Media Coverage of Environmental and Social Change in Northern Norway’s Coastal Regions : Main Themes in National and International News

Media are important agents in the shaping of northern images. Media coverage influences public perceptions and policy governing resource and societal development. But popular media often provide incomplete and skewed representations compared to the documentation provided by scientific literature and the range of activities and interests present in a region. We conducted a topic analysis of media coverage of environmental and social change in the Helgeland, Lofoten, and Vesterålen regions in northern Norway and Svalbard in the high Arctic during approximately 2014 to 2018. Our findings show that popular media collectively contribute to an image of expanding economic development based on natural resource exploitation. However, this narrative is incomplete in terms of the societal dynamics linked to natural resource development as documented in the scientific literature and somewhat biased towards climate change, oil and gas exploitation, tourism, and marine harvesting. Emergency preparedness issues and economic transitions are under-communicated, and we conclude that the popular media narrative only partly represents an alternative to the government policy discourse on northern issues. northern Norway; media coverage; environmental and social change; Helgeland; Lofoten; SvalbardpublishedVersio

Media Coverage of Environmental and Social Change in Northern Norway’s Coastal Regions: Main Themes in National and International News

Media are important agents in the shaping of northern images. Media coverage influences public perceptions and policy governing resource and societal development. But popular media often provide incomplete and skewed representations compared to the documentation provided by scientific literature and the range of activities and interests present in a region. We conducted a topic analysis of media coverage of environmental and social change in the Helgeland, Lofoten, and Vesterålen regions in northern Norway and Svalbard in the high Arctic during approximately 2014 to 2018. Our findings show that popular media collectively contribute to an image of expanding economic development based on natural resource exploitation. However, this narrative is incomplete in terms of the societal dynamics linked to natural resource development as documented in the scientific literature and somewhat biased towards climate change, oil and gas exploitation, tourism, and marine harvesting. Emergency preparedness issues and economic transitions are under-communicated, and we conclude that the popular media narrative only partly represents an alternative to the government policy discourse on northern issues.Les médias jouent un rôle important dans le façonnement des images que les gens se font du Nord. La couverture médiatique influence les perceptions du public et les politiques régissant le développement des ressources et de la société. Cependant, il arrive souvent que les médias populaires fournissent des représentations incomplètes et biaisées comparativement à la documentation scientifique et aux divers activités et champs d’intérêt présents dans une région. Nous avons analysé les sujets couverts par les médias en matière de changement environnemental et social dans les régions de Helgeland, de Lofoten et de Vesterålen situées dans le nord de la Norvège et dans le Svalbard de l’Extrême-Arctique pendant la période allant de 2014 à 2018, environ. Selon nos constatations, les médias populaires contribuent collectivement à la formation d’une image de développement économique en expansion reposant sur l’exploitation des ressources naturelles. Toutefois, sur le plan de la dynamique sociale liée au développement des ressources naturelles, l’histoire est incomplète, comme en témoigne la documentation scientifique, et elle est quelque peu biaisée dans le sens du changement climatique, de l’exploitation pétrolière et gazière, du tourisme et des récoltes marines. Les questions entourant l’état de préparation en cas d’urgence et les transitions économiques ne font pas l’objet de communications suffisantes. Nous concluons que l’histoire racontée par les médias populaires ne représente qu’une éventualité partielle au discours politique et gouvernemental concernant les enjeux nordiques