Urban activist gardening can take many forms and is practiced in cities all over the world from community gardens on vacant lots, that is, the cultivation of what is considered to be neglected land , to the cultivation of tree pits, and to moss graffiti on rocks, logs, pots or statuary. Without communicating these actions, we did not know anything about these movements. For instance, mass media has taken up this issue of transformation in several contributions. Most of the people know about it via mass media, that has frequently taken up activist gardening in cities. However, this paper explores how urban activist gardener themselves communicate their actions on websites. What are the selection criteria for dissemination information on their activities? How do they try to open up for participation for the “right” people?

This chapter takes as its point of departure a significant book that has inspired media and communication studies even though it treats issues of information and communication from a mathematical and technical angle. This chapter introduces Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver’s communication theory and its central concepts, which have been especially important in the field of media and communication studies, including the now-common terms information, selection, uncertainty and the (im)probability of communication. This chapter first reviews the mathematical theory of communication, as formulated by Shannon, and the additions provided by Weaver; it then briefly presents the criticism against this theory and how the theory has been used and further developed in fields such as cybernetics and systems theory.

The blogosphere supports an interpersonal meaning production process by providing the space and opportunities for communication through the circulation and discussion oftopics. Using systems theory, as developed by Niklas Luhmann, I explore how garden bloggers issue invitations to communicate by studying their selection process from all possible entries and images. I examine the selection criteria for posting an entry and especially look at Swedish and German garden blogs to study “ordinary” people’s relations in the blogosphere from the perspective of sharing opinions, impressions, and emotions about their garden environment. As a result, the selection criteria of novelty, values, identification, conflicts, visuality, and sociality are revealed. A communicative culture of approval, admiration, and respect, which promotes emotional ties and strengthens the feeling of common concerns in the blogosphere, is noticeably present.

The goal of this article is to explore the website communication of urban activist gardeners by focusing on the concept of ritual as a heuristic category. In contrast to the majority of those doing research on ritual, I use a systems-theoretical approach in applying the concept of ritual to communication processes. I explore the role played by ritual in communication in order to answer questions such as, “What is specifically unique about the ritual mode of communicating?” and, following from this, “What function do these rituals serve in communication?” My subject, urban garden activism, is thus addressed from the perspective of media- and communication research.

First, I briefly describe urban activist gardening and how communication is usually structured on their websites. Second, I present an outline of some theories and concepts of communication and ritual within media studies, and give a brief account of the systems-theoretical approach that I use. Third, I define some areas of ritual – that is, ritualized patterns of communication found in the urban activist gardeners’ empirical material – so as to provide answers regarding the means and function of ritual in communication.

What is necessary for minority media to be picked up on the radar of mainstream media? This report analyses Swedish media coverage of the Stockholm-based Radio Islam, and German media coverage of the Berlin-based AYPA-TV. Analysis is given from a difference-theoretical point of view, as developed by Niklas Luhmann. The case of Radio Islam, the repeatedly banned – for its broadcasts of hate – community radio station, takes its rightful place in Swedish history. It received intense media attention in the 1990s and provokes reaction even today. The second case, that of the local German-Turkish AYPA-TV, was not covered by the mainstream media to the same degree, but met the media’s criteria for being unusual. What caused these two cases to be taken on by the mainstream media?

The focus of this article is on the use of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theoretical approach in order to analyse interviews conducted with media workers concerning their experi­ences of ethnic diversity in newsrooms. Applying systems theory means constructing the interview as a social system and seeing the “data” as observations produced by the observer and not as representations of a reality. The first part of the article describes the interview methodology and the second part provides examples, from the current study, of how systems theory can be applied in order to analyse interviews. Using a difference-theoretical approach means looking at the distinctions the informants make when talking about their experiences. These main guiding distinctions can be summa­rised as immigrant background/competence as well as advantage/competence. Using the guiding distinction of inclusion/exclusion when interpreting the interviewees’ state­ments, the interdependencies of mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in newsrooms related to ethnic background can be examined

Det här kapitlet behandlar journalistik och etnisk mångfald ur ett medietext- och produktionsperspektiv. Kapitlet inkluderar inte etniska minoriteters reception av olika sorters medietexter.

Begreppet ”etnicitet” syftar på olika härkomst än den egna gruppen, som i detta kapitel är den nationella majoritetsgruppen. Som samlingsbegrepp används numera begreppet ”personer med utländsk bakgrund”, vilket avser personer som är utrikesfödda eller födda i Sverige med minst en utrikes född förälder (DS 2000:43). Framför allt i samband med forskningens historik inkluderas i kapitlet också nationella minoriteter, vilka fick officiellt erkännande i Sverige först 1999.

Fokus ligger på etnisk mångfald samt på nyhetsjournalistik i tv, radio och press. Därmed avgränsar sig kapitlet från frågor kring exempelvis kulturell mångfald, kön, funktionsnedsättning, sexuell läggning och ålder.

Efter en överblick över de mest relevanta teorierna och internationell forskning om journalistik och etnisk mångfald ges en mer detaljerad och kronologisk överblick över svensk forskning om ämnet.

Det här kapitlet behandlar journalistik och etnisk mångfald ur ett medietext- och produktionsperspektiv. Kapitlet inkluderar inte etniska minoriteters reception av olika sorters medietexter.

Begreppet ”etnicitet” syftar på olika härkomst än den egna gruppen, som i detta kapitel är den nationella majoritetsgruppen. Som samlingsbegrepp används numera begreppet ”personer med utländsk bakgrund”, vilket avser personer som är utrikesfödda eller födda i Sverige med minst en utrikes född förälder (DS 2000:43). Framför allt i samband med forskningens historik inkluderas i kapitlet också nationella minoriteter, vilka fick officiellt erkännande i Sverige först 1999.

Fokus ligger på etnisk mångfald samt på nyhetsjournalistik i tv, radio och press. Därmed avgränsar sig kapitlet från frågor kring exempelvis kulturell mångfald, kön, funktionsnedsättning, sexuell läggning och ålder.

Efter en överblick över de mest relevanta teorierna och internationell forskning om journalistik och etnisk mångfald ges en mer detaljerad och kronologisk överblick över svensk forskning om ämnet.

Det här kapitlet behandlar journalistik och etnisk mångfald ur ett medietext-och produktionsperspektiv. Kapitlet inkluderar inte  receptionen av olika sorters medietexter som adresserar mångfaldsperspektivet, det vill säga studier som behandlar invandrarnas och de nationella minoriteternas medieanvändning. Dessa studier nämns bara i samband med att de är viktiga för att förstå framförallt historiken kring den svenska forskningen om journalistik och etnisk mångfald. Begreppet ”etnicitet” syftar på olika härkomst än den egna gruppen, som i detta kapitel är den nationella majoritetsgruppen. Som samlingsbegrepp används numera begreppet ”personer med utländsk bakgrund”som är utrikesfödda eller födda i Sverige med minst en utrikesfödd förälder (DS 2000:43). Framför allt i samband med forskningens historik inkluderas i kapitlet också nationella minoriteter som först 1999 fick officiellt erkännande i Sverige. Fokus ligger på etnisk mångfald (och inte på kulturell mångfald i sig) samt på nyhetsjournalistik i tv, radio och press. Därmed avgränsar sig kapitlet från frågor kring kön, funktionsnedsättning, sexuell läggning och ålder. Efter en överblick över de mest relevanta teorierna och internationell forskning om journalistik och etnisk mångfald ges en mer detaljerad och kronologisk överblick över svensk forskning.

We know from research that news media create their preferred meanings of environmental issues, from the angle of problems and dangers (e.g. Roll-Hansen 2014, Foust, C. R. & O'Shannon Murphy, W., 2009). While some environmental events are associated with drama such as earthquakes, most of environmental phenomena are rather invisible such as the thinning of Earth’s protective ozone layer (Hansen 2010, 95). Also the time scale of most environmental issues does not fit to 24-hours news making such as climate change. It needs a great deal of journalistic work to make such phenomena visible. Hence, to fit in to conventional news format, mainstream media “over-report the risks generating by acute crises” (Allan de. 2000, in Cox 2013, 167).This paper discusses the consequences of news media’s coverage of environmental issues as threats and dangers. Fear has emerged as a framework for engaging in ecological issues. Danger and fear are perceived as a central feature of our environment. We take it for granted that our physical environment is in danger, something we are afraid of. Fear cannot be forbidden or scholarly falsified, and is therefore not contested in social communication (Luhmann 1989). Fear is just there.The constant concern about risks and dangers leads to the impression that nothing is harmless and all is contaminated. It promotes a sense of disorder and a belief that things are out of control (Luhmann, 1989, 189). It reproduces itself and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (Altheide, 2002, 189. The problem lies less in the psychical reality of fear and anxiety but in the communicative actuality in society. “If anxiety is communicated but not contested in the communication, it acquires a moral existence” (Luhmann, 1989, 130). Those who  uses this frame is morally in the right.  “It becomes a duty to worry, and a right to expect participation in fears and to require standards for defense against danger. Those who worries… become warner with all risks that it implies” (Luhmann, 1989, 130). It implies, for instance, for scientific arguments that they are in a difficult position when arguing against anxiety-related issues. It implies also that the fear frame does not allow for the arguing of any progress that possibly has been made concerning environmental issues. In this way, environmental communication is infused with morality, based on fear and/or anxiety frame and, hence, it makes it difficult for controversies. However, only the future can show whether the fear has been justified.

This article explores the relationship between online and offline practices in the special case of forced migration. By applying a central category in social relations, trust/distrust as developed by Niklas Luhmann, this article contributes to the understanding of forced migration in the digital age. It presupposes that, without a strategy of trust, it would be almost impossible to cope with situations of unfamiliarity and uncertainty. By interviewing refugees, the questionis in what contexts the refugee recognizes that they can trust (or not). The article concludes that through the combination of on- and offline communication practices, more varied mechanisms for the creation and stabilization of trust are provided. In contexts of unfamiliarity, interpersonal relations with the native inhabitants play an important role in bridging online and offline worlds.

This paper gives first insights into a new research project (started in January 2021) about ”migrant voices”. We study different media initiatives and media productions by migrants or people with migrant backgrounds from different generations and in different countries (Sweden, Germany, Estonia). The term “migrant media” holds the idea that migrants make their own content, that is, they have editorial control, and tell their own stories purposefully and intentionally. This is a field that has only received marginal attention in the wider field of media and communication studies. Since the technical preconditions for speech, e.g. for participating in the public sphere are enhanced due to digital communication technologies, digital voices of the migrants have the potential to counteract a dominant mainstream media discourse. 

In order to explore forms of “listening” and “talking back”, I focus on a podcast named “Kanackische Welle” with 42 episodes (June 2021) that gained wider attention in the German public sphere. The topic of living in a multi-cultural society in general and racism in Germany in particular are widely discussed in this podcast. This paper asks how the producers work in order to amplify their voice beyond their own migrant community. What kind of voices, narratives and frames are privileged by this media? 

This podcast shows how it is possible to add new voices to the wider public sphere by addressing issues from perspectives that are usually not or only marginally noticed. The question of racism is not new, but the angle of everyday stereotyping and hierarchization of cultures and shades of skin color, and privileges of white people are hardly discussed. The issues are both treated in a “we and them” manner but also in self-reflective way. Guests are usually invited in order to deepen the conversation and to give a broader view. It is not done in a pro and contra manner but rather in an informal way of common understanding of the relevance of the issue by e.g. sharing expert knowledge in order to understand the roots and causes for widespread racist thinking. Already from the beginning, the hosts and guests agree upon the importance of the issue and want to clarify the problem. 

Actually, this media production is an example of how to make the media landscape more diverse. Benefitting from the status of being trained journalists and having a journalistic network behind, gave the hosts good starting opportunities for gaining attention and recognition from mainstream media and, therefore, a path into the wider public sphere and outside one’s own community. The combination of status and thoughtful treatment of complex issues in a playful way, especially target at the younger generation, has opened the door for recognition from mainstream media. The perspectives addressed in the podcast are “currently very requested” by mainstream media (Krone 2020) because they attract migrant communities and especially a younger audience, something that, mainstream media often have not succeeded with.

In contrast to other branches, media companies are criticized as ‘lagging behind’ in becoming ethnically diverse, and they are too slow in making progress of diversity efforts (e.g. Horsti & Hultén, 2011; Graf, 2011; Markova & McKay, 2013, Horsti et al 2014). For example, when it comes to media professionals with migrant backgrounds, the numbers are very low: Only three percent of journalists have a migrant background according to a survey of the German Journalist Association in 2007 (Poettker 2013). Especially, black television journalists in Germany are rare. There are no news anchors of African origin, and there are only a few isolated cases of entertainment programs, where black journalists are in front of a camera.

This paper examines how media companies assess the importance of this issue of diverse workforce. As I am especially interested in the workforce (and not in programming), I have mainly interviewed 10 HR managers and staff who are responsible for personnel development and diversity issues within German media organizations during the fall of 2013 and the spring of 2014, and looked at their documented policies and diversity programs. In this paper, I focus on how HR managers, mainly from private media companies, observe the communication climate for diversity issues in their organization, and how they address recruitment obstacles.  More concretely, I want to explore, first, how the topic of a diverse workforce becomes an organizational problem (or not), and, second, which solutions appear and on the basis of which expectations.

At times of medialization, there is a  low threshold for producing media content. A plethora of media productions have arisen where immigrants and their descendants create addressable spaces. The challenge for today’s marginalized communities is not necessarily being denied a communication channel but rather an audience that listens. This article explores how post-migrant voices, consisting of an example from a German podcast, are made relevant in the public sphere by looking at connecting communications from corporate media. Considering the news media logic is asuccessful strategy to get attention from legacy media. The podcasts’ treatment of the topic of racism offers connectivity possibilities in terms of novelty, proximity, conflict, and personalization. The podcast also functions as a rich source for corporate media.

This chapter examines ‘ordinary’ people’s media communication about environmental issues. I have chosen the example of garden blogs. They fall under the category of topic-centred blogs; themes concerning gardens/gardening are expected and communicated through narratives, comments, and images. Based on approximately 50 Swedish and German blogs and a qualitative, difference-theoretical analysis, I want to examine how they communicate ecological concerns from the angle of gardeners’ everyday ‘banalities’. To this end, I examine the communicative patterns which increase the likelihood of interconnected communication within the blogosphere, patterns which, in turn, create virtual collectives, and can support ecological roles in the garden. Blog entries relate to the blog’s own mode of operation and that of its network, meaning that the topics addressed are those that have the potential quality of ‘embracing’ all the people interested in the network. As a result, blog entries addressing ecological concerns focus on topics of consumption and production through the communication frames of pleasure, enthusiasm, and mutual agreement. 

How do we talk about the environment? Does this communication reveal and construct meaning? Is the environment expressed and foregrounded in the new landscape of digital media?The Environment in the Age of the Internet is an interdisciplinary collection that draws together research and answers from media and communication studies, social sciences, modern history, and folklore studies. Edited by Heike Graf, its focus is on the communicative approaches taken by different groups to ecological issues, shedding light on how these groups tell their distinctive stories of "the environment". This book draws on case studies from around the world and focuses on activists of radically different kinds: protestors against pulp mills in South America, resistance to mining in the Sámi region of Sweden, the struggles of indigenous peoples from the Arctic to the Amazon, gardening bloggers in northern Europe, and neo-Nazi environmentalists in Germany. Each case is examined in relation to its multifaceted media coverage, mainstream and digital, professional and amateur.Stories are told within a context; examining the "what" and "how" of these environmental stories demonstrates how contexts determine communication, and how communication raises and shapes awareness. These issues have never been more urgent, this work never more timely. The Environment in the Age of the Internet is essential reading for everyone interested in how humans relate to their environment in the digital age.

The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies has generously contributed towards the publication of this volume.