When journalists go to work in a country where they do not understand the language or the culture, they typically make use of the invaluable services of fixer interpreters, whose impact on global public opinion is invariably underestimated. They are the ones who, while remaining largely invisible, offer clear guidance as to how conflicts should be interpreted, as well as which sources should be chosen and which words used.
Myth of Norway’s lost innocence | Presseurop (English)
From the article, well worth revisiting on the first anniversary of the massacre perpetrated by Anders Breivik:
When Norway, which is a country that rarely makes headlines, became the theatre of a global event, the international press adopted the following method: world renowned writers like Jan Kjærstad, Anne Holt and Jostein Gaarder were drafted in to serve as cultural interpreters within the framework of interviews, while Jo Nesbø was invited to write an article which was published in the major newspapers of several continents.[…]
He [Martin Sandbu, a Norwegian economics columnist] continued: “There is a widespread perception, for instance, that Nordic countries are more tolerant of immigrants than others in northern Europe. Yet their governments may simply have been better at camouflaging hostility.” In short, what was destroyed on 22 July, 2011, was perhaps not paradise, but simply a mirror that we had created for ourselves.
Also, eerily appropriate vis a vis my questions regarding media editors as a ruling class earlier today.
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