“You Can’t Put It in Cotton, Can’t Pack It in Silk”: Sámi Journalists’ Experiences of Reporting on Sexual Violence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.48(2025).6432Keywords:
Sámi, journalism on sexual violence, experience, Indigenous journalismAbstract
This article examines the internal experiences of Indigenous Sámi journalists reporting on sexual violence in their homeland of Sápmi, a region spanning the Northern areas of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Drawing on interviews with nine Sámi journalists and an analysis of 30 articles from Sámi news publications, the study identifies the challenges they face in their reporting. These include their experiences of hostile work environments and a deep, almost indescribable discomfort at the prospect of encountering the subjects of their reporting in non-professional “arenas” (Clarke et al., 2018) such as grocery stores or weddings. Using situational analysis, the study explores how these challenges are also relational, situated within interacting social worlds. Although they were not explicitly asked about their own experiences of harassment, five out of six female Sámi journalists shared that they had been sexually harassed at work, some saying that this impacted their sexual violence reporting. Some of those participants felt the incidents had not affected them, while others described longstanding negative impacts on their self-esteem and recent efforts to discuss their experiences with fellow journalists. The findings point to a need for scholarly attention to the complex internal and relational lives of Indigenous journalists.
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