The digital transformations of contemporary media systems have had severe consequences for democracy and public debates. A new special issue of Nordicom Review tackles digital disintegration as it unfolds across social, political, and cultural dimensions.
“At its core is a breakdown of social cohesion, increasing audience fragmentation, decreasing trust in journalism and political institutions, and shifting boundaries between producers and consumers of information in an increasingly platform-based hybrid media system”, says Andreas Widholm, one of the two special issue editors.
Three thematised parts
The eight contributions in the special issue are thematised in three parts. The first part explores disintegration within the context of political communication and is addressed through studies of changing party campaigning strategies, including data-driven campaigns, populist language use, and the development of politicised forms of news production.
One of the articles in this first part looks at Swedish election campaigns from 2010 to 2022, exploring how political parties mix traditional and digital communication strategies. The findings highlight a trend where Swedish political parties, regardless of size or ideology, are smartly combining old and new campaign methods for the best results.
From the perspective of citizens and platforms, the second part delves into the significance of alternative news curators, audience polarisation, and self-censorship within the citizenry along political lines.
Here, one of the articles maps and compares alternative news environments in Denmark and Sweden. The material that is being examined covers January 2019 to March 2022, and in total, the connections between over 20,000 social media accounts has been analysed. The main differences between the two countries are shown to be the “right-alternative” environment, which is stronger in Sweden than in Denmark, and the content of the right- and left-wing alternative news environments.
Moreover, the third part examines deliberative norms connected to content moderation of user comments within legacy media, and the consequences digital disintegration has had on journalistic sourcing practices and source diversity over time.
This third parts includes, among others, an article looking at how journalists and editors in small- and medium-sized media organisations in Finland handle online discussion threads. The authors found that applying deliberative norms, such as creating a safe space for discussion, reminding participants of proper tone, and respecting varying viewpoints, can help promote democratic and sustainable discussion climate. Journalists consider discussion threads as beneficial for citizen democracy, allowing active citizen participation. However, those in smaller media organisations face challenges like handling uncivil content and finding enough resources for moderation.
“The eight articles offer valuable empirical insights, as well as new lines of thinking concerning democracy and digital disintegrative transformations in the Nordic region and beyond”, says Mattias Ekman, the other of the two special issue editors.