Particularities of media systems in the West Nordic countries

Abstract

This study compares the media systems of the West Nordic countries, namely the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. All three countries are democratic welfare states with considerable institutional transfer from the larger Nordic countries. It is argued that the West Nordic media systems fit into the “Nordic model” when it comes to the perception of media as cultural institutions as well as the central role of public service media. On the other hand, the micro-size of the media systems in the West Nordic countries makes them vulnerable, and makes editorial independence more difficult compared with their larger Nordic neighbours. In particular, media outlets within these micro-size media systems seem more susceptible to clientelism, and journalists seem more inclined towards self-censorship. This article highlights how interplay between small size and distinct local factors shape the media system in each of the West Nordic countries.

Media and Journalism Research in Small European Countries

“…From a media policy perspective, competition in small media markets tends not to work without state intervention and "small states tend to adopt an interventionist regulatory approach" (Puppis et al, 2009, p. 105). As a result, small countries can make the media more vulnerable and threaten editorial independence (Ravn-Højgaard et al, 2021).…”

A Nordic approach to democratic debate in the age of Big Tech – Recommendations from the Nordic Think Tank for Tech and Democracy

“…We share universal welfare states, strong democratic traditions, a high degree of digitalisation and social media usage, high trust levels, strong public service broadcasters and national newspapers, and high educational levels. 23,24,25 These are characteristics of the Nordic countries that we cherish and wish to actively work to protect -even when the world is changing, and our democracies are increasingly digitalised.…”

Micro media systems

“…This means that the micro media systems are diverse with different histories and colonial ties which can be traced in media consumption, legislation, and normative assumptions about the media (see Corbett and Veenendaal, 2018: 69 for a discussion of how colonial legacy and smallness forms democracies in microstates). For example, British and American influence has set its marks on Caribbean media systems (Storr, 2020) and the influence of Danish rule has set its mark on the media systems of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland through, for example, legislation and tradition for large public service media and support for private media (Ravn-Højgaard et al, 2021). This public support for the media sector makes it bigger than it would have been solely at market conditions.…”

“…This creates different costs of media distribution (Pickard, 2011 showed how this is the case with broadcasting). Ravn-Højgaard et al (2021) argued that the different geography and infrastructures are some of the main factors differentiating the media systems of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland, as historical differences in infrastructure development have led to different media consumption patterns and different media markets. Compared to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, the infrastructure for media distribution has been much more costly to develop in Greenland because of scattered settlements, large distances, and mountainous topography.…”

“…Scholars of some of the smallest media systems have since studied how these small media systems fit into Hallin and Mancini's typology. In studies of the media systems of the west, Nordic countries Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland (Ravn-Højgaard et al, 2021)—countries which all have considerably smaller populations than the countries included in Hallin and Mancini's research—it is argued that although these media systems share a lot of characteristics with the larger Nordic countries due to shared history and institutional transfer, the west Nordic media systems are still different in some aspects. In their pioneering studies of media and politics in Iceland, Jóhannsdóttir (2019) and Ólafsson and Jóhannsdóttir (2021) have argued that Iceland does not fit into one of Hallin and Mancini's three models but is best described as a hybrid media system with traits from each of Hallin and Mancini's three models; as Iceland, for example, has a Nordic tradition of large public service media institutions and at the same time strong traits of, for example, clientelism.…”