Leif Ove Larsen

Position

Professor

Affiliation

Department of Information Science and Media Studies

E-mail: leif.larsen@uib.no
Phone number: +47 41106538; +47 55584116
Visitor address: Fosswinckels gate 6
5007 Bergen; Room: 511
Postal address: P.O. Box 7802

NO-5020 Bergen

Norway

Leif Ove Larsen

Position

Professor

Affiliation

Department of Information Science and Media Studies

Research groups

Research

Media history; popular comedy and humor; journalism / cultural journalism; media industry and innovation; media and cultural policy; public sphere theory and history.

A major topic of my research is the history of popular culture. I have published several articles in academic journals and anthologies on Norwegian comedy and comedians in film and television, but have also published on Hollywood cinema, genre analyses and theory, and reception history. My most recent project in this area is the history of the major Norwegian film studio of the 20th century, Norsk Film A/S, published in the book Norsk Film A/S. En kulturhistorie (Norwegian Film Studios Ltd. A Cultural History) (2020), in which I contributed with two chapters on the company in the 1950s.

A second topic is cultural journalism and criticism. In 2008 I co-edited (with Karl Knapskog) the book Cultural Journalism. The Press and the Cultural Public Sphere (in Norwegian only). I was co-leader of the NFR-funded research project Journalistic Reorientations: The Online Challenge to Journalistic Ontology (2010-2014), and more recently I participated in a comparative project on Nordic cultural journalism. The result of the project is published in the anthology Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries (2017), in which I co-published two articles on cultural journalism in the Norwegian press and on public service broadcasting in the Nordics.

A third area of research interest is the history and functions of the public sphere. This includes study of copyright in the field of documentary production, and an ambitious study of the history of the Norwegian public sphere. Together with colleagues from my Department in Bergen, the comprehensive study was published in Allmennningen. Historien om norsk offentlighet (The Public Space. The history of the public sphere in Norway) (Jostein Gripsrud, ed. 2017). I am the sole author of a chapter on the public spehere during the second world war, but also contributing to several other chapters.

While serving as head of department for ten years (2012-2021) and being a partner in the Bergen Media Cluster, the field of innovation and the recent changes of the media industry has sparked my interest. Currently (2022) I am undertaking a comparative study of European media clusters, with particular regard to the role of the universities / academic partners.

Publications

Conference lecture

Academic book chapter

Media interview

Textbook

Master’s thesis

Research report

Academic article

Media feature article

Lecture

Encyclopedia entry

Radio or TV participation

Letter to the editor

Book anthology

Editorial/Leader article

Leif Ove Larsen; Kimmo Laine (2014). Editorial. (external link)

Academic monograph

Helge Østbye; Knut Helland; Leif Ove Larsen et al. (2013). Metodebok for mediefag, 4. utgave. (external link)

Journal review