Guest editors:
Ester Appelgren, Associate Professor at Södertörn University, Sweden.
Lene Heiselberg, Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk, Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
In 2026, Journalistica – the Nordic Journal of Journalism Studies celebrates its 20 years anniversary. To mark this occasion, we invite scholars to contribute to a special issue about the future of journalism in the Nordics.
The Nordic region is characterized by high levels of free speech and press freedom, strong journalistic autonomy, generous press subsidies, strong public service media, and stable levels of media trust – all factors that provide robust conditions for journalism when compared to other regions of the world. At the same time, these conditions are neither uniform across the Nordic countries nor guaranteed to endure, and they are increasingly shaped by crossborder platform infrastructures, shifting geopolitical tensions, and evolving regulatory regimes. While journalism as a field may seem resilient in the Nordic
region, it is also characterized by changing technological, political, financial, and cultural conditions, which impact funding models, normative assumptions, production environments, competitive ecosystems, and relations to the audiences. These transformations raise questions about what kinds of journalism may emerge, which actors will define journalism’s
boundaries, and how journalism’s democratic roles will be rearticulated in the coming years. In essence, journalism is at the same time stable and in constant transformation.
In this special issue, we invite scholars to engage in questions about future trajectories for journalism in the Nordics. This special issue uses “future” in an analytically open sense: futures may be anticipated, contested, or already unfolding across institutions, genres, and publics. We welcome contributions that develop concepts, critically reassess Nordic models in light of recent shifts, or empirically examine emerging practices, infrastructures, and audience relations. Submissions may be comparative across Nordic countries, focus on specific national or local contexts, or analyze transnational dynamics shaping Nordic journalism. This may include, but is not limited to, theoretical and/or empirical studies about
journalism in the context of:
• Technology and AI
• Innovation in national and local news
• Policy development and regulation
• Peripheral, alternative and grassroot news actors and initiatives
• Professional values and press ethics
• News audiences under transformation
• Business models, ownership, and media markets
• The future of public service media
• Newsroom diversity, inclusion, and representation
• Journalism in and about crisis
• Ecology and sustainability
• Platformization of news
• Datafication and metrics in editorial decision-making
Submission process
The deadline for submission of extended abstracts is August 10th, 2026.
Abstracts should be no more than 1,000 words (excluding references) and may be submitted in English, Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. Please send your abstract to Ester Appelgren (ester.appelgren@sh.se).
Authors whose abstracts are selected will be invited to submit a full manuscript (6,000 to 8,000 words) by December 1st, 2026. We will send out invitations in late August. Early submissions of full papers following abstract acceptance are welcome. All manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review, and accepted manuscripts will be published online-first directly after acceptance. The full special issue will be published in fall 2027.
For questions about the special issue and the selection and submission process, you are welcome to contact the special issue editors:
Ester Appelgren (ester.appelgren@sh.se).
Lene Heiselberg (lhei@journalism.sdu.dk).
Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk (karoline.ihlebaek@oslomet.no).
For questions about the journal’s profile, policies, and general submission and review process, you are also welcome to contact editor-in-chief Eva Mayerhöffer (evamay@ruc.dk).
About Journalistica
Journalistica is a Nordic, open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes academic research articles on journalism as an interdisciplinary field. You can read more about Journalistica and its submission guidelines here:
https://tidsskrift.dk/journalistica/about/.
Journalistica was founded in 2006 as a journal for Danish journalism research. In 2018, it was re-branded as the Nordic journal for journalism research, covering a wide array of perspectives on journalism in or with relevance for
the Nordic countries. Journalistica is funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark, and individual contributions from Nordic journalism education institutions.