Tromsø som samisk by? – Språkideologier og medienes rolle i språkdebatten

• Published in: Nordlit
• Main Author: Hiss, Florian
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Norwegian
• Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2012
• Subjects: Tromsø; samisk debatt; lokalaviser; språkideologier; metaspråklig diskurs; Sámi; samisk
• Online Access: https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/2375; https://doi.org/10.7557/13.2375

This article presents a critical analysis of the discursive practices in the public debate onSámi language in Tromsø. The conflict around the political plan of Tromsø municipalityto join the administrative area for the Sámi language lasted for about one year and waslargely carried out in the local newspapers, which had established themselves as anarena and broker in the conflict. The focus of this study is, on the one hand, on the roleof the media in the debate and, on the other hand, on the socially constructed relationsbetween Sámi and Norwegian language and social meanings, which get expressed in ahighly ideological picture of language and local identity and form the ground for thelanguage conflict.The analytic strategy is twofold: as a first step, the study focuses on the reproductionof language ideologies in letters to the editor and readers’ contributions to the localpapers’ discussion pages. The identification of the three semiotic processes oficonization (rhematization), fractal recursivity, and erasure reveals how the writers’expressions of opinion are anchored in a language ideology that connects Sámi languagewith certain social values and ignores a larger linguistic and cultural diversity in thetown of Tromsø. As a second step, the analysis explores the journalistic treatment of themultitude of conflicting voices in the debate and critically sheds light on the constructionof a journalistic voice. Although the journalists claim to construe a seemingly neutralground for their reports (or independent comments), the analysis shows that journalistsuse the representation of various voices in their texts to construe a positioned,evaluating, and ideologically anchored journalistic voice. In face of the highlyideological character of the language debate in Tromsø, I argue that local journalism hasfailed in countering the ideological picture of language and society through informationand independent journalism.