Domestication of Western Sahara The Coverage of Western Sahara in Norwegian Printed Media, 2012-2014.

Abstract

Western Sahara is treated by the United Nations as the last unresolved colonial question on the African continent. Following the Moroccan occupation of the former Spanish colony in 1975, severe human rights abuses have taken place, and half the population has sought exile abroad. The parties to the conflict remain in UN-led peace talks. Yet, this conflict receives barely any attention by international media. This study assesses the Norwegian printed media coverage of Western Sahara of the three-year period from 1st of January 2012 to 31st of December 2014. It seeks to find the volume and the nature of the coverage, and to discuss why the stories mentioning Western Sahara end up being written. The total number of articles under study was 156. The main finding is that there is an extreme tendency of so-called domestication of the Western Sahara news in Norwegian media: 82 per cent of all articles have a clear Norwegian connection. Domestication is a concept in media research describing an international issue viewed through national lenses. A clear majority of articles concern controversial Norwegian enterprises or investments in the territory (33 per cent of the articles), or Norwegian individuals caught up in the dispute (18 per cent). The coverage was in general not very thorough: None of the publications have ever sent a reporter, and the average number of sources per article was as low as 1,6. The analysis showed a remarkable dependence on sources of Norwegian background. Almost no Saharawi are used as a source, and it happened only once during the three years that an expert/researcher was contacted for a comment. No Moroccan was ever contacted. The coverage shows a near total absence of political disagreements within Norway regarding the nature of the conflict. Analysis of news values and frames show two main types of articles: a human interest frame based on individuals being expelled from Western Sahara, and a conflict frame, regarding Norwegian companies and investors acting against advice from the Norwegian government. The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis.