Abstract This article illustrates how the crisis of the news media is impacting political coverage in Iceland. Perceptions of routine political coverage in the Icelandic media have not been studied before, and this article fills this research gap and situates the Icelandic case within the wider news media crisis literature. My exploration is guided by two research questions. The first focuses on how journalists and politicians in Iceland perceive political coverage in the Icelandic media and how the coverage is seen to affect their working practices. The second question concerns how the public in Iceland perceives political news content. Findings show that, according to journalists and politicians, the mix of mainly commercial funding models and the smallness of the media market results in even more superficial and problematic coverage than in larger states. Survey answers illustrate that the public mostly agrees with interviewee perceptions concerning how the Icelandic media covers politics.
{"title":"Superficial, shallow and reactive: How a small state news media covers politics","authors":"J. Ólafsson","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article illustrates how the crisis of the news media is impacting political coverage in Iceland. Perceptions of routine political coverage in the Icelandic media have not been studied before, and this article fills this research gap and situates the Icelandic case within the wider news media crisis literature. My exploration is guided by two research questions. The first focuses on how journalists and politicians in Iceland perceive political coverage in the Icelandic media and how the coverage is seen to affect their working practices. The second question concerns how the public in Iceland perceives political news content. Findings show that, according to journalists and politicians, the mix of mainly commercial funding models and the smallness of the media market results in even more superficial and problematic coverage than in larger states. Survey answers illustrate that the public mostly agrees with interviewee perceptions concerning how the Icelandic media covers politics.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"70 - 86"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47117433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Signe Ravn-Højgaard, Valgerður Jóhannsdóttir, Ragnar K. Karlsson, Rógvi Olavson, Heini í Skorini
Abstract This study compares the media systems of the West Nordic countries, namely the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. All three countries are democratic welfare states with considerable institutional transfer from the larger Nordic countries. It is argued that the West Nordic media systems fit into the “Nordic model” when it comes to the perception of media as cultural institutions as well as the central role of public service media. On the other hand, the micro-size of the media systems in the West Nordic countries makes them vulnerable, and makes editorial independence more difficult compared with their larger Nordic neighbours. In particular, media outlets within these micro-size media systems seem more susceptible to clientelism, and journalists seem more inclined towards self-censorship. This article highlights how interplay between small size and distinct local factors shape the media system in each of the West Nordic countries.
{"title":"Particularities of media systems in the West Nordic countries","authors":"Signe Ravn-Højgaard, Valgerður Jóhannsdóttir, Ragnar K. Karlsson, Rógvi Olavson, Heini í Skorini","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study compares the media systems of the West Nordic countries, namely the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. All three countries are democratic welfare states with considerable institutional transfer from the larger Nordic countries. It is argued that the West Nordic media systems fit into the “Nordic model” when it comes to the perception of media as cultural institutions as well as the central role of public service media. On the other hand, the micro-size of the media systems in the West Nordic countries makes them vulnerable, and makes editorial independence more difficult compared with their larger Nordic neighbours. In particular, media outlets within these micro-size media systems seem more susceptible to clientelism, and journalists seem more inclined towards self-censorship. This article highlights how interplay between small size and distinct local factors shape the media system in each of the West Nordic countries.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"102 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69239904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The new high-choice media environment has raised concerns that users of social networking sites primarily select political information that supports their political opinions and avoid information that challenges them. This behaviour is reinforced by personalisation algorithms that create filter bubbles and both narrow the available content and exclude challenging information over time. These concerns have, however, been contested. This article challenges the underlying theoretical assumptions about filter bubbles, and compares filter bubbles to what we already know about selective exposure and human psychology. The article lists nine counterarguments to the filter bubble thesis. In short, I argue that the assumptions of filter bubbles contradict many of the previous findings of selective exposure research. More specifically, when discussing filter bubbles there is a risk of confusing two arguments: one strong – but also trivial – that is about technology (e.g., personalisation leads to different information), and one weak and speculative – but also the most interesting – that is about society (e.g., personalisation increases political polarisation in society).
{"title":"A critical review of filter bubbles and a comparison with selective exposure","authors":"Peter M. Dahlgren","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The new high-choice media environment has raised concerns that users of social networking sites primarily select political information that supports their political opinions and avoid information that challenges them. This behaviour is reinforced by personalisation algorithms that create filter bubbles and both narrow the available content and exclude challenging information over time. These concerns have, however, been contested. This article challenges the underlying theoretical assumptions about filter bubbles, and compares filter bubbles to what we already know about selective exposure and human psychology. The article lists nine counterarguments to the filter bubble thesis. In short, I argue that the assumptions of filter bubbles contradict many of the previous findings of selective exposure research. More specifically, when discussing filter bubbles there is a risk of confusing two arguments: one strong – but also trivial – that is about technology (e.g., personalisation leads to different information), and one weak and speculative – but also the most interesting – that is about society (e.g., personalisation increases political polarisation in society).","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"15 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47159628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article attends to age stereotypes and ageism in contemporary tech. In academia, little attention has been devoted to this topic. Therefore, we intend to initiate a discussion around ageism in tech by studying perceptions of age in the tech industry. Our study is based on interviews with 18 tech workers around the world of varying age. According to our interviewees, tech workers over 35 are considered old in the tech industry. Older tech workers are expected to become managers, thought to become less interested in new technology, and expected to have more challenges when learning new software. We also look at how tech workers of different age groups experience entrepreneurial values of the company as a playground, staying hungry, and changing the future with technology, and how these values influence their professional careers. We conclude that ageism is reinforced in contemporary tech through several stereotypes related to age.
{"title":"Perceptions of age in contemporary tech","authors":"A. Rosales, J. Svensson","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article attends to age stereotypes and ageism in contemporary tech. In academia, little attention has been devoted to this topic. Therefore, we intend to initiate a discussion around ageism in tech by studying perceptions of age in the tech industry. Our study is based on interviews with 18 tech workers around the world of varying age. According to our interviewees, tech workers over 35 are considered old in the tech industry. Older tech workers are expected to become managers, thought to become less interested in new technology, and expected to have more challenges when learning new software. We also look at how tech workers of different age groups experience entrepreneurial values of the company as a playground, staying hungry, and changing the future with technology, and how these values influence their professional careers. We conclude that ageism is reinforced in contemporary tech through several stereotypes related to age.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"79 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45430795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Google is the gateway to the Internet for billions of people. However, to use Google’s multiple platforms and services, users must accept Google’s terms. With the advent of the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), Google made significant changes to these terms. In this article, we scrutinise the intertextual relations between Google’s privacy policies and terms of service (ToS) and the GDPR – and the discursive co-constitutive complexity within and between these frameworks. We argue that the material and communicative articulation of Google’s privacy policies and ToS should be understood as deliberative data politics delimiting users’ agency, consent, and privacy. Furthermore, we emphasise complexity and the demands of reducing complexity as two opposing dynamics. While the GDPR required Google to make its terms and policies clearer and more understandable, ironically, in the process of accommodating GDPR’s demand of increased transparency, the discursive complexity of Google’s policies has in fact increased.
{"title":"Co-constitutive complexityUnpacking Google’s privacy policy and terms of service post-GDPR","authors":"Bjarki Valtysson, R. Jørgensen, J. Munkholm","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0033","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Google is the gateway to the Internet for billions of people. However, to use Google’s multiple platforms and services, users must accept Google’s terms. With the advent of the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), Google made significant changes to these terms. In this article, we scrutinise the intertextual relations between Google’s privacy policies and terms of service (ToS) and the GDPR – and the discursive co-constitutive complexity within and between these frameworks. We argue that the material and communicative articulation of Google’s privacy policies and ToS should be understood as deliberative data politics delimiting users’ agency, consent, and privacy. Furthermore, we emphasise complexity and the demands of reducing complexity as two opposing dynamics. While the GDPR required Google to make its terms and policies clearer and more understandable, ironically, in the process of accommodating GDPR’s demand of increased transparency, the discursive complexity of Google’s policies has in fact increased.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"124 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47089929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In this article, we comparatively explore Nordic journalists’ perceived roles and influences on their work using survey data from the Worlds of Journalism project (2012–2016). In a European context, a principal component analysis of 18 Western and Southern European countries (N = 10,254) finds that Nordic journalists generally resemble journalists in other democratic corporatist countries, particularly by their relatively low experience of political and economic influences. Restricting the analysis to the Nordic countries (N = 3,246) finds that Swedish and Danish journalists stand out by their stronger adherence to monitorial roles. By their weaker attachment to political roles and weaker experience of political influences, Icelanders differ from Finns, with Norwegians in an intermediate position. The large intranational variation in both analyses suggests that in addition to media systems and national contexts, the role of different beats and positions within news organisations is crucial for understanding journalists’ perceived roles and felt influences.
{"title":"Nordic journalists’ conceptual roles and perceived influencesA European and inter-Nordic comparison","authors":"J. Hovden, Jari Väliverronen","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0034","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article, we comparatively explore Nordic journalists’ perceived roles and influences on their work using survey data from the Worlds of Journalism project (2012–2016). In a European context, a principal component analysis of 18 Western and Southern European countries (N = 10,254) finds that Nordic journalists generally resemble journalists in other democratic corporatist countries, particularly by their relatively low experience of political and economic influences. Restricting the analysis to the Nordic countries (N = 3,246) finds that Swedish and Danish journalists stand out by their stronger adherence to monitorial roles. By their weaker attachment to political roles and weaker experience of political influences, Icelanders differ from Finns, with Norwegians in an intermediate position. The large intranational variation in both analyses suggests that in addition to media systems and national contexts, the role of different beats and positions within news organisations is crucial for understanding journalists’ perceived roles and felt influences.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"141 - 161"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48429152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The article traces the evolution of over-the-top (OTT) services in order to analyse how the growing use of Internet distribution influences the structural conditions and institutional arrangements in Denmark. This story is told in four parts: first, I outline how the shift from postal services to e-mail restructured the conditions for asynchronous one-to-one communication; second, I examine the introduction of web-based services and the declining role of the press as gatekeeper for asynchronous one-to-many communication; third, I focus on the impact of mobile broadband and smartphones on synchronous one-to-one communication and the telecommunications sector; and fourth, I analyse the emergence of streaming technologies and the reorganisation of synchronous one-to-many communication and broadcasting. Building on these examples, I argue that key welfare state principles have come under pressure and that research tends to underestimate the fundamental transformations of the institutional order.
{"title":"Over-the-top and under the radarAn analysis of Internet distribution and its structural consequences in Denmark","authors":"Sofie Flensburg","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article traces the evolution of over-the-top (OTT) services in order to analyse how the growing use of Internet distribution influences the structural conditions and institutional arrangements in Denmark. This story is told in four parts: first, I outline how the shift from postal services to e-mail restructured the conditions for asynchronous one-to-one communication; second, I examine the introduction of web-based services and the declining role of the press as gatekeeper for asynchronous one-to-many communication; third, I focus on the impact of mobile broadband and smartphones on synchronous one-to-one communication and the telecommunications sector; and fourth, I analyse the emergence of streaming technologies and the reorganisation of synchronous one-to-many communication and broadcasting. Building on these examples, I argue that key welfare state principles have come under pressure and that research tends to underestimate the fundamental transformations of the institutional order.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"93 - 108"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48227810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Music and television streaming services present users with abundant catalogues of content available on demand. We investigate whether users respond by narrowing or widening the diversity of content they consume. Further, we examine how the different logics characterising music and television streaming are mirrored in the number of streaming services people use. To do so, we compare non-, sporadic, regular, and frequent users of television and music streaming services. Findings from a cross-sectional survey in Norway show that frequent streamers consume a wider variety of genres and rely on more services. Our results also indicate that streaming has gone from a first-mover activity to a standard consumer mode. This study indicates that we can expect continued growth in television streamers, whereas the music streaming industry seems more consolidated.
{"title":"Towards streaming as a dominant mode of media use?A user typology approach to music and television streaming","authors":"Marika Lüders, Vilde Schanke Sundet, Terje Colbjørnsen","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Music and television streaming services present users with abundant catalogues of content available on demand. We investigate whether users respond by narrowing or widening the diversity of content they consume. Further, we examine how the different logics characterising music and television streaming are mirrored in the number of streaming services people use. To do so, we compare non-, sporadic, regular, and frequent users of television and music streaming services. Findings from a cross-sectional survey in Norway show that frequent streamers consume a wider variety of genres and rely on more services. Our results also indicate that streaming has gone from a first-mover activity to a standard consumer mode. This study indicates that we can expect continued growth in television streamers, whereas the music streaming industry seems more consolidated.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"35 - 57"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41558003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In this article, I explore the reception of American “quality” serial television in Sweden from 1999 to the mid-2010s. My analysis includes how cultural critics and journalists writing for Sweden's leading newspapers conceptualised American serial television as “quality TV” and as legitimate “art”, and it charts the ways in which these discourses relate to the reconfiguration of Swedish television from public service monopoly to niche-oriented multichannel system. The analysis uncovers a process of cultural consecration that was based on comparisons with already consecrated art forms, applications of authorship discourses that promote certain individuals as genius television auteurs, and deployment of critical protocols borrowed from literary criticism – all in service of pre-established cultural hierarchy and “good taste”. This article also highlights the ubiquity of American quality serial television across the Swedish television landscape, which suggests that such programmes represent both a niche product and a mass phenomenon with extensive reach and multidimensional appeal.
{"title":"Renegotiating quality TV in the Swedish pressAmerican serial television and Sweden's post-monopoly television landscape","authors":"Joel Frykholm","doi":"10.2478/nor-2021-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2021-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article, I explore the reception of American “quality” serial television in Sweden from 1999 to the mid-2010s. My analysis includes how cultural critics and journalists writing for Sweden's leading newspapers conceptualised American serial television as “quality TV” and as legitimate “art”, and it charts the ways in which these discourses relate to the reconfiguration of Swedish television from public service monopoly to niche-oriented multichannel system. The analysis uncovers a process of cultural consecration that was based on comparisons with already consecrated art forms, applications of authorship discourses that promote certain individuals as genius television auteurs, and deployment of critical protocols borrowed from literary criticism – all in service of pre-established cultural hierarchy and “good taste”. This article also highlights the ubiquity of American quality serial television across the Swedish television landscape, which suggests that such programmes represent both a niche product and a mass phenomenon with extensive reach and multidimensional appeal.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"59 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44855599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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