Identity, Empathy and Argument: Immigrants in Culture and Entertainment Journalism in the Scandinavian Press

Cultural and entertainment journalism deals with aesthetic experiences, advice on cultural consumption, as well as reflection and debate on ethical and moral humanistic issues. Does this sub-field of journalism systematically represent immigrants and integration differently than the other news and commentary articles? Comparing immigration discourse in a representative sample of six Scandinavian newspapers between 1970 and 2016 using content analysis we find that cultural journalism, while clearly reverbing with the dominant national issues at the time, did provide alternative perspectives. It not only brought up themes like racism, multiculturalism, national identity and religion more often, but was also more positive, more gender-balanced and more often gave a voice to immigrants than other news did. A closer qualitative reading further suggests a typology of ten main story-types, varying relatively little over time and across national borders. Cultural journalism in this case illustrates how the cultural public sphere can positively contribute to the debate of complicated issues in the public sphere by offering resources for identification, empathy and arguments for specific points of view.publishedVersio

Comparing Public Discourse on Immigration in Scandinavia: Some Background Notes and Preliminary Results

This article briefly presents the SCANPUB project, devoted to the comparative study of public discourse on immigration in Scandinavia from 1970 to 2016, from which this issue of Javnost/The Public stems. Its emphasis is on a discussion of the terms “nation” and “nationalism,” particularly the notion of “methodological nationalism” in relation to the project. SCANPUB is not least about how the public sphere in liberal democracies handles large, complex issues over time, and the article thus deals with relatively recent contributions to the theory of the public sphere, concluding with a turn toward deliberative systems theory. Some preliminary empirical results are reported and references are made to the other articles in this issue

Digitalizacija javne sfere: ključni zadevi

Razprava o tem, kako uvedba in delovanje digitalnih medijev in interneta vplivata na demokracijo, poteka že dve desetletji. Izhajajoč iz perspektive demokratične teorije in posebej teorije javne sfere članek oriše dosežena spoznanja in razprave o dveh ključnih zadevah - participaciji in strukturi. Upoštevaje teoretične in empirične prispevke v tej številki Javnosti-The Public avtor meni, da sicer digitalizacija javna sfere nedvomno prinaša nove razsežnosti in oblike diskurza, vendar pa je njihov prispevek k splošni kakovosti ali zdravju demokracije različen v očeh različnih avtorjev. Potrebno je torej nadaljnje teoretsko delo in morda predvsem več empiričnih raziskav.The discussion on how democracy is aff ected by the introduction and functioning of digital media and the Internet has been going on for at least two decades. Starting from the perspective of democratic theory and specifi cally theories of the public sphere, this article tries to outline two key issues and what the current status of knowledge and debates on these appears to be. Referring to and drawing on all the other contributions to this issue of Javnost-The Public, the theoretical as well as the empirical, it is argued that while there is no doubt digitisation of the public sphere adds new dimensions and new forms of iscourse, the implications of these for the overall quality or health of democracy are still quite diff erently understood by scholars working in these issues. Consequently, further theoretical work is required, but, perhaps even more important, a variety of empirical studies

Polarisering: Et historisk blikk på norsk politikk og offentlighet

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Mary, Doug og moderniteten

'Det var liksom et pust derutefra'. Slik oppsummerte Morgenbladet Mary Pickford og Douglas Fairbanks besøk i Kristiania i 1924. Skuespillerekteparet fra Hollywood fikk store, entusiastiske oppslag i avisene og folket ga dem en hyllest som var kongelige verdig. Hva var det med Mary og Doug som skapte slik begeistring? Hva betydde de for folk på 20-tallet? Og hva betydde besøket deres for filmens stilling i Norge

Comparing Public Discourse on Immigration in Scandinavia: Some Background Notes and Preliminary Results

This article briefly presents the SCANPUB project, devoted to the comparative study of public discourse on immigration in Scandinavia from 1970 to 2016, from which this issue of Javnost/The Public stems. Its emphasis is on a discussion of the terms “nation” and “nationalism,” particularly the notion of “methodological nationalism” in relation to the project. SCANPUB is not least about how the public sphere in liberal democracies handles large, complex issues over time, and the article thus deals with relatively recent contributions to the theory of the public sphere, concluding with a turn toward deliberative systems theory. Some preliminary empirical results are reported and references are made to the other articles in this issue