Boundary work in the Nordic media model: Metajournalistic discourse on alternative media in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden

The increasing prominence of alternative news media has been identified as a particular challenge to contemporary established journalism, next to collapsing financial models, platform dependency, falling levels of trust and increased competition. Against this background, this study examines how news editors from 23 established news organizations in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark view the rise and role of alternative news media and thereby the boundaries of the journalistic field. Combining strategic action field theory, boundary work and the concept of metajournalistic discourse, it identifies three metajournalistic discourses—We are the (real) journalists, We are in control (for now), and We are under pressure. Together, these metajournalistic discourses portray alternative news media as a challenge that largely has been overcome, and as currently insignificant actors that clearly do not represent “real journalism”. At the same time, the discourses also display concerns that alternative news media might represent potential future field ruptures via their association with broader potentially detrimental media developments, such as genre-confused media audiences or harassment of journalists.