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10 - News on new platforms: Norwegian journalists face the digital age
- from PART II - FEARS OF DIGITAL NEWS MEDIA: THE SYMBOLIC STRUGGLE
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- By Kari Steen-Johnsen, Oslo, Norway, Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk, University of Oslo, Bernard Enjolras, University of Québec
- Edited by Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University, Connecticut, Elizabeth Butler Breese, Marîa Luengo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
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- Book:
- The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered
- Published online:
- 05 June 2016
- Print publication:
- 13 June 2016, pp 190-208
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Summary
Over the past decade, social and political change, economic instability, and the emergence of new technologies have changed the commercial news media and media systems in many countries in ways nobody could have envisioned at the time (Nielsen, Esser and Levy 2013; Picard 2010).The Western world's “journalism-in-crisis” narrative features strongly in both public and academic debates. It is, however, reasonable to believe that changes and transformations in news journalism will take different paths according to the specific cultural and institutional setting (Nielsen, Esser and Levy 2013, 385). For example, comparative studies of media transformation have shown that Germany is uncharacteristic in the sense that publishing continues to be a profitable business (Brüggeman, Esser and Humprecht 2012, 742).
In this chapter we examine transformations within the Norwegian news media in relation to processes of digitalization. As with Germany, Norway could also be considered a special case, where the sense of crisis is arguably less profound than in other countries. Norway is characterized by still relatively high print readership, financial affluence, and strong cultural policies related to the media (Syvertsen et al. 2015). However, as Brüggeman, Esser and Humprecht (2012) showed for the German case, crisis narratives are not strictly dependent on financial conditions. Rather, they can exist despite a country's financial health, and be used as strategic tools by media actors to consolidate and expand their position. Taking as our point of departure the idea that situations are coded by the social meanings different actors bestow upon them, we seek to identify the cultural dynamics underlying present debates within the media industry. In Alexander's (2009) terms, the mobilization of different narratives, both by journalists and media proprietors, can be seen as part of a power struggle, with a view to maintaining or regaining a given position in a changing environment. Power struggles in democratic societies, Alexander suggests, are ultimately symbolic struggles, where the aim of a certain group or profession is to be able to embody the ideals of the civil sphere (2009, p.68).
Based on a representative survey, we examine the opinion of Norwegian journalists working on various platforms on the consequences of digitalization for their work as professionals. We ask to what degree journalists see their profession as in a state of crisis as a result of digitalization processes and how they view the effect of digitalization on the quality of their work.
After Utøya: How a High-Trust Society Reacts to Terror—Trust and Civic Engagement in the Aftermath of July 22
- Dag Wollebæk, Bernard Enjolras, Kari Steen-Johnsen, Guro Ødegård
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- Journal:
- PS: Political Science & Politics / Volume 45 / Issue 1 / January 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 04 January 2012, pp. 32-37
- Print publication:
- January 2012
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The article examines short-term effects of terror on trust and civic engagement in Norway. Prior to the July 22, 2011 attacks, Norway ranked among the nations with the highest levels of trust and civic engagement in the world. How does a nation of trusters react to terror? Based on two web surveys conducted in March/April 2011 and August 2011 short-term effects on trust, fear, and political interest and participation are analyzed. Two competing hypotheses are explored: first, the “end-of-innocence hypothesis,” which assumes that the attacks have disrupted trust and instilled a new culture of fear, and second, the “remobilization hypothesis,” which assumes that the attacks have led to a reinforcement of trust and of civic values. Our results show increased interpersonal and institutional trust as well as a modest increase in civic engagement, especially among youth. Moreover, there is little increase in experienced fear within the population. Our study therefore supports the remobilization-of-trust hypothesis. Contrary to the intended aims of the attacker, the structures of trust and civic engagement seem to have been reinforced in Norwegian society. This study in part corroborates findings concerning short-term effects after September 11, 2001.
two - Between subsidiarity and social assistance – the French republican route to activation
- Edited by Ivar Lødemel, Heather Trickey
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- Book:
- An Offer You Can't Refuse'
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 24 January 2001, pp 41-70
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Summary
Introduction
‘Workfare’ is not a positive term in the French policy debate. It is usually reserved to describe the kinds of strategies that policy makers want to avoid, since workfare policies are considered to focus on social exclusion resulting from individual behaviour. French activation policies are strongly rooted in a republican ideology and form part of a broader strategy to fight ‘exclusion’ and foster ‘insertion’. Nonetheless, recent developments in job creation and activation policies have tended towards compulsory work, through the development of work insertion requirements for over 25-year-olds receiving means-tested cash assistance, and via a refusal to provide financial assistance to under 26-year-olds outside of a work or training context.
Insertion policies (policies with an official goal to re-integrate ‘excluded people’ either into the labour market or into social life) began to be introduced in France at the beginning of the 1980s. While France shares a European orientation towards activating social assistance recipients, it is exceptional in several key respects. In general, French policy makers place responsibility on society to enable individuals to be integrated, rather than on individuals to develop their own strategies. Unemployment has grown to a level that policy makers accept will not be absorbed through economic growth alone. Policy makers view this unemployment as a structural problem – with a shortage of low-skilled jobs seen to be the primary cause of social exclusion among young and unskilled people – rather than resulting from poor motivation on the part of the individual. Nonetheless, dependency on ‘passive’ benefits is increasingly viewed as highly undesirable, particularly for young people.
The administrative context for French activation is extremely complex. Insertion policies involve state agencies and autonomous elected bodies at the national, regional, departmental and local levels. Policy developments have been incremental, and have built up within a complex administrative system. As a result, French work-for-welfare requirements do not constitute a clear set of programmes. For older uninsured people workfare is one possible trajectory attached to the nationalised social assistance programme. Revenu Minimum d’Insertion (RMI). For younger people workfare does not replace social assistance but rather exists instead of RMI since younger people are not eligible for RMI.