Producing Online Youth Fiction in a Nordic Public Service Context

Abstract

This article investigates the conditions for making online youth fiction in a public service context at a time when young people increasingly are abandoning both legacy mass media and linear flow television to consume and share content online. The article’s starting point is the production of online youth fiction in two Nordic public service institutions, the Norwegian NRK and the Danish DR, and it discusses how digitisation and new competitors present both challenges and opportunities for institutions such as these. Furthermore, the article discusses the organisation of online youth fiction in both institutions and investigates how organisational strategies and production cultures come into play in each of these broadcasters’ early signature youth series: the widely popular online teen drama SKAM (NRK, 2015-2017) and the far less known youth series Anton 90 (DR, 2015). Our findings show that it was the pressure imposed by digitisation and new competitors that led these institutions to take new risks with their youth fiction production, changing their production patterns to make short-form drama series tailored to online streaming, and ultimately treating online youth fiction as a distinctly different task than “regular” fiction.

‘Youthification’ of drama through real-time storytelling: A production study ofblankand the legacy ofSKAM

“…For example, the analysis of blank exposed many constraints in the real-time production model, which requires the production team to write, produce and publish a storyline almost all at once in a way that is not particularly sustainable. These findings represent an important response to previous studies of real-time online drama -and SKAM in particular -which have tended to privilege the benefits of the format over its challenges and dilemmas (Andersen and Sundet, 2019;Bengtsson et al, 2018;Krüger and Rustad, 2019;Lindtner and Dahl, 2019;Sundet, 2020). Clearly, this format is not an easy path to success, even though SKAM made it look that way.…”

“…Second, many studies find that the industry's strategic focus on youth productions often connects to new technologies and innovation, interlinking the ambition of serving youths with the professional interest in exploring new ways of telling stories (Andersen, 2019;Lury, 2001;Woods, 2016Woods, , 2017. Television productions aimed at younger audiences tend to involve new media platforms, publishing models and storytelling techniques, reflecting the industry perception that digital and specifically social media serve tech-savvy young people (Krüger and Rustad, 2019; see also Andersen and Sundet, 2019). Many public service broadcasters echo this sentiment by stressing the necessity of following the audience onto new platforms to serve it (Moe, 2009).…”

The platformisation of public service broadcasting in Germany: The network ‘funk’ and the case of Druck/Skam Germany

“…In the context of digitally networked media and convergence, the amalgamation of television and social networking sites (SNSs) is moving beyond social media's status as an 'additional function of television' (Buschow et al, 2014: 130; see also Han and Lee, 2014;Klemm and Michel, 2014). Younger media users in particular are challenging public service broadcasting (PSB) to rethink strategies and develop content on digital platforms meaningful for the target group (see Andersen and Sundet, 2019;Lowe and Maijanen, 2019;Reiter et al, 2018).…”

“…Rather, it has to make use of a communicative infrastructure provided by third-party platforms while following their operational principles, the 'platformization of cultural production' (Nieborg et al, 2019: 87). PSB's recent attempt to provide content for younger media users on social media has been addressed by a number of studies (see Andersen and Sundet, 2019;Krauß andStock, 2020, 2018;Krüger and Rustad, 2019;Sundet, 2020). However, the specific upheavals to the practices of content development, production and distribution caused by platformisation on local PSB still require further examination.…”

Audience participation in public service media. From an instrumental to a purposeful vision

“…Today, Public Service Media (PSM) organisations are losing the connection with young people, lower-educated audiences and minorities (Andersen and Sundet, 2019;Horowitz and Lowe, 2019;Panis, Paulussen and Dhoest, 2019;Sehl, 2020). There seems to be an increasing gap between the loyal audiences of public broadcasters, generally consisting of educated and/or older people, and less educated and/or younger audiences.…”