Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries Kristensen, Nete Nørgaard; Riegert, Kristina Publication date: 2017 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (APA): Kristensen, N. N., & Riegert, K. (Eds.) (2017). Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries. Nordicom. Download date: 27. sep.. 2021 CULTURAL JOURNALISM CULTURAL 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 Countries in the Nordic the mainstream media covers more subjects today than ever before, from fine arts to gam- ing, media industries, and lifestyle issues. At the same time, it harbours debates and reflec- tion 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 (eds.) & Kristina Riegert Kristensen Nørgaard Nete CULTURAL thoughtful portrayal of cultural journalism in the Nordic countries performs a double elevation CULTURAL 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 JOURNALISMJOURNALISM Nordic countries forces us to consider about all journalism everywhere.” BARBIE ZELIZER Raymond Williams Professor of Communication, inin thethe NordicNordic CountriesCountries Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania NORDICOM University of Gothenburg Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden Telephone +46 31 786 00 00 • Fax + 46 31 786 46 55 Nete Nørgaard Kristensen 4 7 E-mail [email protected] & Kristina Riegert (eds.) NORDICOM 5 7 5 www.nordicom.gu.se 9 7 Nørgaard Kristensen, Nete & Riegert, Kristina (2017). Why Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries? in Nete Nørgaard 8 1 Kristensen & Kristina Riegert (eds) Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries. Göteborg: Nordicom. 9 8 7 1 9 ISBN 978-91-87957-57-4 CULTURAL JOURNALISM IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES CULTURAL JOURNALISM in the Nordic Countries Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert (eds.) NORDICOM Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries Nete Nørgaard Kristensen& Kristina Riegert (eds.) © Editorial matters and selections, the editors; articles, individual contributors; Nordicom 2017 ISBN 978-91-87957-57-4 (print) ISBN 978-91-87957-58-1 (pdf) The publication is also available as open access at www.nordicom.gu.se Published by: Nordicom University of Gothenburg Box 713 SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG Sweden Cover by: Per Nilsson Cover photo: Bartlomiej Zborowsk/Epa Printed by: Ale Tryckteam AB, Bohus, Sweden, 2017 Contents Preface 7 1. Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert Why Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries? 9 I. COUNTRY OVERVIEWS 27 2. Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, Unni From & Aske Kammer The Changing Logics of Danish Cultural Journalism 29 3. Heikki Hellman, Maarit Jaakkola & Raimo Salokangas From Culture Wars to Combat Games. The differentiation and development of culture departments in Finland 49 4. Jan Fredrik Hovden, Leif Ove Larsen & Silje Nygaard Cultural Rebels, Popular Journalism and Niche Journalism in Norway 69 5. Kristina Riegert & Anna Roosvall Cultural Journalism as a Contribution to Democratic Discourse in Sweden 89 II. COMPARATIVE CASE STUDIES 109 6. Heikki Hellman, Leif Ove Larsen, Kristina Riegert, Andreas Widholm & Silje Nygaard What Is Cultural News Good For? Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish cultural journalism in public service organisations 111 7. Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Anna Roosvall Editorial and Cultural Debates in Danish and Swedish Newspapers. Understanding the terror attacks in Paris and Copenhagen in early 2015 135 8. Kirsten Sparre & Unni From Journalists as Tastemakers. An analysis of the coverage of the TV series Borgen in a British, Swedish and Danish newsbrand 159 III. CULTURAL JOURNALISM IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: Essays 179 9. Jostein Gripsrud The Cultural, the Political and the Functions of Cultural Journalism. In Digital Times 181 10. Martin Eide The Culture of Service Journalism 195 Afterword 205 The Authors 207 Preface This book is the outcome of a series of explorative workshops on Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries, funded by The Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) from 2014 to 2015. These workshops were led by Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Kristina Riegert, Stockholm University, Leif Ove Larsen, University of Bergen, and Heikki Hellman, Tampere University. We would like to thank NOS-HS for supporting the workshops, which have been the starting point for a Nordic network of scholars with an interest in cultural journal- ism research. We would like to thank all who participated in the workshops, many of whom have also contributed to this book. We would especially like to thank Jan Fredrik Hovden and Silje Nygaard who have contributed greatly to the completion of one of the national Nordic perspectives of this book. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the Nordic and international colleagues who served as reviewers of the book chapters for their valuable comments and feedback. The Department of Media Studies, Stockholm University gave the financial support necessary for publishing this book, which we are grateful for. Finally, we would like to thank Ingela Wadbring and Karin Poulsen from Nordicom for giving us the opportunity to do this book and not least for a smooth and efficient production process. Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries is a landmark in positioning Nordic research at the centre of the emerging international research agenda on the study of cultural journalism. We hope the book will inspire more media and journalism scholars to engage with this intriguing field of study. Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert Copenhagen & Stockholm April, 2017 7 1. Why Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries? Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert Journalism research has long focused on political journalism and the news media as key to the political public sphere. This is due to the idea that a professional, autono- mous and versatile press, addressing issues of societal importance is a precondition for democracy (Curran 2011). As a consequence, journalism scholars have neglected the news media’s coverage of art, culture, and lifestyle – central to what Habermas called the “literary public sphere” – and what is known in the Nordic countries as ‘cultural journalism’. When cultural journalism has been addressed, this type of content is most often criticised as examples of the tabloidisation of journalism (e.g., Reinemann et al. 2011) or of the unhealthy interdependencies of the media and cultural industries (Bech-Karlsen 1991, Lund 2005, Strahan 2011). Several reasons come to mind as to the lack of research on cultural journalism. First, as Kristensen and From (2011: 21-22) point out, cultural journalism has often been considered lower down in the journalistic hierarchy – as ‘soft news’ dealing with leisure subjects. Secondly, the array of specialists (academics and artists) who have often been responsible for reviews, essays and debate in cultural journalism were ignored because scholars did not consider them to be ‘real’ journalists in view of their place at the fringes of the journalistic profession. All this is however chang- ing with professionalisation, digitalisation and streamlining of mainstream media content. As we will note later in this chapter and throughout the book, cultural journalists are becoming increasingly less specialized (Knapskog & Hovden 2015) and more like news journalists (Hellman & Jaakkola 2012). Cultural journalists and scholars (Bech-Karlsen 1991, Lund 2005) have, for example, pointed to the adoption of genres and values from journalism (e.g., ‘promotional’ interviews and immediate news items) into the cultural section of the press, which has otherwise historically been associated with a more opinionated approach (in reviews, commentaries and features). At the same time, these very cultural journalistic genres have also increased in mainstream journalism, prompting scholars to call the rise of opinion, commentary and ‘subjective’ views, the ‘interpretive turn’ in journalism (e.g, Barnhurst 2014). As Nørgaard Kristensen, Nete & Riegert, Kristina (2017). Why Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries? in Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert (eds) Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries. Göteborg: Nordicom. 9 NETE NØRGAARD KRISTENSEN & KRISTINA RIEGERT several of the chapters in the book will exemplify in more detail, recurring debates in the Nordic countries about the alleged decline of quality in cultural criticism and its importance as an arena for debate and reflection demonstrate the continuing importance of studying this type of specialty journalism. A third reason that scholars may have overlooked cultural or ‘arts’ journalism is that the concept itself encompasses