The RegPress project found that in Southern Sweden, the regional press maintains high and stable levels of sales, fulfills a “watchdog” role, and takes part in community building. The RegPress project used mixed methods to study media audiences, conducting 67 qualitative interviews, nine focus groups, and a survey of 9,000 people. It found that readers draw on a range of media sources, and they see the regional press as a “trust anchor” in a global digital world. As a trust anchor, the regional press acts as a point of reference for readers to access news and debate. They develop media practices based on this understanding as they engage with civic, political, and cultural issues. Trust anchors also help readers interpret information from social media and other sources. The voices of journalism in regional press are therefore located dynamically amongst local people, issues, and interests as well as other media sources.

Syftet med forskningsprojeketet REGPRESS var att förstå vilken roll medier spelar i södra Sverige.

Den regionala pressen har haft en stark närvaro lokalt och har varit en del av det regionala livet sedan 1841. Tryckta medier har generellt haft betydande inflytande i samhället som tredje statsmakt. Dagspressen har länge bedrivit kritisk granskning av samhällsföreteelser och myndighetsutövning samt agerat för att bidra till ökat samhällsengagemang i regionen.

I dag står dagspressen inför en rad utmaningar, så som ökad konvergens, att bevara och utöka sina upplagesiffror, sälja annonsutrymme samt bevara sina spridningsområden likaväl som att fortsätta bidra till den loakla demokratiska utvecklingen.

REGPRESS undersökte den regionala pressens roll och värde för läsarna i regioner relaterat  till vårt nutida mediesamhälle. Hur anknyter medierna till lokalbefolkningen? Hur garanterar och gynnar journalistiken en mångfald i medierepresenationen och motverkar diskontinuitet i den globala medieåldern? Var några  exempel på övergripande forskningsfrågor.

The purpose of the project was to understand the role of regional media in southeast Sweden. The regional press have had a strong presence and has been part of the regional life since 1841.

The print media has for long had a significant influence in society as a fourth estate. The daily press has long been engaged in critical analysis of social phenomena and authority and acted to help increase community involvement. Even on the basis of this strong position the regional press face a number of challenges such as increased convergence and maintain storage numbers, selling advertising space and maintain their distribution areas.

The project  addressed the emerging issue of what role and value regional media has in our modern media society. How do the media connect with the local population? How does journalism ensure and promote diversity in the media presentation and prevents discontinuity in the global media age?REGPRESS is funded through a partnership between the Barometern Foundation, Linnaeus University and Fojo Media Institute (FOJO).

The project started in 2015 and completed in october 2017.

In this article, the gap between participatory design of services and planning processes is identified. This means that any innovations in service design – whether technological, social, or locality-based – are not fully developed. The authors address the relationship between operational design and strategic planning. The article feeds some of the insights gained from participatory design into debates about collaborative and communicative planning by drawing on two exemplars. One focuses on creating a synergy between designing and planning in transforming neighborhood-based children’s services: the other discusses the design of Web 2.0 for on-line public consultancy for comprehensive planning and for mobile services for disabled people. All require synergies between operational design and strategic planning to support participation in collaborative planning for accessibility in urban spaces. The article shows how the development of design constituencies within various contexts of participatory design provides a vehicle for developing collaborative and communicative planning.