The New and Old Media

A heated debate has recently taken place in Sweden between new and old media. Which publications should have the right to call themselves objective and factual? Which newspapers, TV and radio channels can be said to convey an impartial and nuanced picture of reality? And which media companies are more likely to engage in political influence or perhaps even propaganda?

It is obvious that older, more established media, often with connections to liberal and social democratic parties, consider themselves to be acting almost flawlessly when it comes to objective and impartial news reporting. This applies not only to Sweden but to the Western world in general.

It is also obvious that older media houses sometimes have a remarkably idealized self-image. They like to talk about the importance of the journalistic craft, about freedom of expression laws, about principles regarding publisher responsibility, about ethical rules that journalists are expected to adhere to. They like to talk about their responsibility to the public and, not least, about their importance for democracy.

And it is true that the mass media and journalism have an important role to play in a functioning democracy. Someone must scrutinize the power. Someone should offer citizens images and stories about what is happening in their own countries.

So, what is the problem? Well, in recent years, an increasing proportion of citizens and politicians in our Western countries have found that the impartiality and the truth that the dominant media claims to convey are neither impartial nor true.

The conflict has been most evident in the USA. Donald Trump has to some extent built his political career on portraying the established media as lying and unpatriotic. The media has responded by emphasizing that his actions undermine trust in the media and that it reinforces political polarization.

At the same time, it is an undeniable fact that many Americans feel that the established media conveys a left-wing image of reality. And one of the reasons for Donald Trump’s success has certainly been that he has so clearly shown that he is not afraid of the media. And now, in his second term, he is spending a remarkable amount of time speaking to the media.

But let’s return to Sweden. What recently happened in the long country in the north was that the previously dominant mainstream media was seriously challenged by a new and, according to many, more right-wing media.

It started with the relatively new media company Kvartal publishing a highly satirical campaign in which it portrayed the liberal daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter and the two public service companies Sveriges Radio and Sveriges Television as “impartial” and “objective” in such a way that everyone understood that Kvartal meant that these media actors are not at all impartial or objective.

One of Dagens Nyheter’s leading journalists, Niklas Orrenius, reacted sharply. He said that Kvartal is dragging his work into the dirt and that Kvartal is “pissing on” the serious journalistic work that Dagens Nyheter does.

But then something happened that Niklas Orrenius does not seem to have been prepared for. A number of journalists from various right-wing media houses and many independent debaters on social media came out to defend Kvartal. They explained how ridiculous it was for Dagens Nyheter to try to give the impression that their news reporting was not permeated by a clear liberal and progressive agenda. Everyone sees it and anyone who doesn’t see it must be blind.

The collective reaction was so extensive that Orrenius was forced to back down. Of course, he did not admit that his newspaper – and he himself – report news from a certain ideological perspective, but he went so far as to say that he and his colleagues try to be objective but that they may not always succeed.

What emerged from the argument was above all that journalists from the old – and left-wing – media – can no longer get away with anything. The little upstart Kvartal allowed itself to openly mock Dagens Nyheter (which is Sweden’s largest daily newspaper). When Dagens Nyheter’s journalists tried to respond, they encountered such great resistance that they could not win the debate.

And given that there are elections in Sweden in September and that the media is expected to play a significant role in the election campaign, it was good, both journalists and ordinary Swedes with right-wing sympathies think, that the new journalism is ready to challenge the old. The time when the left-wing media alone could set the agenda is over.