Professor Kim Christian Schrøder’s keynote address at NordMedia2025 in Odense has now been published in an expanded and revised article in Nordicom Review, titled “The Nordic Media Welfare State and the Challenge of Imagining Livable Futures”. The publication deepens the arguments he presented at the conference, offering a clear-eyed assessment of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the Nordic media welfare state.
In the article, Schrøder reflects on the distinctive position of the Nordic countries in today’s global news environment. Drawing on the Digital News Report 2025, he notes that while news use, trust, and engagement have declined sharply in many countries, the Nordic states continue to exhibit a far more stable and democratic media environment. He shows that Nordic audiences remain deeply connected to public service and quality news providers, and that levels of trust in journalism remain among the highest in the world. Together, these trends reinforce the idea that Nordic news cultures still support the prerequisites for an informed public.
The article revisits the foundational pillars of the “media welfare state”, highlighting how Nordic media institutions historically served as “the social glue that held the societies together” and operated as “crucial vehicles to achieve the aims of the welfare state”. Yet Schrøder also uses the keynote-turned-article to question whether these pillars can withstand the pressures of the platform-dominated media environment, noting the growing influence of global tech companies that increasingly “violate the content property rights of news organisations” and absorb revenue streams essential to national media systems.
A central theme of the NordMedia2025 keynote, and of the published article, is the challenge of climate journalism. Schrøder highlights research showing that many citizens perceive climate change as “an intangible news topic”, often leaving them “confused and despondent” or emotionally exhausted. He notes that Nordic audiences frequently encounter climate coverage as “an overwhelming public campaign with strong normative pressure”, prompting him to suggest that when it comes to this topic, “less is more”. As he argues, the current volume and tone of climate news can lead to disengagement, as “climate news stops making sense” when people feel overloaded.
Despite pressures ranging from platformisation and AI to misinformation and financial strain, Schrøder’s analysis ultimately avoids pessimism. He emphasises that the Nordic region still benefits from strong public service institutions, high journalistic standards, and audiences that are comparatively well-informed and less polarised than elsewhere. Taken together, these elements provide a solid foundation for maintaining democratic debate and for mobilising collective responses to complex challenges such as climate change – conditions that, in his view, enable the Nordic countries to continue working toward sustainable and livable futures.
To read Schrøder’s analysis in full, click here.
Photo credit: David Binzer