Nordic Media History Network (NOMEH)
The Nordic Media History (NOMEH) network is a new multidisciplinary research network that brings together Nordic scholars interested in media history, thereby enhancing regional cooperation within the field.
Established in August 2018, the network aims to enhance methodological issues, develop comparative media history projects between the Nordic countries, and produce publications on Nordic media history.
NOMEH operates under the Finnish Historical Society as one of its official committees, and will be run from Helsinki, Finland. Its board consists of researchers from the five Nordic countries: Jukka Kortti, who is also the chairperson, and Heidi Kurvinen (Finland); Helle Strandgaard Jensen (Denmark); Markus Hermann Meckl (Iceland); Henrik Bastiansen and Birgitte Kjos Fonn (Norway); and Pelle Snickars and Patrick Lundell (Sweden).
The network is open to media historians from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
- Read more about and contact NOMEH (in Finnish, followed by English)
- The Norwegian media-historical association writes about NOMEH 30.04.2019 (in Norwegian, followed by English)
From press to media history: National associations in change
Norway and Sweden have long had national media-historical associations working to support and stimulate media-historical research. This is done, for example, through publications (see more below) and research grants. Archive-building is another task, as the associations encourage media companies, organisations and individuals to submit material to various archives. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in media history.
In recent years, both associations – the Norsk Mediehistorisk Forening and the Svensk Mediehistorisk Förening – have marked out a broader media focus by changing the ‘press-historical’ in their names to ‘media-historical’ (2016 in Norway, 2019 in Sweden).
- Read more about Norsk Mediehistorisk Forening (in Norwegian)
- Read more about Svensk Mediehistorisk Förening (in Swedish)
Norway: All issues of the scientific journal free online
In Norway, the media-historical association publishes a biannual scientific journal, Mediehistorisk Tidskrift [Media-historical Journal].
Since December 2018, the journal is fully available online with open access. All 30 editions, from the first issue in 2004 and onwards, have been digitalised and can be downloaded PDF format. The journal is published in Norwegian.
The historical digitization (in the latest issue, 2/2018), freedom of speech (1/2018), and journalism, information and PR (1/2017) are examples of topics the journal has highlighted from a media-historical perspective. The journal’s editor is Birgitte Kjos Fonn (OsloMet - City University).
- Find all editions of Mediehistorisk Tidskrift (former Pressehistorisk Tidskrift)
- Norwegian Media-historical Journal news of 17 december 2018: Mediehistorisk tidsskrift fulldigitalisert
The Swedish yearbook 2019: "Do the media want transparency?"
Every year since 1984, the media-historical association in Sweden has published a new yearbook. In May this year, it was time for the 36th yearbook: Mediehistorisk Årsbok 2019 [Media-historical Yearbook 2019]. All books are published in Swedish.
A mini-theme in the new yearbook is editorial transparency: How has the view of media openness evolved over the last 150 years? And how transparent or open have the editorial offices or editors been? The authors explore examples from the 1880s, 1949, and 2007-2009. The yearbook’s editor is Torbjörn von Krogh.
The 2019 yearbook, during its first year, is available in print format only (for purchase, but free for members). In Spring 2020, in connection with the publication of the next yearbook, the 2019 texts will be made available online. However, several previous yearbooks can be downloaded in full format (open access).
- Read more about the content of Mediehistorisk årsbok 2019 (in Swedish)
- Download yearbooks from 2013 to 2018 (the site also presents the content of all yearbooks, from 1984 onwards, in Swedish)
Eva Harrie