Academic interests
- Digital platform use in families
- Telepresence technology
- Media use in relation to health (especially vaccines)
- Digital doctor-patient consultations
- Qualitative methods
Background
- 2023–: Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oslo
- 2022–2023: Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo Metropolitan University
- 2021: Research assistant at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark
- 2020–2021: Research assistant at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark
- 2020–2021: External lecturer at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark
- 2017–2021: PhD student at the Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark
- 2016–2017: Copywriter at Jysk Fynske Medier, Denmark
- 2014–2016: Master of arts in media studies, University of Southern Denmark
- 2011–2014: Bachelor of arts in international business communication, University of Southern Denmark
Visiting researcher
- Visiting postdoctoral researcher, Södertörn University, School of Culture and Education (September-December 2025)
- Visiting postdoctoral researcher, University of New South Wales, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health (February-May 2023)
- Visting PhD student, Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences (January-April 2019)
Appointments
- Member of the Young Academy of Norway (2024-2028)
- Editor of MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication research (2019-present)
- Editor of Qualitative Health Communication (2024-present)
- Member of the board of the ECREA Health Communication Section (2023-2024)
- Member of the board of The Norwegian Research School on Digitalization, Culture and Society (2023-2024)
- Member of the PhD Board at the doctoral education at the Humanities Faculty, University of Southern Denmark (2018)
- Reviewer for journals such as Qualitative Research; Information, Communication and Society; Sociology of Health and Illness; Digital Health; Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies; Qualitative Health Communication; European Journal of Health Communication; BUKS - Tidsskrift for Børne- & Ungdomskultur; and Children & Society
Tags:
Digital technologies,
Qualitative methods
Publications
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Mannsåker, Ida Krag-Rønne; Johannessen, Dagny Adriaenssen; Nordtug, Maja; Velvin, Gry; Misund, Aud Ragnhild & Skedsmo, Hanne
[Show all 7 contributors for this article]
(2025).
Exploring the roles of public health social workers—A rapid review.
The British Journal of Social Work.
ISSN 0045-3102.
doi:
10.1093/bjsw/bcaf235.
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Abstract Social workers are assigned a variety of roles in resolving adversity in diverse contexts but are committed to serving the most vulnerable and promoting social well-being. Public health social work offers an overarching framework that touches many different locations and fields in which social workers operate. This review was conducted to explore and synthesize the literature of Public Health Social Work (PHSW) roles and is derived from a broader scoping study aiming to identify and describe public health social work interventions. Electronic databases were searched to identify eligible studies with varying methods published between January 2010 and December 2023. Twelve studies were included in the review. Guided by ecological systems theory, the roles were organized into the micro level, meso level, or macro level. Findings demonstrate that the roles are mainly performed at the micro and meso levels, in which tertiary prevention distinguishes itself as the predominant domain of effort. All the included studies originated from somatic health contexts. The minimal variation of studied contexts provides an inaccurate picture of PHSW’s achievement in diverse arenas and levels. This underscores the need for research representing the variety of contexts, the diversity of preventive social work, and at various levels.
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Haldar, Marit; Bavngaard, Martin Vinther; Nordtug, Maja & Røsvik, Kjersti
(2025).
Livsløpets barndom og alderdom.
In Brodtkorb, Elisabeth & Rugkåsa, Marianne (Ed.),
Mellom mennesker og samfunn: sosiologi og sosialantropologi for helse- og sosialprofesjonene.
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag A/S.
ISSN 9788205596474.
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Nordtug, Maja & Haldar, Marit
(2024).
The technology multiple: The robot avatar substituting for the ill body.
New Media & Society.
ISSN 1461-4448.
doi:
10.1177/14614448241304658.
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In this article, we explore how a very simple telepresence robot avatar becomes a technology multiple when interacting with humans. Based on Mol’s notion of the body multiple, we explore how AV1 – a social telepresence robot avatar designed to act as a substitute in schools for homebound students – becomes a technology multiple. The analysis is based on 105 interviews, including interviews with homebound students and kindergarteners in Norway using AV1 and/or their guardians, interviews with school workers, and focus group interviews with classmates. In the analysis, we explore AV1 as a plastic bust, a toy, a creep, an avatar, and a reverse cyborg. The different perceptions come into being in interaction with human bodies, and the technology thus arguably emerges and is co-constructed with human bodies, creating a technology that is more than technological.
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Nordtug, Maja & Petersen, Line Nybro
(2024).
Navigating Health Communication: The Effects of Mediatization on Responsibility in Complex Decision-Making.
SCM – Studies in Communication and Media.
13(2),
p. 238–260.
doi:
10.5771/2192-4007-2024-2-238.
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This article investigates the mediatization of responsibility in the context of health care decision-making and biological citizenship. The analyzes how Danish parents navigate the pervasiveness, polysemy, and media logic of health communication, and how the authority and legitimacy of certain types of health communication play into their sense of responsibility. The study consists of interviews with 18 Danish parents who were in the process of deciding or had recently decided on whether to give their child the human papil- lomavirus (HPV) vaccine. This study draws on mediatization theory, sociological theory of responsibility, and research on health communication to illustrate the media-centered con- ditions that shape parents’ decision-making processes. We find that the pervasiveness and polysemic nature of the information available about the vaccine creates an imperative to understand the information while parents also have to navigate the media logic regarding media’s motivation for presenting information about HPV vaccines in certain ways. As a consequence, parents’ decision-making responsibility as biological citizens is undergoing significant changes that place increasing responsibility on the parents in this study.
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Nordtug, Maja; Møller, Jane Ege; Hougaard, Tina Thode & Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth
(2023).
Patienters sprogbrug i e-konsultationer med deres praktiserende læge: Hvordan kommunikerer patienter relationel og emotionel information?
Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication.
16.
doi:
10.54337/ojs.globe.v16i.8224.
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In Denmark, the e-mail consultation has been an important part of general practice for more than a decade. This consultation format has several advantages, but general practitioners have been concerned that they cannot, for example, interpret patients’ emotional state through the written medium. In this article, we examine what characterizes those parts of patients’ language use in e-mail consultations that deviate from standard written language. The background is the importance of understanding how digital patients communicate in writing, and what possibilities they have of expressing themselves. Based on 646 e-mail consultations from 38 patients from four Danish general practitioners’ offices, we have analyzed the linguistic devices which deviate from standard written language. Our purpose is to characterize the patients’ use of language, including deviations, alternative sign use, context keywords, and orthographic variation. We argue that patients’ use of these forms makes it possible to communicate relational and emotional information which in a face-to-face meeting would typically be communicated non-verbally. In addition, this language use creates an informal tone with their general practitioner. Our analyses reflect how the e-mail consultation format places new demands on patients, who must be able to express themselves in writing, but who also have to be creative with their keyboard use if they want to express something that is not normally communicated in writing.
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Nordtug, Maja & Johannessen, Lars E. F.
(2023).
The social robot? Analyzing whether and how the telepresence robot AV1 affords socialization.
Convergence. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies.
ISSN 1354-8565.
29(6).
doi:
10.1177/13548565231201774.
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Telepresence robots are increasingly used in schools as a way of including students who are unable to be physically present in the classroom with other students. The use of such robots is intended not just to help students follow their education but also to serve a social purpose. However, the extent to which the robots actually afford socializing needs to be explored further. This article analyzes how, to what extent, for whom, and under what circumstances the telepresence robot AV1 affords social contact for the heterogenous group of homebound Norwegian upper secondary school students. Building on Jenny Davis’ mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances, we focus on how AV1 affords for different students in specific circumstances. Our analysis draws on in- terviews with 11 upper secondary school students in Norway and finds that individual traits and circumstances such as health issues and social networks are important aspects when assessing whether a technology affords socializing. Based on our findings, we argue for expanding the mechanisms and conditions framework to include not just its current focus on perception, dexterity, and cultural and institutional legitimacy, but also the users’ emotions.
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Johannessen, Lars E. F.; Nordtug, Maja & Haldar, Marit
(2023).
Multi-site domestication: taming technologies across multiple institutional settings.
Information, Communication & Society.
ISSN 1369-118X.
doi:
10.1080/1369118X.2023.2255644.
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This article advances domestication theory by developing the concept of multi-site domestication. Whereas domestication theory traditionally focuses on the ‘taming’ of technologies at a single site (most often, the household), the concept of multi-site domestication captures how technologies often require different taming processes across multiple institutional settings. In this article, we apply the concept to understand the multi-site domestication of AV1: a communication solution for children who are homebound because of chronic illness or disabilities, which creates a communicative bridge from an app on the homebound student’s phone/tablet and to a ‘telepresence robot’ that is placed physically in the classroom, where it is meant to function as the homebound student’s proxy. Using data from a larger qualitative study of the implementation of AV1 in Norway, the article shows how the ‘traditional’ domestication processes of appropriation, objectification, incorporation, and conversion play out and are complicated when domestication occurs across settings with different and at times opposing norms, rules, values, and logics. In charting these multi-site dynamics, the article updates domestication theory for an age of increasingly intertwined technologies, thus helping future studies to look beyond single sites and appreciate more complex taming processes.
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Nordtug, Maja & Haldar, Marit
(2023).
Ethics Beyond the Checklist: Fruitful Dilemmas Before, During, and After Data Collection.
Qualitative Inquiry.
ISSN 1077-8004.
30(6),
p. 474–483.
doi:
10.1177/10778004231176088.
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In this article, we aim to contribute to current discussions about ethical conduct in qualitative research practice. We provide examples of how ethics is a recurring issue throughout a research process and not just an issue to safeguard procedurally. The examples on which we build our argument are based on three research projects from two countries, namely, Norway and Denmark, focusing on three different groups, namely, the elderly, parents, and children. Through our analyses of these ethical dilemmas, we aim to provide reflections on dilemmas encountered in three different qualitative research projects at three different stages, specifically before, during, and after data collection. We thus provide a way for researchers to frame their work with ethical dilemmas as a continuous process beyond the checklist. Furthermore, we frame complex ethical dilemmas as something not to avoid but as a continuous part of a fruitful analytical process.
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Nordtug, Maja
(2022).
Messy map-interviews: et kvalitativt interviewværktøj, når man bevæger sig i fremmed terræn.
In Grønning, Anette; Lundtofte, Thomas Enemark & Walther, Bo Kampmann (Ed.),
Medievidenskab - metoder og teorier.
Syddansk Universitetsforlag.
ISSN 9788740834086.
p. 39–52.
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Nordtug, Maja; Hvidt, Elisabeth Assing; Lüchau, Elle Christine & Grønning, Anette
(2022).
General Practitioners’ Experiences of Professional Uncertainties Emerging from the Introduction of Video Consultations in General Practice: Qualitative Study.
JMIR Formative Research.
6(6).
doi:
10.2196/36289.
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Background: Uncertainties are omnipresent in health care, but little is known about general practitioners’ (GPs) professional uncertainties concerning digital consultations. This is problematic, as many countries have undergone an extensive digital transformation. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the professional uncertainties that emerged among Danish GPs with the introduction of video consultations. Methods: We conducted qualitative interviews with 15 Danish GPs during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The interviews were analyzed using an abductive approach. Results: We identified 3 categories of uncertainty: integrity, setting, and interaction. Respectively, these 3 categories of uncertainty refer to (1) uncertainties related to how technology may impede the provision of health care; (2) uncertainties related to the potentials of video technology; and (3) uncertainties related to how the video consultation technology affects interactions with patients. Conclusions: The uncertainties experienced by Danish GPs appear to be a typical reaction to the introduction of new technology. Embedding video consultation technology into GPs’ working routines will take time, and GPs do not necessarily feel intuitively capable of transferring their abilities, such as being good and socially present for video-mediated consultations. The heterogeneity of professional uncertainties experienced among the GPs suggests that they are the product of individual GP-technology relationships—not of the technology in itself. Consequently, we cannot expect that uncertainties can be remedied by changing or precluding new technology.
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Nordtug, Maja
(2022).
How Perceptions of Responsibility and Affective Consequences Influence Parents’ Digital Media Engagement in Relation to Human Papillomavirus Vaccination.
Qualitative Health Research.
ISSN 1049-7323.
32(4).
doi:
10.1177/10497323211065023.
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Nordtug, Maja; Møller, Jane Ege; Matthiesen, Signe Schlichting & Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth
(2021).
Oralizations in e-mail consultations: A study of general practitioners’ use of non-verbal cues in written doctor‐patient communication.
Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies.
ISSN 1757-1898.
doi:
10.1386/cjcs_00049_1.
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Nordtug, Maja; Jacobsen, Ragnhild Irene & Reiersen, Håkon
(2026).
Glokal forskning — global deling og lokal tilgjengelighet.
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Hvis forskning reelt skal være tilgjengelig for studenter og allmennheten, må kunnskapen vi skaper og publiserer internasjonalt også beskrives og utgis på norsk. Vi foreslår to løsninger som kan bidra til såkalt «glokal» forskning.
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Mateja-Jaworska, Bogumiła & Nordtug, Maja
(2026).
Streaming in European families: A shared family activity or an individual practice?
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Rashid, Faiza & Nordtug, Maja
(2026).
Dette kan digitale medier gjøre for elever med autisme.
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KRONIKK: Ny masteroppgave undersøker hvordan et digitalt kommunikasjonsverktøy innpasses i undervisning for elever med autisme.
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Nordtug, Maja & Born, Victoria de Leon
(2026).
Hva er problemet med digitalisering av lek?
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KRONIKK: Toy Story-universet sier noe om barndom og barns måter å leke på. Hva viser Toy Story 5 oss om digital lek?
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Gjengedal, Kjerstin & Nordtug, Maja
(2026).
Fagfellevurdering: Uansett kvar ein tek tida frå, vil det vere ei økonomisk byrde for nokon.
[Journal].
Forskerforum.
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Mangelen på fagfeller er blitt ein flaskehals i publiseringssystemet. Er løysinga å gjere det til eit krav for å få jobb?
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Nordtug, Maja & Sandsør, Astrid Marie Jorde
(2026).
Trenger vi en aldergrense på 16 år for sosiale medier? Ja, sier en av oss.
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KRONIKK: En aldersgrense kan muligvis være med på å sette i gang diskusjonen om hvordan vi i praksis skal løse mange av problemene barn og unge utsettes for og føre til en felles norm.
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Jaavall, Jo Fosby; Nordtug, Maja; Hegna, Kristinn & Born, Victoria de Leon
(2026).
Hva kan vi gjøre i stedet for å forby sosiale medier?
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Å forhindre ungdommer fra å bruke sosiale medier har mange utfordringer. Kan vi ikke i stedet skape bedre og mer tilgjengelige fellesskapsarenaer for barn og ungdom?
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Nordtug, Maja; Born, Victoria de Leon & Hegna, Kristinn
(2026).
Falsk trygghet med digital familiesporing?
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Det kan føles trygt å alltid vite hvor barna, foreldrene eller besteforeldrene er. Men sporingsappene lever også av at vi frykter hva som kan skje uten appene. Les kronikken.
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Mino-Puigcercos, Raquel; Nordtug, Maja; Born, Victoria de Leon & Hegna, Kristinn
(2026).
Let's talk about IT!
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Let's talk about IT! A game to start THAT conversation about technology with your family. A conversational card game for families based on real histories from real three generation families from PlatFAMs.
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Nordtug, Maja & Borgen, Solveig Topstad
(2025).
Fagfellevurderingskrisen er krise for yngre forskere.
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Fagfellevurdering — som er en essensiell del av akademia — kan ikke lenger behandles som en ekstraoppgave.
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Hegna, Kristinn; Nordtug, Maja & Born, Victoria de Leon
(2025).
Surveillance cultures across three generations in spanish and norwegian families’ everyday lives.
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Nordtug, Maja; Hegna, Kristinn; Born, Victoria de Leon; Spain, Raquel Mino-Puigcercos, University of Barcelona, & Jacovkis, Judith
(2025).
PLATFORM SURVEILLANCE AS CONTEXT FOR PRACTICES OF FAMILY SURVEILLANCE ACROSS GENERATIONS IN SPANISH AND NORWEGIAN FAMILIES.
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Hegna, Kristinn; Nordtug, Maja & Born, Victoria de Leon
(2025).
INTIMATE SURVEILLANCE IN CHILD-PARENT RELATIONSHIPS : Understanding the platformisation of Norwegian families across generations.
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Nordtug, Maja
(2025).
Academic career trajectories from the perspective of early-career researchers: Betting on multiple horses – and ideally going all in on all of them.
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Nordtug, Maja; Møller, Jane Ege & Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth
(2025).
Stadig flere legebesøk gjøres på skjerm.
Forskersonen.no.
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Haldar, Marit & Nordtug, Maja
(2025).
Tackling Loneliness Amongst Older People and Homebound Students with Telepresence Technology in Norway.
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Nordtug, Maja & Hegna, Kristinn
(2024).
Gaming Across Generations: How Digital Platforms Afford Intergenerational Play.
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Nordtug, Maja & Hegna, Kristinn
(2024).
Gaming as a Family Practice: How, for Whom, and to What Extent Digital Platforms Afford Play Across Generations.
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Nordtug, Maja & Johannessen, Lars E. F.
(2024).
Følelser kan avgjøre hvor bra sosial teknologi fungerer.
Forskersonen.no.
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Nordtug, Maja; Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth; Hougaard, Tina Thode & Møller, Jane Ege
(2024).
Patienters sprogbrug i e-konsultationen.
Lingoblog.
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Haldar, Marit; Egeland, Cathrine; Nieto, Alejandro Miranda; Nordtug, Maja & Hughes, Gemma
(2022).
Home as hub: Transforming domestic time and space through digital networks.
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Nordtug, Maja; Møller, Jane Ege & Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth
(2022).
Sådan kommunikerer læger digitalt med patienter – men hvilken betydning har det?
videnskab.dk.
ISSN 1903-301X.
doi:
10.25973/wb0x-av52.
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https://videnskab.dk/forskerzonen/kultur-samfund/saadan-kommunikerer-laeger-digitalt-med-patienter-men-hvilken-betydning-har-det
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Nordtug, Maja; Brøgger, Matilde Nisbeth & Møller, Jane Ege
(2022).
»Derfor vil jeg gerne have taget en allergitest«: Patienter får ny rolle ved at skrive med lægen.
Dagbladet Information.
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https://www.information.dk/debat/2022/06/derfor-gerne-taget-allergitest-patienter-faar-ny-rolle-ved-skrive-laegen?lst_tag
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Kvalnes, Pål Arne & Nordtug, Maja
(2022).
Leger opplever utfordringer med konsultasjoner over nett.
[Internet].
oslomet.no.
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Published
Jan. 23, 2024 1:31 PM
- Last modified
Sep. 1, 2026 12:23 PM
