On 8 February, a symposium hosted by Nordicom and Nordregio brings together experts from the fields of media scholarship, industry, and policy to discuss critical communication infrastructures in the Nordics.
The debate will focus on whether the Nordic states are too reliant on tech giants to sustain the critical communication infrastructures of the welfare state. Three panels will discuss the issue from research, policy and industry perspective.
You can tune in for the discussion via a live stream on 8 February (11.00-16.00 CET). A recording of the debate will also be available online afterwards.
Programme
11:00 Welcome
11:15 Keynote – Gateways: Comparing Digital Communication Systems in Nordic Welfare States
- Sofie Flensburg and Signe Sophus Lai, assistant professors at University of Copenhagen
12:00 Break
13:00 Research panel: The preparedness of communication infrastructure in the Nordics
- Carl Heath, senior researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
- Signe Ravn-Højgaard, assistant professor at the University of Greenland
- Kaarina Nikunen, professor at Tampere University
- Julia Velkova, associate professor at Linköping University
13:40 Policy panel: Regulating critical communication infrastructures in the Nordics
- Teis Lebeck, head of section at the Danish Ministry for Digital Government
- Elfa Yr Gylfadottir, director of the Media Commission, Iceland
- Mari Velsand, director General at The Norwegian Media Authority
- Filippa Arvas Olsson, senior Adviser at the Swedish Ministry of Culture, Division for Media and Democracy
14:20 Break
14:40 Industry panel: The future infrastructure for democracy in the Nordics
- Tomas Granryd, head of Voice Products at Sveriges Radio
- Jon Wessel-Aas, lawyer at Lund & Co and Member of the Board of the Tinius Trust
- Karen Rønde, CEO at Danish Press Publications’ Collective Management Organisation
15:20 Discussion
16:00 Closing
See Nordicom’s website for more information about the symposium.
About the symposium
The symposium is funded by the research project The Datafication of Communicative Power: Towards an Independent Media Policy for Norway’s Digital Infrastructures, The Research Council of Norway (grant number 314257), led by Professor Helle Sjøvaag at the University of Stavanger, and convened by Nordicom and Nordregio as part of the 2024 Swedish Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
