The project aims to study the process of concentration and its consequences for journalism in Norwegian newspapers the last 15 years.
Orkla is one of four major owners of newspapers in the Norwegian market. Contrasting the three others, Schibsted, Adresseavisen and A-pressen, Orkla is a quite new owner, buying its first paper 15-years ago and today controlling more than 10 percent of the total circulation of newspapers. The industry-conglomerate Orkla is also new in the sense that it has no outspoken ideological reasons for being in the newspaper market, while Schibsted has a conservative profile and the A-pressen is owned by the Labour party and owns most of the papers supporting Labour.
By circulation the four newspaper-chains controls appx. 60 percent of norwegian newspapers (1995).
In the public debate it has been warned against the escalating concentration of the press. The concentration may lead to a less diversified press and thereby threaten freedom of speech. But it has hitherto not been made any empirical studies evaluating this aspect of concentration in Norway.
The methodological approach will take place within the framework of case-studies. The object of the studies will be the most important papers in the Orkla system. I intend to follow a two-step strategy, combining first interviews and document analysis with, second, content analysis. The function of the interviews and document analysis will be to generate hypothesis which will be tested by content analysis.
The project started 1 August 1995, and is scheduled to be completed by 31 July 1999.