The article discusses recent developments in media culture through one case study: The L-word, the first television series narratively centered around lesbian and bisexual characters. The business discourse surrounding the series’ production is examined together with the televised text itself and the merchandize connected to The L-word brand. The main research question is why lesbians, a target group previously deemed uninteresting by advertisers and international media conglo-merates, have suddenly become demographically desirable. Media producers show increasing interest in the active audience, and encourage fans’ own creativity, for example through social web 2.0 media productions and events, and intermedia storytelling. This is made possible through the televised text’s discursive re-positioning of lesbian identities. The article argues that lesbian identity is a social construction and that it can be seen as an empty or floating signifier, which is filled with new meanings. It also analyzes the immersive online communities and various other merchandize connected to the series as an aspect of thingification, a process were the media is increasingly occupied with things and brands rather than stories and representations. The result is the branded lesbian, or the lesbian brand, which can be seen as an appropriation of lesbian identities.

The L-word is the American cable network Showtime’s television series about predominantly lesbian and bisexual women in Los Angeles. First aired in 2004, the series became very popular worldwide. After its sixth season, aired in January 2009, it was cancelled, which makes it the longest running series on Showtime to date. The aim of the article is to analyze four focus group interviews with eighteen Swedish L-word viewers, putting particular weight on the concepts “place” (the “American-ness” of the series and the “Swedish-ness” of their everyday lives) and “class” (the upper middle class bias of the series), through the theoretical lens of the terms identification, counter-identification and dis-identification. How does the Los Angeles mediaspace of The L-word, a series mainly shot in Canada, communicate to small town and urban Swedish women? It is also argued that the series has “worldmaking” qualities, and is important for the fantasy lives of its viewers.  Key words: reception studies, The L-word, dis-identification, place, class 

The number of a-typical media workers is on the rise worldwide, and a big part of this group consists of selfemployed freelance journalists. This, together with the commercialization of the media, creates the backdrop for the research presented in this paper. In the discourse order of journalism, there is a clear dividing line between journalism and information, and the trustworthiness or ethos of a journalist can be compromised if s/he does information, PR or – even worse – advertising. Journalism is here kept separate from, but is also seen as more valuable than information, PR and advertising. This way of reasoning is however challenged by new developments in the media industry, where borders between information and journalism are becoming blurry and many journalists are working with information. The aim of this paper is to understand and analyze freelancers’ ethical reasoning concerning journalism and information work from a perspective of journalism ethics research in general and Aristotelian virtue ethics in particular. The research material consists of working life story interviews conducted with thirteen Swedish freelance journalists, all living in the remote province of  Norrbotten. The interview transcripts have been analyzed, using a combination of discourse analysis and narrative theory/life stories. According to the findings, eleven freelancers out of thirteen were occasionally or regularly working with information type assignments such as company magazines, customer magazines or material for employees, instead of journalistic assignments, some even earning the lion part of their income this way. The essence of how the journalists perceived their role is their capability to narrate, explain and mediate in ways that everybody can understand. These capabilities are sought after in the information business, which makes the journalists emphasize the similarities between information and journalism. The journalists were all relating to entrepreneurial discourses, mainly distancing themselves from an older (social democratic)  anti-entrepreneurial discourse, were the journalists’ role was to scrutinize business owners, and instead embracing a newer proentrepreneurial discourse, which is linked to neo-liberalism. Furthermore, boundary settings between information/PR and journalist roles, and information and journalist type assignments are crucial for sustaining the journalist’s professional roles and self images of integrity and impartiality. To conclude, the use of Aristotelian virtue ethics makes visible a role conflict between the role as breadwinner and a virtuous journalist. The professional role entails certain ethical principles, which are internalized by the virtuous journalist. The particular situation of the freelance journalist is that s/he stands alone in his/her ethical judgment, without an organization behind. Binding together the individual and the structural level, this is analyzed as societal developments rather than solely dependent on decisions of individual journalists.

Freelance journalists constitute a flexible workforce for contemporary media companies. This paper analyzes ten working life interviews with freelance journalists from Norrbotten, the northernmost county of Sweden. It focuses on the informant's ethical considerations concerning information work. Previous research mainly focuses on other forms of ethical considerations. My results show that there is a tendency among the freelancers to take on non-journalism assignments, with nine out of ten informants telling about experiences of information work. The discussions about information work are analyzed using discourse theory and narrative theory. The ethics expressed by the freelancers are individual ethics, rather than professional principles. Informant's main concern are their own credibility and integrity, and boundaries are set up to maintain these. Boundaries however seem to be under negotiation, and personal survival for their business in some cases override ethical considerations. According to my own analysis, the purpose of these boundary settings is to mantain the journalist's biographical narrative and self-identity as a stand-up person, who is critical to those in power and has principles and integrity. These are characteristics commonly associated with journalist professional identity.

The L-word is said to be the first commercial television drama that is narratively centered on lesbian characters. How is a queer audience, in this case eighteen lesbian, bisexual or queer identified Swedish women, interpreting a homonormative mainstream media text? This article aims to read the representation and reception of The L-word against freudian psychoanalysis and spectatorship theory's splitting of identification and desire and a queer critique of these. It also discusses the lesbian sex scenes in the series through some viewers interpretations of them. In focus group interviews, viewers are identifying, counteridentifying, but mainly disidentifying with the text's construction of lesbian identity. The theoretical concept disidentification is borrowed from José Esteban Muñoz, which is something in between identification and counteridentification, where subjects can enjoy but still not completely "buy" the media text and its offered identities at large, in an ironic negotiated reading. The main aspects that viewers are not identifying with are class positions (upper middle class) and the glamourous surroundings and characters (not seen as typical for lesbians), something they saw as linked to "american-ness" and US commercial TV. But before the viewing of the televised text, an earlier identification with lesbianism is made, even among the two heterosexually (but also somewhat queer) identified interviewees. Interviewees choose to identify with different characters, or more commonly, situations, and these identifications were changing. A heterosexually identified interviewee, Ida, both identified, admired and desired the character Shane, something that puts the splitting of desire and identification into question. My analyzis further shows that there are multiple wiewing positions among the eighteen interviewees. This is particularly true for the sex scenes, where different viewers see the same scene as great, "hot", uninteresting, based on a male gaze and heterosexual norms, or even as violent.

Hur tolkar en queer publik en homonormativ medietext? Martina Ladendorf analyserar hur några tittare identifierar sig med och förhåller sig till teveserien L-words representationer av lesbiska sexuella akter.

Syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka genren grrlziner på Internet, tidningar av och för unga kvinnor som anknyter till samtida feministiska strömningar. Studien har ett flertal teoretiska och metodologiska perspektiv. Den ansluter till forskningstraditionen cultural studies, och analyserar mediet ur både ett producent, text- och användarperspektiv, men med en tonvikt på medietexterna och utvalda teman som identitet, kön, sexualitet och feminism. Speciellt intresse har visats feministiska strategier, och här används bland annat Nancy Frasers diskussion om fruktbara strategier för undertryckta grupper. Grrlzinerna använder sig ofta av dekonstruktivistiska strategier, där skillnader inom grupper erkänns, och man använder sig av symboler för det feminina på ett strategiskt, ironiskt och parodiskt vis. Detta anknyter till en postmodern syn på det kvinnliga objektet och ung-feministiska strömningar som riot grrrl och annan tredje vågen-feminism. Efter en inledande textanalys av elva grrlziner studeras de svenska grrlzinerna Darling och Corky, ur både ett producent- och ett användarperspektiv, samt textanalytiskt. Fokus ligger på vilka identiteter som konstrueras av de båda tidningarna. I Darling är det Darling-tjejen, som vill vara alternativ och intresserar sig för musik och rockfestivaler. Enligt läsarna är Darling en tidning som får människor att tänka. En positiv inställning till feminism och ett problematiserande av kön är en del av denna identitet, som ses i ljuset av teorier om det posttraditionella. Det viktigaste i denna identitet är smak och åsikter. I Corky konstrueras en mer sammanhållen, lesbisk identitet. Läsarna menar att denna tidning behövs i ett samhälle där det är norm att vara heterosexuell. Speciellt damtidningarna uppmuntrar kvinnor att göra saker för män. Corky försöker dock göra den lesbiska identiteten mer modern genom att anknyta till queerfeminism, ett projekt som inte görs fullt ut då queerteorin kräver ett mer långtgående ifrågasättande av sexuella identiteter. I avhandlingen diskuteras även problemen och fördelarna med att feminism och lesbisk sexualpolitik träder in i mainstreammedierna och blir varor på en marknad. Det påpekas att Sveriges politiska klimat utmärks av ko-optering, vilket gör att undertryckta grupper ges legitimitet och syns på den politiska arenan eller i medierna, men också kan urvattna det politiska budskapet och försvåra kamp. Frågan är vilka representanter för dessa grupper det är som får synas, och på vems villkor. Detta kan också leda till exotisering av de undertryckta, och att grupper ses som väsensskilda samtidigt som man på papperet tillmäter dem lika värde.