Trine Syvertsen

“The digital backlash” covers a range of social and cultural practices of digital disconnection, as well as critiques of the impact of digital technologies and platforms in the world today. Through calls for more restrictive, or more “mindful”, uses of digital technologies, “mobile-free” schools, work regulations along the lines of a “right to disconnect” framework, the rise of new entrepreneurs in the growing “digital detox” industry, as well as critiques of the role of Big Tech – society is deliberating on the stakes of the digital for the human condition. The digital backlash can best be described as a kind of zeitgeist: a moment in history in which the norms about digital behaviour, consumption, and habits are being questioned, and where the early hype of the digital era beginning in the 1990s is being challenged. This edited volume offers a collection of empirical and theoretical analyses of the digital backlash as it manifests across national, institutional, and everyday contexts. The contributions span analyses of discourses and public debates around disconnection and the so-called techlash, the ambiguities and tensions of digital connectivity for work, labour, and productivity, the reordering of family and school life along with the perceived negative consequences of digital connectivity for the well-being of children and young people, as well as the playful and sometimes subversive recreational practices that people reinvent in search of authenticity as a response to all things digital. A distinct focus is placed on social practices and dilemmas related to new ways that people adapt to, appropriate, and push back against digital technologies in everyday life.

Social media and smartphones are criticised for being addictive, destroying personal relationships, undermining productivity, and invading privacy. In this book, Trine Syvertsen explores the phenomenon of digital detox: users taking a break from digital media or adopting measures to limit smartphone and social media use. Based on studies, documents, media texts and interviews with media users, Syvertsen discusses how media industries intensify the quest for attention, how companies and governments team up to get everybody online, and how the main responsibility for managing online risks and problems are placed on the users' shoulders. She provides a rich account of how users reduce their online engagement through time-limitations, restrictions on smartphone use, productivity apps, and use of analogue media. Syvertsen shows how digital detoxing has much in common with other forms of self-help such as mindfulness, decluttering and simple living and places digital detox within a culture of self-optimisation. But digital detox is also about sustaining face-to-face conversations, better work-life-balance, a deeper connection with nature and more meaningful interpersonal relationships. With a wealth of examples, analyses and stories, Digital Detox is a valuable guide to why digital detox and disconnection has become a topic, how it is practised, what it says about the state of media industries and how people express resistance in the 21st century.

This book is open access under a CC BY license. New media divide opinion; many are fascinated while others are disgusted. This book is about those who dislike, protest, and try to abstain from media, both new and old. It explains why media resistance persists and answers two questions: What is at stake for resisters and how does media resistance inspire organized action? Despite the interest in media scepticism and dislike, there seems to be no book on the market discussing media resistance as a phenomenon in its own right. This book explores resistance across media, historical periods and national borders, from early mass media to current digital media. Drawing on cases and examples from the US, Britain, Scandinavia and other countries, media resistance is discussed as a diverse phenomenon encompassing political, professional, networked and individual arguments and actions.

This book is open access under a CC BY license. New media divide opinion; many are fascinated while others are disgusted. This book is about those who dislike, protest, and try to abstain from media, both new and old. It explains why media resistance persists and answers two questions: What is at stake for resisters and how does media resistance inspire organized action? Despite the interest in media scepticism and dislike, there seems to be no book on the market discussing media resistance as a phenomenon in its own right. This book explores resistance across media, historical periods and national borders, from early mass media to current digital media. Drawing on cases and examples from the US, Britain, Scandinavia and other countries, media resistance is discussed as a diverse phenomenon encompassing political, professional, networked and individual arguments and actions.

The Media Welfare State: Nordic Media in the Digital Era comprehensively addresses the central dynamics of the digitalization of the media industry in the Nordic countries—Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland—and the ways media organizations there are transforming to address the new digital environment. Taking a comparative approach, the authors provide an overview of media institutions, content, use, and policy throughout the region, focusing on the impact of information and communication technology/internet and digitalization on the Nordic media sector. Illustrating the shifting media landscape the authors draw on a wide range of cases, including developments in the press, television, the public service media institutions, and telecommunication.

The Media Welfare State: Nordic Media in the Digital Era comprehensively addresses the central dynamics of the digitalization of the media industry in the Nordic countries—Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland—and the ways media organizations there are transforming to address the new digital environment. Taking a comparative approach, the authors provide an overview of media institutions, content, use, and policy throughout the region, focusing on the impact of information and communication technology/internet and digitalization on the Nordic media sector. Illustrating the shifting media landscape the authors draw on a wide range of cases, including developments in the press, television, the public service media institutions, and telecommunication.

20. august 1960 gikk startskuddet for norsk tv. Denne boka er skrevet 50 år etter, og handler om de mange ulike aspektene ved tv: Fra tv som institusjon og kanal, til tv-markeder, regulering, produksjon, program og publikum. Selv om en rekke bøker analyserer tv fra ulike perspektiv, finnes det fra før av ingen norsk lærebok som samlet diskuterer tv ut i fra et slikt bredt perspektiv og som trekker tråder på tvers av ulike emner og felt. Denne boka belyser sentrale tendenser i tv-mediets utvikling, med særlig vekt på det siste tiåret. Selv om tv-mediet til alle tider har vært utsatt for endring, har utviklingstrekk som fragmentering, konvergens, globalisering og regionalisering de siste årene gitt tv-mediet helt bestemte utfordringer. Disse utfordringene søkes det mange og til dels nye svar på, og på ulike nivåer: politiske rammebetingelser, import av programformater, nye strategier for å skape allianser med publikum osv. Gjennom en blanding av komparative analyser og konkrete case-studier, diskuterer denne boka tv-mediets kulturelle og samfunnsmessige betydning i den digitale tidsalder, med stadige tilbakeblikk på fjernsynshistorien. Boka tar sikte på å beskrive sentrale aktører og tendenser i Norge, men også internasjonalt. Boka består av totalt 15 kapitler fordelt på tre hoveddeler: Samfunn og økonomi; Produksjon og program og Publikum og deltakelse. Underkapitlene inneholder analyser av tv på institusjons-, markeds-, regulerings-, produksjons-, program-, og publikumsnivå. Alle delene avsluttes med korte kapitler om hvordan man studerer de ulike aspektene ved tv. Boka er primært skrevet for studenter i medievitenskap på universitets- og høyskolenivå som ønsker å lære noe om tv, men kan også leses av andre med interesse for tv.