Media, market, state and politics in Norway

Abstract

The article builds on Hallin & Mancini (2004) who have used a democratic corporatist model to analyze the media markets of several Northern and Central European countries, including Norway. An analysis of the Norwegian media market is presented, focusing on five key issue areas: changes in media usage, financing, technology, ownership and legislation. The analysis partially supports one of the key features of Hallin & Mancini’s model, i.e. the fairly interventionist role of the Norwegian authorities in the media sector. This is nonetheless tempered by the high level of marketization in most issue areas examined. Overall, there is therefore some reason to argue that “market is king” in Norwegian media.