An Indigenous Public Sphere? The Media and the 2009 Sa?mediggi Election Campaign

• Author: Eva Josefsen, Eli Skogerbø
• Pages: 62-89

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An Indigenous Public Sphere?

The Media and the 2009 Sámediggi

Election Campaign

Eva Josefsen and Eli Skogerbø

Eva Josefsen, Researcher NORUT Alta, Norway. Email: evaj@norut.no

Eli Skogerbø, Professor, Department of Media and Communicat ion, University of Oslo,

Oslo Norway, Email: skogerbo@ulrik.uio.no1

Received April 2012, accepted October 2012.

Abstract: is article discusses media coverage of the Norwegian Sámediggi

election campaign in 2009, focusing on the research question: Did Sami voters,

scattered over a vast geographical area and split into multiple language groups, have a

public space in the media, where Sami politics could be discu ssed ahead of the Sámediggi

elections in 2009? Our ndings show there was indeed a public space for Sami

politics, but unequal communication opportu nities for Sami voters, depending

on language and geography. In the north the media provided a bilingual public

space, as both Sami and Norwegian newspapers covered the election. Voters in

the south were oered less news and debate about the Sámediggi election and

coverage was most likely to be in Norwegian. One explanation for these dier-

ences is that the number of Sami voters is small, and further south the voters

are fewer and more scattered. e dierences were also explained in terms of

relevance of issues. e degree of conict and controversy over Sami politics is

higher in Finnmark than in other par ts of Sápmi and Norway.

Key words: Media, Sami, Parliament, Sámediggi, election, Norway

1. e authors are lis ted in alphabetica l order and have contributed equal ly to the text.

Arctic Revie w on Law and Politics, vol. 4 , 1/2013 pp. 62–89. ISSN 1891-6252

an indigenous public sphere?

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Introduction

e political situat ion of the Sami people has improved over the past decades, ma k-

ing it a veritable success compared with the situation of most indigenous peoples

in the world. e Sami have their traditional settlement areas in northern parts

of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Norway, Sweden and Finland have all

recognized the Sami as a separate people whose culture is dierent from that of

the majority population

2

. rough the establishment of popularly elected Sami

Parliaments, Sámediggi, in each of these three countries , the states have recognized

that the Sami a s a cultural minority. e Sámediggi elections have rendered Sami

cultura l aliation democratically releva nt, in that each country has set up its own

popularly elected Sami Pa rliament to act as the Sami people’s democratic mouth-

piece. Sami democrac y as expressed through the electora l channel is dierent from

other elections because t he voters are dened ethn ically as opposed to geographi-

cally. Sámediggi elections are based on the principle of ordinary proportional

representation, where each vote counts equally. is article studies the portrayal

of the Norwegian Sámediggi election campaign in the media, and the role played

by the public space that the media constitute for Sami democracy.

Any democracy requires transparency, a public sphere and an open and acces-

sible political debate. By ‘public sphere’ we invoke the Habermasian notion of a

public space open to all citizens where social, politica l and cultural issues are dis-

played and debated3. e public display of politics is at the very centre of election

campaigns, as campaigns are focused on staging debate, discussion and choices

open to citizens. Public debates force politicians to justify their policies and pro-

vide knowledge and insight to voters. Public debate may unveil irrationality and

power games, making them easier to manage and interpret. e news media are

pivotal to the public sphere, not only because they provide space for dia logue and

debate, but also because they highlight, represent and make political alternatives

apparent to the voters4.

As is the case in all democratic polities, a well-functioning Sami democracy

requires a well-functioning public sphere. In order for parties and candidates to

present and argue their v iews, as well as for voters to obtain information and k now-

ledge, there need to be public spaces where the issues and actors of Sami politics

are displayed and open for debate. Typically, these spaces will be mediated i n some

for m or a not her. F or Sa mi c iti zen s,  ndi ng th ese spac es ma y be c hal len gin g, a s the y

live scattered over vast areas, spe ak several dierent variants of Sa mi and are small

2. Mörkenstam 20 05; Smith 2011.

3. Hab ermas 1989 ; 1992.

4. Ekström 20 06; Hopmann, Vliege nthart, De Vreese & Albæk 2010; ompson 1995.