Indigenous Political Journalism in the Norwegian and Swedish Public Service Broadcasters

Abstract

Across the world, Indigenous peoples are reclaiming their cultural and political identities, after having suffered decades of assimilation, repression and marginalisation. A major tool in this process is Indigenous journalism, which allows for storytelling and news reporting from the inside, as opposed to being a marginalised group that is only reported about from the outside. This article presents a comparative analysis of Indigenous political journalism as practised in the Norwegian and Swedish public broadcasters. The article explains the differences between the practices of NRK Sápmi and SR Sameradion & SVT Sápmi regarding their reporting on the campaign leading up to the Sámediggi elections in Norway and Sweden in 2013. The analysis shows that Sámi journalists on both sides of the border adhere to commonly shared characteristics of Indigenous journalism practices, but with considerable variation between them. There are two main conclusions of the analysis. First, NRK Sápmi and SR Sameradion & SVT Sápmi indeed practise Indigenous journalism, but do so differently, and second, ethnic identity counts, but institutions decide. Sámi journalism is constrained not only by national borders but also by the institutional framework of the parent company, the public service remits and the resources available to them.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous political journalism
• Sámi
• NRK Sápmi
• SR Sameradion & SVT Sápmi
• Sámediggi election campaigns
• Norway
• Sweden

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank our colleague Niamh Ní Bhroin for translating an early Norwegian draft and commenting later versions; our partners in the research groups on the Sámediggi elections in Norway and Sweden 2013; and the editorial teams in NRK Sápmi and SR Sameradion & SVT Sápmi for letting us interview them.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sweden's Educational Radio. It does not have its own Sámi editorial team and is excluded from the analysis.

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded by the Sámediggi (the Sami Parliament) in Norway (grant number 12/2359-15) and Svenska forskningsrådet FORMAS (grant number 254-2012-19).