The earning days are over? Trends in transformation of journalisms in the Nordic countries and Russia – context and visions

Abstract

Based on a comparative look at media transformations that have emerged in the Nordic countries and Russia, this article questions a simplified concept of transition, i.e., an adaptation of the “East” to models from the “West”. The transformation of media system(s) is global, although it takes different forms in different countries due to historical and political reasons. We focus on the conditions for maintaining journalistic work in light of emerging challenges to earlier models for economical sustainability. We find similar pressures towards transformations of the media sector in the Nordic countries and in Russia due to technological changes affecting work organization. We find fewer similarities in the transformation of intermedia competition. In the Nordic countries, adaptation to transformation is constrained by the journalists’ maintenance of well-established professional values. In Russia, these constraints are less present, whereas there is a stronger focus on adaptation to economic and political constraints. Credibility claims would require the media in Russia to free itself from the control that evidently has come in with the ownership and sponsorship structures. Media in the Nordic countries meet the challenges of organizational reliability in a different way, but also in this context the news media are challenged to find a way to reliably cope with new forms of financing and new business models.