The African Paradigm: The Coverage of the Zimbabwean Crisis in the Norwegian Media

Abstract

This article examines the problematic associated with the coverage of the Zimbabwean crisis in the Norwegian mainstream media. It examines the underlying messages and assesses whether the Norwegian media have an unconscious social, cultural or political bias, as manifested through the selection of sources, angling and in the narrative devices of frames used in the stories. The conclusions from the analysis are that the Norwegian media reduced the complex Zimbabwean issue into a ‘typical’ African story of tragedy and despair. This conclusion is microcosmic of the ‘stereotyped frames’ associated with the Western media and their tendency to portray the African continent as an unrelenting series of disasters.