Kjersti Blehr Lånkan

Kjersti Blehr Lånkan serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University's Faculty of Social Sciences. Based at Pilestredet 48, Oslo (Office S439), she actively contributes to the Media Narration Group (MNG) research collective while maintaining direct engagement with media practitioners and healthcare institutions through her empirical studies on mental health representation.

Her research expertise spans Mental Health Communication, Media Ethics, and Representation Studies, with particular focus on vulnerable populations' experiences in Norwegian media landscapes. She investigates ethical tensions between journalistic imperatives and participant vulnerability, examining how television and print narratives shape public understanding of psychiatric conditions while analyzing longitudinal shifts in media portrayals from historical (1950-2020) to contemporary contexts.

Analysis of her 2016-2024 publications reveals consistent methodological rigor in qualitative engagement with mental health service users, identifying critical patterns where media exposure creates dual outcomes: therapeutic visibility versus retraumatizing exposure. Her work demonstrates growing interdisciplinary influence across journalism studies, health communication, and media sociology spheres.

No scientific awards were documented in the source material.

Information regarding student supervision and research funding mechanisms was not provided in the available documentation.

As core member of the Media Narration Group (MNG), she participates in collaborative analysis of narrative structures across media platforms, with recent projects examining institutional boundary work between psychiatric care systems and broadcast journalism production environments.