A Nordic Nation Establishing its Unique Identity
Catherine Chambers
Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself. Name/age/occupation/where you are currently living. How long have you been/were you in Iceland?
A: Catherine Chambers, 36, masters program director, Ísafjörður. Been in Iceland for 10 years, not native. I have been here for graduate school research and since 2011 for work.
Q: How do most people get their news/information in Iceland? Who controls the media?
A: The major printed paper, Morgunblaðið is controlled by the right wing political party. There are other newspaper outlets that mostly have online presence, and many Icelanders share news through Facebook. The nightly news on TV is still widely viewed and every talks about the evening news and the expose shows that are on after the news. Many also still listen to the radio, especially in small towns.
Q: What social media is used most there? News outlet? How commonly do people use RUV?
A: Iceland has the highest number of Facebook users per capita of all countries. Many also use snap chat but twitter is less popular. Most news outlets are Icelandic, I would say few look at BBC for example,
but many read popular news and fashion from Denmark.
Q: How do you think people from other countries view Icelanders based on what they see in the media?
A: Iceland is viewed as a utopia and it is not. Icelanders are people just like everyone else and we have social problems and environmental problems here too, including a worrying increase in anti-immigrant nationalist politics and immigrant rights violations.
Q: How does media and technology play a role in family life (children especially)? Work life?
A: Many children I know play with smart phones and watch a lot of TV. Icelanders are often on phones at work, and there are a lot of new initiatives to get people to think about technology addition.
Q: Are there any important cultural, economic, racial, or political rifts/tensions within the country? (These could be based on money, race, language, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.)
A: The most important is what I mentioned earlier. Tourism increased so rapidly that we needed foreign workers, and these people were exploited. It’s a huge problem and the economic and social gap between the haves and have-nots continues to grow. t5.