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- Trial lecture starts at: 10.00
- Public defence starts at: 12.00
Title of trial lecture: The relationship between the development of the press in Sweden/Norway and Denmark in the early 19th century. Differences and similarities (translated from Norwegian)
Disputation chair: Vicedean Gunhild Kvåle
Assessment committee:
- First opponent: Professor Merethe Roos
- Second opponent: Professor Patrik Lundell
- Chair of assessment committee: Associate professor Trond Bjerkås, UiA
Supervisors in the doctoral work:
- Main supervisor: Professor Knut Dørum, UiA
- Co-supervisor: researcher Ruth Hemstad, The National Library of Norway
Summary of thesis
The Opinion Makers: Press Power and Political Influence in Sweden and Norway, c. 1809–1848
This dissertation examines how the press functioned as a political instrument in Sweden and Norway between 1809 and circa 1848. In 1809 and 1814 respectively, the two countries adopted their first modern constitutions, each with specific provisions on freedom of the press. In the following decades, a politically engaged press emerged on the Scandinavian peninsula amid political upheavals, ideological shifts, democratization, increased conflict between social groups, and technological and infrastructural change.
This study traces two counter-hegemonic press milieus – the oppositional newspapers 1809–1830 and the radical labor papers around 1848 – and their efforts to define their political role within the new constitutional frameworks. It combines three theoretical and methodological approaches that have seldom been combined in previous studies on the history of the press: conceptual history, transnational-comparative analysis, and digital humanities. Applied to a rich selection of sources – including several previously unknown newspapers and letters – the study offers new insights into parts of the historical origins of the political function of the press.
The dissertation demonstrates that Swedish and Norwegian journalists mobilized many of the same conceptual and rhetorical devices in their efforts to gain political influence. By using contested concepts such as «opposition», «public opinion», «the third/fourth estate», «party», and «the people», they constructed a narrative about the political function of the press that served their own needs. Their usage of such concepts was primarily inspired by similar usage in major European states like Great Britain, France, and the German states, and was reinforced through transnational exchanges between Swedish and Norwegian journalists. However, the dissertation also shows that ideas and concepts were not passively adopted by Swedish and Norwegian journalists. Rather, they were actively borrowed and adapted to local conditions.
Finally, the dissertation argues that changes in the perceived political role of the press must be understood as part of a broader transformation in political thought during the period. This shift is conceptualized here as a transition between two paradigms in political culture: political holism and political particularism.
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Opponent ex auditorio:
Deadline for the public to pose questions is during the break between the two opponents. Questions ex auditorio can be submitted to disputation chair.
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