Local political communication in a hybrid media system

This chapter analyses the local media and local political conditions in the Nordic countries from the perspective of power. The rapid changes in the local media system described in this chapter have led to a redistribution of this power in the local community in different directions. The starting point for our analysis is the four variables defined by Hallin and Mancini (2004) to describe different media systems and to identify change in power and power relations. We find that local media structures are changing, with downsized newspapers and decreasing use of local newspapers while social media is becoming more prominent. Norway and Sweden try to balance decreasing commercial conditions with state support, while there is a strong regional public service in all Nordic countries. Political parallelism in the old sense of political power and control of newspapers has gone. Professional journalists have become only one group among many different producers of local media content, duly losing power over local agendas.