GDPR and the visual communication in public administration

The objective of this preliminary study is to carry out a content-, and image analysis of the participating municipalities' visual communication in public administration to analyse how this has changed due to GDPR and the Schrems II-case.

The research questions in the study are What do the images in the visual communication in the participating municipalities represent? as well as How has the visual communication changed in of the municipalities since the introduction of GDPR and the Schrems-II ruling?

By examining the content of the images, the study will form a starting point for the in-depth research project, which will aim to develop new working methods for image production and give employees who work with visual communication in the participating municipalities an increased knowledge of how they can improve their visual communication in an attractive way and at the same time, complying with GDPR and the Schrems II ruling.

A code scheme with code instructions will be developed during the preliminary study to be able to go through and analyse the image content retrieved from the municipalities' image archives in a detailed and systematic way.

The goal of the preliminary study is to contribute with increased knowledge about the possible change in visual communication in public administration since GDPR and Schrems II and to fill a research gap regarding the production of visual communication within public administration.

The results will be compiled in a final report and further analysed in academic articles with publication in scientific journals within the subject of media and communication or public administration. The results will also be presented at various forums organized by the parties, including the Miun conference Mittlyftet.

The municipalities participating in this preliminary study are the municipalities of Härnösand, Sundsvall, Timrå and Örnsköldsvik.