(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[media] Like a wild horse, economic globalization is storming forward. Can it be met by some form of political globalization, and if so, how? This autumn, the debate about supranationality, cosmopolitanism and the global left has erupted in Morgenbladet, Klassekampen and Ny Tid. These are some of the most important issues of our time, but mainstream journalism is stuck in an old-fashioned worldview, and the crowning example is Political Quarter on NRK P2. I have gone through the broadcasts in weeks 41, 42, 43 and 44, and here this debate is ignored.
The gas power issue and the question of Norwegian soldiers in southern Afghanistan are two of the issues that received the most attention in October. Both are used on the Political Quarter as the backdrop for the power struggle within Norwegian party politics: the war in the youth hall becomes more intense than the war in Afghanistan. What do people who are constantly affected by floods in Bangladesh think about Norwegian oil and energy policy? Political quarter should be merged with the foreign magazine Verden today, which P2 also sends in the morning twig. It is becoming increasingly difficult to divide the world into either domestic or foreign. The cross-border flows, global production chains and communication patterns are becoming increasingly important at the expense of borders.
Many small newsrooms have understood this, and NorWatch, with only two journalists, deserves praise for its efforts to keep Norwegian business in the south in the ears. On October 20, Ny Tid was able to tell how NorWatch believes that Jens Ulltveit-Moe and the company Petroleum Geo Service cut turns and use cunning tricks in the battle for oil in the small island state of São Tomé. In this way, Norwegian business and industry exercises political power far south of Løvebakken, and contributes to making African politicians powerless.
The issues of trade, development and the WTO have lately helped politicize the north-south debate. These should be snacks for political journalists. "Trade is more important to us than aid," said Martin Kansichi, Minister of Commerce in Malawi. We are now beginning to see the consequences of not a new WTO agreement. In a recent report, the British development organization Oxfam shows how powerful actors like the EU are using the muscles and blaming the poor countries in bilateral negotiations. At Political Quarter it is quiet.
Power moves from politics to the economy and from the national to the global, the power study concluded. Political Quarter presents the Norwegian political system as self-sufficient. Non-parliamentary sources are used most often to contrast the party politics. The least important battle between the political and the economic field is worth less attention. This journalism confuses political power with political institutions. This limiting view of politics has a major impact on the Norwegian public and helps maintain an increasingly outdated world view.
