Communication rights and the Nordic epistemic commons : Assessing the media welfare state in the age of information disorder

Information disorder occurs when the fact-based, reliable, and professionally validated provision of information becomes confronted by information that attacks previously trusted media platforms, disputes the known or scientifically validated facts, or uses rumours and gossip as sources. Information disorder intensifies during turbulent times, as evidenced by the global rise of xenophobic movements, disbelief in science, and belief in conspiracies. Although Nordic countries fare remarkably well by many measures that assess democratic and robust communication environments, they also face these challenges. In this chapter, we view the Nordic media welfare state as ideally entailing an epistemic commons – a shared forum for trustworthy knowledge and culture – that supports citizens’ communication rights of access to and availability of diverse content, as well as privacy and dialogical public communication. Based on these key principles embedded in the Nordic media welfare state model, we assess its present condition by employing the framework of communication rights as our analytical tool. We argue that rights-based approaches in policy and practice are essential if a Nordic digital media welfare state is to be realised and maintained.