaftlichen Raum setzt sich durch, was niemand gewollt hat, Prozesse verselbstständigen sich. Der Band knüpft – durchaus kritisch – an die Geschichte einer populären Metapher an und wirft ein neues Licht auf Prozesse, die hinter dem Rücken der Subjekte nicht kalkulierbare Wirkungen haben. Mit der Perspektive der Automatismen verbunden, zeigt der Band mit Beiträgen aus dem Bereich der Kultur- und Medienwissenschaft, der Soziologie und Informatik, wie sich Strukturen jenseits bewusster Planung durch Selbststeuerung etablieren.

Mit Automatismen zwangsläufig verbunden ist die Frage nach dem Selbst und nach den Bedingungen, die es hervorbringen. Automatismen setzen ein ›Selbst‹ einerseits voraus, andererseits ist zu fragen, wie ein ›Selbst‹ entsteht, wie es sich stabilisiert und reproduziert, und welchen Anteil hieran wiederum Automatismen haben. Auf Seiten der Technik kann das Konzept der Automatismen abgegrenzt werden gegenüber Theorien zum Automaten. Im Fokus des Bandes stehen Selbsttechnologien in einem umfassenden Sinne: kulturelle Muster der Selbstkonstitution, Prozesse der Selbststeuerung und Praktiken der Selbstführung wie auch Formen des Selbstmanagements.

The aim of the study is to increase knowledge about childrens ability in different ages to use Green Screen. The study examines children's ability to take a critical approach during an activity where the digital learning tool Green Screen is used. Our experiences of preschools' use of Green Screen differ and therefore we wanted to investigate the area. We conducted a participant observation that was filmed in two activities with Green Screen, one with two-year-olds and one with four-year-olds. The study was conducted at a preschool in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. The collected data were analyzed multimodally using the thematic analysis method based on Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, play and equilibrium. The results show that children aged two and four respectively act differently in activity with Green Screen. The two-year-olds discover the technology physically while the four-year-olds used the technology as a tool in play, which could suggest that the four-year-olds’ critical approach was more developed. There is limited research on Green Screen in preschool, therefore we believe that this study can contribute to the subject being noticed so that further studies can be done. 

The lives of transnational groups and individuals are marked by a spatial and imaginary split: a phenomenon wherein identity, belonging and representation have become increasingly elusive concepts, and the realm of the ‘cultural’ vastly important. And, the theoretical compasses of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism are particularly relevant and illuminating in considering social space, mediated communication and belonging in relation to urban diasporic communities and gendered subjectivities. The aim of this paper is to address expressions of identity and belonging at the intersection of online communicative practice and offline spatial formations, with a focus on the specificities of gendered constructions of sociality and subjectivity in the diaspora

Mediatization refers to a meta-process whereby social life in its totality is (re)embedded in and saturated with mediated processes. This paper addresses the relationship between two theoretically diverging, yet socially intertwined, realms pertaining to various mediatization patterns: cosmopolitanism and surveillance. Mediatization implies increasing opportunities for ‘extending the self’, experienced in terms of mediated proximity, immediacy and boundary transgression – ultimately sustaining a more cosmopolitan outlook of the world. Yet, mediatization also brings growing opportunities for securitization, boundary control and social encapsulation, on behalf of societal institutions as well as individuals and groups. Contemporary forms and extensions of surveillance and cosmopolitanism are increasingly interwoven through the meta-process of mediatization, most recently the social saturation of converging ‘social’ media. This paper suggests that phenomenology, as a heuristic tool, offers a well-contextualized and grounded socio-cultural perspective to grasp the everyday dimensions and subjective moral positionalities ensuing from increased mediatization and related openings and closures

While there is knowledge about the presence of political themes in Alki Zei’s (1925–2020) children’s and youth literature, there is scant research on how class issues are represented in her work and how they are adapted to other media forms. This chapter, using a case study design and a social-semiotic-inspired text analysis, offers a closer look at the Greek produced television-series adaptation of Wildcat under Glass (ERT, 1990), which was mostly recently broadcast in Greece in 2012 and is now available on the online streaming platform ERT Flix. Drawing on a materialist and “culturalist” understanding of class as well as on the concept of comparative criticism, they focus, in particular, on how class issues are represented and (re)adapted to television, the entertainment genre, and a wider audience. Contrary to initial assumptions, the authors show that class issues remain, in principle, unaltered and discuss a number of possible explanations.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how women's ideals and values are reproduced on Instagram by examining how they are embodied in commercials that use influencer marketing. By analyzing and comparing the visual design with the verbally expressed within a paid collaboration, the questions can be answered: 1) What are the similarities and differences between the visual and the verbal presentation of women's ideals and values in paid influencer collaborations? 2) In what way do companies use influencers' stated ideals and values in advertising?

The theoretical basis explains the creation of influencers, trust for influencers, in addition to a feminist theory, marketing, feminist gaze theory, Goffman's theory of gender representation and the design components. The study uses semiotic content analysis to analyze two commercials from the Swedish companies Aimn and Deodoc that uses influencer marketing published on Instagram. Then I compared the visual material with the verbal material in the form of the participating influencers' expressed opinions that they expressed in advertising for each company. In my analysis of the visual material, subordination and a sexualized image of the woman are frequent in the portrayal. Aimn's video frequently uses a camera angle from above and presents Nicole without a gaze which diminishes and subordinates her in relation to the observer. In Deodoc’s video, a neutral camera angle is used and Bianca is given a gaze that meets the camera, thus she owns her gaze and has equal power relationship to the viewer. Touch was used both to express fragility and strength in both commercials. In the verbal material, strong words and values which alluded to a proud and strong woman were used. Additionally, a value in being natural was expressed in the verbal material while the visual expressed a staging and the ideal of a fixed attractive woman. The results thus indicate that the two female influencers were portrayed differently in the visual and verbal portrayal.

To answer the first question, it could be concluded that in Deodoc's video, the values are consistent even if the company prioritizes a visually attractive scene where Bianca is sexualized rather than portrayed as natural. Verbally, the campaign shows menstruation as something natural that no one should be ashamed of, but in the visual design, this is done attractively. In Aimn's video, the conclusion for the first question has been drawn that the video visually alludes to the body as an object while the influencer Nicole Falciani verbally speaks about the inside and what the body can do as the most important. To answer the second question about how companies use influencers' unique and trustworthy position in advertising, it has been concluded that these companies have used an influencer to create trust and confidence in the company and the message. 

Syftet med projektet ”Det dubbla traumat” var att undersöka interaktionen mellan journalister och drabbade, främst med utgångspunkt i överlevandes upplevelser av;(a) mötet med journalister på skadeplats och (b) medierapporteringen (publiceringarna), samt i förekommande fall egen medieexponering.

De huvudsakliga teoretiska utgångspunkterna har hämtats från journalistikoch medieforskning rörande bland annat journalistiska arbetsvillkor specifikt vid katastrofrapportering, pressetik samt nyhetsförmedling, medielogik och nyheters dramaturgi. Från det psykotraumatologiska fältet har teorier om krisoch stressreaktioner stått för viktiga perspektiv, både när det gällt utformning av frågor och vid analys av resultat. Ett flertal metoder har tillämpats, däribland litteraturgenomgångar, innehållsanalyser, webb- och postenkäter samt kvalitativa intervjuer. Denna populärvetenskapliga sammanställning ger en skissartad översikt över resultaten från de olika undersökningarna.Projekttiteln antyder en hypotes, nämligen att medieexponering och interaktion med journalister direkt efter en traumatisk händelse potentiellt skulle kunna innebära ett dubbelt trauma för den överlevande. Är så fallet?Enligt projektets resultat är svaret på den frågan både ja och nej. För vissa drabbade individer, i vissa situationer, kan både journalisters agerande på skadeplats och den medierapportering som följer upplevas som ett sekundärttrauma. För andra kan mediernas agerande och publiceringar kan upplevas som ett stöd och ett bidrag till känslan av sammanhang. En kategori överlevande upplever mediernas aktiviteter i anslutning till den traumatiska händelsen som mer eller mindre försumbara. Hela spektret av upplevelser och erfarenheter finns således representerat, och här framträder en delikat uppgift för reportern eller fotografen på plats: att avgöra vem, när och var det kan vara lämpligt eller olämpligt att intervjua, fotografera och rapportera. De överlevandes syn på medierapporteringen förändras också över tid. Fler negativa reaktioner finns på journalistiken i akutskedet än på längre sikt.Reportage och inslag av uppföljande och förklarande karaktär beskriver deflesta drabbade i mer positiva termer än nyhetsrapporteringen i direkt anslutning till händelsen.

Introduction: Major Incidents and Disasters are often associated with early, extensive and prolonged media reporting. It is important to understand the interaction between first responders/rescue services and the media to create better conditions for providing and making available correct and objective information to as many people as possible.

Method: A systematic literature review and content analysis was made on all Swedish KAMEDO reports (emergency medicine observations published by the National Board of Healthand Welfare) from the last twenty years, in total 39 reports. KAMEDO’s primary task is to feedback experience data (lessons learned) from disasters worldwide, through expert observers at the site of an emergency event. The aim of this study was to evaluate and analyze the experiences made regarding the interaction between media and healthcare in connection with major incidents and disasters, both on site and in hospitals.

Results: The analysis resulted in the following main themes:

(1) Communication problems and other challenges in Major Incidents and Disasters• No protection and restrictions• Information craving and news hunt• Interviews as intervention

(2) Recommendations for efficient interaction between healthcare and the media:• Strategies from alert to action• Satisfying information needs• Clarity measures on site• Key actors of importance• Proactive media alertness

Conclusion: Some conclusions regarding lessons learned about interaction between healthcare and the media, as well as about communication with the afflicted and citizens, in brief: The hospital management should take control of the communication through efficient communication strategies. An accommodating approach to the media's presence can facilitate the dissemination of the necessary early, correct and balanced information. Joint authority press conferences are a model tested and positively evaluated. Healthcare communicators are key actors in hospital crisis communication and media management. Healthcare and media both benefit from developing routines and reciprocal respect for proactive and efficient interaction in emergencies.

Allvarliga händelser är ofta förknippade med tidig, omfattande och långvarig medierapportering. Samspelet mellan samhällets kris- och katastrofhjälpare och mediernas personal är viktigt att förstå för att skapa bättre förutsättningar för att korrekt och saklig information ska kunna tillgängliggöras på ett bra sätt och till så många som möjligt. I många år har kunskap och erfarenheter från katastrofer samlats i katastrofmedicinska observationer, KAMEDO. Denna sammanställning av de observationer om samspelet med medier i katastrofinsatser som finns i rapporterna tydliggör mönster i samspelet och pekar på återkommande brister och styrkor som kan fungera som underlag för kris- och katastrofplanering framöver.

Rapporten riktar sig främst till ledning och personal inom hälso- och sjukvården som är delaktiga i planering eller utförande av insatser vid katastrofer och till journalister och mediehus som rapporterar från sådana händelser. Innehållet torde dock vara relevant för flera aktörer vid katastrofinsatser, exempelvis Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB), personal inom kommunernas krisberedskap, polis och räddningstjänst, med flera.Litteraturgenomgången i föreliggande rapport baseras på alla KAMEDO-rapporter utgivna under tjugoårsperioden 1993-2013 och rapporterna nummer 60-98. Dessa 40-talet rapporter representerar en stor bredd av olyckor och katastrofer, både på svensk och på internationell mark.