How they missed the big story: Norwegian news media and NATO’s military operation in Libya

Abstract

This paper reports from a research project on how selected Norwegian newspapers covered the NATO-led military engagement in Libya in 2011. As a backdrop we build on earlier research on the role between the media and security policy which had found that in times of war the media in general support the government. We analyze Norwegian newspaper's ability to present, discuss and express opinions on the principal political and legal questions concerning international military interventions in general and Norwegian participation in the NATO-led operations in Libya 2011 in particular Our findings is that legal issues are underreported but that the left wing press and niche newspapers offer a critical opposition to the government policy and the NATO-operation.

Keywords

• political communication
• foreign news coverage
• international interventions
• war journalism
• the role of the media
• democratic communication