Mediestöd för lokal journalistik: ett Bamseplåster på ett björnbett eller en gedigen räddningsaktion i demokratins namn? : Om reaktionen på en politisk åtgärd i ett krisande medielandskap

Due to contemporary challenges for the Swedish media landscape, the Swedish parliament decided to establish a new policy for governmental financial support for commercial media: support for local journalism. This study aims to examine how those supposed to receive and implement this policy – producers of local journalism – reflects and reacts upon its intentions as well as shape during the running implementation process in 2019 and identify a policy reaction. The empirical body is built upon descriptions of reality collected by interviews and official documents, and the empirical material has been examined through semi-structural interviews and document analysis. Although the policy reaction among the media actors is partly positive, it also consists of uncertainty. Policy receivers agree with the policy’s intentions and are committed to put through interventions to strengthen local media surveillance, but the policy’s shape results in short term solutions when it comes to practice. Overall the policy suffers from an absence of long-term stability, which is requested by the media actors. Moreover, the media actors require holistic media political efforts to truly fulfil the support’s purpose. The credibility of the political efforts for support the media market is therefore insufficient