Are people losing their confidence in the media? Launch of the Reuters Digital News Report 2019

June 12 2019

Fritt Ord and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism invite the public to a breakfast meeting for the launch of the annual media survey entitled the ‘Reuters Institute Digital News Report’ and a debate on confidence in the media, on Wednesday, 12 June from 9.00-10.30 a.m. at Fritt Ord’s premises in Uranienborgveien 2.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report is the world’s largest media survey on trends in digital media habits. The report describes the development of the Norwegian media market compared with nearly 40 other countries in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Norway scores well on both news consumption and the propensity to pay for news, but the report shows there are also challenges when it comes to confidence in the media and young people’s aversion to the news.

Political preference is clearly significant for which media are considered reliable. After a year with several major media headlines related inter alia to attribution practices and political links, most people now have a greater awareness of the challenges of press ethics. Have news stories undermined confidence in the media and added to the popularity of new, alternative online media? Can Norwegian journalists be better at showing how they work, and show the public why published journalism looks the way it does?

Welcome to the debate on media habits, confidence and fragmented public space.

Programme:
Welcome by Knut Olav Åmås, Executive Director of Fritt Ord

Presentation of the international report by Richard Fletcher, a researcher at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Panel discussion, featuring:
Hallvard Moe, professor of Media Studies at the University of Bergen and the person in charge of the Norwegian sub-report
Hege Storhaug, information manager at the Human Rights Service
Ingeborg Senneset, journalist and author, and on the board of Norwegian PEN.
Pål Hellenes, national board member of the Norwegian Union of Journalists

Moderator: Erik Waatland, editor of Medier24

The event is free of charge and open to the public.

See the Facebook-event for more information and updates prior to the launch.



Update:

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.