Invisible sources in political journalism

Political news often quote elite sources, and because of their prominence in the media they are often treated as the most influential agenda setters. Yet an important part of journalistic work builds on informal sources. These are invisible both for the audience and for content researchers. They are used both for inspiring stories and to provide context for the presentation of political leaders. Without sufficient knowledge about what type of sources they are, and when and why they come into play, the analysis of political or journalistic communication culture is incomplete. In her PhD-work, Milda Malling explore the field of invisible or informal sources, and she develops a model to map and compare how the formal and informal sources contribute to the news production. In this seminar, Milda Malling describes the model and talks about results from putting it to use.

(The seminar is held in English. Q and A in Swedish if needed. If you need to reach the seminar location without an SH-card, please dial 070-644 54 90 and we will let you in.)