Comment on norwegian news article

The article I have chosen to focus on in this blog assignment is an article that was posted in the Norwegian online newspaper "Aftenposten" (the evening post). It was first published the 12th of March, just one day after the disaster, and was written by the national Norwegian news bureau (NTB). The newspaper in focus is considered one of Norway's more serious newspapers, despite it's tabloid format.

The reason I chose this article is mainly because it is not one of the countless fear mongering worst case scenario news articles that emerged in the aftermath of this disaster, but rather an article that focuses on a rational view towards the whole incident, and warns about comparing the Fukushima nuclear disaster with Chernobyl.

The article is partly an interview with the Norwegian prime minister, and starts out with him comparing the initial scenes of the tsunami with the 2004 Christmas disaster of south east Asia. Further on he ensures the Norwegian contribution to humanitarian and rebuilding aid, and that they will assess the dangers of Norwegians currently residing in Japan. He then moves on to pointing out that there is no reason for panic, and warns against fear mongering and calling this disaster a "new Chernobyl".

As mentioned, this particular article does not correspond well to the general trend of news reports in the aftermath of the 3/11 disaster, in the way it takes a rational, calm and considered approach to the situation. In general Norwegian news in the aftermath of this disaster, fear mongering was running rampant, and you almost got the idea that Japan was about to sink into the sea at any point.

At the same time as the article is very rational, it is the representation of a subjective opinion, and not an analysis or discussion. It is written rather as a comment from an authoritative figure, and one might say it does not represent any general opinion or culture. In using the rationale of the required reading, on might even call it an action of calming down the population from the government, using the national newspapers as a means of communicating this message.