Associate professor's lecture (docentföreläsning) with Sofia Johansson, Department of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University

While news journalism remains a vital component of the mediated public sphere, the digitized media landscape has involved a broadened access to a wide range of information about society. Conventional news outlets increasingly compete with social media platforms and more novel forms of news distribution, whereas social media, micro-celebrities and alternative and viral news sites have gained a prominent role in news dissemination. Increasingly framed by an ongoing ‘flow’ of various kinds of content, or transmitted by distributors far from traditional journalistic organisations, news itself can indeed be considered a concept in flux, with broadening definitions potentially in circulation among some audience groups. The complexity of such an information context, likewise, has highlighted the need for enhanced media literacy among the public, including the ability to evaluate and critique sources of news and information.

This lecture discusses some of the implications of these transitions for the uses and meanings of news as part of everyday life, with a focus on social media as news providers. Drawing partly on an ongoing research project on uses of news among young adults, I explore questions around the role of social media to contemporary news consumption, considering how platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube impact, on an audience level, on understandings of what news is, as well as potentially re-shaping its wider role in democracy.

This lecture is arranged as a part of the higher seminar in Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University. The lecture will be held via Zoom, please contact saga.hansen@sh.se for link.