From Researcher to Editor: Magnus Fredriksson Joins Nordicom’s Editorial Team

In March, Magnus Fredriksson took on a role as editor at Nordicom. Fredriksson has a long experience as a researcher, focusing on public sector communication. “I am quite confident that he will help Nordicom be an even better servant to our Nordic research community”, says Jonas Ohlsson, director of Nordicom.

After over 25 years as a communication researcher, Magnus Fredriksson is changing his career direction to be an editor at Nordicom, a role he is looking forward to taking on.

– Nordicom is a central player in Nordic research on communication, media, and journalism, and its mission is very much in line with mine regarding research and why we are doing all this. I’m looking forward to being a part of interesting projects and seeing them turn into high-quality publications, says Fredriksson.

Bringing researcher experience to the editor role

Fredriksson joins Nordicom with a notable background as a researcher, his most recent role being senior lecturer and director of doctoral studies at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG) at the University of Gothenburg. University West, Uppsala University, and Lund University are also among his earlier employers.

Over the years, Fredriksson’s research has mainly focused on public sector organisations, primarily government agencies, and their communication activities.

– One stream of my research has focused on how institutional rules, norms, and ideas regarding communication are maintained and negotiated. Another stream has focused on mediatisation and to what extent and the way government agencies adapt their activities to media norms, working methods, and routines, says Fredriksson.

– A certain interest of mine has been to gain a better understanding of the consequences – not only in terms of communication activities, but also in other terms, he adds.

Having a 70 per cent position at Nordicom, Fredriksson will keep a part-time employment at JMG, making it possible to continue his research.

As an editor at Nordicom, Fredriksson will help oversee the evaluation process of the journal Nordicom Review as well as Nordicom’s monographs and anthologies. Together with Nordicom’s other editor, his role includes assessing manuscript submissions, managing the peer-review process, making final acceptance decisions, and providing support to authors and external editors throughout the writing and evaluation processes.

Fredriksson believes that his researcher background will be beneficial in his new role.

– As a scholar, I have extensive knowledge of what it means to do research and publish in an international setting. This, I think, means that I understand the conditions under which Nordicom’s contributors work, says Fredriksson, and continues:

– I think my broad scope in terms of research themes and methodological approaches make me well suited to help our authors develop their work in collaboration with Nordicom.

Serving the Nordic research community

In addition to the two editors who focus on content, peer-review, and the overall scientific integrity of Nordicom’s publications, Nordicom’s editorial team also includes a managing editor, a manuscript editor, a graphic designer, and communication officers, led by an editor-in-chief.

– Our aim at Nordicom is to publish high-quality media and communication research with a Nordic focus. Over the past five years or so, we have set up a complete in-house editorial team to help us fulfil this aim, says Jonas Ohlsson, editor-in-chief and director at Nordicom.

Fredriksson joining the team will contribute to the continued development of Nordicom’s publishing operations, according to Ohlsson.

– The opportunity to welcome a scholar of Magnus’s calibre to our team is very exciting. Magnus is a respected researcher in his field and has a long experience of assessing and improving academic manuscripts. I am quite confident that he will help Nordicom be an even better servant to our Nordic research community, says Ohlsson, and Fredriksson adds:

– I think my main contribution will be to increase Nordicom’s capacity to uphold a high quality in what it does and even strengthen it a bit maybe. It might also be that I can open for a broader approach beyond media research, as I have a strong interest in communication in organisational and administrative contexts.

Nordicom is a non-profit academic publisher at the University of Gothenburg dedicated to publishing new, high-quality media and communications research with relevance for the Nordic region. The line of academic publications includes monographs, edited anthologies, and two peer-reviewed journals, Nordicom Review and the externally edited Nordic Journal of Media Studies.

More about Magnus Fredriksson and Nordicom

More about Magnus Fredriksson and Nordicom

Photo: Alexander Grey on Unsplash and Felix Dahlöf