ABSTRACT
The history of local media in Norway can be conceptualised as a story in which local, regional, indigenous and community media make up the backbone of the media structure. This chapter shows that understanding the history of local media means understanding the rise and growth of three central elements in the formation of Norwegian society: how the media, which initially only encompassed local newspapers, have voiced diverse political, economic and cultural interests; how the welfare state has shaped the communication structures and to some extent vice versa; and how local media and local journalism have been instrumental to two seemingly conflicting lines of development, namely standardisation and assimilation and diversity and localism. The structure of local media has been surprisingly stable over time, despite the digital transformation of production, distribution and consumption of local media over the past decades. Contrary to many predictions, the chapter argues that we do not see a massive and rapid decline in the number and consumption of local media; what can be observed is a slower, incremental change in which the media industry, journalism and consumers adapt to the digital, hybrid local media landscape.
