Nordic Media and Journalism Research

You'll be older too

2007-01-05T10:16:00.000+01:00

For those of you who still drop by this blog every once in a while (if only to ignore Laura's wake up call below :-) and who are able to read Norwegian, I would like to recommend to you: Steen's Beboerne. It is a booklength piece of feature journalism about life and death in a Norwegian rest home and about care of senior citizens in general. It makes for a fantastic break from fast news journalism, and it'll make you think about your grandparents and about your parents and your downstairs neighbours and about your own old age.

Well done, Steen.

The first chapter is available here.

Updating // Blogging

2006-09-15T09:42:00.000+02:00

Hello there all!

A wake up call: I will now challenge you all to update your state of affairs in this public forum!

Is there still someone (else) visiting this blog every now and then? Do you have your own blogs somewhere else? Which blogs do you follow (any interesting links?) How are your projects etc.? AND: how are you all doing?

I'll start:

I have started to slowly realize the power of blogging. I still haven't put up my own, but I think I am in the process of doing so. I regularly check some blogs - personal and media (research) related - such as these:

http://www.mattilintulahti.net/mediablogi/ (FIN)
http://www.apinalaatikko.com/ (FIN)
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/ (US)

At the moment it feels a bit like I am stuck with my PhD project, even if it is slowly progressing...

My project was (may you not recall) about public/civic journalism in three Finnish newspapers. I have collected all my materials, and I should start analyzing the interviews now. By the way; any good advise with using Atlas.ti?

Actually this is the reason why I feel that I am stuck: I think I have repeated the previous sentences for a year now! I hope I'll be able to move in the near future. :)

Well, I have also taken part in some conferences/seminars. I presented a paper here in Tampere in a conference called "Public sphere(s) and their boundaries" in May and I took part in ECREA's Summer School in Tartu, Estonia in August, which was useful and fun! I have also been preparing an article to be published in English.

I'll also have couple of courses of teaching coming up and I am taking a course on pedagogy on my own, too.

But that's about it. How about you others? Has anyone besides Christine already finished?

Best,
Laura R

New Journal on Journalism: Journalistica

2006-06-02T09:54:00.000+02:00

The first issue of Journalistica is supposed to be out by now (...has anybody seen it?) Journalistica is a Danish journal on journalism which will be publishing research articles not on media, culture or politics, but on - journalism. This means that political, cultural and media issues will be discussed, of course, but always with a focus on their consequences for journalism. The journal accepts articles in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian as well as English. The first issue is concerned with Ethics in Journalism (it had to be, says editor).

Good riddance

2006-04-19T20:33:00.000+02:00

Sooooo---yes, I handed in my dissertation (April 5, 2:57 pm). Please excuse me for copying-and-pasting, but here comes an English summary - for your information.

Writers Who Make a Scene. Spectacular Personal Reportage in Denmark Today as Patterned on the Work of Günter Wallraff and Hunter S. Thompson. PhD dissertation submitted to the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication: Division of Rhetoric, University of Copenhagen, Denmark ∙ April, 2006.

Through a striking and consistent rhetorical practice, the German writer and social critic Günter Wallraff (1942-) and American writer and journalist Hunter S. Thompson (USA, 1937-2005) have each established their own personal brand of written journalistic reportage, namely wallraffing (role reporting) and gonzo journalism. Both are frequently imitated by colleagues all over the world, though oftentimes in a reductive fashion which turns on the negative positioning of the writer as being simply an alternative to a staid ‘mainstream’. They present themselves as more subjective, sensitive, audacious and creative than the rest. This dissertation argues for establishing spectacular personal reportage as a subgenre based on wallraffing and gonzo as rhetorical patterns which include a common ethos based on a belief in the individual (and revealed) rhetorical agency of the reporter. Through close readings (with Leff (2003) as a major point of reference) of texts by Wallraff and Thompson alongside texts by some of their prominent Danish successors (Michael Elsborg, Allan Nagel, Mads Brügger, Jakob S. Boeskov, Morten Sabroe, Claus Beck-Nielsen, Michael Jeppesen, and Flemming Chr. Nielsen), the dissertation highlights a number of rhetorical pitfalls regarding the writer’s presentation of self and enactment of agency. Generally, however, an argument is made for recognizing this subgenre as a potential stronghold for rhetorical agency in the print media. More specifically (with reference to Sheard (1996)), the texts are read as performances of critical and mediatory epideictic work-in-progress. Each writer sets out to experimentally establish some common ground between the social situation in the field on the one hand and the rhetorical situation on the other. They seek, sometimes almost desperately, to affirm and exemplify basic standards of journalism or human interaction, in a substandard world. Typically the reporters therefore willfully challenge their own standards, by bringing themselves into tricky or even dangerous situations (cf. readings in Chapter III: Handling Weapons in Writing) where they grabble with the question of what kind of (journalistic) truths to pursue (cf. readings in Chapter IV: Handling the Truth in Writing) and finally make interaction and negotiation with other people, including the reader, the focus of concern (Chapter V: Handling Other People in Writing). The adoption and adaption of the epideitic role becomes a critical, unusually physical and precious process as rhetorical momentum must be created more or less from scratch. In some texts the quest for common ground or matters worth celebrating simply fails, and in others a rhetorically iconoclastic approach is required before any epideictic celebration can begin.
The dissertation is written in Danish as a contribution to the debate within professional journalism, journalism studies, and rhetorical studies in Scandinavia regarding the question of personal and admitted perspectives versus disguised or corporate ones and, moreover, to enable and qualify the practice of spectacular personal reporting in the Scandinavian languages in the future.

How about Tartu, Estonia?

2006-03-15T10:39:00.000+01:00

Hello there!

Is anyone of you planning to go to Summer Shcool in Tartu, Estonia this year? Here is the info:
http://www.comsummerschool.org/

Did aynone attend last year? Was it worth it?

I think I will apply even though the topic Enlarging Europe - enlarging participation? is not entirely in line with my reserach topic. I hope I will meet many of you there, if I get accepted.

Take care!
Laura

Nordic Media and Journalism Research

2006-01-30T12:12:00.000+01:00

New journalism research in Denmark

A week ago a dissertation on journalism was published in Danmark.
The dissertation is written by Ida Schultz from Roskilde University Centre. For you who read Danish the title is: "Bag om nyhedskriterierne. En etnografisk feltanalyse af nyhedsværdier i journalistisk praksis".

Ida Schultz combines ethnographic newsroom studies with Bordieu and his concepts: journalistic field, newshabitus and newsroom capitals.
Schultz's aim is to explore news values and newsworthiness as well as journalistic practices ans the structures that enable or constrain them.

The dissertation conceptualises news work as ongoing positioning within the journalistic field. Specifically, the dissertation shows how many working definitions of newsworthiness ('timely', 'original' as in scoop) are not simply the result of gatekeeping or organizational routines within single newsrooms, but are constructed relationally across the field as such.

Schultz argues that the ongoing positioning of stories, by-lines and media points towards a central, doxic news value in the Danish journalistic field: Exclusivity. In short her conclusion is that newswork is also about positioning the news.

Schultz's dissertation points towards five conclusions:

1. The five news criteria of Danish news journalism (timeliness, importance, identification, conflict, sensation) can not solely explain newsworthiness.

2. Newswork is positioning: Newswork is about positioning stories in relation to the current affairs, about positioning in relation to competitor-collegueas and about positioning the media in the journalistic field.

3. Exclusivity is an important news value.

4. The ideal of The Good Journalist har changed from Information (1945-1964) to Agenda Setting (1965-1984) to Exposure (1985-2004)

5. Professionalization of the field has meant a loss of journalictic autonomy.

If you understand Danish I here link to an article I wrote last week about the dissertation
http://www.kommunikationsforum.dk/default.asp?articleid=12235

Alle the best
Gitte

Anybody planning on going to IAMCR Conference?

2006-01-16T13:43:00.000+01:00

Hi!

I was wondering if any of you is planning on going to the next IAMCR Conference in Egypt? I haven't decided myself yet - depends on whether I got money or not - but it would be nice to know if some others are on their way to there.

/merja

website on journalism ethics

2006-01-04T09:27:00.000+01:00

Hello all,
and happy new year!
(This will be a busy year for me: my last year of funding, so I plan on focusing on my dissertation only. We'll see how I manage to do that... :)

Those of you who are on ECREA mailing list (see: http://www.eccr.info/ecrea/) already know this, but to inform the others:

There has been set up a website for the journalism ethics related issues - especially global journalism ethics: Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen is the name of the site.

The aim of the website is [I quote from the site:]
"Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen at the University of British Columbia aims to study and improve journalism standards through discussion among journalists, academics and the public. Media reform is best accomplished through informed and inclusive debate in civil society, and through public understanding of the issues that confront journalists in the 21st century."

The site might be worth checking, haven't done that yet myself though. You'll find the website here: http://www.journalismethics.ca/index.htm

***

BTW, Amsterdam was great (except the weather), a big conference with a nice, cozy athmosphere. (And I love the city!!! :) :) Although, (a confession...) I noticed that I probably attended too many conferences and courses last year for in A'dam I found it a bit difficult to concentrate on the presentations and get excited about the academic networking. Enough is enough - and now is time to stop travelling and start writing the dissertation!

Good luck with your disseration (and other) work!
Cheers,
Auli

Good luck!

2006-01-03T09:58:00.000+01:00

Hello there, and good luck for all of those who are going to finish their PhD during this year.

At least I am visiting this site and blog every so often, but I haven't had so many news to tell or comments to add. I have been busy teaching (takes up so much of your time....) and editing the coming Yearbook of Journalism Criticism. The book should be out in few months. After that I will have time to concentrate on my own project again.

A piece of good news is that a journalism research project (led by Risto including my research as well as Erja Kolari's and Pauliina Penttilä's) got some funding from the Academy of Finland. However, the emphasis is on the word some. But that funding will gather togetherr a research group, which is always nice.

And moreover, we will be able to invite to Tampere the advisory board of our research. These names might be of interest to some of you: Barbie Zelizer, Rodney Benson, Simon Cottle, Bob Franklin, Theodore L. Glasser, Lewis A. Friedland, Gerd G. Kopper and Jan Ekecrantz. Some of these board members will visit Tampere probably in May and there might be lectures taking place in addition to our meeting. So, for the ones inFinland anyway, remind me to remind you about the visit, if I forget.

Oh yes, and another visit: John Durham Peters will lecture in Tampere on Friday 27th January. Risto knows more about all this.

Happy new year to all of you. Let us hear about your lives and projects!

Laura

A Happy New Year (with your text set in Courier)

2006-01-02T15:28:00.000+01:00

It is a new year now, and I am about to finish my dissertation. I thought it might put some healthy pressure on myself to say so in public. It won't exactly be handed in within the next few weeks, but a full draft will soon be handed over to two good cops at my department that I will, of course, ask to be as bad as they can when they read through it and comment on it.

What an amazing and awkward puzzle it is to find the proper place for the points I want to make in the text and to fill in the gaps where taken-for-granted information turns out to be missing (because it is only taken for granted by me). It is a great relief however, to have the formal deadline (February 2) at close quarters. I can hand in library books that I will now definitely have no time to read, and I can delete sketchy parts of the text that I definitely won't have time to develop this time around.

Moreover, I have found some comfort in a distinction (made in a Danish book on doing PhD's) between the Courier Dissertation on the one hand and the Times (or was it Times New Roman) Dissertation on the other:

The Courier kind (which will often be set in Times anyway) is the unpolished text which presents a number of interesting and substantial results, but which is not ready to go to print. As opposed to the Times kind which is.

The main point is, that the courier kind will serve to prove whether or not the candidate has earned the title of PhD. Moreover, if the dissertation is to be published, it will probably need editing in any case, and weeks or months spent polishing the dissertation might not be worth the effort.

Well, that's all from me for now. I wonder if people are still visiting the blog every once in a while? I would love to hear how things are going in your various quarters.

A Happy New Year to all of you.

call for papers

2005-12-05T09:39:00.000+01:00

Hello!

We at JMK have got the following message from Göteborg and I thought of sharing the info with you.

/merja

Feminist Media Studies
Call for Papers – „Commentary and Criticism‰ section

Scientific/ Biological Determinism:
Media Models of Genetics and Gender

Why is it that scientific discourse of male/female difference has become so prevalent
in media accounts of gendered behaviour, or of sexual difference in transnational
terms?

How does this scientific/evolutionist discourse produce Œauthentic‚ knowledge about
women, women‚s bodies, and women‚s behaviour that exonerate historical and
political causes of gender difference?

In the west, quality newspapers are eager to report on the latest scientific research,
while television documentaries call on celebrity scientists Steven Pinker or Richard
Dawkins to give legitimacy to their explanatory commentaries. Popular
entertainment in the form of magazine quizzes, reality television, talk shows and
lifestyle make-overs return again and again to the same message, that the reason
men and women behave as they do is Œhard wired‚ into their genes through
evolutionary selection for reproductive fitness.

Meanwhile, news coverage of the Œthird world‚ woman reveals her body as the
subject of uncontrollable fertility, malnutrition, and disease. If scientific ideologies
have been an integral part of population control campaigns in India and China, for
example, the same science diagnoses media images of the bodies of women of
African nations as victims of malnutrition and sexually transmitted diseases.

None of this is new but a return to these issues is timely given the role that scientific
and evolutionary explanations now play as a counter-discourse to religious
fundamentalism.

We invite you to submit a short essay of up to 2,000 words to the „Commentary and
Criticism‰ section of the journal Feminist Media Studies that address such questions
as:

How might feminist interventions disrupt the gendered assumptions on which these
scientific discourses are founded? Are there feminist alternatives in circulation and
how might these be promoted?

What strategic uses are there for scientific accounts of gender in the context of
resurgent religious fundamentalisms?

What features of evolutionary discourse make it attractive to media professionals? Is
it the weight of popular belief with which these theories conform? Is it the utility of a
binary model that allows for relative simplicity in the telling? Is there an economic
incentive to promote sexual differentiation in a media market structured by gender?
What relevance do evolutionary explanations have in a global context? How
widespread is the circulation and acceptance of these Western scientific discourses
of gender? How do they translate into diverse cultural and political contexts?

All contributors should follow the Harvard style of reference and guidelines for
submission of manuscripts outlined on our website. The title page of the manuscript
should contain your complete mailing address, institutional affiliation, and full
contact information including phone and fax numbers.

Submissions must be e-mailed and saved as a Word attachment to both jane.arthurs@blueyonder.co.uk
and to usha.zacharias@gmail.com.

Deadline -- January 10th 2006.

Monika Djerf-Pierre
Docent / Associate professor
Institutionen för journalistik och masskommunikation / Department of journalism and mass communication
Göteborgs universitet
Box 710
SE-405 30 Göteborg
Sweden
Tel: 46 (0)31 773 12 08
Mobil: 0708-60 62 66
Fax: 46 (0)31 773 45 54

How was Amsterdam?

2005-11-28T16:00:00.000+01:00

To those of you who went to Amsterdam for the First European Communication Conference last week: What was it like? Any highlights, insights, anecdotes worth sharing in this forum?

IAMCR Cairo 2006

2005-11-11T08:46:00.000+01:00

I guess most of you are already aware of the IAMCR 2006 Conference taking place in Cairo in July. The theme of the conference is "Knowledge Societies for All: Media and Communication Strategies". Abstract deadline January 15.

new book about blogs

2005-11-04T14:16:00.000+01:00

For those of you who can read Swedish. Institutet för Mediestudier has just published a new book about blogs, "Bloggtider" . Here is Birgitta Ney's, head of the institute, short description of the content - and other publications:

"Häromveckan kom "Bloggtider" från trycket, i den skriver Lars Våge om hur fenomenet med bloggar uppstod och hur det utvecklats under sin ganska korta historia. Erik Stattin beskriver hur oberoende aktörer på detta sätt utmanar traditionella medier; medan Gunnar Nygren påminner om att traditionella medier under förra seklet visade sig kunna samexistera med uppstickare. "Bloggtider" ger en bild av hur bloggar gör det möjligt för var och en att enkelt skapa sig en plats på nätet.
Tidigare i höstas kom "Ekonomiskt förtal. Om svensk tryckfrihet i det nya Europa" av Gunnar Persson. Och ännu tidigare i höstas kom "Verklig underhållning" av Anna Edin, en studie av dokusåpornas publik.
Läs mer om de tre böckerna på "mediestudier"

Hattivatti Redesign

2005-10-27T13:30:00.000+02:00

Speaking of pictures, there will be no more infringement of Tove Jansson's artistic copyright. I am happy to introduce to you: the network logo!

- our own legitimate hattivatti made in Copenhagen by a local (although Swedish) graphic benefactor. These new hattivatti seem somewhat more alert than the Jansson ones, but they have kept their original unfeigned attitude (avoiding the well-tried pensive look).

Tampere today

2005-10-26T16:00:00.000+02:00

This is not journalism (research). But it is news: Winter has arrived to Tampere. (It's nice to have some pics in the blog... ;)

Auli

Active Audiences (read all about it)

2005-10-26T09:43:00.000+02:00

Following Mats Ekström's lecture in Tampere in September we briefly discussed the question of whether the roles of spectators and listeners could rightfully be considered passive ones. Mats tended to oppose this idea and has kindly supplied me with a list of references concerning active media audiences (and has agreed to my passing it on to the rest of you). Please feel free to make comments or add titles to the list. Here it is:

- Sturken, Marita & Lisa Cartwright (2001) Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

- Schwartz, Vanessa (1998) Spectacular Realities. Early Mass Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Paris.
University of California Press.

- Abercrombie, Nicholas & Brian Longhurst (1998) Audiences. A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination. London: Sage.

- Alasuutari, Pertti (1999) Rethinking the Media Audience. London: Sage.

And finally (in Norwegian):

- Hagen, Ingunn (1998) Medias Publikum. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.

The notions of spectators and listeners came up with reference to Mats Ekström's article "Information, Story-telling and Attractions: Tv-journalism in three Modes of Communication". Media, Culture and Society 22/4 (2000): 465-492 (cf. also 'TABLE 3: Roles in different modes of communication' in the handout, if you've still got it).

Blogging as News?

2005-10-21T20:44:00.000+02:00

A clip from the Danish daily Information (in translation - for your convenience) :

Yahoo: Blogging as News
In the United States the extension of blogs is somewhat greater than in Denmark. For instance, it has been discussed in Congress whether bloggers should enjoy the same rights as journalists. While the search engine Google recently launched a separate blog search (blogsearch.google.com), the competition, Yahoo, tackles the problem in a radically different way. Yahoo has included blogs in their news search (news.yahoo.com), so that private blogs will appear alongside news from the New York Times and other ‘real’ media. It is no matter of surprise that the decision has caused great controversy concerning the difference between private individuals’ interpretation of the news and the work of professional journalists. /nt (Oct. 14, 2005, pp. 14/15).

Good stuff

2005-10-20T17:21:00.000+02:00

I am very impressed! First, by the site and how quickly everything happened. Second, by how many of you have already shown yourselves here. And third, by the fact that I managed to get this far without any extra help.

I want to thank you all once more for coming to Tampere. I am about to start taking care of all the red tape (your reimbursements) and also the reporting for NordForsk. It will be a pleasure indeed to add the link to this page for the report.

Looking forward to meeting you all in future conferences.

Risto

Hi, and thanks

2005-10-14T18:30:00.000+02:00

Greetings from the North American prairie, and thanks for inviting me to join. This is my first blog entry of any sort, which doesn't make it momentous, of course. Didn't Chris say that blogging is sitting alone in a pub, shouting? Well, not alone in this case. I had a wonderful time in Tampere, and learned a great deal, and am happy to be able to keep in touch.

Thanks for the invitation

2005-10-14T15:06:00.000+02:00

Hello to everyone from the rain-bedevilled wasteland of Edinburgh. This blog looks good already - some nice photos up there, too. It would be good to have more so I can remember all the great times we had that week - I've never worked so hard in one week in my life. As I said at Tampere, if anyone wants to discuss anything we talekd about at the classes I'm more than happy to. Here's hoping that all the lecturers join us.

Thanks to everyone for making my week in Tampere so special. I hope I was of some use some of the time...

More later,

Chris

Letting the lecturers in

2005-10-13T13:28:00.000+02:00

On an eager request we have now invited the lecturers from our week in Tampere to contribute to the weblog too. Bid them welcome!

thanks for the blog

2005-10-13T13:11:00.000+02:00

Hello all!

Great work, Gitte and Christine! And also thanks for Andres for posting for the photos. It was great to be in Tampere and meet you all. I really enjoyed it. Now it's time to go back to the dull everyday routines.

I signed in with my old blogger ID. I don't know if my blog shows up on this site but there is not much there... No time to keep it up. Anyway, I thought of sharing with you one of my favorite web pages, which is a marvellous example of a combination of "media and religion". It's not journalism, but once in awhile one has to take a look at the popular culture too.

greetings from merja

Great work!

2005-10-13T12:01:00.000+02:00

Many warm thanks to Gitte and Christine, who really kept their promises and created this fine website or blog for us to make it possible to keep in contact.

Did somebody manage to take a video clip on Chris´ and Risto´s performance at the sauna? Is it possible to put it on these pages to brighten every now and then this long, cold and dark turning autumn?

Yes, this is a hattivatti kind of weather talk, I know. But still I would like to thank all you people that came here outside from Finland: you kindly brought us abnormally warm autumn weather with you. Now it´s turning back to normal, though I see no snow yet.

It was really nice to meet you all here in Tampere during the whole week. I really hope to see you again soon.

Tiina

Thank you!

2005-10-13T09:23:00.000+02:00

This looks great!
Gitte & Christine - Thank you very much for taking the time to create this!
Now, it is up to all of us to keep it updated and interesting :-).

Thanks also to all of you for making the week in Tampere so valuable!

/Therese

ICA conference 2006

2005-10-12T20:45:00.000+02:00

BTW,
I'm sure you all know, but to remind you that ICA conference is going to be held next year in Europe (Dresden). The paper deadline is November 1. You'll find call for papers and other information here: http://www.icahdq.org/events/conference/2006/conf2006info.asp
There's also Journalism Studies Group!!

Auli

Some more photos from Tampere

2005-10-12T18:56:00.000+02:00

[...]

there are some more photos from Tampere.
Including the famous "Kebab-Pizzeria" and "Paris-Tampere"-style hair studio.

http://www.monitooring.ee/andres/tampere/

reg's
A.

Nice work!

2005-10-12T13:13:00.000+02:00

Thanks to all of you for a great week!
I'm also going to Amsterdam in November, hope to see a lot of you there.

This blog looks like a great way to keep in touch and share information etc.
Well done, Gitte and Christine!

Some more photos to be found on Flickr

Thanks Gitte & Christine!

2005-10-12T12:53:00.000+02:00

I think this is going to be an active blog, not one from the hattivattiland (edit: here I am referring to hattivattis' way of being silent and non-communicative) - I was surprised to find out so many contributors to this blog after just a couple of hours of the invitation!
I had already a Blogger account so I guess I have to state that leeveri = Auli :)

And Steen, I'm going to Amsterdam conference as well!

Auli

Good start

2005-10-12T11:14:00.000+02:00

Hello all,

This is definitely a good start for our network. Thanks Gitte and Chrsitine! Let's keep this blog and website alive.

Laura

Excellent work!

2005-10-12T10:57:00.000+02:00

This is great!

Gitte and Christine: You have done an excellent job creating this website. Thank you so much!

And thank you to everyone else for a very nice week in Tampere. I learnt a lot. Unfortunately, I think I already have forgotten most of it. So lets not all be mute and deaf hattivattis: We need to contribute to this website in order for it to be a constant reminder of what we should keep in mind, what could be useful.

By the way: I am travelling to Amsterdam for the First European Communications Conference in November. I know Ivar is also going. Anyone else?

Steen

Blogging a la Tampere

2005-10-11T23:06:00.000+02:00

I am pleased to enter and proud to present our collective doctoral students' blog on Media and Journalism research. This is our chance to keep each other informed and alert - by supplying the blog with posts and comments as well as links to related blogs and websites.

In order to make our blog archives as useful as possible, I suggest that we use quite specific, informative titles when we publish new posts; titles which give a hint about the question, topic, theme or the event, book or article which is introduced or brought up for discussion.

On the network website Gitte and I have let the hattivatti/the Hattifatteners of Moominvalley make a prominent appearance. Being Finnish and electric the hattivatti seem fit to remind us all of the place we first met, namely Tampere, home of the first electric light bulb in the Nordic countries (you know). But are the hattivatti supposed to represent us, the doctoral students? Well, at Wikipedia the Hattifatteners are described as

silent and serious, having neither the ability to talk nor to hear. They also seem melancholy in character. The Hattifatteners travel the earth in small boats, meeting every year on a lonely island. Their main interest is in the weather ... Some think they are wicked, but this is due to their strangeness.

Or do they rather represent our common business, the problems of the news media? Well, this might be true insofar as

the Hattifatteners always appear in great hosts. Nobody really knows where they are coming from or where they are going, but their presence can be sensed as electricity in the air

(says the Moominworld Naantali website). Actually, we hope that the network will help prevent such hattifat disorientation in our studies and in our field. So please post your comments, tell us about the conference, the seminar, announce a publication, join the conversation.

Nordic Media and Journalism Research

2005-10-03T22:36:00.000+02:00

Network for doctoral students

This blog was created after a Nordic research training course on journalism research for PhD students 26.9-1.10 2005 in Tampere, Finland