The Corona Spring 2020 led to an increased demand for news and media content in the Nordic countries. But it also led to large advertising losses for the media industry. Read more in this new – and re-designed – issue of Nordicom’s Nordic newsletter.

Recently the Swedish Commission for Media and Information Literacy and Democratic Dialogue released their final report with recommendations for future actions. Although there are threats to an inclusive and open dialogue, there are measures that can be taken to move in a positive direction.

In autumn 2020, Nordicom and the Swedish Media Council co-organized a series of webinars addressing media and information literacy (MIL) in the Nordic countries: Media Education in the Nordic Countries – Lessons Learned from the Neighbours. Now, the webinar lectures can be watched on each webinar's page on NordMedia Network, Nordicom's digital platform for Nordic and Nordic-oriented media researchers.

The spread of false and misleading information and so-called fake news significantly increase in connection to major news events. An efficient way to counter negative consequences is raised awareness and the knowledge to scrutinise information and news items. A joint policy to strengthen the efforts within media- and information literacy in the Nordic region is now proposed.

Nordicom will establish a new forum to identify and coordinate researchers in MIL – media and information literacy. The venture is part of the national MIL Sweden Network launched by the Swedish Media Council upon the commission of the Government in Sweden.

Nordicom has joined the network MIK Sverige [MIL Sweden], coordinated by the Swedish Media Council. Media and information literacy – MIL, or MIK in Swedish – is a key competence for all ages to be able to find, analyse and evaluate media content as well as communicate and participate in debates and discussions.

More people read news digitally than on paper, using and paying for streaming services is becoming increasingly common – and for both newspapers and TV, audiences’ willingness to pay for content is becoming increasingly important. These are some of the topics in the new issue of Nordicom's Nordic newsletter.

In Finland, the national policy for media education has been updated. The Ministry of Education and Culture published the new policy document, Media Education in Finland on 16 December 2019 (available in Finnish and English).

Media and information literacy (MIL) has been criticised for having become a term that is too overarching and inclusive to have proper meaning. In the final chapter of a newly published anthology, the authors Alton Grizzle and Masatoshi Hamada present an outline for a “new-generation expansion” of the concept, the “Media and Information Literacy Expansion”, MIL^x.

New book from Nordicom and the Swedish Media Council: Youth and News in a Digital Media Environment - Nordic-Baltic perspectives. The anthology aims to shed light on the implications of these transformations for young people in the Nordic and Baltic countries.