Researcher Mercedes de Luis Andrés visited conferences in Sweden and Norway as part of her ongoing research of book clubs as a component of journalism culture. Both meetings have enriched the interplay between memory and journalism in influencing our perception of both nearby and faraway realities. These insights prompt further reflection on resilience and empathy within an increasingly complex media landscape.
This autumn, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend two conferences in the Nordic media research sphere: The Art of Conviviality, Memory Studies Association Nordic’s third annual conference organised at Malmö University, and the 10th International Conference On the Safety of Journalists, hosted by the MEKK Research Group at Oslo Met. Though seemingly about quite different topics, a beautiful coincidence of the two conferences was the emphasis placed on memory, both as a concept and as a lived experience – the substance journalism is made of.
The concept of memory is certainly relevant to my current research, Book Clubs in Journalism Culture (Bojoclub), which explores how embracing long-form narratives in journalism can contribute to the development of reading spaces as mechanisms of resilience and offer hope for cultivating empathy and critical thinking in times of social anomie and infodemic.
The discussions at both conferences revealed a recurrent crossroads regarding the digital aspect of memory preservation. The fluid nature of digital communication alter how we process and share memories, both as individuals and as a society.
The discussions at both conferences revealed a recurrent crossroads regarding the digital aspect of memory preservation.
Among the wide range of panels and projects, I learnt about innovative digital communication art forms honouring significant historical episodes, alongside projects highlighting journalism’s critical role in contextualising and dignifying the realities of countless lives – both for the subjects involved and the storytellers themselves.
In Malmö, for instance, the ‘Wir sind hier. Digital’ [‘We are here. Digital’] project highlighted how mapping forms can create digital spaces for individual and collective mourning, as well as the right to remembrance in public areas.
Additionally, Lebanese filmmaker Manal Masri, Producer and Operation Manager for the Swedish Radio Drama department in Malmö, shared her experiences on how audiovisual storytelling can preserve stories that might otherwise be lost. Not only is the state-led narrative necessary for accountability reasons, but it is equally powerful to allow individuals the right to give personal testimony in their own words.
In Oslo, discussions focused on the risks and challenges faced by journalists, who are civilians themselves, in conflict zones. It was emphasised that unprecedented targeting of journalists extends beyond individual safety concerns: It represents a violation of human rights and an assault on memory preservation. When journalists are silenced through violence or systemic oppression, we risk losing entire chapters of local history. Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam offered a powerful perspective on the role of visual journalism in documenting complex and often dangerous realities.However, extensive journalistic coverage of contemporary conflicts – which puts journalists at significant risk – does not necessarily lead to increased public empathy. The Afghan-born NRK journalist Yama Wolasmal expressed surprise at this lack of empathy despite comprehensive conflict reporting. This observation highlighted a reality: Public indifference often correlates with a lack of accountability and impunity for those who perpetrate violence against journalists.
In Oslo, discussions focused on the risks and challenges faced by journalists, who are civilians themselves, in conflict zones. It was emphasised that unprecedented targeting of journalists extends beyond individual safety concerns: It represents a violation of human rights and an assault on memory preservation.
There were also questions raised about how we process information in a media world dominated by instant gratification and the inherent risk of trivialization; when “likes” and click reactions are commonplace, success can often be equated with the number of interactions received. This quantification can lead to a lack of attention in the exercise of reading, resulting in time being lost or reflection undervalued. Both conferences tackled these themes in complementary ways. In Malmö, panels posed critical questions examining Nordic exceptionalism and collective memory of a colonial past, with this examination conducted through literary works, while in Oslo, panels provided insights into the human faces and lives that journalistic storytelling practices can offer, beyond cold data.
Perhaps, a paradigm shift in journalism research – which the BoJoClub project aims to propose, emphasising the effects of shared reading of long narratives within journalist–reader communities – could contribute to mitigating this anomie for images and fragmented representations.
While readers often expect journalistic narratives to be fast-paced and novelty-driven, this expectation misinterprets the beauty and agency inherent in long-form journalism by prioritising immediacy over depth. Journalism, at its essence, is living memory created and sustained by human beings.
Image credit: Mercedes de Luis Andrés