The Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to meeting in person at conferences and seminars. But instead, we can follow interesting presentations and discussions online without traveling, both during the events and afterwards.
Below we present a number of Nordic webinars from 2020 and January 2021, the starting point of which are various surveys and research results. All are available online on various platforms.
A few of the webinars include presentations in English (two in Finland and two in Norway), but the majority are in national languages. When there are reports or summaries – or if Nordicom has written an article about the report – in English, links are provided.
The webinars – country by country
Denmark
1. Children's and young people's digital lives – from a health perspective
This webinar is about the digital lives of 0–15-year-old children and young people, and the possible effects on their relationships and fellowships, stress, sleep and physical activity.
The Danish Health Authority’s "Centre for health and digital media" presents, together with researchers, new knowledge from four systematic literature studies.
2. The growth of news deserts in Denmark
This webinar is based on a report that examines the concept of news deserts (or blank spots) in a Danish context.
The author, Anders C. Østerby, presents the results from the report – for example, a sharp decline in number of newspaper editorial rooms as well as number of free papers in Denmark during the past decade – and discusses various solutions with media representatives and the Danish Minister of Culture, Joy Mogensen.
The webinar was arranged by the University of Southern Denmark on 26 January 2021.
Finland
3. The Media Day – Mediapäivän webinaari
How should media companies act to survive in an environment dominated by technology giants? How can journalism be renewed? What factors make media companies change? These are examples of questions discussed (in English) at the Media Day, arranged on 28 January 2021 by the Finnish media industry.
The main speaker is Jeff Jarvis, American journalist and professor, whose views are commented on by Elina Kukkonen, Alma Media, and Jussi Pullinen, from the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
The Media Day is an annual event, organised by the Finnish media industry (The Finnish Media Federation, News Media Finland, RadioMedia, The Federation of the Printing Industry, The Finnish Periodical Publishers’ Association and The Finnish Book Publishers Association).
- Watch the Media Day webinar in English on the conference website
- Watch the Media Day webinar in English directly on YouTube
Norway
4. How has the corona pandemic affected the media economy?
The Norwegian Media Authority presents data on the media economy in Norway in 2019 and 2020 (April–August), and discusses what the media economic development means for the media industry and market.
The webinar is based on the authority’s annual media economy report, published in November 2020, analysing the development of television, radio and newspapers in Norway over a five-year period, 2015–2019.
- Watch the media economy webinar in Norwegian on the Media Authority's YouTube channel
- Read Nordicom's article in English on the latest media economy report
5. Conference on children, young people and computer games
How are children and young people affected by commercial content in computer games? How can games be used in school and what does it really mean to practice e-sports? And is there hope for young people who withdraw and "disappear" in computer games? These were questions in focus at “Dataspillkonferensen 2020”, arranged by the Norwegian Media Authority in November 2020.
- Watch the conference in Norwegian: Dataspillkonferensen 2020
- Read the report in Norwegian: Barn og medier 2020: Delrapport 3 - Om gaming og pengebruk i dataspill (PDF 5.3 MB)
6. Nordic Media Days 2020
In 2020, due to the pandemic, Nordic Media Days – the annual media conference in Bergen – moved its programme online, where it is still available to watch. Among the sessions in English are: What The New York Times learned from investigating Trump's foreign ties and How governments and political parties manipulate social media to win elections, etc.
Nordic media days are arranged in May every year, and the 2021 conference will also be digital only.
7. Digital news consumption in Norway (Digital News Report 2020)
In June, the international survey Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 was launched at a webinar at the Fritt Ord foundation.
Hallvard Moe and Janne Bjørgen, researchers at the University of Bergen, have been responsible for the Norwegian part of the survey and have also conducted their own sub-survey about Norwegians' use of digital news in 2020, including payment for news, disinformation, climate, local news and podcasts.
The webinar presents both the international (in English) and Norwegian survey and offers a panel debate on the coronavirus crisis and Norwegian media (in Norwegian).
8. Has the coronavirus pandemic changed our media habits?
The Norwegian Media Authority presents the results of a report on media and news consumption in Norway. The report Mediemangfold i et bruksperspektiv [Media plurality from a users’ perspective], published 29 January 2021, analyses data from a number of Norwegian surveys.
The survey is part of the authority’s media pluralism account (mediemangfoldsregnskap), aiming to monitor the developments in the media market. Previously, two other reports on the senders’ perspective and on media content, respectively, have been published.
- Watch the media use webinar in Norwegian on the Media Authority's YouTube channel (Jan 2021)
- Read the report in Norwegian: "Mediemangfold i et bruksperspektiv" PDF 8 MB
- Read Nordicom’s article in English about the Authority’s media pluralism account
Sweden
9. Silicon Valley and the Power over the Media
In a recent study, Silicon Valley och makten över medierna [Silicon Valley and the Power over the Media], media researcher Carl-Gustav Lindén examines the tech giants’ power over the news media, the consequences of it and what is needed to reduce it – topics which he discusses further in this webinar, together with media representatives and researchers from Sweden and Norway.
The webinar is a co-arrangement between Nordicom, Medier & demokrati and NxtMedia (the two latter being national collaboration platforms for media innovation in Sweden and Norway, respectively).
- See the webinar in Swedish on Medier & demokrati’s website (Dec 2020)
- Read and download the book Silicon Valley och makten över medierna on Nordicom's website
10. The state of journalism: Are the blank spots increasing?
This webinar, of which the title can be translated to: “Are the blank spots without journalism increasing?" was arranged by Institutet för Mediestudier (The Institute for Media Studies) in December 2020. It is based on the institute’s yearbook 2019/2020, which focuses on local journalism.
The webinar provides a picture of how journalism has developed in Swedish municipalities, how the municipalities view journalism and how resources have developed during the pandemic, and it also includes a media policy discussion about local journalism with representatives from the political parties in the Parliament. The Swedish Minister of Culture, Amanda Lind, also participates.
- See the webinar in Swedish about the state of journalism on the Institute for Media Studies' YouTube channel (Dec 2020)
- Read more in Swedish about the Institute for Media Studies’ Yearbook 2019/2020
11. Swedish media development: News habits and media economy
This webinar presents research results about Swedish news habits “in normal times and in times of crisis”, and about the Swedish media economy, based on two studies in the Swedish Press and Broadcasting’s report series about media development.
First, Ulrika Andersson at the SOM Institute shows how Swedes' news consumption over the past twenty years has shifted from print and linear to digital news media, and how the pandemic has led to an increased demand for news.
Then, Jonas Ohlsson at Nordicom presents the development of the media economy: the dominance of global technology giants in the advertising market, a new bottom level for newspapers, and the pandemic’s effect on the ad market.
- Watch the webinar in Swedish: Svensk medieutveckling: Ekonomi och användare (Oct 2020)
- Read Nordicom’s article in English about the media economy report
12. Media use in Sweden 2019, results from Nordicom's Media Barometer
Nordicom presents media habits among the Swedish population, based on the annual survey, the Media Barometer 2019: What are the major trends? How do media habits differ in big cities and rural areas? How digital are the Swedish pensioners, and who are they? And how did the news consumption develop during the first months of the pandemic in 2020.
- Watch the Media Barometer webinar in Swedish on Nordicom's website (May 2020)
- Read Nordicom’s article in English about the Media Barometer 2019
13. The Swedes and the Internet 2020
In the annual report The Swedes and the Internet 2020, The Swedish Internet Foundation (Internetstiftelsen) provides a picture of how Swedes' digital habits have changed during the pandemic. The main results were presented in this online seminar in Swedish in December 2020.
Moreover, representatives of high school students and students, teleworkers and pensioners are interviewed about how these groups' Internet habits have been affected by the pandemic.
- See the Internet Foundation's webinar in Swedish: Svenskarna och internet 2020
- Report summary in English: The Swedes and the Internet 2020
Eva Harrie