E: Media thesis in the media

Friday June 22nd was when my analysis of the media became analyzed by the media. After an interview in Vårt Land, my thesis became first page material in their Friday issue (online version here), with a follow-up (also referred to at the front page) Saturday. The way I found out was by NRK P2, one of the main radio channels from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, waking me up by a phone call in the morning to ask if I could do an interview with them that day. The result was on the air at their 3:03 pm (15:03) culture news report the same day (search on the net radio for ”kulturnytt” and pick the broadcast ”22.06 15:03-15:30” to hear the result). The story was also referred to in other news media (like Nettavisen) over the weekend.

In the aftermath many people of contacted me, my friends mainly to congratulate me about the coverage, but some to read it as well. The strangers calling or e-mailing me do it to get a copy. My one year effort will soon be found in the national library databse, Bibsys, with hard copies at the uni library of Oslo, and with an online version at the DUO database (digital publications from the university). For now you can get a PDF version from me, if interested.

I do not care much about the publicity for my own self, but truly enjoy that I have generated a bit of debate and reader interest regarding the newspaper coverage of Christianity and Islam. That was the aim of my project, in addition to revealing something knew and contribute to hand-on information about how the situation truly is. I found it most interesting to read about what the various chief editors and leader of the Norwegian press association (Norsk presseforbund) had to say.

When thinking back, I probably should have written the thing in English in the first place. I have been promted by some friends to translate the thesis, and I am fairly sure it would have been of interest to the media, religion and culture field of research, not having found similar quantiative research in my searches in national and international databases. When I get the time and energy, I will think about it :)