Peter Weiss

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: Peter Weiss, director of University Centre of the Westfjords, living 18 km out of Ísafjörður/Westfjords.

double citizenship: Republic of Iceland and Republic of Bavaria. Came first to Iceland in 1987, first for studying, then for work at University of Iceland and other work places.

 

Q: How do most people get their news/information in Iceland? Who controls the media?

A: www.statice.is >> society >> media

https://www.statice.is/statistics/society/media/

https://www.statice.is/publications/metadata?fileId=19591

https://www.statice.is/statistics/society/media/media/

 

Q: What social media is used most there? News outlet? How commonly do people use RUV?

A: www.statice.is >> society >> media

 

Q: How do you think people from other countries view Icelanders based on what they see in the media?

 

A: People from other countries normally cannot read/understand Icelandic. Few people take the time to listen/read news in a language they have little/no understanding of – although they might still understand a lot when trying. News in other languages are mostly via the monthly Grapevine and, recently, through an English version/selection of mbl.is. Very recently, even ruv.is has started to produce features in English. While Grapevine is produced by people having moved to Iceland and keeps a rather intellectual-critical position towards Icelandic politics, mbl.is is a rather conservative newspaper and the publishing of a version/selection in English might be seen as a reaction to many foreign media only relying on Grapevine. On the whole, it is disputable/problematic, when foreign media only rely on one medium, the only available in their mother tongue. Immigrants to Iceland might sooner or later gain proficiency in Icelandic and recur to all the spectrum of available media, like those who have Icelandic as a mother tongue.

 

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: Race, religion, ethnicity does not play a role, while the society until the 1990s has been extremely homogeneous and although today some 10-15% of the population are immigrants, some 60% come from only two countries: Poland and Lithuania. Thus, there are hardly any visible minorities and if so, they have not been in the country but few years. Age does not play a big role and gender not either, although gender is a big topic in Icelandic sociology. The unexplained difference in wages is still some 5%, but the bigger problem is that womens still today do not apply for all jobs and participate less in work-life and thus the (explained) diference in wages between all women and all men is much higher. Money/income is a topic, however the GINI-index lowered duriing the last ten years and Iceland, together with Slevenia, Norway and Slovakia, has the lowest Gini-index in Europe. https://www.statice.is/publications/news-archive/wages-and-income/no-significant-change-in-the-income-distribution-in-2016/

Language will be a topic very soon, as Icelandic more and more loses its position as Icealnd's only language.

The big differences in quality of life between the capital area (80% live within a radius of 50 km from Reykjavík) and the countryside plays a big role, still not as big a role as might expect given the huge diffference. This is not to say that quality of life was better or worse the one or the other place, but it is very different. t7.