Centers of news and opinion - forskning.se

It is usually the one who shouts the loudest that create public opinion in the fragmented media landscape that we now live in. But how does this affect the media’s democratic role? Can you have a mass democracy without a mass audience and what happens to the quality of information? Another question is also what happens when the media audience get their information about politics and society from many different sources, where traditional news media actually plays less and less of a role. What would Henry Örnebring, professor, and Michael Karlsson, associate professor, both in media and communication studies, looking into.

– We want to create an infrastructure to tackle these issues in the long term, says Henrik Örnebring. Therefore, we create the new research center “The Andersons Centre Research on News and Opinion in the Digital Era, NODE”. Where do we qualified scientists working in collaboration with representatives of the media industry.

daily press is historically one of the most important institutions in the area of ??news and opinion. The overarching question for the new center is what happens in society when the newspapers more and more challenged by other institutions, communication and societal problems.

– We want to initiate a new research program, “If the press disappears,” which builds on two legs. One examines people’s pathways into the world of the new media landscape. The second examines the impact of journalistic absence both from a democratic perspective, and from organizations, companies and authorities horizon, says Michael Karlsson.

FACTS
The new center is funded by Anne-Marie and Gustaf Anders Foundation for Media Research. The initiative extends over three years and also includes the recruitment of a PhD in Media and Communication Studies and a PhD focusing on news, advocacy, and digital media. There is already a PhD on the topic focused news and mobile media, which will be attached to the center. Also, seminars and other activities in the area will be in the center’s director.