The Internet has radically increased the opportunity for the public to take part in debate and deliberation, challenging the hegemonic position of the established media as the facilitators of such debate. As new forums for participation have entered the market, traditional players in television, radio and the press have also transformed their services, strategically aiming to facilitate new forms of participatory services where citizens can engage in discussions. In this article we explore how the participatory trend raises important questions concerning how editorial standards and editorial control are maintained in online newspapers. Based on a mapping of the available services, surveys of newspaper executives, and in-depth interviews with online editors, we investigate attitudes and practices with regard to editorial control and its attempt to balance the new ideals of participation in the online world with maintaining the editorial standards of print media.

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Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other services, have established themselves as part of the networked and increasingly hybrid public sphere, extending and transforming it to allow for and facilitate access to all kinds of content and participants. By their sheer ubiquity, these media contribute to changing media ecologies and open new ways and forms of communications between citizens and their representatives. During election campaigns, political parties and their candidates have a number of ways of seeking to mobilise voters by attracting attention to the parties' issues and top candidates. Many of these involve processes of mediatisation, that is, parties and politicians adapt their practices and messages to formats, deadlines and genres that are journalistically attractive. This study seeks to map and understand intermedial agenda setting between social media and traditional news media by analysing data from both local journalism and the social media activity of local politicians during the 2011 Norwegian local election campaigns. Our findings show that local politicians were active on social media as part of their campaigning, yet there was surprisingly little evidence that social media content travelled to local newspapers and contributed to agenda setting, thereby contradicting findings from other settings stating that social media have become established journalistic sources. We suggest that one explanation may reflect the nature of Norwegian politics and culture in which the distance between journalists, citizens and politicians is proximate.

Media policy schemes around the world are seemingly shifting character. As budgets for direct subsidies are under increasing pressure, the role of indirect tools, such as tax reductions, are growing in relative importance. This article explores the political justifications of value-added tax (VAT) as a media policy tool, and how longitudinal shifts indicate broader changes in the media systems. Based on a document analysis of newspaper VAT development in three countries with similar historical policy models-Finland, Sweden and Norway-the article identifies and describes the dynamics between four major policy positions; transparency, pluralism, harmonisation and financial austerity.