May

2020

International Conference: New Perspectives on News: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges to Contemporary News Research

This conference aims to make a contribution to ongoing scholarly debates about news and democracy in digitized society, by providing a rethinking of the concept and societal role of news, from a range of analytical and geo-cultural perspectives.

News, for a long time considered a distinct commodity produced by journalists and established media organisations, is currently often considered a concept in flux. This is prompted by changes in news production, including altering practices of journalists and the opportunities for media users to produce and share their own content, but it is equally a result of novel forms of news distribution, where social media platforms, micro-celebrities and alternative and viral news sites have gained a prominent role in news dissemination.

Alongside transformations in the production and distribution of news have followed changing use patterns, leading to renewed questions about participation, trust and civic engagement in the public sphere. It is arguable, furthermore, that the altered context for news consumption interlinks not only with new behaviours around news, but also with more varied understandings of the concept itself – with a range of different sources of information competing for what is to be considered ‘news’.

While these developments have been widely discussed as impacting on democracy and the public sphere, they seem to necessitate a further re-thinking of the features and functions of news today, in relation not only to technological developments and the digitized media landscape, but also with regard to different kinds of societies and geo-cultural contexts for news.

The overall aim of this conference is to make a contribution to ongoing scholarly debates about news and democracy in digitized society, by providing a rethinking of the concept and societal role of news, from a range of analytical and geo-cultural perspectives. The conference aims to bring together researchers from different academic disciplines and geographical areas, with expertise that could bring new perspectives to the inherently Western field of news research, as well as advancing the research agenda around news both theoretically and empirically.

Papers may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Considerations of news as a concept, in relation to theoretical or empirical areas of investigation, and in connection to news production, content or audiences.
Empirical studies of news outside of the Western world.
The role of social media, viral news sites and apps as platforms for news.
Algorithmic news selection.
The relationship between journalism and social media.
Alternative and populist news sites and their role in the public sphere.
Transforming news audiences and emerging practices around news.
Micro-celebrities and ‘influencers’ as disseminators and sources of news.
Global, local and hyperlocal news contexts.
News in relation to different cultural and geographical contexts.
Current developments around journalism and journalists.
Historical perspectives on news.
Issues of truth and trust in news.

The conference will entail a combination of keynote speakers, research dialogues with invited speakers and parallel papers sessions. Confirmed speakers include:

Tamara Witschge, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Co-author of Beyond Journalism (2020).

Natalia Roudakova, McGill University. Author of Losing Pravda: Ethics and the Press in Post-Truth Russia (2017).

Jonathan Mair, University of Kent. Author of “Post-Truth Eras” (2018).

Thomas Pettitt, University of Southern Denmark. Author of “The Parenthical Turn in Journalism Studies: The Role of the News Ballads” (2015).

Marcel Broersma, University of Groningen. Co-author of Rethinking Journalism Again: Societal Role and Relevance in a Digital Age (2016).

Kristina Riegert, Stockholm University. Co-author of "The Political in Cultural Journalism: Fragmented Interpretative Communities in the Digital Age” (2015).

Abstracts for conference presentations are to be submitted by the deadline of the 15th of March, for the selection of conference contributions to be confirmed by the 27th of March. Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, submitted alongside a short presenter’s bio of no more than 100 words.

Submit abstracts to: sofia.johansson@sh.se and stina.bengtsson@sh.se.

Conference registration will be open between the 30th of March to the 15th of April. Registration is free.

Location and travel to and from the university

Södertörn University is situated in Flemingsberg, south of Stockholm. For information about the university’s location, or if you wish to download an interactive map of the campus, please click here.

For information about public transport, please click here External link, opens in new window..

Accomodation

There is a wide range of accommodation to choose from, either close to the university or in central Stockholm.

The island of Södermalm is centrally located but only 15 minutes from the university by commuter train (leaving from the train station “Stockholm Södra”). If you prefer to stay in the city centre it takes about 19 minutes to get to campus by commuter train from the central station. Another option is to stay in Old Town, from which it is possible to walk to either Central Station or Stockholm Södra. There are also hotels and B&Bs in the more suburban area close to campus.

Below are some recommendations for hotels:

Marcel Broersma, Professor of Journalistic Culture and Media, University of Groningen.

Broersma has studied History and Journalism in Groningen and then worked as a freelance journalist and editor for the Leeuwarder Courant. Since 1997 he has been a lecturer on the Journalism degree programme of the University of Groningen. He was awarded his PhD cum laude in 2002 for a historiography of the Leeuwarder Courant. His publications include books on regional journalism, the development of journalistic forms and styles in Europe, and the sculptor Pier Pander.

Jonathan Mair, Senior Lecturer in Social Antrophology, University of Kent.

Dr. Mair is a social anthropologist with interests in the anthropology of China, Buddhism (and religion in general), cognition and ethics. Dr Mair’s current research is mainly in the field of the anthropology of ethics. One project focuses on ethical self-cultivation among contemporary Taiwanese Buddhists. He is currently completing an article in which he draws conclusions for the ethnographic study of virtue ethics. Lately Jonathan Mair has also been engaged in the debate around truth and post-truth, offering inspiring new perspectives on truth from areas beyond the Western world.

Thomas Pettitt, Affiliate Research Professor Cultural Sciences Institute and Centre for Medieval Literature, University of Southern Denmark.

Pettitt’s research is devoted to the overall project of reintegrating the vernacular arts into the late-medieval and early-modern histories of literature, theatre and media. One field that has acquired a significant extra dimension of contemporary relevance is the theory of a “Gutenberg Parenthesis”, which suggests that our digital/internet revolution involves in many respects (media technology; cultural production; ways of thinking and perceiving) a restoration of the way things were before the impact of the printed book and when literature, theatre, and media had more in common with folklore.

Kristina Riegert, Professor of Journalism, Stockholm University.

Riegert has for long studied how blogs, entertainment television and cultural journalism define and negotiate “the political” in everyday life. Her two current projects are both Nordic focused and can be described as studying globalisation from within. In the first, she looks at the contribution of Swedish cultural journalism to democratic discourse and global imagination during the last three decades. In SCANPUB: The immigration issue in the Scandinavian public spheres, the focus is more on a comparative study of how culture and values are dealt with in migration to Sweden between 1970-2015.

Natalia Roudakova, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, McGill University.

Roudakova is a cultural anthropologist working in the field of political communication and comparative media studies. She also has a broad interest in moral philosophy and political and cultural theory. Her research in communication has been located at the intersection of journalism studies, classic social theory, and philosophy of communication, with a particular focus on questions of media and ethics. She has been especially interested in the political role journalism plays during revolutions and more gradual political transitions, when – as an institution – it works simultaneously as an agent and a target of political and social change.

Tamara Witschge, Professor of Cross Media, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

During the past 15 years, Witschge has researched and theorized the role that media and public debate play in society and how this is impacted by changing political, economic, and technological contexts. Currently she is further developing her research agenda to deal with the more fundamental questions of what journalism is and how it relates to public debate and democracy.

Use this link to register for the conference External link, opens in new window.. Registration will be open until the 15th of April.

Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic the conference has been postponed to autumn 2020. We will get back with new dates for the conference as soon as possible.

28 May 2020, 13:00 - 29 May 2020, 15:00

Conference

Room MB 505, on the fifth floor in the B-wing, main building, Södertörn University, Campus Flemingsberg, find us

English

Arranged by

Media and Communication Studies at the School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University

Contact

Stina Bengtsson Sofia Johansson

Useful links

Media and Communications Studies

Sidinformation

Page last updated: 2025-12-02

International Conference: New Perspectives on News: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges to Contemporary News Research

Papers may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Travel and accomodation

Location and travel to and from the university

Accomodation

Södermalm:

The city centre / Old Town:

Flemingsberg:

Invited Speakers