Indications of change * Developments in Swedish Media 1980-1990

Abstract. In this article we analyze the development of Swedish Media since the late 1970s in terms of structure, organization and output. The article is structured in two main parts. We analyze the structure and the output of Swedish media 1980- 1990, and then we try to understand the Swedish media development in terms of the political, economic and social tendencies of Sweden during the same period of time. Four general trends in Swedish media are identified. The first trend is the increase in the output of most mass media. Secondly, the intemationalization of the media contents is analyzed. The third is the increasing localization and regionalization of the media production. The final general trend identified, is the decreasing public control, and the increasing privatization of Swedish media. These trends are finally understood in the context of changes in the Swedish society during the same period of time. Is there a change? Reports of media developments in individual European countries during the 1980s almost unanimously stress the transitions taking place. In Western Europe the background and consequences of both media concentration and the increasing sector of private broadcasting have been focused in the 1980s (cf. McQuail-Siune, 1986). Studies of media development in Eastern Europe have centred on the role of the media in the general change of the political environment. They have demonstrated how the political develop-*Part of this article has been published in Swedish (Spring, 1991). A longer version entitled &dquo;Signs of Change- Swedish Media in Transition&dquo; has been published in Nordicom Review and will be published in the Nordicom Information, a newsletter published by a Nordic Body, in 1992, as part of a presentation of Nordic Media Systems in transition