Page 178 - Consuming Media

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the Internet editions of a range of newspapers, including the Financial Times, Le
Monde, International Herald Tribune, New African, The Economist and Die Zeit. Their
choices were motivated either by a general interest in a variety of perspectives on
world events or by a desire to be informed on a particular country where a family
member or friends was living. In many cases, the Internet was used to complement
private newspaper subscriptions and the newspaper one read at home. 46
According to the population statistics for Solna, 20 per cent of its residents were
born outside Sweden, twice as many as for Sweden as a whole. If one includes in
addition those Solna residents who have ‘a foreign background’, that is with one or
both parents born in another country, the figure rises to one-third of the town’s popu-
lation. The largest migrant groups come from the Nordic countries, followed by
other European countries. Asian is the most common non-European background,
followed in turn by African, Latin American and North American. At the time of our
study, the percentage of residents with backgrounds in Iran, Poland and Ethiopia
were significantly larger in Solna than in Sweden as a whole. 47 To this complex
pattern of migration one should also add the large number of Solna residents who
claim their origins in other parts of Sweden, further complicating Solna Centre as a
place with connections to other places.
Nowhere in the shopping centre is this complexity seen more clearly than in the
library reading room. At the time of our study, the Solna library subscribed to around
400 periodicals. These included local newspapers from all over Sweden, and news-
papers and magazines in over twenty languages, including all the languages repre-
sented in the community’s population statistics. 48 While the computer terminals are
used primarily by younger visitors, many of whom have a foreign background, in the
reading room these media consumers mix with older migrants who also have come
to read their hometown newspapers. 49 Most people are regular visitors, coming in
after school or on their lunch breaks, or are waiting at the entrance when the library
opens on the day ‘their’ newspaper arrives. Most come to read newspapers from the
country or town they come from and to be able to imagine what it is like for people
who still live in the place they once knew as home. Recent migrants are interested in
reading about people whose names they recognize, but for older and retired migrants
who no longer know many people, it is the connection to the place that is primary.
They want to read not only about what has happened, but where, in order to keep
their local knowledge alive.
Like the Internet users, many frequent reading-room visitors read a range of other
periodicals in addition to their hometown papers in order to stay abreast of events
elsewhere in the world. The availability of newspapers in a range of languages is also
a resource for readers who want to improve their competence in another language.
Particularly important for many of the reading room’s visitors who have immigrated
to Sweden are the Swedish newspapers available there. As one older Turkish man
described his perspective, Turkey is a long way away and he no longer has any influ-
ence over what happens there. Swedish papers give him information he needs to
influence the life he is living today. The Swedish periodicals serve a double function

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