This chapter makes the argument that issues related to the cultural public sphere
should be considered part of the political communication circuit. Cultural journalism
in the Nordic context is a central case in point. On the side of arts, popular
culture, and lifestyle, Nordic cultural journalism at times includes reporting and
debate about sociocultural and politically saturated issues such as climate change,
migration, terrorism, freedom of speech, identity politics, and gender inequalities.
The chapter highlights three theoretical approaches, intersecting with the field of
political communication, which have been of particular importance in Nordic
scholarship about cultural journalism: public sphere theory, the politics of recognition,
and the sociology of (cultural) journalism. The media coverage and debates
about #metoo in Danish and Swedish cultural journalism in late 2017 serve to
illustrate the arguments about the political in cultural journalism and reveals its
quantitative salience as well as its qualitative specificities.