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Keeping journalism socially relevant and financially viable is more challenging than ever. It might seem like a paradox, but in a time when news media is challenged by inadequate business models, precarious labor conditions and competition from platform companies, and contested by populist politicians, the public is consuming more news than ever before. The changing media landscape, technological platforms and structural conditions are influencing journalism, its practices and its roles in everyday life, society, culture, and politics—central topics when communication scholars gather at international and national conferences dedicated to media and communication research. The NordMedia Conference 2021 was arranged in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. It was supposed to be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, but was ultimately held virtually. Naturally, the topics tended to focus on how journalists were covering the pandemic, but they also included studies on truth, disinformation and facts as well as technology in journalism in the form of AI and automation. The presenters were later invited to participate in this special issue, which celebrates Nordic scholarship and the Journalistica journal. In this issue, we bring together three studies that each illustrate the current developments within Nordic journalism research along with a book review of a book on political communication in the Nordics. Ethics and trust are common threads that run through the three articles published in this special issue of Journalistica. The articles cover very different topics—from podcasting as a genre, alternative media and comment moderation to ethics in local news media — and ethics and trust are recurring themes in the discussions. What constitutes as news today is increasingly blurred as it mixes with commercial content (influencers and content marketing — commercial genres that look like news), opinions (comments appearing as news) or false and manipulated content (fake news or disinformation). Many people, especially young adults, get their news from social media, and the newsfeed does not differentiate between different types of content. News from respected newsrooms has the same design as rumors from a suspicious website. Thus, users have to pay more attention to differentiate between the trustworthiness of the information. This blurring of content and genres is challenging for journalism’s trustworthiness. The articles in this special issue touch on some of the challenges appearing as a result of this blurring despite the long tradition of strong ethical guidelines for journalism in Nordic newsrooms. Nevertheless, the users of Nordic news are still demonstrating high levels of trust, among the highest in the 45 countries of the Reuters Digital News Report 2022 track. Finnish news users report the highest trust in news (69%), particularly the news they use (75%), followed by Denmark (58%/63%), Norway (56%/63%), and Sweden (50%/56%). Iceland was not included in Reuters’ survey. One factor that can help maintain and strengthen trust in news in the Nordic countries is strong ethical practices in newsrooms. Since the early 20th century, Nordic newsrooms and journalism organizations have developed ethical guidelines for journalism that are continually updated to reflect developments in the profession and society at large: • Norway:​​Code of Ethics for the Norwegian Press • Sweden: Rules of Professional Conduct • Denmark: Press Ethical Rules • Finland: Guidelines for Journalists • Iceland: Rules of Ethics in Journalism Ethical guidelines and their practical implementation in the newsrooms can help Nordic journalists navigate the challenges emerging from the changing media landscape, competition from technological platforms and structural conditions influencing journalism. The articles in this special issue of Journalistica each offer a unique contribution to address some of these challenges.

I denne artikkelen settes det søkelys på skolesituasjonen til barn som er i kontakt med barnevernet. Det tas her utgangspunkt i velkjent kunnskap om at denne gruppen barn har størreutfordringer i skolen enn andre barn. Artikkelen bygger på empiri fra prosjektet Aktiv støtte til barnevernsbarn i skolen – innovasjon i skolen i samarbeid med skole og barnevern. Her har kvalitative intervjuer av ti barn og ni foreldre vært viktige bidrag for å gi et bredere kunnskapsgrunnlag om barnas erfaringer fra både skolehverdagen og hjemmelivet. Betydningen av at barna opplever seg inkludert og sosialt verdsatt i skolehverdagen, som innvirker på deres hverdagsliv i sin helhet, er sentralt i foreldrenes og barnas fortellinger. I artikkelen drøfter vi behovet for en utvidet forståelse av hva som ligger i begrepet barnets omsorgsmiljø når barnevernet skal gjøre undersøkelser av barnets situasjon. Vi anvender et hverdagslivsperspektiv som belyser barnets situasjon ut fra barnets og forelderens ståsted. Dette kan bidra til å se helheten i barnets omsorgsmiljø, som inkluderer både hjem og skolemiljø. I diskusjonen peker vi på hvilke implikasjoner det vil ha for barnevernet og samarbeidende instanser å inkludere skolen som en del av barnets omsorgsmiljø når det skal iverksettes undersøkelser og tiltak overfor barn og familier.

De har lagt ned aviser og arrestert kritiske journalister, nå prøver myndighetene i Iran å kneble bloggerne. Men unge, smarte iranere finner hullene i den statlige nettsensuren.

On the basis of a phenomenological body perspective, typical features of today brought into the light by the youth’s own experiences about the body, might be of relevance to how we understand the increasing self-report of ill health. A typical feature of today might for instance be the conception of the shapeable body which can be transformed and remodelled to function as an image of the self and tell the story of who you are as a person. The body, its appearance and capacities, is more closely associated with the experience of being successful than previous years. The body is exposed to corrective looks and comments on several levels in modern culture. Both internal and external pressures to be slim, pretty, clever, strong, healthy and so on are strong. The belief in and idea about shapeability might lead many into a regime of controlling and disciplining the less desirable about your own body. Perhaps are the negative tendencies we notice in youth’s experiences of their health «gossip » about the social and cultural features in their way of life? In preventing and health-bringing efforts, emphasis is on the positive effect of life-long physical activity. Physiotherapists wish to stimulate developing and to take care of a healthy and strong body through displaying joy of movement. It is at the same time of value to encourage a carefree forgetfulness in relation to own body as a possibility that life it self inherit.

Hensikten med denne pilotstudien har vært å synliggjøre følgende: hva foreldre med ulik kulturell bakgrunn, forteller om temaer relatert til barneoppdragelse? Hvilke opplevelser og læring hadde foreldrene av å diskutere barneoppdragelse i en fokusgruppe? Fokusgruppeintervjuer ble gjennomført med fire foreldre, fra Norge og to ikke-vestlige land. Det ble gjennomført ett oppfølgingsintervju med faren fra ett av de ikke-vestlige landene. Samtlige deltakere hadde barn i åpen barnehage. Dataene fra fokusgruppeintervjuene viste at foreldrene fortalte hverandre hverdagslige historier om blant annet søvnrutiner, ros og ris i oppdragelsen. Dataene viste også at foreldrene var fornøyde med møtene. De opplevde at samtalene var lærerrike, nyttige og fortrolige. Dessuten uttrykte de at det var beroligende å oppleve at andre foreldre hadde samme utfordringer. Faren som deltok i oppfølgingsintervjuet, fortalte at fokusgruppa fungerte som hjelp i oppdragelsen av eget barn. Diskusjonen tar opp betydningen av at foreldre med ulik kulturell bakgrunn snakker sammen om hverdagsdilemmaer vedrørende oppdragelsen av egne barn. Videre viser diskusjonen at det er av betydning å arrangere formelle møter mellom etnisk norske- og minoritetsforeldre fordi det er med på å fremme akkulturasjonsprosessen.