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Maria Elisabeth Nilsson

About me

I am Associate Professor of Journalism 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. My 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. I 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). My current research focuses on photojournalism and editorial processes, news photography and ethics, and citizen eye-witnessing in the news. In an ongoing project, I examine how news organizations handle fact checking and ethical dimensions of images of the war in Ukraine. My research has 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 (2022) in a history of photography in Swedish context--Fotografihistorier: Bildbruk och fotografi i Sverige från 1839 till idag (Ed. Anna Näslund Dahlgren).

I am co-chair of the Visual Communication and Culture temporary working group of the NordMedia conference.

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Nyhetsbilden berättar och provocerar

    2022. Maria Nilsson. Källkritik och krig, 97-107

    Chapter

    Nyhetsbilden har fått en framträdande roll som den svenska allmänhetens första kontakt med kriget i Ukraina. Den fotografiska bilden har en unik förmåga att både ge information om vad som pågår och skapa närhet. Samtidigt har kriget utmanat redaktionella rutiner och normer.Kapitlet handlar om svenska redaktioners bildurval från den pågående konflikten i Ukraina. Genom en kvantitativ bildanalys och intervjuer med ansvariga för publicering och bildproduktion vid tre rikstäckande nyhetsmedier, Dagens Nyheter (DN), Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) och Aftonbladet (AB), söker jag besvara följande frågor. ·       Hur visualiseras konflikten och dess effekt på befolkningen i Ukraina? ·       Vilka faktorer spelar in i svåra publiceringsbeslut, såsom etik, händelseutvecklingen, och tillgång till bildmaterial? ·       Hur har konflikten påverkat redaktionella rutiner och normer för bildpublicering?  Syftet är att bidra med kunskap om bildjournalistikens roll i bevakning av krig och kriser, ett område som sällan har uppmärksammats i svensk medieforskning. 

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  • Spaces of empathy: Visual strategies in photojournalistic imagery of migration

    2022. Maria Nilsson. Imaginations: Journal of cross-cultural image studies 13 (2)

    Article

    This essay explores visual representations of migration by drawing on a Swedish case to reflect on broader questions regarding the position of the witness, including the photographer and the distant spectator, and on how photographs may contribute to an understanding of the experience of forced migration. Through an interpretative analysis of imagery recognized by the Swedish Picture of the Year contest, I identified mostly empathetic visualizations, according to the five positions of visibility suggested by Chouliaraki and Stolic. Engaging a different set of imagery, I delved into an extended exploration of one family over a span of four years as a narrative of lived experiences of forced migration. Methodologically, this essay begins within the area of photojournalism, but suggests the inclusion of varied visual forms and genres in the empirical materials.

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  • Expendable or valuable?: Photojournalism in five Swedish newspapers affected by organizational changes

    2021. Maria Nilsson. Journalistica 15 (1), 33-58

    Article

    This study explores the impact of organizational changes on news-paper photo departments, an area of newsrooms that has arguably been particularly affected by structural changes in the field of jour-nalism. Through qualitative interviews with editors responsible for photojournalism at five Swedish newspapers that have experienced recent changes to photo staffing and routines for the sourcing of images, the study explores the following questions: Which routines do the newspapers have for sourcing images, in terms of in-house staff and external sources? How do notions of visual quality and external factors, such as audiences and competition, contribute to shaping the newspapers’ visual strategies? Findings indicate that newspapers rely on staff photojournalists for unique and in-depth coverage, but less for routine and breaking news. A certain expansion of photojournalism was found in some newsrooms where it is seen as a competitive edge; which, in part, challenges a “discourse of doom.” An uncertainty about the support for visual strategies in newsrooms lacking visual leadership was also found. 

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  • An Ethics of (Not) Showing: Citizen Witnessing, Journalism and Visualizations of a Terror Attack

    2020. Maria Nilsson. Journalism Practice 14 (3), 259-276

    Article

    This paper explores how news organizations visualize crises in a digital media ecology shaped by citizen witnessing and widespread image circulation on social media. Empirically, the paper draws on the events of 7 April 2017 in Stockholm when a hijacked truck plowed into crowds, killing five and injuring several others. The study is informed by theoretical perspectives and research on citizen photojournalism and witnessing, and examines the function of visual citizen contributions, degrees of explicitness in visual coverage and the impact of proximity on visualizations of crises. Qualitative analyses of visual content and text in digital and print editions of four Swedish newspapers showed both enhancing and featured positioning of visual eyewitness contributions from the public, few examples of explicit imagery, and journalistic commentary foregrounding ethical dimensions of showing and seeing. Based on the findings, the author considers journalism’s civic response as a strategy for staking a claim to credibility and ethics at a moment when the journalistic gatekeeping position is called into question.

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  • Visualizing the experience of flight: photojournalistic portraits and refiugee migration

    2020. Maria Nilsson. Novos olhares: revista de estudos sobre práticas de recepção a produtos mediáticos 9 (1), 130-141

    Article

    This paper explores how photojournalism addresses refugee migration in Sweden, a country currently receiving a large influx of asylum seekers, in particular during a surge in global migration in 2015. Theoretically informed by literature calling for a compassionate visual storytelling focusing on the experience of refugees, the specific focus is on entries in the Swedish Picture of the Year contest. Images of children were particularly prominent among contest entries focusing on forced migration in the examined years, presenting an opportunity to further explore visual representation while also considering portraiture as a photojournalistic genre and visual strategy. A close reading drawing on semiotics and compositional analysis was conducted on images and written contest jury motivations. Findings showed a humanitarian aesthetic, formality as a storytelling tool, and an unresolved tension between showing and shielding young victims of trauma.

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