A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will inve... more A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will investigate what kind of actors and events have shaped Swedish nuclear energy policy from the 1970's up until the present day. This will be done by applying theories from the fields of communication, political and environmental science to our source material, which include a wide variety of academic journals as well as previous research done on Swedish nuclear policy and public perception. We expect to find that there has been a continuous gap between media, politicians and public opinion regarding beliefs and opinion not only on nuclear energy but also on what the different actors believe that the other actors' beliefs are. The actors that we have focused on in this research includes the public, politicians, political parties, mass media and scientists & experts. The research shows that there is an on-going struggle for influence amongst the different actors, and that they all shape each other's actions, messages and to an extent, also beliefs. Nuclear energy first begins to emerge in the political spectrum in Sweden. Coalition government consisting of the Centre party (C) with Liberal People's Party (FP) and the Moderate Party (M). The Centre Party held strong anti-nuclear views. 1979 -Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania, US. A partial nuclear meltdown occurred in one of the nuclear reactors. Claimed wide scale international attention, highlighting the dangers of nuclear power. 1980 -Consequently from the previous year's disaster, a Swedish nuclear power referendum was held in March 1980. The Swedish parliament accumulated a nuclear phase-out, envisioning all nuclear power plants to be closed by 2010. (25 year period was chosen, supposedly to coincide with 25 year lifetime of reactors. 1981 -The coalition government split up. Nuclear energy was an issue parties were very much divided upon. 1986 -The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Incidentally a few days later, abnormal radiation levels reached and were detected at the Forsmark Nuclear power plant in Sweden and only after did the former Soviet Union admit to the population an accident had occurred. Again this prompted questions of nuclear safety and plans for shutting down nuclear plants in Sweden sped up. 1988 -The Green Party enter the Parliament, having been formed 7 years earlier, mainly as a reaction to the nuclear referendum 1992 -Small scale incident at Barsebäck 2 Nuclear Power Plant, Sweden revealed that 5 older reactors had no emergency cooling system. Received minor media attention. Danish government against Barsebäck from the beginning. 1999 -Barsebäck 1 is shut down in November. 2005 -Detection of a leak at the nuclear waste store in Forsmark Sweden. 2006 -The previous year's incident led to the shutdown of three out of ten nuclear reactors in Sweden. 2010 -Swedish parliament reversed the nuclear phase out decision. 2011 -Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, Japan prevailed what was to be a nuclear meltdown on a catastrophic scale. 2011 -After the Fukushima disaster, public opinion polls showed 64% of Swedes were opposed the building of new reactors and 27% supported them. March Greenpeace activists broke into Oskarshamn nuclear power plant -Questions followed surrounding tightening up security measures of nuclear power plants, a more physical security presence,
This paper will address the topic of media and everyday life focusing on whether media technologi... more This paper will address the topic of media and everyday life focusing on whether media technologies in everyday life can be seen to create distinctions between public and private space. Here the term media technologies is used broadly collaborating smart phone technologies, tablets, laptops, applications as social media platforms, traditional media such as books, newspapers and magazines. Reference will be made to a small empirical case study based on the film and music library inside The Kulturhuset in Stockholm city centre and aimed to show how private spaces can be created in public spaces.
Communication plays a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of complex issues such as cli... more Communication plays a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of complex issues such as climate change. Too often scientists and journalists complain that the public does not fully comprehend climate change as they cannot see it. Adhering to calls for a need to propel away from media representations of climate change to a focus on more case-specific research, this Master Thesis analyses the aspect of visualisation within climate change communication with a focus on a contemporary example, the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), as a case-specific study. EIS give a visual voice to our planets changing eco-systems, where an emphasis is placed on visually documenting the adverse effects climate change has on the planets glaciers, through conventional photography and time-lapse photography.
Adhering to the need for further studies of visual representations towards the environment this thesis deploys an image analysis to investigate how meaning is framed through the EIS’s photographs and time-lapse videos. A collective reading between the photographs and their accompanying written captions highlighted contradictive frames of beauty and uncertainty. Additionally, as climate change is predominately seen as an abstract entity, a metaphor analysis was also applied to open further frames of thought into more comprehensible understandings. Integrating both still images and moving images into the study provided different results. Time-lapse videos were analysed to open up new developments of seeing and to extract potential frames of unfolding narratives, perspective and time.
A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will inve... more A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will investigate what kind of actors and events have shaped Swedish nuclear energy policy from the 1970’s up until the present day. A multi-discplinary approach is adhered to throughout with an application of theories from the fields of communication, political and environmental science to our source material, which include a wide variety of academic journals as well as previous research done on Swedish nuclear policy and public perception. The actors that we have focused on in this research includes the public, politicians, political parties, mass media and scientists & experts. The research shows that there is an on-going struggle for influence amongst the different actors, and that they all shape each other’s actions, messages and to an extent, also beliefs.
This paper is posed of two sections. The first addresses the question - what is environmental com... more This paper is posed of two sections. The first addresses the question - what is environmental communication? The second looks at the movement 'The Extreme Ice Survey', whereby their environmental communication strategies is analysed. The movement visualise the effects of climate change
A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will inve... more A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will investigate what kind of actors and events have shaped Swedish nuclear energy policy from the 1970's up until the present day. This will be done by applying theories from the fields of communication, political and environmental science to our source material, which include a wide variety of academic journals as well as previous research done on Swedish nuclear policy and public perception. We expect to find that there has been a continuous gap between media, politicians and public opinion regarding beliefs and opinion not only on nuclear energy but also on what the different actors believe that the other actors' beliefs are. The actors that we have focused on in this research includes the public, politicians, political parties, mass media and scientists & experts. The research shows that there is an on-going struggle for influence amongst the different actors, and that they all shape each other's actions, messages and to an extent, also beliefs. Nuclear energy first begins to emerge in the political spectrum in Sweden. Coalition government consisting of the Centre party (C) with Liberal People's Party (FP) and the Moderate Party (M). The Centre Party held strong anti-nuclear views. 1979 -Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania, US. A partial nuclear meltdown occurred in one of the nuclear reactors. Claimed wide scale international attention, highlighting the dangers of nuclear power. 1980 -Consequently from the previous year's disaster, a Swedish nuclear power referendum was held in March 1980. The Swedish parliament accumulated a nuclear phase-out, envisioning all nuclear power plants to be closed by 2010. (25 year period was chosen, supposedly to coincide with 25 year lifetime of reactors. 1981 -The coalition government split up. Nuclear energy was an issue parties were very much divided upon. 1986 -The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Incidentally a few days later, abnormal radiation levels reached and were detected at the Forsmark Nuclear power plant in Sweden and only after did the former Soviet Union admit to the population an accident had occurred. Again this prompted questions of nuclear safety and plans for shutting down nuclear plants in Sweden sped up. 1988 -The Green Party enter the Parliament, having been formed 7 years earlier, mainly as a reaction to the nuclear referendum 1992 -Small scale incident at Barsebäck 2 Nuclear Power Plant, Sweden revealed that 5 older reactors had no emergency cooling system. Received minor media attention. Danish government against Barsebäck from the beginning. 1999 -Barsebäck 1 is shut down in November. 2005 -Detection of a leak at the nuclear waste store in Forsmark Sweden. 2006 -The previous year's incident led to the shutdown of three out of ten nuclear reactors in Sweden. 2010 -Swedish parliament reversed the nuclear phase out decision. 2011 -Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, Japan prevailed what was to be a nuclear meltdown on a catastrophic scale. 2011 -After the Fukushima disaster, public opinion polls showed 64% of Swedes were opposed the building of new reactors and 27% supported them. March Greenpeace activists broke into Oskarshamn nuclear power plant -Questions followed surrounding tightening up security measures of nuclear power plants, a more physical security presence,
This paper will address the topic of media and everyday life focusing on whether media technologi... more This paper will address the topic of media and everyday life focusing on whether media technologies in everyday life can be seen to create distinctions between public and private space. Here the term media technologies is used broadly collaborating smart phone technologies, tablets, laptops, applications as social media platforms, traditional media such as books, newspapers and magazines. Reference will be made to a small empirical case study based on the film and music library inside The Kulturhuset in Stockholm city centre and aimed to show how private spaces can be created in public spaces.
Communication plays a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of complex issues such as cli... more Communication plays a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of complex issues such as climate change. Too often scientists and journalists complain that the public does not fully comprehend climate change as they cannot see it. Adhering to calls for a need to propel away from media representations of climate change to a focus on more case-specific research, this Master Thesis analyses the aspect of visualisation within climate change communication with a focus on a contemporary example, the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), as a case-specific study. EIS give a visual voice to our planets changing eco-systems, where an emphasis is placed on visually documenting the adverse effects climate change has on the planets glaciers, through conventional photography and time-lapse photography.
Adhering to the need for further studies of visual representations towards the environment this thesis deploys an image analysis to investigate how meaning is framed through the EIS’s photographs and time-lapse videos. A collective reading between the photographs and their accompanying written captions highlighted contradictive frames of beauty and uncertainty. Additionally, as climate change is predominately seen as an abstract entity, a metaphor analysis was also applied to open further frames of thought into more comprehensible understandings. Integrating both still images and moving images into the study provided different results. Time-lapse videos were analysed to open up new developments of seeing and to extract potential frames of unfolding narratives, perspective and time.
A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will inve... more A historical case study of Swedish nuclear energy policy and use, where the researchers will investigate what kind of actors and events have shaped Swedish nuclear energy policy from the 1970’s up until the present day. A multi-discplinary approach is adhered to throughout with an application of theories from the fields of communication, political and environmental science to our source material, which include a wide variety of academic journals as well as previous research done on Swedish nuclear policy and public perception. The actors that we have focused on in this research includes the public, politicians, political parties, mass media and scientists & experts. The research shows that there is an on-going struggle for influence amongst the different actors, and that they all shape each other’s actions, messages and to an extent, also beliefs.
This paper is posed of two sections. The first addresses the question - what is environmental com... more This paper is posed of two sections. The first addresses the question - what is environmental communication? The second looks at the movement 'The Extreme Ice Survey', whereby their environmental communication strategies is analysed. The movement visualise the effects of climate change
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Adhering to the need for further studies of visual representations towards the environment this thesis deploys an image analysis to investigate how meaning is framed through the EIS’s photographs and time-lapse videos. A collective reading between the photographs and their accompanying written captions highlighted contradictive frames of beauty and uncertainty. Additionally, as climate change is predominately seen as an abstract entity, a metaphor analysis was also applied to open further frames of thought into more comprehensible understandings. Integrating both still images and moving images into the study provided different results. Time-lapse videos were analysed to open up new developments of seeing and to extract potential frames of unfolding narratives, perspective and time.
Adhering to the need for further studies of visual representations towards the environment this thesis deploys an image analysis to investigate how meaning is framed through the EIS’s photographs and time-lapse videos. A collective reading between the photographs and their accompanying written captions highlighted contradictive frames of beauty and uncertainty. Additionally, as climate change is predominately seen as an abstract entity, a metaphor analysis was also applied to open further frames of thought into more comprehensible understandings. Integrating both still images and moving images into the study provided different results. Time-lapse videos were analysed to open up new developments of seeing and to extract potential frames of unfolding narratives, perspective and time.