“Our aim was to bring people together and have a joint conversation around gender and media across the Nordics”, emphasises Tina Askanius, one of the editors of the new issue of Nordic Journal of Media Studies.
In the new issue of Nordic Journal of Media Studies, the editors Tina Askanius, Jill Walker Rettberg, and Eli Skogerbø explore the intersection of media and gender, focusing on their connection with current changes in politics, culture, and technology. Mia Jonsson Lindell, communications officer at Nordicom, talks with two of the editors about this year’s issue, the challenges of representation, and exciting developments for the journal’s future.
Mia Jonsson Lindell (MJL): Can you start by telling me a little bit about the theme of this year’s issue? Why – do you think – is it an interesting and timely topic?
Tina Askanius (TA): The theme of this year’s issue is gender and media, a topic that – I think – will always be interesting. In media and communication studies we have always had a relatively strong focus on issues related to power and gender, gender representations, stereotypes framing processes, etcetera. With this issue, we wanted to revisit these debates that tend to come and go in waves, the most recent example being the #metoo movement that sparked conversation around gender dynamics and injustices again.
Our aim was also to bring people together. There are so many interesting conversations around these issues across the Nordics and we thought that Nordic Journal of Media Studies would be a great place to have this joint conversation.
Eli Skogerbø (ES): I would also like to add that one of the initial ideas was to invite contributions from new lines of research that has been going on in the field of gender studies. I’m not sure if we were entirely successful in getting all the themes that we aimed for though. We also wanted to have themes represented that mirror issues currently on the political agenda, such as immigration, for example. That was some of our initial goals for this issue, wasn’t it, Tina?
TA: Yes, for sure. In a way, we wanted to make it clear what media and communication studies have to offer in these debates. I think Nordic Journal of Media Studies is a great place for our community to come together and revisit a lot of these innovations and concepts continuously, in order to always stay relevant.
MJL: As you said, the issue contains some diverse and different articles that give insight into the intersection of media and gender in the Nordic countries. Would you say something about the content of the issue? Are there any articles that you find particularly interesting or where the result surprised you?
ES: Of course, all the ten articles in this issue are there for a reason – they are all very good. To me, the article “Fantasised and fantastical Nordic imaginaries: Contextualising Nordic life vlogs by East Asian YouTube vloggers”, written by Jin Lee and Crystal Abidin, was particularly interesting though, because it looks at the Nordic countries from the outside, and it’s always refreshing to read an outside perspective. I’m also personally occupied with the article “Veiling as free choice or coercion: Banal religion, gender equality, and Swedish identity on Instagram”, by Mia Lövheim and Linnea Jensdotter. I work in political communication and that article speaks directly to the concerns about how women dress is used in a political conflict. It’s a reminder that old themes, which we hoped had gone away, is still there – both as research subject and as political debates.
TA: I would also like to highlight the article “Living the liquid life: Gender, precarity, and journalism in the post-#metoo era”, written by Margareta Melin and Jenny Wiik. They did an interview study with journalists in Sweden, and I think the results are quite shocking. Going back to what Eli just said about thinking we’d come further – the experiences that these women shared with the authors, the kind of intersection between economic precarity and sexism in the newsroom, that this keeps happening and is still an issue was shocking to read.
Challenges of AI and representation
MJL: In your Introduction you mentioned that the developments in technology and the mainstreaming of AI raise an important question about gender. Can you expand on some of the examples you gave there?
ES: This is actually an area where I wished we would have gotten more contributions. There wasn’t a lot of abstracts that dealt with the challenges of built-in inequalities in technologies and algorithmic structures – that black box of different forms of oppression and discrimination that we’re still just beginning to grapple with. Maybe we should have been pushier, because there are people out there researching these issues – it’s coming, and I think it’s going to be the next big thing in our field.
TA: I’m absolutely sure that you are right about that, Eli.
MJL: You also wrote that you didn’t receive any submissions within queer and trans studies approaches to studying gender and media, but that media studies could profit from such approaches. What are some recommendations in this regard that you could make for future researchers?
TA: In order to stay relevant and keep up to date with the conversations that are happening in the activist community and social movements, it’s important to steer clear of feminism and gender perspectives being necessarily about the female-versus-male dichotomy. There is so much more going on there and we need to stay updated.
ES: If I could give one piece of advice to upcoming editors of special issues it would be to be even more proactive. If possible, invite specific people and try to curate the issue more to represent societal trends and conversations.
MJL: Other than the lack of queer and trans approaches, were there any other gaps in the submissions that you would have liked to see filled?
TS: We had a couple of interesting contributions on men’s rights activism and ideas of far-right masculinities. I would have loved to more see more of these kind of anti-gender issues, men’s-rights movements, and new perspectives on misogyny. I think it would have been really interesting to have a Nordic conversation on these issues.
What’s next?
MJL: Just a few months ago, Nordic Journal of Media Studies was accepted into Scopus – congratulations! What does this achievement mean for the future of the journal?
ES: Thank you! We hope that it will be read more and be visible to the global audience. It’s a solid recognition that it’s a quality journal, which we are all very happy about. Having said that, of course, the number of journals that are competing for visibility and recognition is very high. So, I don’t think it will revolutionise our influence, but it’s certainly a recognition that we are very happy for.
TA: It’s not the end point, but a big step in the right direction.
MJL: The next issue coming up next year is on Influencers: Entertainment, Politics, and Strategic Online Culture. Do you foresee any gender-themed submissions for this issue too, perhaps?
TA: I think it will be for sure. In the call for papers, one of the things they are looking for is research on the role of influencers within the far-right movement. So, there could be conversations on masculinity influencers and ideas of what it means to be men and women, family values, etcetera, that are prominent in those kind of networks. I do think, and I hope, that they will get a bunch of contributions on that.
MJL: It’ll be very exciting to read it next year. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me and best of luck with the next issue as well.
Read the issue here
Nordic Journal of Media Studies. Media and Gender: A Nordic Perspective
