Paradise lost: the privatization of Scandinavian broadcasting (1997) (original) (raw)

1997, Journal of Communication 47(1): 120-127.

The momentous changes in broadcasting over the last decade, have, in Scandinavia as elsewhere, provided a rich field of study for media researchers. The Scandinavian studies are perhaps particularly interesting in this respect, because these countries for so long held on to the “old” ways of organizing broadcasting. Not until the very end of the 1980s was the ban on television and radio advertising permanently lifted in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and the public broadcasting corporations still do not take commercials. Nevertheless, significant changes have taken place over the past few years, demonstrating that when the forces of privatization and deregulation are let loose, it does not take long to shake up even the most well-established systems. These four books provide excellent insight into the enormity of the changes taking place in Scandinavian broadcasting. Taken together, these studies also give a good indication of trends in the development of Scandinavian media research. Media research is, after all, a rather young discipline in Scandinavia.The first university degrees in this subject were not established until the late 1980s. Since then, however, media research in Scandinavia has attracted a growing number of researchers and students from different backgrounds. The field is characterized to an increasing degree by multidisciplinarity, and there is also a growing interest in historical aspects of the media. These four studies fall neatly into two categories. Two books, both from Denmark, focus on developments in television. Sepstrup presents a broad historical account of television in Denmark from the 1950s to the present, whereas Soendergaard studies the changes in content and scheduling of Danish public television throughout the first wave of competition in the 1980s. The two remaining studies, one Norwegian and one Swedish, are more concerned with the overall ideological and political framework surrounding changes in broadcasting. Skogerboe studies the transformation of Norwegian media policy throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, demonstrating how the objectives of this policy have shifted from establishing democratic communication structures to providing freedom of choice. Borg also is concerned with the normative implications of the changes in broadcasting, but his book is less empirical study and more a neoliberal critique of public service and social democratic media ideology.