Mats Ekström
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 75585 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Mats Ekström |
| PRENOMES | Mats |
| SOBRENOME | Ekström |
| ASSINATURA | EKSTRÖM M |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8004-4975 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 84 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 857 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 82 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 5 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1990 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 15 |
The emotional foundations of authoritarian discourse
This article investigates the emotions that shape authoritarian discourse in online publics. Authoritarianism is conceptualized as a discursively enacted moral order, grounded in the interrelated values of conformism, authoritarian submission and aggression, and constituted through recurrent emotional practices. Drawing on sociological and discourse approaches to emotion, the article examines the following: (1) how anger, disgust and fear are art…
Authoritarian stereotyping
This study examines the relationship between authoritarian dispositions and stereotyping in peer-group conversations about news. Building on research in political psychology and discourse studies, the concept of authoritarian stereotyping is introduced to explain the interrelation between beliefs in conformity and the stereotyping of outgroups, which ultimately serves to justify authoritarian solutions to social problems. Drawing on a socio-cogni…
Constructive Journalism as Practice—Storytelling in Solutions-Focused News Reporting in Mainstream News Media
Amplified News Framing of Social Disturbance and Its Impact on Authoritarian Attitudes
The emergence of authoritarian attitudes within contemporary democracy puzzles researchers. Under what circumstances do people develop authoritarian attitudes? Research suggests that circumstances of social disturbance have strong impact. There is evidence that predispositions for authoritarianism are activated under such circumstances. In this research, the role of the news media is generally ignored. This article contributes by presenting a the…
Enacting Journalistic Authority
Whenever a major event flares up in the world, we are bound to be met by correspondents reporting live on the news. The correspondents are typically promoted as authoritative voices. Their live talk is delivered in "the live two-way," a broadcast interaction between the presenter and the correspondent on location. Focusing on live reporting during the Ukraine–Russia war (2022–), this study analyses the communicative work that goes on in the live …
Conversation analysis and power
Conversation Analysis (CA) tends to adopt an ambivalent attitude to the concept of power. The concept is fundamental in sociology but secondary or even disregarded in CA. A closer look at research and the conceptual foundations of CA however demonstrate significant contributions to theories of power. In this paper we aim to demonstrate and discuss these contributions, however, also arguing for an expansion of the CA approach in dialogue with soci…
The epistemologies of data journalism
Amid digital developments, data journalism has gained a strong foothold among news publishers and in public discourse. With its authoritative claims and informative visualizations, it can play a significant role in the actions of citizens and people in power. This mixed-method case study explores a distinct epistemology developed in an independent form of data journalism in public service media in Scandinavia, not subordinate to traditional news …
Reporting the unsayable
This paper focuses on the moral work of journalism as displayed and enacted in the reporting practices used in news coverage of scandalous talk by right-wing populist (RWP) politicians. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, we analyze a set of cases of journalistic framing of RWP talk recently circulating in Sweden, Greece, France and the UK, and examine ways in which anti-democratic or racist talk is represented within print, online a…
Selective Exposure and New Political Cleavages
New political cleavages are reshaping the political landscape in established democracies. The classic left-right ideological dimension that has structured politics for decades is increasingly challenged by a sociocultural value dimension . At the same time, growing opportunities for media choice open for new forms of selective news exposure along political lines. We argue that previous research has too narrowly focused on traditional ideological …
The normalization of far-right populism and nativist authoritarianism
This article postulates broadening as well as deepening the agenda for critical research on the role of discursive practices in media, journalism and the wider public sphere/s in normalization of far-right populism and nativist authoritarianism. Our argument is that, on the rise since the early 2000s and especially from the 2010s onwards, authoritarian and nativist populism has posed some very significant challenges to contemporary media and jour…
News media and the politics of fear
This paper provides a comparative critical discourse analysis of news discourse on terrorism with respect to the coverage by two Swedish and two UK broadsheet newspapers of the terrorists attacks that took place in Stockholm and in London respectively in the year 2017. The research goal is to investigate the type of discourses mobilized that help enact a ‘politics of fear’, and to compare the constitutive elements of this rhetoric within the same…
Question design and the construction of populist stances in political news interviews
This paper focuses on the relationship between journalism and right wing populist discourses in the context of broadcast news interviews. We analyse a specific feature of question design in which the public is invoked as a source of opinionated positions in adversarial interviewing. Analysing data from a range of socio-political contexts, we identify a shift in adversarial questioning along a scale of ‘soft’ populism, that is the attribution of v…
Discursive constructions of populism in opinion-based journalism
Critical Moments of Coordination in Newswork
This article focuses on journalistic practices and coordination, more specifically how journalists coordinate when producing Online Live Broadcasts (OLB). An analytical framework that lends from the Knowledge-Based View is developed and used to study directives for OLBs, as well as problems solved in critical moments of coordination. The researchers used mixed methods for the study of an online-first news publisher in Sweden that has won internat…
The Epistemologies of Breaking News
The study analyses the epistemologies of online breaking news, focusing on the distinctive epistemic practices and challenges in the production of continuous news updates and online live broadcast. The analytical framework identifies three central aspects of news epistemology: the articulation of knowledge claims; how journalists know what they claim to know; and the justification of knowledge claims. The study draws on data from ethnographic res…
Data-driven news work culture
This study investigates the epistemological implications of the appropriation of audience analytics in a data-driven news culture. Focussing on two central aspects of epistemology, epistemic value and epistemic practices, we ask two overall questions (1) How are audience metrics balanced and reconciled in relation to other standards in the justification of news as valuable knowledge? How are different practices of research and presentation, truth…
Commentary
A key activity in the formation of this Special Issue of New Media & Society was the organizing of an online workshop: “Truth, facts, and fake: The shifting epistemologies of news in a digital age.” The event was an experiment in exploring the possibilities of organizing conferences in ways that are more sustainable in terms of climate, time, and money, and in seeing whether the exchange of ideas could be improved by moving beyond conventional in…
Epistemologies of digital journalism and the study of misinformation
Journalists’ epistemological activities—presumed to provide factual and reliable public information—have made journalism one of the most influential knowledge-producing institutions in society. However, changes—both slow and sudden—related to the digitization of news media and the diffusion of misinformation are challenging the social role and authority of journalism. This special issue advances research in two emerging sub-fields: (1) epistemolo…
The normalization of the populist radical right in news interviews
Focusing on the salient case of news interviewing, this paper investigates the role of journalism in the normalization of radical right-wing politics and the discourses of nationalism and nativism. Normalization is related to transformations in the socio-political landscape, the discursive strategies of political actors, the professional norms of journalism, and the discursive positioning of political views in news reporting. Data include news in…
Dealing With Questions of Responsiveness in a Low-Discretion Context
A key theme in the research on bureaucratic encounters pertains to street-level bureaucrats’ opportunities for responsiveness when discretion is constrained by the introduction of standardized service delivery regulations, such as information communication technology (ICT). This article contributes to existing scholarship by exploring how low-discretion officials at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency Customer Center manage competing demands of m…
Critical methodological pluralism – intensive and extensive research design and interdisciplinarity
The concepts intensive and extensive have been used to denote different methodological approaches in social science. The way in which the intensive and extensive procedures relate to qualitative and quantitative methods can be described thus: the intensive empirical procedure contains substantial elements of data collecting and analyses of a qualitative kind. An intensive empirical approach is characterized by focusing on a particular case or jus…
Generalization, scientific inference, and models for explanatory social science
This chapter presents methodological guidelines for a social science based on critical realism. It describes several alternative models for an explanatory social science and focuses on a demonstration of how the different forms of generalizations. The ways in which generalizations are applied and prioritized have significant epistemological and ontological implications. Frames of interpretation and theories are more or less reasonable; they diffe…
Science and reality
This chapter focuses on similarities and differences between the natural and social sciences, and, eventually, arrive at a set of methodological principles for social science analyses. It discusses the most central issue in science: the relation between science and reality and explores the similarities and dissimilarities between the objects of the natural and social sciences. The chapter explains the critical realist understanding of science and…
Theory in the methodology of social science
This chapter aims to clarifying what a theory is, from the perspective of critical realism. It explores the components of theories – concepts and describes different ways of relating theories to data in research practice. The chapter discusses the critical realist view, it is essential to distinguish between the different theoretical languages that exist within social sciences. Social scientific skill in essence is a matter of analysing, developi…
Journalistikens etiska problem
Explaining Society
This book will be immensely valuable for students and researchers in social science, sociology and philosophy in that it connects methodology, theory and empirical research. It provides an innovative picture of what society and social science is, along with the methods used to study and explain social phenomena
Epistemologies of TV journalism
This article sketches a theoretical framework for studies of the epistemologies of journalism. In this context epistemology does not refer to philosophical inquiries into the nature of true knowledge but to the study of knowledge-producing practices and communication of knowledge claims. The focus in the article is mainly on TV journalism. The theoretical framework distinguishes three fundamental areas and three main questions for research on the…
The Dislocation of News Journalism
This article focuses on news journalism, social media platforms and power, and key implications for epistemology. The conceptual framework presented is intended to inspire and guide future studies relating to the emerging sub-field of journalism research that we refer to as “Epistemologies of Digital Journalism”. The article discusses the dependencies between news media and social media platforms (non-proprietary to the news media). The authority…
Explaining Society
Fully revised, with an updated bibliography and new, relevant illustrative examples based on work inspired by critical realism, this new edition of Explaining Society constitutes an up-to-date resource connecting methodology, theory, and empirical research. Including discussions of more recent scholarship in the field which connects critical realism with interdisciplinary research, this second edition also clarifies concepts – such as retroductio…
Young people’s everyday political talk
Everyday political talk is an important democratic activity. Research on young people has focused on the role of talk in political socialization. The overall question in this study is: What encourages or impedes young people to participate in everyday political talk? Politics has been described as a potentially unsafe topic. The study investigates young people’s own experiences of conversations in families, peer groups, and social media. The stud…
The normalization of far-right populism and nativist authoritarianism
This article postulates broadening as well as deepening the agenda for critical research on the role of discursive practices in media, journalism and the wider public sphere/s in normalization of far-right populism and nativist authoritarianism. Our argument is that, on the rise since the early 2000s and especially from the 2010s onwards, authoritarian and nativist populism has posed some very significant challenges to contemporary media and jour…
Politicians Interviewed on Television News
The power relationships and discursive strategies inherent in the interview as a mode of conversation, production and presentation are fundamental conditions for politics in the mediated public sphere. The journalistic interview sets the terms for politicians' public communication and appearances. This article is based on analyses of 124 broadcast news items which included interviews with Swedish politicians. The analyses are inspired by conversa…
Information, storytelling and attractions
The competition for the attention of potential audiences, and the problem of audience appeal, has become an increasingly important aspect of TV journalism. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual framework for studies of TV journalism as communication; including different intentions, strategies applied to appeal to viewers, processes of production, bases for audience involvement, roles and relations. I differentiate three modes of comm…
Social media, porous boundaries, and the development of online political engagement among young citizens
Concepts such as “porous boundaries” and “low thresholds” appear frequently in the literature on online political engagement. Social media, it is argued, are characterized by less distinct boundaries between non-political and political activities, thereby lowering thresholds into political engagement. This argument is analyzed and empirically tested. Relying on a five-wave panel study among Swedish adolescents, we provide unique insights into the…
News and Participation through and beyond Proprietary Platforms in an Age of Social Media
The link between journalism and participation has since long been envisioned and argued to be an important one. However, it is also a complex link. It encompasses how the news media and their social actors actively work towards enabling and engaging citizens as active participants through the digital infrastructures of their proprietary platforms, as well as the ways citizens potentially make use of such opportunities or not in their everyday liv…
The normalization of the populist radical right in news interviews
Focusing on the salient case of news interviewing, this paper investigates the role of journalism in the normalization of radical right-wing politics and the discourses of nationalism and nativism. Normalization is related to transformations in the socio-political landscape, the discursive strategies of political actors, the professional norms of journalism, and the discursive positioning of political views in news reporting. Data include news in…
Data-driven news work culture
This study investigates the epistemological implications of the appropriation of audience analytics in a data-driven news culture. Focussing on two central aspects of epistemology, epistemic value and epistemic practices, we ask two overall questions (1) How are audience metrics balanced and reconciled in relation to other standards in the justification of news as valuable knowledge? How are different practices of research and presentation, truth…
Causal Explanation of Social Action
Causal explanations of social actions are central to modern as well as to classic sociology Even in its revised form. the most influential causal theory - the covering law theory- has not proved particularly fruitful for the study of social action. But there are alternative and potentially more fruitful theories. This article presents Weber's methodology and critical realism as two different contributions to a generative view of causality in soci…
Elderly people's experiences of housing renewal and forced relocation
Transformation of the urban environment, forcing people to leave their homes either temporarily or permanently, is a widespread phenomenon in the Western world. To those whose homes are affected, the process often has a strong emotional meaning. This article shows how various contributions to a sociology of emotions together can deepen our knowledge of the socio‐psychological mechanisms that lie behind elderly people's greatly varying emotional e…
The Epistemologies of Breaking News
The study analyses the epistemologies of online breaking news, focusing on the distinctive epistemic practices and challenges in the production of continuous news updates and online live broadcast. The analytical framework identifies three central aspects of news epistemology: the articulation of knowledge claims; how journalists know what they claim to know; and the justification of knowledge claims. The study draws on data from ethnographic res…
Epistemologies of digital journalism and the study of misinformation
Journalists’ epistemological activities—presumed to provide factual and reliable public information—have made journalism one of the most influential knowledge-producing institutions in society. However, changes—both slow and sudden—related to the digitization of news media and the diffusion of misinformation are challenging the social role and authority of journalism. This special issue advances research in two emerging sub-fields: (1) epistemolo…
Beyond the Broadcast Interview
Based on a mixed-method approach, this article aims at exploring the specialized forms of interviewing that are used as resources in television broadcast news production. Interviews are analysed as functionally specialized forms of interaction (cf. Heritage, 1985) with various functions in different phases of the news production. We assume that interviews are organized and carried out as communicative activities oriented towards specific tasks, i…
Towards a Multi‐level Approach on Frontline Interactions in the Public Sector
This study develops a multi‐level approach on frontline interactions in the public sector. Previous research suggests that detailed analyses of frontline interactions are essential to our understanding of how welfare services take shape when policies and rules are applied and negotiated in individual cases. The dynamics and performances of real‐time interactions have, however, rarely been analyzed as such. This study shows how the methods develop…
The Mediatization of Political Accountability
This study investigates how political accountability, as a key democratic principle, is performed in the media and how the practices and representations of accountability are transformed over time by the influences of mediatization. The implications of mediatization are analyzed with a focus on how aspects of media dramaturgy and independent journalism influence news reporting of political responsibility and how politicians are held to account in…
Family talk, peer talk and young people’s civic orientation
This study focuses on interpersonal communication in the family and among peers in order to empirically examine the general idea that everyday civic talk might develop young people’s civic orientation. Two questions are addressed: (1) What is the significance of civic talk in relation to key dimensions of young people’s civic orientation? (2) What does civic talk in peer settings specifically contribute to young people’s civic orientation? The st…
Announced refusal to answer
This article investigates the announced refusal to answer as a form of dispreferred and challenging response in broadcast political interviews. The aim is to study how the rightness and wrongness of conduct is dealt with in situations of announced refusal. More specifically, the paper focuses on: (1) announced refusal as a particular type of conduct; (2) the orientation to norms and accountability in situations of announced refusal; (3) how the l…
The Complex Visual Gendering of Political Women in the Press
In this article, we present an analysis of how gendering is “being done” in press visuals of women in politics. In short, we will argue that women professionals working within the area of politics are gendered and type-cast in more complex ways than previous research has yet shown. In a qualitative analysis of visuals from three different political scandals in Sweden involving prominent political women, we analyse the diversified ways of portrayi…
Journalism and Local Politics
Political accountability is defined as an important aspect of scrutiny. By analysing newspapers at three different points in time (1961, 1981 and 2001), this study suggests that the kind of scrutiny often mentioned in the literature, characterised by thorough investigations and disclosures of political wrongdoings, barely exists in the local press. By identifying other forms of scrutiny more closely related to ordinary news reporting, the study s…
The termination of complaints in calls to an authority for student support
Biased Interrogations
This study, based on Swedish data from three elections (2002, 2006 and 2010) and on a revised version of Clayman's and Heritage's conceptualization of aggressive questioning, examines bias in election campaign interviews with leading political figures. In the first part of the study, the prevalence of partisan bias is explored, and this analysis confirms that such bias does not exist. Informed by Conversation Analysis, a limited number of intervi…
Relocation and Health Effects on the Elderly A Commented Research Review
This paper summarizes and comments on the research on the relationship between relocation and morbidity/mortality among the elderly. In the present state of research there are not sufficient grounds for the drawing of general conclusions. On the other hand there is good reason for assuming that relocation under certain circumstances and for certain groups does lead to ill-health and to an increase in mortality. There is a lack of studies devoted …
Causal Explanation of Social Action
Causal explanations of social actions are central to modern as well as to classic sociology Even in its revised form. the most influential causal theory - the covering law theory- has not proved particularly fruitful for the study of social action. But there are alternative and potentially more fruitful theories. This article presents Weber's methodology and critical realism as two different contributions to a generative view of causality in soci…
Sociologiska förklaringar och variabelanalysens gränser. En kritisk analys med exempel från medicinsk sociologi
Sociological explanation and the limits of variable analysis. A critical analysis with examples from medical sociologyIn this article there is presented a critical analysis of variable-oriented methodology and its possibilities of generating sociological explanations, this with concrete examples from medical sociology. Three types of causal explanations are identified: (1) causality as quantitative distributions, (2) causality as substantial and …
Elderly people's experiences of housing renewal and forced relocation
Transformation of the urban environment, forcing people to leave their homes either temporarily or permanently, is a widespread phenomenon in the Western world. To those whose homes are affected, the process often has a strong emotional meaning. This article shows how various contributions to a sociology of emotions together can deepen our knowledge of the socio‐psychological mechanisms that lie behind elderly people's greatly varying emotional e…
Debatt. Om den förmenta läsningen av ”Variabelanalysensgränser” - Svar till Olle Lundberg
Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv
Debatt. Finns det för få orsaker inom sociologin?- En replik till diskussionen om det oförklarade
Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv
Förord
Attraktionens tv-journalistik
TV-journalism of attractionThe contemporary media society is characterized by an overabundance of information, messages and images, but a shortage of attention. The competition for the attention of potential audiences, and the problem of audience appeal, has become an increasingly important aspect of journalism and media production. Journalism that does not succeed in this competition is a dead journalism. This article presents a conceptual frame…
Sociologisk Forskning behövs
Rejoinder: The need for Sociologisk ForskningIn this rejoinder, it is argued that there is still a need for a disciplinary journal for Swedish sociology. The authors agree upon the need to revitalise Sociologisk Forskning, but are critical to the proposal to transform it into a more popular scientific journal, with an aim to become a part of the general public debate. The internationalisation and specialisation of the Swedish sociological communi…
Information, storytelling and attractions
The competition for the attention of potential audiences, and the problem of audience appeal, has become an increasingly important aspect of TV journalism. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual framework for studies of TV journalism as communication; including different intentions, strategies applied to appeal to viewers, processes of production, bases for audience involvement, roles and relations. I differentiate three modes of comm…
Politicians Interviewed on Television News
The power relationships and discursive strategies inherent in the interview as a mode of conversation, production and presentation are fundamental conditions for politics in the mediated public sphere. The journalistic interview sets the terms for politicians' public communication and appearances. This article is based on analyses of 124 broadcast news items which included interviews with Swedish politicians. The analyses are inspired by conversa…
Epistemologies of TV journalism
This article sketches a theoretical framework for studies of the epistemologies of journalism. In this context epistemology does not refer to philosophical inquiries into the nature of true knowledge but to the study of knowledge-producing practices and communication of knowledge claims. The focus in the article is mainly on TV journalism. The theoretical framework distinguishes three fundamental areas and three main questions for research on the…
Explaining Society
This book will be immensely valuable for students and researchers in social science, sociology and philosophy in that it connects methodology, theory and empirical research. It provides an innovative picture of what society and social science is, along with the methods used to study and explain social phenomena
Journalism and Local Politics
Political accountability is defined as an important aspect of scrutiny. By analysing newspapers at three different points in time (1961, 1981 and 2001), this study suggests that the kind of scrutiny often mentioned in the literature, characterised by thorough investigations and disclosures of political wrongdoings, barely exists in the local press. By identifying other forms of scrutiny more closely related to ordinary news reporting, the study s…
Conversation Analysis in Journalism Studies
Bringing theoretical perspectives into fields where they have not been used before is an important impetus in research innovations. In journalism studies we have a long tradition of using social an
Talk scandals
The Complex Visual Gendering of Political Women in the Press
In this article, we present an analysis of how gendering is “being done” in press visuals of women in politics. In short, we will argue that women professionals working within the area of politics are gendered and type-cast in more complex ways than previous research has yet shown. In a qualitative analysis of visuals from three different political scandals in Sweden involving prominent political women, we analyse the diversified ways of portrayi…
Power and affiliation in presidential press conferences
Presidential press conference is an enduring form for public interrogations. Interaction in this context regulates and symbolizes relations of power, autonomy and affiliation between the President and the journalists. A general argument is that we have to study sequences of interaction in order to understand the roles and relations established in press conferences. The article investigates interruptions, and jokes and laughter. The study is based…
Journalism, News Sources and Public Relations
The manufacture of news, unlike other forms of production, relies on inputs from individuals and organisations located outside the formal news organisation in which production takes place (Franklin 1997, pp. 19-21). They are not paid in the usual sense of that word for their contribution and they are not subject to managerial authority. And yet they are vital to the news production process. Their cooperation and participation in the processes of …
Announced refusal to answer
This article investigates the announced refusal to answer as a form of dispreferred and challenging response in broadcast political interviews. The aim is to study how the rightness and wrongness of conduct is dealt with in situations of announced refusal. More specifically, the paper focuses on: (1) announced refusal as a particular type of conduct; (2) the orientation to norms and accountability in situations of announced refusal; (3) how the l…
Interview Bites” in Television News Production and Presentation
This study focuses on how interviewees' utterances are used as resources in news production processes. We examine how these communicative units, here labelled “interview bites”, are integrated in every major aspect of the news production process as well as in the presentation of news reports. Basically, we argue that an interview bite operates in three distinct ways, as (1) a format, (2) a mental representation, and (3) an artefact. Although we c…
Beyond the Broadcast Interview
Based on a mixed-method approach, this article aims at exploring the specialized forms of interviewing that are used as resources in television broadcast news production. Interviews are analysed as functionally specialized forms of interaction (cf. Heritage, 1985) with various functions in different phases of the news production. We assume that interviews are organized and carried out as communicative activities oriented towards specific tasks, i…
Talking Politics in Broadcast Media
This book is a collection of studies on political interaction in a variety of broadcast, namely news and current affairs programs, political interviews, audience participation programs and radio phone-ins. Following a growing scholarly interest in political discourses, dialogic forms of news production and media talk in general, a number of internationally acclaimed scholars investigate the discursive and interactional practices that give rise to…
Talking politics in broadcast media
The joint construction of a journalistic expert identity in studio interactions between journalists on TV news
The overall aim of this study is to examine how journalistic expert identities are constructed and displayed in the context of intraprofessional journalist-to-journalist interviews on live television news. Previous research has, in detail, explored how journalists orient to the identity of a critical and impartial interrogator, especially in political news interviews. By focusing on journalistic expert identities, this article contributes to a wi…
Sociology (68 obras) · Political science (66 obras) · Law (42 obras) · Media studies (39 obras) · Politics (36 obras) · Law (35 obras) · Social Media and Politics (34 obras) · Computer Science (30 obras) · Media Studies and Communication (29 obras) · Public relations (28 obras)