Citation

Bjørge NM, Kalnes. Media War Conflict 2021; 14(2): 150-173.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1750635219864024

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines the role of the news media through a case study of the narratives about the 2014 Ukraine crisis in three major Norwegian newspapers. The conflict also contained a 'war' between competing strategic narratives from the involved actors, with a potential for cross-national cascades into the Norwegian narrative. The authors' focus is on the framing of Russia during the most dramatic month of March 2014. They applied the images related to Wendt's cultures of anarchy (see Social Theory of International Politics, 1999) to classify the framing of Russia. The Norwegian media narrative was relatively consistent in framing Russia as choosing a path leading away from being a rival of Norway and the West, towards becoming their enemy. This was close to the narrative of the Norwegian government and in clear opposition to the Russian narrative. While this supports Hoskins and O'Loughlin's 'arrested war' hypothesis (published in Information, Communication & Society, 2015), it also raises questions about professional media norms.

Language: en

Keywords

arrested war; media and conflict; Norway; Russia; social constructivism; strategic narratives