About

Nils G. Indahl is the data protection officer (DPO) of the Church of Norway, Norway’s leading religious association. The church has 3, 7 million registered members.

He is chair of the Norwegian Association of Data Protection Officers.

When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in 2018, Indahl was the DPO of the City of Drammen.

Political science, communication and IT

Indahl was adjunct professor (ekstern lektor) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, where he taught the master course Written and Digital Communication (in Danish) in the spring semester of 2018.

From 2013 to 2018, he was adjunct professor (ekstern lektor) in Communication and IT in the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication. In the autumn of 2017, he taugh the course Analysis of Digital Media. In the autumn of 2016, he taught the bachelor courses Analysis, design and regulation of IT infrastructure and the Theory of Science. In the spring of 2016 he was supervising master students in the Communication and IT programme that spent a semester in work practice.

Until 2018, Indahl was adjunct professor (lektor) in the Department of Journalism & Media Management at the University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communication, Vienna, where he taught digital journalism and trends.

From 2004 to 2013, Indahl was associate professor of journalism at the Norwegian School of Creative Studies, Norway’s largest journalist school, with campuses in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. He taught the courses News reporting and writing, Advanced research, and Mobile journalism, as well as Introduction to social science. He supervised Oslo students for their final exam project. For nine years, he organised the annual study trip to Berlin.

Indahl’s latest book is Introduction to Social Science for the Health Professions (Cappelen Damm Akademisk, Oslo 2017, in Norwegian). He has written three previous university textbooks.

A list of courses developed and taught by Nils G. Indahl.

International Institute for Journalism

At the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin (part of GIZ) he taught the Advanced Multimedia Course in October 2012 (and earlier the Mobile Reporting and Cross Media Publishing course). In December 2011, he organised a workshop on Latest techniques in Internet search at the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) in Chennai. In October 2009, he taught digital journalism and research at Utrop, Norway’s first multicultural newspaper. At the University of Oslo, he taught Net media and ethics as part of the media studies course at the 2009 International Summer School.

In the spring term of 2008, he taught digital journalism at the Dagbladet and VG newspapers, as part of a university programme organised by the De Facto foundation, and examined by Volda University College. In addition, he taught at the Kaospilots in Oslo, a social entrepreneurship management programme. The second edition of his university textbook, Nettjournalisten (the Net Journalist, in Norwegian), was published by Norwegian Academic Press in August 2007. In the autumn term of 2008 he taught news journalism and research to second-year students at the KaosPilots, an international project manager programme with headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark. In September 2006 he taught research and net journalism at Volda University College, Norway. In March 2007 he lectured at the Henri-Nannen-Schule in Hamburg, and received a scholarship to write an expanded second edition of Nettjournalisten.

In the autumn term of 2005, Indahl taught digital journalism, including podcasting and blogging, to the Multimedia III track at the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin, part of the GIZ. The students were from Ghana, India, Kenya, Laos, Moldova, Nigeria, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. He frequently trains and coaches journalists from news organisations in Scandinavia. He does consultancy work for knowledge companies on the use of information technology in the organisation. In November 2004, Indahl taught the course Writing for the web at the Norwegian Institute of Journalism.

Arts and Communication

Indahl was a lecturer at the School of Arts and Communication (K3), Malmö University, between 1999 and 2004. He taught theory of science, as well as entrepreneurship, on the Creative Producer graduate programme. He taught web communication and net journalism to informatics students and K3 undergraduate students. In the spring term of 2003 Indahl launched two new courses in digital journalism at K3. One of the courses was also given as part of the Malmö University Summer School 2003.

In the spring of 2004, he developed the half-semester course Journalism in digital media in English. During 2003 Indahl was director of INF 052, a course on communication and graphic design given by K3 to students from the Department of Computer Science, Lund University. He became an associate professor at Malmö University in August 2003. Indahl was a project manager at the Office of Continuing and Distance Education, Lund University from 2002 to 2003, where he coordinated the e-learning Øresund project.

Journalism on the Net

Between 1998 and 2002 Indahl was director of the Journalism on the Net programme, offered by NKS Net Studies, Norway – one of Europe’s leading distance education organisations – in partnership with Lund University. From the autumn of 2002, the course was offered in cooperation with the journalism programme at Oslo University College. Between August 2000 and June 2002 Indahl was an adjunct professor at the Institute of Communication, Journalism and Computer Science, Roskilde University, where he taught research and net journalism. Between September 1998 and March 2000, he was a visiting professor at the Danish School of Journalism, Aarhus.

Indahl holds an International Diploma in Journalism from the Darlington College department of journalism, England. He studied politics, philosophy and economics for his bachelor of arts degree at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, and has a master’s degree in political science. His master’s thesis (in international politics) was titled International Cyber Society: Governing the Internet.

After working as a reporter for various Norwegian local newspapers, Indahl served as political correspondent on the Morgenbladet, Oslo, between 1984 and 1986. After a period as Oslo and Copenhagen correspondent for various publications, including The Times, Indahl was director of PressLink Europe, the European distributor of the world’s first intranet for news organisations. PressLink Europe’s customer base grew from 2 to 256 major newspapers and news agencies. PressLink was later merged with Mediastream Inc. and is now offered as part of NewsCom, another Knight-Ridder service. The Knight-Ridder group was bought by the McClatchy newspaper group in 2006.