ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origins of media systems in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, is to try to go beyond the conventional perceptions in Nordic media studies. It approaches the questions by analysing the diverging roots of Nordic media systems, with a particular focus on the influences shaping national press systems on the establishment of broadcast media in the 1920s. The chapter discusses the transnational heritages of Nordic media and the way in which they have been adopted in the single Nordic countries and/or mixed with already existing or emerging national, societal and public conditions. The development of Nordic media is discussed with references to other signs of Nordic particularism, such as the welfare state system, democratic capitalism and social-democratic political hegemony. The chapter addresses previous conceptualizations of media systems, as well as offering the images of Nordic media systems that predominates the most important contemporary academic works in media and communication studies.
