The effect of direct press support on the diversity of news content in Norway

ABSTRACT

The main question of this article is to what extent state financial support systems contribute to the diversity of topics in online news. Hereunder we investigate the impact of direct press support on the diversity of online news in Norway. The analysis applies LDA (Latent Dirichlet allocation) on a corpus of 726,889 computationally gathered news articles from 160 Norwegian newspapers collected October–December 2015 and 2016. Results show a proportionate degree of variety, balance, and disparity between topics in the Norwegian news landscape. While press supported newspapers give relatively higher attention to local politics and rural industries, overall, direct production support primarily supports pluralism aims by sustaining a heterogeneous newspaper structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• Latent Dirichlet allocation
• media policy
• online news
• press support
• subsidies

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Lubos Steskal (PhD) for valuable help with the methodology.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. News publications catering specifically to the indigenous Samic population and the minority Kven population.

2. Altaposten, Arendals Tidende, Askøyværingen, Aura Avis, Aust-Agder Blad, Avisa Nordhordland, Bergensavisen, Brønnøysunds Avis, Bygdanytt, Bygdebladet Randaberg, Bømlonytt, Dag og Tid, Dagen, Dagsavisen, Demokraten, Driva, Dølen, Eikerbladet, Enebakk Avis, Fanaposten, Firdaposten, Fiskeribladet Fiskaren, Fjordenes Tidende, Fjordingen, Framtid i Nord, Gjesdalbuen, Groruddalen, Hardanger Folkeblad, Hålogalands Avis, Innherred Folkeblad, iTromsø, Jarlsberg Avis, Kanalen, Klassekampen, Kragerø Blad, Kvinnheringen, Kyst og Fjord, Lierposten, Lillesandsposten, Lindesnes Avis, Lofotposten, Lokalavisa Nordsalten, Morgenbladet, Mørenytt, Norddalen, Nationen, Nordre, Nye Troms, Porsgrunns Dagblad, Rakkestad Avis, Rogalands Avis, Røyken og Hurum Avis, Saltenposten, Sande Avis, Sandnesposten, Solabladet, Sunnmøringen, Svalbardposten, Svelvikposten, Telen, Trønderbladet, Tvedestrandsposten, Tysnes, Tysvær Bygdeblad, Vennesla Tidende, Vestby Avis, Vestnesavisa, Vikebladet Vestposten, Vårt Land, Øyene, Åndalsnes Avis, Ås Avis, Åsane Tidende.

3. Adresseavisa, Aftenposten, Agderposten, Akershus Amtstidende, Arbeidets Rett, Avisa Nordland, Bergens Tidende, Bladet Vesterålen, Budstikka, Dagbladet, Dagens Næringsliv, Drammens Tidende, Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad, Firda, Fremover, Fædrelandsvennen, Gjengangeren, Glåmdalen, Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen, Halden Arbeiderblad, Hadeland, Haugesunds Avis, Harstad Tidende, Helgelendingen, Hallingdølen, Helgelands Blad, Hitra-Frøya, iFinnmark, Indre Akershus Blad, Jærbladet, Laagendalsposten, Lyngdals Avis, Moss Avis, Namdalsavisa, Nordlys, Oppland Arbeiderblad, Rana Blad, Ringerikes Blad, Ringsaker Blad, Romerikes Blad, Romsdals Budstikke, Sandefjords Blad, Sarpsborg Arbeiderblad, Smaalenenes Avis, Sogn Avis, Stavanger Aftenblad, Stjørdalens Blad, Sunnhordland, Sunnmørsposten, Telemarkavisa, Tidens Krav, Troms Folkeblad, Tønsbergs Blad, Valdres, Varden, Østlandets Blad, Østlandsposten.

4. Note that this is an operational distinction. Newspapers that receive press support are mainly financed by subscription and/or sales revenue. As such, press subsidies are not necessarily their defining funding feature. Newspapers without press support, do not, however, share in this added revenue, and the distinction therefore serves to separate the two corpora in terms of direct production support only.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway under grant [230744]; Norges Forskningsråd [230744].

Notes on contributors

Helle Sjøvaag

Helle Sjøvaag is Professor at the Department of Media and Social Sciences at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and Researcher at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. Sjøvaag’s main areas of research are journalism studies, media policy and media diversity.

Truls André Pedersen

Truls André Pedersen is Associate Professor at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. Pedersen’s main areas of research are formal logics for practical reasoning and multiagent systems.