Mediating science in Norway: practices and transformations in major newspapers

Abstract

What characterizes journalistic representations of researchers and research in Norway? This article presents a quantitative analysis and a discourse analysis of how journalism that covers and uses scientific research has been practiced in major Norwegian newspapers in 1966, 1986 and 2006. The quantitative analysis suggests that this coverage in some respects has not changed significantly (e.g. the amount of sources used, the genres used for presentation). On the other hand, a comparative discourse analysis of articles covering emergent science in the three periods indicates how representations of scientific research are changing from resembling science’s own discourses to a more distinct adaption of the research, adjusting it to journalistic requirements of angles and storylines. However, the study presented here does not suggest that science journalism in Norway has developed an independent position from which it can throw a light upon scientific developments in a critical manner.