The global #MeToo movement exposed the widespread structural problem of sexual harassment, which was also the case in Sweden and Norway. Across the various sectors of working life, women were able to identify with the call. This perspective, however, was under- mined in the public sphere when person-centred scandal stories about a few powerholders and media celebrities took over. In addition, a lack of verifiable documentation – and uncritical use of anonymous sources – ignited renewed debates about the ethical standards of professional journalism. This article discusses two alleged #MeToo cases: Aftonbladet’s dramatic and unfounded accusations against the theatre CEO Benny Fredriksson and VG’s misuse and manipulation of a “bar-dance” episode involving the Norwegian Labour politician Trond Giske. Both media stories developed into “critical incidents”, resulting in public criticism, self-examination and discussions around ethical rules and regulation.

The objective of this chapter is to describe and discuss some important political journalism development trends in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The term political journalism traditionally ...

The term 'think tank' represents a heterogeneous concept and is used to characterise a diverse group of organisations. This diversity also characterises the Swedish organisations and institutions that currently fall under the think tank umbrella. In the Swedish political context, most organisations known by the public and news media as think tanks areadvocacyorganisations with an unambiguous ideological and political profile. Further, during the last decade, we have seen a proliferation of independent, self-declared think tanks with more specific policy agendas, such as the environment and health care. However, according to the broader understanding used in global rankings, the Swedish think tank landscape includes a range of research institutions in different policy areas. Some receive funding from the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, corporations and private donors; others are government-funded, with Stockholm's International Peace Research Institute as a prominent example. The aim of this article is to map the Swedish think tank landscape and its borders and analyse the roles of different types of think tanks in consensual or confrontational policymaking. Strategic differences among these types are related to historical background and funding. While government-funded and some policy-sector think tanks typically represent a tradition of consensual policymaking, those funded by the Corporation of Swedish Enterprise and other business interests represent a post-corporatist development advocating neoliberal ideas and assuming a confrontational role in the expansion of private ownership and market solutions.

I studien undersoks hur kriminaljournalistiken i Aftonbladet, Expressen och Dagens Nyheter forholl sig till att namnge brottslingar 2014 och 2019 med mojlighet att jamfora bakat med hur Dagens Nyhe ...

How could the Holocaust happen - and why did the surrounding world not react? During the first decades after World War II, in Sweden as in many other countries, a common answer was "we did not know." The argument is still used. However, today we know that testimonies about the mass murder in concentration camps were spread through both diplomatic channels and international news reports. To what extent did this information also reach the Swedish citizens, living in a neutral nation? In this article I present two studies. One study analyses Swedish news about Jews from January 1933 to the end of May 1945. The results show an interest in "Jewish questions" throughout the 1930s, culminating in 1938 (Kristallnacht), but with a decreased attention thereafter and with very limited reporting in 1940 and 1941. A second study analyses articles about the extermination camps in Germany and Poland in 1938-1945 and shows that bits and pieces of news information can be found, but the publications are at the same time limited in facts and restricted in coverage. Information control by Swedish authorities and self-censorship contributed to the silencing of the German war crimes and the normalisation of "not knowing."

Den digitala revolutionen har under nagra decennier gjort att tillgangen pa informationskallor har okat dramatiskt. Samtidigt har det inneburit mangdubblade mojligheter for felinformation och desin ...

This chapter focuses on the basis of Nordic research, present data about the incidence, types and consequences of scandals in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden as well as discuss the political and societal effects of scandal journalism. It discusses the way in which mediated political scandals are launched, dramatized and interpreted. For Nordic news media, information on norm violations that can be reported, staged and dramatized as a political scandal is a competitive resource and a strategic, market-related investment in terms of reputation and audience interest. In practice, professional standards in Nordic scandal journalism vary considerably. The most typical Nordic "sex scandals" are accusations of rape or sexual harassment, buying sexual services from prostitutes or intercourse with minors, actions prohibited by law. Several factors may have influenced the increased importance of scandals in Nordic countries after the millennium. The liberalization and deregulation of the public sector in all Nordic countries has created opportunities for more private competition, but it has also increased the importance of lobbyism.

The international #MeToo initiatives organized in October 2017 received a quick and widespread response in Sweden. Women from a wide range of occupational groups and work environments – after sharing their stories in closed forums on social media – made their testimonies public under several related hashtags. The testimonies about allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse were described as men’s misuse of power in relation to women in weaker positions, often women who were younger and dependent. The published testimonies quickly led to a stream of news reports and commentaries in the legacy media, in some cases resulting in individualized scandals and media hunts. One of these scandals related to the Swedish Academy, the institution responsible for the Nobel Prize in Literature. While the initial Swedish #MeToo movement was dominated by broad collective mobilization in different societal areas pointing to sexual harassment as a structural problem, the individualized scandal coverage in leading media outlets in some cases represented unverified ‘naming and shaming’ that later led to ethical critique and new public debates. A political result of the #MeToo movement in Sweden was a new law prohibiting non-consensual sex that came into force in July 2018.

The democratic importance of journalism is related to public good aspects of media products, as well as news media's positive externalities. Journalism of high quality helps ensure we are all better informed and thus benefits democracy. Lack of investigative journalism may incur large social costs. However, journalism as a public good is difficult to fund on a commercial basis. Historically, an economic solution for media companies has been advertising subsidies, plus different types of public and private support. Today, the long-time marriage between news organisations and advertisers is severely weakened, and nothing so far suggests that digital revenues alone can finance a varied, broad and original news production. In the eyes of capitalist investors, news organisations represent the past, not the future. This article discusses, on the basis of Scandinavian media experiences and recent policy reforms, the necessity of a media policy and a funding system that acknowledges quality journalism as societal knowledge production and a public good.

All political scandals trigger discussions of trust, but in a competitive commercial media climate, both important and minor legal offences and moral transgressions are regularly treated as scandalous media events. Today, actors in social media and mainstream media organizations can collaborate on cases that might develop into scandal news. In this article, which is based on an analysis of 101 political scandals in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 2010 to 2016—and a study of political scandals in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017–2018—we show that mediated scandals have become a standard feature of political life in Nordic countries. Compared with earlier decades, there has been an exponential rise in the number of scandals; at the same time, the rate of resignations and dismissals following scandals is lower than before. Offences related to economic affairs, including corruption, and personal behavior scandals, such as accusations of sexual harassment, constitute the most prominent scandal types. However, regarding sexually related behavior scandals, there are interesting differences between the Nordic countries.

All political scandals trigger discussions of trust, but in a competitive commercial media climate, both important and minor legal offences and moral transgressions are regularly treated as scandalous media events. Today, actors in social media and mainstream media organizations can collaborate on cases that might develop into scandal news. In this article, which is based on an analysis of 101 political scandals in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 2010 to 2016-and a study of political scandals in the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017-2018-we show that mediated scandals have become a standard feature of political life in Nordic countries. Compared with earlier decades, there has been an exponential rise in the number of scandals; at the same time, the rate of resignations and dismissals following scandals is lower than before. Offences related to economic affairs, including corruption, and personal behavior scandals, such as accusations of sexual harassment, constitute the most prominent scandal types. However, regarding sexually related behavior scandals, there are interesting differences between the Nordic countries.

Transparency International’s yearly Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Scandinavia as one of the least corrupt regions in the world. However, during the past decades, large Scandinavian corporations in the telecommunications, oil and defence industries have – in their struggle for business contracts in other countries – been involved in several large-scale bribery scandals. There has also been a growing range of corruption cases in the Swedish and Norwegian public sectors. In many of these cases, investigative journalists have played a crucial role in the disclosure of corruption, sometimes cooperating across media organisations and countries, demonstrating the importance of journalism as a public good for democracy. In this article, we explore, discuss and analyse the work of and methods used by investigative journalists in revealing large-scale corruption related to the expansion of Nordic telecom companies in Uzbekistan.

Vad hander med enskilda individer nar de blir utsatta for mediernas kritiska och negativa uppmarksamhet? Hur hanterar man att bli fokus i en skandal? Nar rubriker och uppslag i manger basunerar ut ...

Investigating powerful institutions and public figures plays an important part in the professional ideology of journalism. Exposing circumstances that create scandals help news organisations streng ...

The topic of this paper is the media visibility of Swedish advocacy think tanks, as measured by references to these think tanks in leading Swedish print newspapers. Advocacy think tanks are, in contrast with more research-oriented think tanks, characterised by their outspoken ideological and political agenda. In public debates, they often have a partisan role. Four research questions will be answered: How often are these advocacy think tanks referred to in the news? How important are they as commentators and opinion-makers? How are they presented as sources in the news? What is the relative strength of market-liberal and right-wing think tanks versus red/green think tanks, in terms of media representation and agenda-setting?The selection criteria, type of newspapers, and time period used in this study of Swedish advocacy think tanks have been coordinated with parallel, national think tank studies by media researchers in Denmark, Norway, and Finland. Several changes in the think tank landscape took place after the turn of the millennium, which motivated us to select two full newspaper years, 2006 and 2013, to better cover these developments. To gain a deeper understanding of the think tanks’ backgrounds, their cooperation with other think tanks, and their media strategies, we conducted background interviews with representatives from four advocacy think tanks. We met with Karin Svanborg-Sjövall, CEO of Timbro; Boa Ruthström, CEO of Arena Idé, and Maja Dahl, communication manager of Arena Idé; Mattias Goldmann, CEO of Fores; and Daniel Suhonen, the leader of Katalys.

This chapter discusses political scandals in Nordic countries, with a focus on recent scandals concerning norm transgressions related to the personal behaviour of politicians. Three scandals are briefly presented as illustrations, and a fourth is analysed in greater detail. A closer look at this type of scandal reveals that the ‘crime’ in question is often a relatively trivial offence, especially in legal terms. Scandalization processes are useful weapons in power struggles and conflicts between political actors. Scandals also demonstrate the influence of media organizations and journalists in political conflicts. The news media represent both the public sphere and the marketplace in which scandals are presented and developed as dramas. This development is discussed against the background of a political-cultural climate characterized by a high degree of visibility and a political environment in which personalities have gained importance.