Maria Elisabeth Nilsson Professor

Maria Nilsson is Professor of Journalism Studies in the Department of Media Studies, with previous faculty appointments at the University of Iowa (Ph. D. in Communication Studies and M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing), Uppsala University and Mid Sweden University. Her research interests—with visual communication and in particular photography as a near-constant focus—include the politics of representation, credibility and agency in different media practices, and visual journalism and journalism in various contexts, including post-authoritarian Spain and contemporary Sweden. She initiated and co-directed the first major Swedish study of how digitization has affected photojournalism, a three-year project (2013-2016) funded by the Ann Marie and Gustaf Anders Foundation for Media Research and housed at DEMICOM Research Center (Mid Sweden University). Her recent work focuses on photojournalism and editorial processes, news photography and ethics, and citizen eye-witnessing in the news. In an ongoing project, she examines how news outlets handle fact checking and ethical dimensions of images of the war in Ukraine, with findings published in the monograph:

Visual Journalism and Verification at War: Norwegian and Swedish News Outlets Covering Ukraine (Routledge, 2025).

Her research has also appeared in international peer-reviewed journals, including Journalism, Journalism Practice, Nordicom Review, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Imaginations, as well as in anthologies, most recently contributing to The Routledge Handbook to Visual Journalism edited by Nicle Dahmen and T. J. Thomson (2025).