Nordicom – förlag

Radio och TV i allmänhetens tjänst. Givet de förpliktigande orden är det inte konstigt att public service debatteras. I grund och botten är detta bra: Public service är en institution med makt och ska därför vara föremål för diskussion och debatt. Men samtidigt som det är positivt att public service debatteras är det olyckligt om diskussionen fastnar i ”tyckande”. När det gäller public service finns det ju hyllmeter av akademisk forskning! Att tycka är inte fel – men att argumentera utifrån fakta väger onekligen tyngre. Syftet med Public service: En svensk kunskapsöversikt är att på ett lättillgängligt sätt presentera vad empirisk forskning har kommit fram till i centrala frågor gällande public service. Kapitelförfattarna är verksamma vid svenska universitet och högskolor, och merparten av de resultat och slutsatser som presenteras bygger på genomgångar av tidigare publicerad forskning. I samtliga kapitel är det public services nyhetsjournalistik som fokuseras. Public service: En svensk kunskapsöversikt vänder sig till alla med ett intresse för public service – inte minst politiker, journalister och samhällsdebattörer. Boken har redigerats av Johannes Bjerling, vetenskaplig redaktör vid Nordicom.

Det är jobbigt att prata om klass. Men faktum är att Sverige är ett klassamhälle där människor med olika tillgång till ekonomiskt och kulturellt kapital konkurrerar om posi­tioner, inflytande och status. Vi lever i ett samhälle där klass ger upphov till specifika livsstilar och kompasser. Smaken för nyheter utforskar relationen mellan klass och människors val och värderingar i det samtida nyhetslandskapet. I kontrast till den gängse bilden – att nyheter utgör en kollektiv nytta som håller ihop samhället – visar boken att människor är olika rustade för att navigera bland nyheter. Tillsammans med känslan av att vara allmänbildad och delaktig i samhälleliga angelägenheter har nyhetskonsumtion gått från att fungera som kollektiv nytta till att bli en individuell resurs. Frågan om nyhetskonsumtion har blivit en klassfråga. Detta medför att vi står inför en brännande demokratisk utmaning. När människor som delar levnadsförhållanden och nyhetsvärldar distanserar sig från andra grupper, deras livsstilar och preferenser, är risken nämligen stor att samhällsklyftorna fortsätter att växa. Snarare än att förena blir nyheter något som drar isär.

Boken “Yttrandefriheten i dagens mediekultur” undersöker yttrandefrihetens ställning i vårt digitala samhälle. Baserat på SOM-undersökningens resultat diskuteras bland annat hur medborgarnas hållning till möjliga inskränkningar av yttrandefriheten kan tolkas som en kritik mot mediernas sätt att fungera. - Det är medierna som förvaltar yttrandefriheten i demokratiska samhällen. Då medie-och samhällskontexten förändras ser vi ett behov att mediernas roll, rättigheter och ansvar uppmärksammas på nytt, säger Ulla Carlsson. Innebörden av yttrandefrihet måste bli tydligare Den bild som framkommer av undersökningen innebär att medborgarna inte självklart sätter yttrandefriheten före andra rättigheter. I boken dras slutsatsen att det både finns ett stöd för att värna om yttrandefrihetens grundläggande principer, men också ett behov av en viss anpassning till en verklighet där digitaliseringen har ändrat förutsättningarna för publicistisk verksamhet, medievanor och innebörden av personlig integritet. - För att möta förändringarna i kommunikationssamhället krävs att innebörden av yttrandefrihet är väl känd bland medborgarna. Det är en viktig pedagogisk fråga som inte får försummas, säger Ulla Carlsson. Boken är skriven av Ulla Carlsson, Unesco-professor i yttrandefrihet och internationell mediepolitik och Lennart Weibull, professor emeritus i massmedieforskning och seniorprofessor vid SOM-institutet.

Det svenska medielandskapet utvecklas i ett nära samspel med det med det omgivande samhället. De sociala, ekonomiska, politiska och teknologiska landskapen formar – och formas av – medielandskapet i en ständigt pågående process. I MedieSverige 2021 får läsaren en aktuell och bred översikt över dagens svenska medielandskap. Genom att först belysa utvecklingen på de medieteknologiska och mediepolitiska områdena i Sverige, går rapporten vidare till att redovisa utvecklingen på publik- och reklammarknaderna, för att avslutningsvis beskriva den svenska mediestrukturen. MedieSverige 2021 bygger på ett rikt datamaterial från en rad olika källor. Rapporten riktar sig till studenter, lärare, forskare, journalister, beslutsfattare och alla andra som vill lära sig mer om utvecklingen på den svenska mediemarknaden. Den första utgåvan av rapportserien MedieSverige utkom för närmare 40 år sedan. MedieSverige 2021 utgör den fjortonde volymen i serien. Rapporten är skriven av Ulrika Facht och Jonas Ohlsson vid Nordicom, Göteborgs universitet.

The media systems of the Nordic countries have for long been characterised by universality, freedom, trust, and cooperation between stakeholders. In comparative media systems research, the Nordic countries have been described as belonging to a single model – the Nordic media welfare state. The future of this model is now more uncertain than ever, as it is under increasing pressure from global tech companies, new digital media infrastructure, and developments in media policy, which all seem to elude domestic regulatory control. These developments raise questions about both the current state and the future of the media welfare state in a digital society – questions that this edited volume seeks to explore through conceptual, theoretical, and empirical analyses. The first section of this edited volume analyses the current state of the media model in the Nordic countries and focuses on some of the challenges that the media welfare states are facing. The section provides a comparative analysis of how the media are used and how they are regulated. It also analyses specific challenges such as disinformation and hate speech and the current measures taken to tackle such issues. The second section of this volume addresses conceptual and theoretical issues regarding the concept of the Nordic media welfare state. Through both historical and contemporary case studies, the section extends the concept of media welfare by attending to digital infrastructures, libraries, environmental issues, as well as the integration of the media with other aspects of social welfare. In the final chapter of the book, the editors propose that the digital media welfare state can be expanded and adapted to the digital media landscape using the public service media companies as a platform to connect cultural institutions and citizens. This book is of interest to students, researchers, and anyone seeking to understand developments in the media industries and media policy in the Nordic countries. The chapters in this volume are written by experts in their respective fields and provide the reader with both an overview and detailed knowledge about the Nordic media model. The editors – Peter Jakobsson and Johan Lindell at Uppsala University and Fredrik Stiernstedt at Södertörn University – have collaborated in several research projects that connect to the question of the future of the digital media welfare state.

Med jämna mellanrum återuppstår den – debatten om svenska myndigheters kommunikationsverksamheter. Ibland är det enskilda kampanjer som diskuteras och andra gånger principerna. Däremellan hamnar fokus på kostnaderna eller antalet kommunikatörer. Diskussionerna är ofta polemiska, och många gånger kan det vara svårt att få en klar bild av verksamheterna bortom debatten – vilka inriktningar myndigheters kommunikationsverksamheter har, hur pass omfattande de är, vad syftet med dem är och vad det är som bestämmer utformningen. Därför kan det också vara svårt att säga något om verksamheternas styrkor och svagheter, och vilka konsekvenser de har för myndigheter, andra aktörer och samhället i stort. Vad vi vet om svenska myndigheters kommunikationsverksamheter försöker råda bot på detta. I nio kapitel redovisar Magnus Fredriksson och Josef Pallas vad forskningen har att säga om svenska myndigheters kommunikationsverksamheter – hur verksamheterna ser ut, hur de har förändrats över tid, vad som driver dem samt vilka konsekvenser de har för styrningen, organiseringen och ledningen av myndigheter. Resultatet är en bok som ger en bred och nyanserad beskrivning av en verksamhet som omfattar ett stort antal aktiviteter – ibland inom ramen för det som händer på kommunikationsavdelningar men minst lika ofta i andra sammanhang. Magnus Fredriksson är professor i medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap vid Göteborgs universitet. Josef Pallas är professor i företagsekonomi vid Uppsala universitet och gästprofessor vid Högskolan i Borås.

Every day, invisible algorithms decide what news reaches us, what stories fade from view, and, quietly, how we come to understand the world. To uncover how these systems work, Jannie Møller Hartley spent years inside the machinery of personalisation, following journalists, editors, and data scientists as they grapple with what it means when machines take on something as deeply human as judgment. Running through this story is the extraordinary life of Ada Lovelace, whose nineteenth-century vision of algorithms offers a powerful and historic lens on today’s debates about artificial intelligence, creativity, and human agency. Blending storytelling, the history of algorithms, and original research, this book reveals how the technologies shaping our information environment influence what we know, what we notice, and how democratic life unfolds. It shows that algorithms carry human values, ambitions, and blind spots. Written for researchers, journalists, students, technologists, policymakers, and anyone curious about life in an AI-powered information ecosystem, this book invites readers to imagine how these systems could be built differently.

The Internet is a critical part of the societal infrastructure in the Nordic region – giving rise to increasing concerns about the growing power of global tech corporations that supply the foundation for the region’s evermore digitalised welfare states. Yet, we lack empirical evidence for understanding, discussing, and ultimately regulating the changing power structures surrounding Internet-based communication. Presenting a novel framework for analysing and comparing the four largest Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden – this book provides nuanced insights into what we think we know about digital power and control. Identifying the main gateways into contemporary digital societies, we follow the constant flows of data – from the individual user connecting to a network operator that then passes the data on through local, terrestrial networks, Internet exchange points, and submarine cable routes, to the servers of a given website and app that in turn send the requested data back and collect a wide range of metadata in the process. This allows us to identify the key market actors and regulatory arrangements that shape the evolution of digital communication systems. What we find is a significant historical shift in the ways basic communication resources are organised and controlled in welfare states. Alongside the rapid digitalisation of Nordic societies, new gatekeepers have entered the stage while former ones have stepped into the background, established regulatory frameworks have lost their previous efficacy, and commercial forms of governance have taken over. Yet, we also find that the four countries – that are so often described as a homogeneous whole – have followed different institutional and infrastructural paths on their way to digitalisation, resulting in different degrees of disruption, globalisation, and state involvement

The MILID Yearbok 2014 brings together a range of reviewed articles, which articulate the theme of global citizenship from varied perspectives and regions of the world. The articles represent different expressions on media and information literacy from researchers and practitioners, who offer bold new strategies, share research findings and best practices, musing and reflections. The Yearbook is organized around five sections: Global citizenship; New media, new approaches; Youth engagement; Education and educators’ changing role, Media and information literacy: A worldwide selection from the UNITWIN partners.

The Nordic Media Market 2015 is the thirteenth publication in the Nordic Media Trends series, which documents, describes and analyses developments in the media sector from a Nordic perspective. Previous publications in the series have presented both general media statistics and overviews of major media companies on the Nordic media markets. The present publication uses a somewhat more qualitative approach, as it analyzes current trends in Nordic media development against previous characterizations of the Nordic media landscape. The report focuses particularly on the development of the Nordic newspaper industries, Nordic media policy and the market position of the Nordic public service companies. Nordicom’s ongoing monitoring of media trends in the Nordic countries is financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The Cold War between the East and West during the period 1945-1991 was a rivalry where the world’s doom constantly emerged as a possible result. The Cold War was global and included northern European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in different ways. Historians are still discussing how Cold War history should be understood in these countries, but they have rarely been concerned about mass media and communications. Meanwhile, many media scholars have neglected the theme entirely. In this book, these two areas of knowledge are combined in new research on the Nordic mass media, and its significance during the Cold War. A number of controversial topics are covered. Nineteen Nordic scholars sheds new light on Nordic print media in all four countries, but also write about radio and the television broadcasting. Extending the traditional Cold War research on media and communication to include sport, magazines for men, political cartoons, and films, the book lays the foundation for Cold War studies to become an integrated interdisciplinary field of knowledge, and a more central part of the Nordic media research than before - with countless opportunities for exciting new research, with high relevance to world conflicts in our own time. Henrik G. Bastiansen is Professor at Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College, Norway. Rolf Werenskjold is Associate Professor at Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College, Norway.

This book is about teletext: a “broadcast service using several otherwise unused scanning lines (vertical blanking intervals) between frames of TV pictures to transmit information from a central data base to receiving television sets”. To the contributors to this book and possibly to many readers, this technical definition will feel out of place as it obscures the rich history of a formidable if forgotten medium. Nevertheless, it is the basic technology of teletext that sets it apart from other media and that, in part, has been the basis for much of what did and did not happen to teletext in terms of policy, institutional setting, content, users and scholarly interest. Many contributions in this book will provide similar definitions, but mostly as a stepping-stone to explore all that has so far been left unsaid by this technical description. It is this gap in our knowledge of teletext in Europe that this book aims to fill.

The seventh RIPE Reader investigates cross-boundary influences affecting public service media. PSM institutions remain domestically grounded and orientated, but must cope with international influences and the impact of globalisation. This presents significant environmental challenges keyed to policies that support networked communications which have important implications for the future of broadcasting. Meanwhile, internal institutional boundaries pose challenges to internal collaboration and synergy, and to achieving greater openness and cultivating public participation in PSM. Traditional boundaries between professional and non-professional production are often problematic, as well, for external collaboration. And there are enormous challenges in efforts to bridge boundaries between PSM and other public institutions (public sector), social movements (civil and volunteer sector) and companies (private sector). Cross-boundary phenomena offer tremendous opportunities for ensuring public service provision in the emerging media ecology, but managers and policy-makers must grapple with a range of dualities that require critical examination: public / private, national / international, broadcast / print, linear / non-linear, audience / user, production / distribution, citizen / consumer, and market / society. The scholarly contributions in this volume address issues that are relevant for improved understandings about Public Service Media Across Borders and Boundaries – a contemporary topic of keen theoretical and strategic importance.

Journalism in Conflict and Post-Conflict Conditions: Worldwide Perspectives aims to provide both empirical and theoretical input to the discussions of the role of journalism and media in conflict and post-conflict situations and in the often rather muddy waters between them. Together, the chapters in this book emphasise that discussions about post-conflict situations will gain from including the media. At the same time, the contributions from different contexts and parts of the world problematize the concept of post-conflict and powerfully illustrate that the phase between war/conflict and peace is neither unidirectional nor linear, as the use of the concept sometimes seems to imply. “Journalism in Conflict and Post-Conflict Conditions: Worldwide Perspectives is a most important book in our time of uncertainty. It adds to our knowledge base and understanding concerning the role of journalism and media in the complexities of post-conflict processes and peace building – a role that is often ignored in contemporary discussions.” Ulla Carlsson, UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Expression, Media Development and Global Policy, University of Gothenburg

“Voice and Matter is an outstanding collection that will reinstate the centrality and urgency of Communication for Development as an area of research and a field of practice. Hemer and Tufte’s vast expertise in the field of ComDev shines through in the volume’s multi­disciplinary approach, methodological and ­theoretical ­advances, and inclusion of contributions from diverse world regions (i.e. Latin American schools of participatory communication and recent African Ubuntu-centric epistemologies, among others). Drawing from the lived experiences of collectives and individuals who use media and communication to work toward emancipation and social justice, the chapters in this volume make important contributions to how we think about voice, power, technology, culture, and social change. Taking on the ­challenge of interrogating the development industries and their inability to detach from market forces and confront power inequities, this volume repositions the agency of subjects who use their own voices and their own media on their own terms – taking matters into their own hands.” Clemencia Rodríguez, Professor in Media Studies and Production, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

Blurring the Lines: Market-Driven and Democracy-Driven Freedom of Expression focuses on challenges from the market to free speech and how free speech can be protected, promoted and developed when lines between journalism and advertising are blurred. With contributions from 20 scholars in law, media studies and philosophy, it explores an issue deserving greater attention, market pressures on freedom of expression. The role of commercial constraints on speech, restrictions and control of media content and the responsibility of state institutions in protecting free speech are some of the topics scrutinized from a democratic free speech perspective.

War reporting has traditionally been a male activity. Elite sources like politicians, high ranking military officers and state officials are collectively still dominated by men, and it will take more than the presence of an increased number of female journalists to change this male hegemony. There is, though, no deterministic link between sex/gender and more peaceful news or a more peaceful world. This book offers analytic approaches to how traditional war journalism is gendered. Through different case studies, the book reveals how the framing of different femininities and masculinities affects the reporting and our understanding of war and conflicts.

Digital technology has become a natural part of our daily lives and requires new skills, know­ledge and attitudes. Everyone can create their own media content and share it with others, and the distinction between reception and perception is erased. This development represents a marked departure from the traditional media use of people, and challenges the perceptions about what it means to use and produce media in appropriate and meaningful ways. Critical media literacy, communication skills and competencies for creative and responsible content production have become increasingly important means for empowering people with Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in present media culture. This book presents the discussions and conclusions from a conference on Media and Information Literacy that was held in Helsinki in May 2016, financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The event was organized by the NORDICOM (Nordic Information Centre for Media and Commu­nication Research), together with KAVI (National Audiovisual Institute) in Finland, jointly with the Nordic media and media education authorities: Media Council for Children and Youth in Denmark, Fjölmiðlanefnd (The Media Commission) of Iceland, Norwegian Media Authority and the Swedish Media Council.

In an era when culture itself has become central to political debates, when boundaries between hard news and soft news, facts and opinion are dissolving, cultural journalism contributes to democratic discourse on vital issues of our time. Cultural journalism is furthermore indicative of journalistic autonomy and specialisation within media organisations, and of the intertwined relationship between the cultural and political public spheres. Nordic cultural journalism in the mainstream media covers more subjects today than ever before, from fine arts to gaming, media industries, and lifestyle issues. At the same time, it harbours debates and reflection on freedom of expression, ethnicity and national identity. This book contributes to an emerging international research agenda on cultural journalism at a time when digitalisation, convergence and globalisation are influencing the character of journalism in multiple ways. “Cultural journalism matters, and it matters differently by location. This nuanced and thoughtful portrayal of cultural journalism in the Nordic countries performs a double elevation of what has been missing for too long from journalism’s discussion: its stylistic and geographic variety. This book offers a strong set of studies that highlight what cultural journalism in the Nordic countries forces us to consider about all journalism everywhere.” Barbie Zelizer Raymond Williams Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Barn och unga befinner sig online en stor del av sin vakna tid. En del av innehållet de konsumerar väljer de inte själva – till exempel marknadsföring. Genom adblockers är det möjligt att undvika den traditionella reklamen, vilket gör att allt fler företag istället satsar på dold marknadsföring. Inte minst så kallade social influencers har blivit viktiga personer när företag vill sprida reklam för produkter eller tjänster. Det blir en slags kurragömmalek där det inte alltid är lätt att hitta det som är gömt. Lagstiftningen är dock tydlig i frågan: Dold marknadsföring är förbjuden, och reklam riktad till barn får inte innehålla uppmaning till köp. I en internationaliserad värld är det emellertid svårt att upprätthålla ett nationellt förbud. Exempelvis Youtube lyder inte under svenska lagar. I boken diskuteras dold reklam utifrån flera olika perspektiv, och något som förenar skribenter med i övrigt motstridiga intressen är en önskan om moderniserade och tydliga regler i frågan.

We need freedom of speech most when someone expresses offensive statements. Also, we need press freedom when news stories conflict the way authorities or powerful people and organizations look at the world. These freedoms are corner stones of journalism. When respected, journalism may contribute to a free flow of transparent and pluralistic information for citizens to be well informed. Yet, journalism’s values and working methods, as well as journalists themselves, are challenged, pressured and threatened. This research anthology examines journalistic core values and how they are perceived and renegotiated in Bangladesh, Norway and Tunisia – and one chapter includes Colombia. In exploring views on journalism’s values and press freedom transnationally, the comparative chapters (Part II) discuss and reflect on what journalism is. Finally, the case studies that close the book (Part III) offer empirical examples of journalism’s role in transitional periods and at times of ideological conflicts: When the right to religion collides with press freedom and freedom of expression, and when bloggers are killed for speaking out, journalism is on the line. This book contributes to local and global discussions on journalism and its core values in cultural diversities. ‘Journalism is under intensified threat. Some threats originate in economics, many others in politics and social life. This is why attention to the questions discussed in this anthology is valuable. If we are going to preserve journalism as a universal beacon, and indeed strengthen it going forward, the more knowledge we have about diversities in practice, the better our strategies can be.’ Guy Berger UNESCO

The music and film industries have long come to terms with the digital, and now the traditional printed book is challenged by digital formats. The e-book has become established in most countries, but is still a small part of the book industry. In this book a group of researchers follow the actors involved in the Swedish e-book market, from authors and publishers to libraries, booksellers and readers during 2012-2016. Using surveys, interviews and other sources the main actors were researched and it is shown how they act and react towards the e-book and towards each other. While the main focus in on Sweden as a small language country, several international comparisons are made. Are printed books disappearing soon? How are reading habits changing when the book becomes digital? Which forces are driving radical change and which are holding it back? The book discusses these and related questions and shows that after a period of rapid increase in the production and use of e-books, several factors slow down the rate of adoption, but digitisation of the book is an ongoing process and the current e-book is not the end of the story.

The eighth RIPE Reader critically examines the ‘networked society’ concept in relation to public service media. Although a popular construct in media policy, corporate strategy and academic discourse, the concept is vague and functions as a buzzword and catchphrase. This Reader clarifies and critiques the networked society notion with specific focus on enduring public interest values and performance in media. At issue is whether public service media will be a primary node for civil society services in the post-broadcasting era? Although networked communications offer significant benefits, they also present problems for universal access and service. An individual’s freedom to tap into, activate, build or link with a network is not guaranteed and threats to net neutrality are resurgent. Networks are vulnerable to hacking and geo-blocking, and facilitate clandestine surveillance. This Reader prioritises the public interest in a networked society. The authors examine the role of public media organisations in the robust but often contradictory framework of networked communications. Our departure point is both sceptical and aspirational, both analytical and normative, both forward-looking and historically-grounded. While by no means the last word on the issues treated, this collection provides a timely starting point at least.

The Clearinghouse Yearbook of 2017 present examples of interventions from around the world attempting to break gender barriers in media and secondly, explore the influence and consequences of exposure to gender representations – both traditional as well as counter-traditional – on children and youth. The initiation of this volume was motivated by many dedicated scholars, practitioners, and activists worldwide to rectify gender inequalities portrayed in the media consumed by children.

This book YOUNG & CREATIVE – Digital Technologies Empowering Children in Everyday Life aims to catch different examples where children and youth have been active and creative by their own initiative, driven by intrinsic motivation, personal interests and peer relations. We want to show the opportunities of digital technologies for creative processes of children and young people. The access to digital technology and its growing convergence has allowed young people to experiment active roles as cultural producers. Participation becomes a keyword when “consumers take media into their own hands”. Digital technologies offer the potential of different forms of participatory media culture, and finally creative practices. YOUNG and CREATIVE is a mix of research articles, interviews and case studies. The target audience of this book is students, professionals and researchers working in the field of education, communication, children and youth studies, new literacy studies and media and information literacy.

What’s the problem in problem gaming? is a valuable contribution to the debates about young people’s gaming habits and the highly contested concept of video game addiction. The chapters in the volume provide a number of perspectives on the issue, such as players’ life conditions and lifestyle choices, problem gaming from a family perspective, the voices of treatment professionals, and how game design can become problematic. How problem gaming is framed is a highly relevant issue that affects policies surrounding the consumption of videogames. This anthology is a just in time contribution and an essential read for researchers in the field as well as for policymakers, social workers, clinical psychologists, teachers and others who encounter problem gaming in their profession. Jonas Linderoth Professor of Education and distinguished scholar in the Digital Game Research Association (DiGRA)

Having traditionally been institutions mainly concerned with knowledge preservation and presentation, cultural institutions are increasingly trying to enable audience participation and co-production. A major explanation behind this shift is the possibilities (and demands) brought about by new technology. Media innovations, thus, affect not only the ways in which objects and stories are being shared and displayed, they also have bearing on the relations between cultural institutions and their audiences. This book is structured in three parts. The first part focuses on collaborative design and media innovation in museums. Here, collaborative design methods are discussed as vehicles for innovation in a museum setting. The chapters in the second part reflect upon media making and meaning making. Here, it is demonstrated how various techniques can be used to contextualize and re-contextualize archival material to motivate new interpretations, engagement and cultural understanding. Finally, the third part has its focus on civic engagement and local communities. In this part, focus is primarily on work and efforts carried out by local communities outside of the traditional institutions.

It is with great pleasure that we present the 2018 Yearbook from the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media at Nordicom: Digital Parenting: The Challenges for Families in the Digital Age. The topics addressed in the 2018 Yearbook – how to relate to or mediate children’s use of digital media, generational gaps in the use of media and the use of social media to display or seek support in parenthood – are timely and relevant in many respects and have engaged many qualified scholars from around the world. Parenting in the digital media environment is a theme often discussed in news media and among parenting groups. Balancing the opportunities of digital media and at the same time considering potentially unwanted and/or negative effects can be a challenge, both for adults and for the younger generation. There are no established policies, long traditions or experience to turn to and many are seeking advice. The 2018 Yearbook is the result of a great collaborative effort. Nordicom is deeply grateful to the editors of this new anthology, Giovanna Mascheroni, Cristina Ponte and Ana Jorge, as well as to all the contributors who have made this publication possible. It is our hope that the collection of articles will make interesting reading all around the world, stimulate new research and debate and provide new ideas regarding the topical and highly relevant issue of being a parent in the digital age. In the work of the Clearinghouse, the global dimension is a core principle, both with respect to the content we publish and distribute and to the contributors who produce it. Digital Parenting represents this principle by presenting contributions and examples and involving authors from many areas of the world. All books published by the Clearinghouse aim to shed light on different aspects concerning children, youth and media, spread current information and knowledge and hopefully stimulate further research. Various groups of users are targeted; researchers, policymakers, media professionals, voluntary organizations, teachers, students and interested individuals. It is our hope that this new Yearbook will be of interest and provide new insights on the topic of digital parenting to a broad range of readers.

Ongoing digitalization has fundamentally transformed the entire media landscape, not least the domain of news. The blurring of previously sharp distinctions between production, distribution and consumption have challenged the established news industry and brought into question long-held assumptions of what journalism is or should be, who is a journalist and how we define, consume and use "news". This anthology aims to shed light on the implications of these transformations for young people in the Nordic and Baltic countries. It focuses on three themes: youth participating in news and information production; news production by established media organizations and novel information providers aimed at children and youth; news use among youth. Taken together, the chapters illustrate the complexity of news use among youth and offer some rather different examples of strategies that news organizations might consider for reaching young people with news - or involving them in the production of news. Furthermore, the book might serve as a basis for reflecting on the urgent, but cumbersome, area of media and information literacy in these media saturated times.