Nordic Media Histories of Propaganda and Persuasion

This open access edited volume shines new light on the history of propaganda and persuasion during the Nordic welfare epoch. A common analytical framework is developed that highlights transnational and transmedial perspectives rather than national or monomedial histories. The return of propaganda in contemporary debate underlines the need to historically contextualize the role and function of persuasive communication activities in the Nordic region and beyond. Building on an empirically situated approach, the chapters in this volume break new ground by covering a range of themes, from cultural diplomacy and nation branding to media materiality and information infrastructures. In doing so, the book stresses that the Nordic welfare epoch, with its associated epithet the “Nordic Model”, was built not only on governance, social security and economic productivity, but also on propaganda and persuasion.

Fredrik Norén is a Senior Research Assistant at Humlab – the digital humanities hub at Umeå University, Sweden – with a PhD in media and communication. He has published research related to media history, governmental information and computational text analysis. Emil Stjernholm is an Assistant Professor in media and communication studies at Lund University, Sweden. His areas of research include film and television history, propaganda studies and visual communication. C. Claire Thomson is Professor of Cinema History at UCL, UK. She is the author of Short Films from a Small Nation: Danish Informational Cinema 1935-65 (2018) and co-editor of A History of Danish Cinema (2021). Her current research focuses on film and public health and unrealised films.