A HISTORY OF HISTORY A Broadcast communication has had a profound effect on modern society in the 20th and early 21st centuries. A growing international field of research has examined the historical A HISTORY OF development of broadcasting within various social and historical contexts, but also has made significant contributions to the understanding of media communication in general. Central topics in this discussion concern the relationships between technological inno- vations, institutional arrangements, social relations and culture. SWEDI SWEDISH This book analyses the historical developments of Swedish broadcasting from the intro- duction of radio in the mid-1920s until the early 2000s. In relation to international BROADCASTING research, it explores key aspects of how broadcast media emerged as a way to commu- S nicate over distance, connected to audiences, and evolved into central institutions and BROADCA H Communicative ethos, genres socio-cultural universes in society. and institutional change The chapters are arranged in five thematic sections focusing on the invention and early development of radio and television, audience orientation, professional practices, broad- cast genres, and institutional changes. The book derives from a large-scale research programme on Swedish broadcast history S TING Edited by Monika Djerf-Pierre & Mats Ekström comprising about 50 studies and led by the “Swedish Foundation of Broadcast Media History”. Edited by Monika Djerf-Pierre & Mats Ekström & Mats Djerf-Pierre by Monika Edited NORDICOM Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research University of Gothenburg Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden Telephone +46 31 786 00 00 (op.) | Fax +46 31 786 46 55 www.nordicom.gu.se | E-mail: [email protected] STIFTELSEN ETERMEDIERNA I SVERIGE NORDICOM’s activities are based on broad and extensive network of contacts and collaboration with members of the research community, media companies, politicians, regulators, teachers, librarians, and so forth, around the world. The activities at Nordicom are characterized by three main working areas. • Media and Communication Research Findings in the Nordic Countries Nordicom publishes a Nordic journal, Nordicom Information, and an English language journal, Nordicom Review (refereed), as well as anthologies and other reports in both Nordic and English languages. Different research databases concerning, among other things, scientific literature and ongoing research are updated continuously and are available on the Internet. Nordicom has the character of a hub of Nordic cooperation in media research. Making Nordic research in the field of mass communication and media studies known to colleagues and others outside the region, and weaving and supporting networks of collaboration between the Nordic research communities and colleagues abroad are two prime facets of the Nordicom work. The documentation services are based on work performed in national documentation centres attached to the universities in Aarhus, Denmark; Tampere, Finland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Bergen, Norway; and Göteborg, Sweden. • Trends and Developments in the Media Sectors in the Nordic Countries Nordicom compiles and collates media statistics for the whole of the Nordic region. The statistics, together with qualified analyses, are published in the series, Nordic Media Trends, and on the homepage. Besides statistics on output and consumption, the statistics provide data on media ownership and the structure of the industries as well as national regulatory legislation. Today, the Nordic region constitutes a common market in the media sector, and there is a widespread need for impartial, comparable basic data. These services are based on a Nordic network of contributing institutions. Nordicom gives the Nordic countries a common voice in European and international networks and institutions that inform media and cultural policy. At the same time, Nordicom keeps Nordic users abreast of developments in the sector outside the region, particularly developments in the European Union and the Council of Europe. • Research on Children, Youth and the Media Worldwide At the request of UNESCO, Nordicom started the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media in 1997. The work of the Clearinghouse aims at increasing our knowledge of children, youth and media and, thereby, at providing the basis for relevant decision-making, at contributing to constructive public debate and at promoting children’s and young people’s media literacy. It is also hoped that the work of the Clearinghouse will stimulate additional research on children, youth and media. The Clearinghouse’s activities have as their basis a global network of 1000 or so participants in more than 125 countries, representing not only the academia, but also, e.g., the media industries, politics and a broad spectrum of voluntary organizations. In yearbooks, newsletters and survey articles the Clearinghouse has an ambition to broaden and contextualize knowledge about children, young people and media literacy. The Clearinghouse seeks to bring together and make available insights concerning children’s and young people’s relations with mass media from a variety of perspectives. www.nordicom.gu.se A History of Swedish Broadcasting A HISTORY OF SWEDISH BROADCASTING Communicative ethos, genres and institutional change Edited by Monika Djerf-Pierre & Mats Ekström NORDICOM A History of Swedish Broadcasting Communicative ethos, genres and institutional change Monika Djerf-Pierre & Mats Ekström (eds.) © Nordicom and the Swedish Foundation of Broadcast Media History; articles, individual contributors. ISBN 978-91-86523-73-2 (print) ISBN 978-91-86523-81-7 (pdf) Published by: Nordicom University of Gothenburg Box 713 SE 405 30 Göteborg Sweden Cover by: Daniel Zachrisson Picture on front page from a photo of an oil painting by Axel Sjöberg, 1935: Radiolyssnarna [The radio listeners]. Owned by Sveriges Radios Förvaltnings AB, hanging in the radio broadcast building. Printed by: Litorapid Media AB, Göteborg, Sweden ISO 14001 ECO IC LA D B R E O L N 341 834 PRODUCT GROUP Contents Foreword 7 Introduction Chapter 1 Mats Ekström & Monika Djerf-Pierre Approaching Broadcast History. An introduction 11 Innovations: Technologies for Broadcast Communication Chapter 2 Lennart Weibull New Media Between Technology and Content. The introduction of radio and television in Sweden 31 Chapter 3 Göran Elgemyr Inventiveness and a Desire to Experiment. The development of production technology in Swedish Radio 1925-1955 55 Chapter 4 Nina Wormbs From Wire to Satellite The affordances of distribution technologies for broadcasting 83 Audience Orientation and the Communicative Ethos of Public Broadcasting Chapter 5 Ingegerd Rydin Children’s Voices From a Public Service Perspective. Images of childhood in radio and television 105 Chapter 6 Michael Forsman Talk Back and Participate! Cultural technologies and the making of the active audience in Swedish local radio 1977-2000 127 Media Professionals: Occupational Strategies, Norms and Practices Chapter 7 Lars-Åke Engblom Wanted: Academics, Journalists and Personalities. Recruitment to Swedish broadcasting 153 Chapter 8 Monica Löfgren Nilsson A Long and Winding Road. Gendering processes in SVT news 171 5 CONTENTS Chapter 9 Peter Esaiasson & Nicklas Håkansson Enter the Professionals. Shifting logics of election broadcasts in Sweden 195 The Development of Broadcast Genres Chapter 10 Bo Reimer Even Better than the Real Thing. The cultural form of televised sport 221 Chapter 11 Leif Furhammar From Affluence to Poverty. The early Swedish TV documentary 241 Chapter 12 Göran Bolin Questioning Entertainment Value. Moments of disruption in the history of Swedish television entertainment 261 Chapter 13 Monika Djerf-Pierre The Greening of the News. The institutionalization of ‘the environment’ in television news reporting 1961-1973 283 Institutional Changes: The Example of News and Current Affairs Chapter 14 Monika Djerf-Pierre & Lennart Weibull Educator, Mirror, Watchdog, Interpreter. Regimes of news and current affairs journalism in public service broadcasting 1925-2005 307 Chapter 15 Anna Maria Jönsson Challenges for Swedish Public Service Television. Competition and commercialization in the news market 329 Reflections Chapter 16 Paddy Scannell The Historicality of Central Broadcasting Institutions 355 Appendix Göran Elgemyr The Swedish Foundation of Broadcast Media History. An Overview 367 Books in print from the Swedish Foundation of Broadcast Media History 1995-2012 371 The Authors 377 6 Foreword The overall aim of this book is to describe and analyse formative features and trajectories in the history of Swedish broadcasting. The 15 chapters include analyses of communicative innovations, institutional arrangements, audience orientations and modes of address, norms and practices in broadcast production, the development of different genres, and the relationship between broadcast- ing and society. We have attempted to offer new and exciting findings based on a combination of detailed analyses of concrete examples and descriptions of general trends and changes. The book derives from a large-scale research programme on Swedish broadcasting history that has been underway since 1993. An impressive body of empirical studies has been published (altogether 49 books, several CDs and DVDs), covering a great variety of topics, genres and periods. With a few exceptions, this research has not previously been published for a non- Swedish audience.