Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0025
Michael Karlsson, Erika Hellekant Rowe
{"title":"Local Journalism when the Journalists Leave Town","authors":"Michael Karlsson, Erika Hellekant Rowe","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Editorial offices are being shut down in small municipalities, raising the question of whether hyperlocal media can fill the gap left by legacy media. However, very little is known about the shape of this gap and thus to what extent it can be filled by hyperlocal media. To inform this line of research, this study asks: what happens to the news coverage of a municipality when there is no permanent presence of journalists? A quantitative content analysis (N = 606), measuring news topics, framing, style, original reporting and sourcing practices, was performed regarding the news coverage of 12 Swedish municipalities – six with editorial offices of a legacy media organisation and six without. The results indicate that municipalities receive less original coverage, community news receives less attention and institutional actors are quoted more often when there is no permanent presence of journalists. Implications for communities and hyperlocal media are discussed.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"15 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69239855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0028
Maria Grafström, Hanna Sofia Rehnberg
{"title":"Public Organisations as News Producers","authors":"Maria Grafström, Hanna Sofia Rehnberg","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0028","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The purpose of this article is to shed light on a new phenomenon in the media landscape, namely public organisations taking on the role of news producers. The analysis focuses on the digital news site VGRfokus, which is run by the Swedish county council Region Västra Götaland (VGR). The articulated goal of VGRfocus is to fill a perceived news gap in the county. Using previous literature on hyperlocal media as a lens for the analysis, we discuss how a regional news outlet produced by a public organisation can be characterised and understood. Based on our case study, we show that, while VGRfokus partly resembles other newcomers, it also has features that make it a very special news producer. This distinctiveness relates in particular to the fact that VGRfokus is part of a large, public organisation and holds ambitions to promote the work of the county council and represent its geographical area. This places issues concerning trustworthiness and credibility at the centre of the discussion and raises questions about democratic implications.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"100 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44724945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0032
C. Cook, P. Bakker
{"title":"Viable, Sustainable or Resilient?","authors":"C. Cook, P. Bakker","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0032","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Hyperlocal media are increasingly prominent in local media ecologies. However, economic pressures are their biggest challenge and are therefore our main thematic. The study is based on empirical data from 35 hyperlocals in Sweden, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. We present a conceptual framework of viable, sustainable and resilient models and find that hyperlocals are diversifying their revenues. Drawing on business ecosystems as a theoretical approach, we find these hyperlocals are surviving by forging symbiotic relationships with media, businesses, advertisers and communities in their environment. With its focus on imbalanced and evolving relations, the approach offers a broad framework to explain how hyperlocal business models are developing through a dynamic system of proximal interdependencies. The results contribute to new knowledge by explaining the revenue diversification of hyperlocals in the digital ecosystemic space.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"31 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69239868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0016
Kristian Møller, B. Robards
{"title":"Walking Through, Going Along and Scrolling Back: Ephemeral mobilities in digital ethnography","authors":"Kristian Møller, B. Robards","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Spatial metaphors have long been part of the way we make sense of media. From early conceptualizations of the internet, we have come to understand digital media as spaces that support, deny or are subject to different mobilities. With the availability of GPS data, somatic bodily movement has enjoyed significant attention in media geography, but recently innovations in digital ethnographic methods have paid attention to other, more ephemeral ways of moving and being with social media. In this article, we consider three case studies in qualitative, “small data” social media research methods: the walkthrough, the go-along and the scroll back methods. Each is centred on observing navigational flows through app infrastructures, fingers hovering across device surfaces and scrolling-and-remembering practices in social media archives. We advocate an ethnography of ephemeral media mobilities and suggest that small data approaches should analytically integrate four dimensions of mediated mobility: bodies and affect, media objects and environments, memory and narrative, and the overall research encounter.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"95 - 109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2478/nor-2019-0016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45307240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0010
A. Bechmann, Kjetil Sandvik, Karin Zelano
{"title":"Making Sense of Small and Big Data as Onlife Traces","authors":"A. Bechmann, Kjetil Sandvik, Karin Zelano","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"3 - 9"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43311039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0020
A. Munk
{"title":"Four Styles of Quali-Quantitative Analysis: Making sense of the new Nordic food movement on the web","authors":"A. Munk","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Through the example of a web corpus built to study the emergence of the New Nordic Food phenomenon in Scandinavia, I discuss how quali-quantitative analysis can help us make sense of onlife traces. I propose four styles of analysis that address the meaning problem in different ways, namely 1) through complementarity, a division of labour in which quantitative and qualitative methods are allowed to unfold relatively undisturbed by one another, the latter performing the job of situating and interpreting the insights gleaned from the former; 2) through a single level of analysis, whereby the potential of onlife traces is seen to reside in their ability to be both qualitatively rich and quantifiable at the same time, enabling an analysis of how apparent macro phenomena are produced on the micro level; 3) through curation, a critical practice in which a qualitative understanding of different media environments and their effects on the production of onlife traces becomes integral to the way in which such data should be sourced and quantified; and 4) through algorithmic sensemaking, whereby the relational reasoning typically associated with qualitative fieldwork is emulated quantitatively through techniques like pattern recognition.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"159 - 176"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48947147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0012
A. Bechmann
{"title":"Inequality in Posting Behaviour Over Time: A study of Danish Facebook users","authors":"A. Bechmann","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study investigates the Facebook posting behaviour of 922 posting users over a time span of seven years (from 2007 to 2014), using an innovative combination of survey data and private profile feed post counts obtained through the Facebook Application Programming Interface (API) prior to the changes in 2015. A digital inequality lens is applied to study the effect of socio-demographic characteristics as well as time on posting behaviour. The findings indicate differences, for example in terms of gender and age, but some of this inequality is becoming smaller over time. The data set also shows inequality in the poster ratio in different age groups. Across all the demographic groups, the results show an increase in posting frequency in the time period observed, and limited evidence is found that young age groups have posted less on Facebook in more recent years.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"31 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47648588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0018
Minna Saariketo
{"title":"Encounters with Self-Monitoring Data on ICT Use","authors":"Minna Saariketo","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0018","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article elaborates on the prospects for research interventions that repurpose the means of datafication to create possibilities for people to reflect on what it means in their daily lives. The research data consist of qualitative research interviews (n=13) in which media diaries and tracking data from the participants’ smartphones and computers served as prompts for reflection. The experiences from the self-monitoring and the encounters with tracked data by self-identified avid ICT users are analysed to gain a better understanding of the kinds of possibilities for reflexivity that are enabled when people have access to data that are rarely available to them.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"125 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2478/nor-2019-0018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46063625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nordicom ReviewPub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.2478/nor-2019-0017
Amanda Karlsson
{"title":"A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma","authors":"Amanda Karlsson","doi":"10.2478/nor-2019-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article’s ambition is to study the needs and motives embedded in the everyday usage of period trackers. A period tracker is an app for smartphones to monitor the female cycle. Based on twelve in-depth interviews with Danish women who use period trackers, I explore the connections among menstrual stigma and the usage of period trackers and investigate how digital traces from their datafied By datafied body, I mean the representation of the fleshly, physical body created by tracked data. bodies transmit meaning to their everyday life. The women in the study described how the app provides them with reassurance and privacy, and thus the article finds that 1) period apps are experienced as private, shame-free rooms for exploratory engagement with the menstruating body and 2) the risk of embodied data potentially becoming shareable commodities does not affect the everyday self-tracking practice of these women.","PeriodicalId":45517,"journal":{"name":"Nordicom Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"111 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49054946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}