The autumn issue of Norsk medietidsskrift starts with an editorial reflection on the science of looking forward. As most research is based on data concerning what has already happened, it is necessarily a backwards-looking practice. But by drawing a line up to today, we can assume something – and suggest something well informed – about the course of the future. Thus, the editorial also sets the tone for the journal’s next issue, which will be devoted to the increasing importance of algorithms for the media.
The first article in this issue is written by Katherine Duarte and Elisabeth Eide, and discusses how journalism handles climate and environmental issues at a time when the media logic makes the interaction between researcher, journalist, and audience challenging.
The next article is written by Linda Therese Rosenberg, who has explored how news is communicated to children in Aftenposten Junior. She shows how children are very much being taken seriously, and that it is strategically smart to shape tomorrow’s media users as early as possible.
Psychologists Kim Edgar Karlsen and Fanny Duckert have written the third article, which addresses how people choose to deal with the pressure that comes with being the subject of critical media exposure.
This year’s regular commentator, Hege Lamark, challenges us with different perspectives on local journalism, and discusses whether this is something that winds up in researchers’ “blind zones”. In addition, a guest comment by Lotta Johansson offers exciting insight into how the term “Swedish conditions” is used in the Norwegian media.
Balder Holm