The Danish Media by Cecilie Huss

Cecilie 2.p 10/25/2007
“Presentation of the Danish society – the media”

The Danish Media

In my presentation of the media in Denmark, I have focused on the public service concept and its importance for democracy, and also the internet as a new media. To illustrate this I have made an interview with Tøger Seidenfaden, who’s the editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper “Politiken”.

Public service

TV and radio is relatively expensive to produce, especially in a small country like Denmark. Therefore public service, where the media receives money from the state, is an important contribution to ensure quality and versatility in the media information- stream. In this way public service makes sure, that the media is not only owned by special economic and political interest groups, who in that way could ensure only positive accounts in the media of themselves. On the importance of a free press, Tøger Seidenfaden, editor-in-chief of Politiken states: “a free and independent press is crucial for a democracy. First and foremost, because to the majority of the population, the media is their primary source of information to be informed about what is happening in society. Also, the media is a precondition for popularly elected politicians to speak and raise critical questions”. Therefore, the press must accept that one of its most important duties is to ensure an open debate about the developments of society. For that reason, the critical press plays an important part in a country like Denmark, where democracy and freedom of the press are concepts to which we attach great importance.

The internet as a new media

A growing number of the Danes use the internet as a news service, in stead of reading the newspapers. With the internet it’s possible to post news in just a few minutes compared to the newspapers, which takes longer time to print. This puts pressure on the traditional media – like the newspapers – and forces them to concentrate more efforts on their web-editorial. According to Tøger Seidenfaden, the newspapers this time plays a central part in the development – compared to the newspapers adjustment to TV. “The internet is a positive challenge – which of course forces the newspaper to be even more quality-conscious, when it has to survive on other things than breaking news”, says Tøger Seidenfaden, when questioned about the quality of the Danish media answers: “By international standard we have a very good press in Denmark – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t become any better”.

By: Cecilie Huss – 2.p Ordrup Gymnasium