Below, you will find answers to some of the most common questions regarding the Media Barometer survey. You may also contact our survey manager Karin Hellingwerf by e-mail at karin.hellingwerf@nordicom.gu.se or by telephone at +46 31 786 19 92.
What is measured in the survey?
The Media Barometer is a survey that measures the daily reach of different media. Daily reach is the proportion of respondents who state that they read, watched, or listened to a specific medium or media content the previous day. The Media Barometer also measures access to different types of media and media equipment and the amount of time respondents spent on different media during the previous day.
Who is included in the survey?
The Media Barometer is based on a random selection of people listed as living in Sweden. The sample is drawn from the Swedish population register and includes both Swedish citizens and individuals with foreign citizenship living in Sweden. In the 2024 survey, approximately 60,000 individuals are invited to participate in the survey.
How is the survey conducted?
The Media Barometer is conducted as a combined online and telephone survey. All individuals in the sample are initially contacted via postal letter with login details and a QR-code to an online survey. There is also the option to call the field company to answer the survey over the phone. Up to two reminders with a link to the web survey will be sent via SMS to individuals with available mobile numbers.
When is the survey conducted?
The ambition with the Media Barometer is to reflect media use throughout the year and during all seven days of the week. The survey is conducted from the end of January to June, and from the end of August to December.
How are the results reported?
A main report presents the results both for the population as a whole and for different subgroups. The tables presenting subgroups refer to age, gender, and place of residence. All Media Barometer reports and recorded seminars are published Open Access on Nordicom’s website.
How representative are the results?
In recent years, the Media Barometer shows good representativeness in terms of gender, age, and place of residence. In terms of level of education, the proportion of answers corresponding with a higher education has, however, been somewhat over-represented, while the proportion without a higher education has been somewhat under-represented. Since the survey is only conducted in Swedish, there is also a natural under-representation of individuals who do not speak Swedish. The results presented in our reports are based on non-weighted data.
How is the survey funded?
The responsibility to carry out the Media Barometer survey is part of Nordicom’s mandate from the Swedish Ministry of Culture. In addition, a number of media actors make important contributions to the Media Barometer's implementation and method development. These are the newspapers Göteborgs-Posten, and Svenska Dagbladet; the news provider Bonnier News; the public service broadcasters Swedish Radio (SR), Swedish Television (SVT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting (UR); the Swedish Agency for the Media; the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics (IRM); Dentsu; and the Swedish Publishers’ Association and the Swedish Magazine Publishers Association. Nordicom is independently responsible for all questionnaires and analyses.
Do you want to analyse the Media Barometer data?
As a researcher or doctoral student, you can order our datasets from SND, the Swedish National Data Service at the University of Gothenburg. The service is free of charge but requires Nordicom’s pre-approval. The Media Barometer datasets are only available in Swedish.