In the new anthology The Future of the Nordic Media Model: A Digital Media Welfare State?, editors Peter Jakobsson, Johan Lindell, and Fredrik Stiernstedt delve into the intricacies of the Nordic media landscape. The contributions include studies of the changes and continuity in the Nordic media systems, and to what extent they remain in the midst of the transformations in the media landscape globally.
“The book is about the media systems the Nordic countries and challenges that these systems are facing in our contemporary situation. It’s also about the political challenges to Nordic media policy and the Nordic media model from different perspectives and with different case studies”, says Fredrik Stiernstedt.
The “Nordic media model” – similarities and differences
The book takes as a starting point that there is something specific about the ways in which media systems in the Nordic countries are organised. But according to the editors, the perspective taken plays a crucial role.
“Looking globally, the Nordic countries are becoming more similar, but there are also domestication processes and in certain respects, these are distinct, and they are separated from one another”, says Johan Lindell.
The editors highlight that the different chapters in the book also point in different directions when it comes to whether the Nordic countries are getting more similar, or instead going in the opposite direction.
The chapter “Nordic media welfare states from a comparative perspective: Unpacking audience fragmentation and polarization”, written by Kim Christian Schrøder, Mark Blach-Ørsten, and Mads Kæmsgaard Eberholst, finds that Nordic news audiences are generally getting the same quality news provision and are likely to maintain the democratic prerequisites of Nordic media welfare states into the future.
Whereas, for example, the chapter “Similar media systems, different self-regulation: A closer look at the Nordic media accountability models”, by Randa Romanova and Mats Bergman, reveals that despite a shared history, there is considerable diversity in how Nordic media councils nowadays navigate the digital age.
Hear it from the editors
Two of the editors, Johan Lindell and Peter Jakobsson, are giving a short video presentation about the anthology.