[Air-L] Sources for theory / theories: media re-reporting and national identity

Charles Ess charles.ess at gmail.com
Mon Apr 8 04:59:35 PDT 2013


Dear colleagues,

One of my Masters students is examining how Norwegian newspapers re-report
Norwegian-related news in the U.S. and the U.K. - specifically, the recent
fun poked by U.S. news sources regarding "the firewood program," accounts of
Bogdøy prison island, and the nomination of the Kon-Tiki movie for an
academy award.  Our broad inquiry circles around (a) why are these sorts of
re-reports - including on occasion a positive spin on what was originally a
negative report - important components of news reporting - specifically with
a view towards (b) their function as part of a fostering and reinforcing a
sense of national identity?
We are looking broadly at Anderson's notion of national identity as an
imagined community - but we're hoping to find more recent analyses and
theoretical sources that would be helpful as well.

A specific wrinkle here is that while we can find plenty of good work on how
contemporary media serve to foster specific aspects of _individual_ identity
(e.g., using Goffman, Simmel, and/or others in conjunction with social
media) - we're trying to focus on a sense of collective or shared national
identity and how such media (re)reporting seems to be important in
contributing to and fostering such an identity.
There are further specific wrinkles affecting a sense of national identity,
including relatively recent independence (1905) that may also play relevant
roles in accounting for this form of reporting - and thereby suggest
specific sorts of similar research in other countries as well?

In all events, I hope this query is specific enough to spark specific
responses; if you have suggestions for us, please share these offlist -
though I will be more than happy to collect these and repost.

Many thanks in advance,
- charles
Associate Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication

Director, Centre for Research on Media Innovations
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/center/media-innovations/>

University of Oslo 
P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
NO-0317 
Oslo Norway
email: charles.ess at media.uio.no





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