Portraying a Major Minority in Televised Public Service Broadcasting. Portrayal of Polish Immigrants in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

The research question answered in this thesis is “How have Polish immigrants in Norway historically been portrayed by the NRK through its television broadcasts from 1970 to 2008? How can this development be explained?”. The study is two-fold, consisting of one quantitative part and one qualitative part. The quantitative examines text-based programme descriptions from the NRK’s internal SIFT database. The qualitative part presents findings from qualitative content analyses of a single programme from every decade in the period. In searching to explain the development, theory on stereotypes, transnational construction of class, depiction of Polish immigrants in European migration film and differences in national value dimensions are utilised. The results reveal a primarily sympathetic approach to Polish immigrants which has fluctuated over time. The results of the study indicate three important factors which contribute to shaping the portrayal of Polish immigrants in the NRK: the situation in Poland at the time of broadcast (and reception of this in Norway), confirmation of the Norwegian national narrative (as presented in the NRK) and the NRK’s own bylaws (concrete internal guidelines utilised in the NRK’s selection process)