Professor Kim Schrøder, Roskilde University, Denmark.

According to Reuters: “Digital News Report” in most of the world, media is struggling in many ways. But the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland are somewhat of an outlier with high national and local brand loyalty, high reach of Public service media (PSM) and publicistic news media, a high level of trust in news media in general, and the audiences are interested in news, and a high percentage of the audience actually pays for news.

But how does this starting point translate into reporting and reception regarding “Imagining Livable Future”, which was the main topic of the NORDMEDIA2025 conference? And more specifically, regarding reporting on climate change?

Professor Kim Schrøder, Roskilde University (Denmark), addressed these issues in the final keynote at the NORDMEDIA2025 conference where he both presented his own research as well as contributions from other Nordic researchers. The starting point of Schrøder’s analysis was the book: “The Media Welfare State. Nordic Media in the Digital Era” (2014) by the Norwegian media researchers Trine Syvertsen, Ole Mjøs, Hallvard Moe, and Gunn Enli. According to the book, the media systems in the Nordic countries rest on four pillars: 1) Universally available communication systems, 2) Institutionalized editorial freedom, 3) Extensive cultural policy for media (press subsidies and PSB), and 4) Consensus-driven policy-making among stakeholders.

According to Schrøder’s own research into the news audiences in the Nordic countries, the overall picture is stability for the last 10 years. The media consumption has not become increasingly fragmented, and there was no sign of increasing polarization, but a near-center clustering, in contrast to the UK, which has a clearly more fragmented and polarized audience.

This could be interpreted as Nordic media still having potential for high quality reporting on climate change, but there are substantial challenges within audiences, which maybe could be summarised as overload or fatigue regarding reporting climate change. Schrøder’s suggestion was to reduce overload to “make room for relevance”.

Does this mean that the Nordic media welfare state is doing just fine? Schrøder quotes Finnish researcher Marko Ala-Fossi, who claims that the four countries are developing differently. And more specifically, the Finnish researchers Grönvall & Karppinen say today the media system in Norway still mostly adheres to the four pillars, Finland is most deviant from the model, while Denmark and Sweden partially fit.  Then one must ask whether the concept of the Media Welfare State is “an image in the rearview mirror”? Is it still a reality for upcoming challenges?

The pillars are being undermined, both internally from changes in the Nordic countries, but not least from the global players dominating the Internet infrastructures.

According to professor Schrøder, there is still reason for careful optimism: The classic media welfare state has not “completely disappeared”, in his view:

• The Nordic mainstream news media are probably “the least bad” providers of high-quality journalism for public discussion of climate change.
• Nordic audiences are less fragmented, less polarized, and more well-informed than audiences anywhere else in the world.
• There are reasons to be fairly confident in our ability to collectively develop sustainable and livable futures.

But also in the Nordic countries, the pillars are being undermined by the new Internet infrastructures, namely the big players such as Meta, Google, and others.

This story is written on the basis of professor Schrøders keynote and his powerpoint-presentation.

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Professor Kim Christian Schrøder, Roskilde University in Denmark, is a seasoned media researcher, especially regarding studies of media audiences.

The conference NORDMEDIA2025 (Nordic media researchers conference) took place in Odense, Denmark August 15th, 2025. NORDMEDIA is a biannual conference gathering media researchers mainly from the Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, but also with participants from the Baltics and other countries. The work is coordinated in the Nordmedia-network. The conference alternates between the Nordic countries, with the next conference happening in Helsinki i 2027.  Homepage for NORDMEDIA2025.