Stat, nasjon, utenrikspolitikk. Nyheter for barn i hverdag og krise

Written by

Kristin Haugevik

Research Director, Research Professor

Halvard Leira

Research Director, Research Professor

Ed.

Summary:

This article examines how two Norwegian news media outlets targeted at children present the world and Norwegian foreign policy to their audiences, in ordinary times and during crises. Our theoretical starting point is that self-images and worldviews are constructed and reconstructed on a daily basis, and that national identity formation begins at a young age. Existing scholarship highlights that news media are important arenas for such identity-building, including in shaping perceptions of the role one’s own state can and does play in the world. However, few studies have explored how children’s news media present and make sense of the world and foreign policy actions. Based on our Norwegian case study, we observe that children’s news media aim to make today’s (and tomorrow’s) world more comprehensible and less alien, soothe anxieties, and educate future political subjects. Meanwhile, critical perspectives on Norwegian foreign policy are less prominent. Instead, we find that children’s news media tend to reinforce what we may call dominant representations of Norway’s role in the world.