Stockholm's communal newspaper offices : A study of a component in the information ecosystem during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.

In our study we investigate the role of Stockholm's communal newspaper offices as a component in the information ecosystem during the late 19th, and the beginning of the 20th century. These businesses, called newspaper offices, remain understudied in information history as well as in other disciplines. The data collection was conducted with a snowball method allowing sources to lead us further in our investigation. The empirical data consisted of contemporary newspapers, literature, trade publications, address directory and archival material. A source-critical approach was applied to further validate the findings. A qualitative analysis of content was used together with hermeneutic tools to identify themes emerging from the data. This was combined with a deductive approach where theoretical concepts were applied to identify facilitative and restraining aspects of the communal newspaper offices and the information ecosystem in which they existed. An information ecology approach was added to further identify characteristics of the newspaper offices as a component. A partly narrative approach is used to present the result describing the communal newspaper offices. The narrative parts are followed by an analytical discussion on how the results relate to the theoretical concepts deriving from an information ecosystem. The communal newspaper offices played a facilitative role, making newspapers cheaper by lending or hiring them out. They were early adopters of new technology and played a part in making telephones accessible for the wider public. The office also served as an infrastructure, gathering different types of information and practices. In being accessible to different social groups and making information more accessible, the communal newspaper offices played a role in people’s expanding information needs and desires, advancing the democratization of information in society. This is a two-year master's thesis in Library and Information Science.