Excellent MSc Dissertations 2022

In this seventh edition of the Excellent MSc Dissertation series, four students present condensed versions of their Master’s theses, completed for the MSc degree in Media and Communication Studies at Lund University.

Separately and together, the four contributions in this book exemplify what staff at the Department of Communication and Media consider to comprise an excellent dissertation at the Master’s level. In Chapter 1, Max Herrmann investigates the cultural, social, and political resonance of Hamilton as it reverberates across social media platforms. In Chapter 2, Valeriia Sementina similarly focuses on a key historical interpretation through popular culture, namely the Russian state-funded film Union of Salvation. In Chapter 3, Filippa Jonsson shows how the present can also give new life to rituals of the past, specifically through an ethnographic study of Instagram witches in contemporary Sweden. In Chapter 4, Kerstin Sophie Uebele analyzes modern norms and practices of sexual knowledge production through a case study of the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Center.

Our aim in publishing this book is to inspire future students to be inquisitive, innovative, and rigorous in their research projects. The social world is constantly in flux, and novel perspectives and cases like the ones included here are needed to truly comprehend our world as it changes.