Browsing by Author "Lauk, Epp"

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A Small Exclusive Circle. An Institutional Approach to Business News
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Lindén, Carl-Gustav; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
This article features a comparative study of the making of business news based upon interviews (2005 to 2010) with senior business journalists in Finland and Sweden as well as communication managers at two global telecom companies, Nokia and Ericsson. The article shows the complex and fluid dynamics of social construction. There are spans when corporate power over editorial practices is strong and other periods when business reporters and their supervisors effectively exert their control over these news processes and the construction of meaning. Communicative outcomes are not determined or predictable; rather, they are influenced by a socially grounded understanding of what is “appropriate”. This case study shows that formal rules can be of limited value when assessing social processes.
Audience Participation in the Production of Online News. Towards a Typology
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Kammer, Aske; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
The potential of audience participation constitutes a most important characteristic of digital journalism. This article presents an inductive study of audience participation in the production of online news in a Danish context, analysing how audiences participate, and what relationships between journalists and audiences accompany this participation. The article discusses the concept of participation, arguing on the basis of sociological theory that it should be understood as those instances where the audience influences the content of the news through their intentional actions. Applying this definition, it proposes four ideal types of audience participation in the production of online news, namely sharing of information, collaboration, conversation and meta-communication.
Boardroom Empires? A Study of Ownership Inflence in the Swedish Press
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Ohlsson, Jonas; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
The question of how ownership impacts on the performance of the press is a perennial one. Despite the extensive attention devoted to the perceived consequences of ownership, information about what newspaper owners actually do remains limited. This article discusses an alternative path for research on media ownership. It involves the board of directors, the main agency that is expected to exercise ownership power. The article presents a study that focuses specifically on the decision-making in and around the boardrooms of three Swedish newspaper firms between 1955 and 2005. Building on analyses of board meeting minutes and interviews with board members, the study shows that the impact of ownership is established, and develops, in an intricate web of interacting forces, internal and external to the firm. It thus underlines the need for both a multi-theoretical foundation and a multi- method design in research on ownership influence in the media
Changing Magazine Journalism. Key Trends in Norwegian Women’s Magazines
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Ytre-Arne, Brita; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
This article analyses developments in Norwegian magazine journalism in the last decade, focusing on the broad and varied spectrum of magazines targeting women. The analysis is based on multiple methods and data sources, aiming to connect the production and reception of magazine journalism to the texts of magazines. This article will identify and discuss five key trends: fragmentation, digitalization, Nordic inspiration, redefinition of the political and beautification. The trends are discussed in light of public sphere theory and selected orientations in Nordic journalism research.
Diversity through Dualism. The Balancing Principle as an Organizational Strategy in Culture Departments of Newspapers
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Jaakkola, Maarit; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
This article examines the changes in cultural journalism in newspapers with regard to its dual field structure. The influence of media organizations’ policies on professionalist dualism is discussed based on the results of a quantitative content analysis over the period 1978-2008 and semi-structured theme interviews with the heads of the culture departments of major Finnish dailies. The results indicate that culture departments have developed their own news production, with increased managerial control and the strengthening of the journalistic paradigm, whereas opinionated journalism, including criticism, is increasingly outsourced. The culture departments thus aspire to sustain a balance between the profes sional paradigms related to field-hybridity, which creates a distinct structural formalism in this specialized type of journalism and makes its evolution over time relatively stable
Innovation of New Revenue Streams in Digital Media. Journalism as Customer Relationship
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Barland, Jens; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
Recent digital transformations of the media landscape have altered media economics. Media outlets are experiencing a decline in newspaper circulation and are struggling to develop new revenue streams within digital media. Newspaper publishers are accustomed to a two-sided revenue model geared towards readers and advertisers. In digital publishing, such two-sided revenue models must be further developed. This article describes a model in which journalistic content functions as an engine for digital traffic, and how that market position is used to promote other commercial digital services. Unlike earlier advertising models, the media company itself has become both the advertiser and the owner of the promoted services. This article’s contribution is a description of how new revenue streams are being developed around digital journalistic products. A case study of the Schibsted Media Group, including examples from the media outlets VG (Norway) and Aftonbladet (Sweden), is used here as the empirical source.
Introduction. New Nordic Journalism Research
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
Journalistic Autonomy. Between Structure, Agency and Institution
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Sjøvaag, Helle; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
This article investigates the concept of autonomy within the journalistic institution. A review of the literature reveals that journalist autonomy is restricted at the political, economic and organisational levels of news production, negotiated at the editorial level, and exercised at the level of practice. The article addresses the limits of professional autonomy, aiming for a wider contextualisation of the question to analyse the factors that restrict and enable journalistic autonomy. By investigating journalistic autonomy within the duality of structure, the analysis finds that autonomy is attained when journalists engage in the recursive reproduction of the institution. The level of autonomy enjoyed by journalists therefore remains a fluid concept that is continually adjusted to manage the daily task of reporting the news.
Mapping Online Journalism in Transition Exploring. An Analytical Model
(2013-12) Hartley, Jannie Møller; Ellersgaard, Christoph Houman; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
By operationalising Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and positions of autonomy and heteronomy, and applying a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to data gathered from a large content analysis, the article explores the relations between online newspapers and their corresponding print or broadcast versions within a constructed Danish “field of news” by graphically presenting the data as maps of the changes in these relations. First, mapping transformations graphically shows that the online newspapers have gained autonomy from their “parent platforms”, but we see that in the same period they have increased their dependence on news agency stories. Furthermore, the mapping demonstrates how the online newspapers differ in terms of news productions strategies and in their relation to their parent platforms, meaning they take up different positions in the field according to their “strength” based on a number of indicators.
News Behind the Wall. An Analysis of the Relationship Between the Implementation of a Paywall and News Values
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Kvalheim, Nina; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
This article explores the relationship between the implementation of a paywall and the editorial content profile in a local newspaper. The premise of the article is that the content published behind the wall is the content the newspaper values the most, and the article aims to contribute to an understanding of the interplay between strategic and economic decisions regarding news production and the editorial content. The Norwegian newspaper Fædrelandsvennen and its online initiative fevennen.no serve as cases in the study, and the article asks two questions: What are the most prominent news values behind the paywall, and how do they relate to commercial strategies regarding the introduction of the wall?
“Shaming the Devil!” Performative Shame in Investigative TV-journalism
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Danielsson, Magnus; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
This paper considers the performativity of shaming in investigative TV-journalism. It argues that the construction of shame is not only a constituent element in investigative TV- journalism but also an important factor in pursuing some of its main objectives: establishing morals, exercising social control, reinforcing journalistic identity and ideology, and competing for attention in a diversified media theatre where drama, entertainment and emotional thrills are the hard currency. An empirical study of the Swedish TV programme Uppdrag granskning , is used to inductively propose three categories of shaming and to give some examples of the ways in which shaming is performed. The core of the paper is a theory driven analysis in which the performativity of shaming in investigative TV-journalism is analysed in the light of some converging media and societal trends
The Shift from High to Liquid Ideals. Making Sense of Journalism and Its Change through a Multidimensional Model
(Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2013-12) Koljonen, Karin; Allern, Sigurd; Bødker, Henrik; Eide, Martin; Lauk, Epp; Pollack, Ester
By reading qualitative studies, surveys, organisational histories, and textbooks, one can claim that the ethos of journalists has undergone fundamental changes in recent decades. The “high modern” journalistic ethos of the 1970s and 1980s was committed to the core values of the journalistic profession: objectivity, public service, consensus maintenance, gate-keeping, and recording of the recent past. After the millennium, these central ideals have become more ambivalent and “liquid”: subjectivity, consumer service, the watchdog role, agenda-setting, and forecasting the future seem to be more tempting alternatives than before. This article develops an analytic framework that elaborates the simple narrative from “high modern” to “liquid modern” journalism. Five key elements, namely, (1) knowledge, (2) audience, (3) power, (4) time, and (5) ethics, are discussed and problematized to suggest a more nuanced view of the changing professional ethos of journalism.