Næringslivsavisen (NA24) - 6 Stories

1) Statoil leter i sanden (By Henning Aarset) 27 April 2007
http://www.na24.no/energi/article994197.ece
In this story the Norwegian journalist writes "delstaten Alberta." This is not correct. Alberta is a province in Canada, and created by an Act of the Canadian Parliament in 1905. Canada does not have states; it is divided internally by 10 provinces and 3 territories. The Norwegian word for province is "provins." Canada has been using the system of provinces since 1663, when Canada became a Royal province of France. Mexico and the USA are the only two countries in North America with states. The problem with this story may in fact come from Statoil who made the error in their press release. If you can imagine, the Norwegian company that purchased the Canadian company couldn't even properly identify that Alberta was a province in Canada. The story was corrected on the 13th of May, 2007.
2) Ensidig sjokk fra Klein (By Are Slettan) 8 November 2008
There is nothing "technically" wrong with this story about Canadian journalist Naomi Klein. It's great to see coverage about Canadian journalists in Norway, especially since it is so rare. The story is an example of how Canadians are often not mentioned for their nationality in Norwegian stories. In many Norwegian stories a Canadian's nationality is either not mentioned at all, or often incorrectly identified as American. Once asked why Norwegians had such a difficult time being able to identify what is Canadian; this story is an example. So often when Norwegian stories talk about a Canadian writer, musician, entertainer, etc., their identity is rarely mentioned, and in many cases they are incorrectly guessed or assumed and as being American, or being from the USA. It seems though from the reading NMW has covered in the Norwegian press this is not as likely to happen to people from Britain, USA, Australia or New Zealand. It begs the questions why Canadians are so often not recognised as Canadian by many in the Norwegian press? Once interviewing a Norwegian in Canada on this topic, he mentioned to me that it was a habit in Norway to "quite often see or assume these entertainers are Americans."
3) Risikerer livet for kobber (By NA24) 11 November 2007
This story is by far one of the better written stories about Canada in the Norwegian press. It uses the correct terminology for Canada's provinces, Canada's currency, and the Canadian (CAD-NOK) exchange rate. The only small mistake is the line that states: "Kobber er svært attraktivt for tyver fordi skraphandlere betaler 3,60 kanadiske dollar, eller 5 kroner, for en halv kilo. Prisen på kobber har doblet seg det siste året på råvarebørsen i London." The amount of $3.60 in Canadian currency is about 20 NOK, not 5 kroner.
4) Petrobank-kjøp i milliardklassen (By Arne Lunde ) 23 November 2007
http://www.na24.no/energi/article1458417.eceThis story is actually one of the better examples of media coverage by a Norwegian journalist. The Canadian provinces are mentioned correctly as provinces and not states, and the Canadian currency used is identified as Canadian. The only mistake is the spelling of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The correct spelling is "Columbia" not "Colombia".
5) Oljet opptur på børsen (By Magnus Klever ) 27 August 2008
http://www.na24.no/imarkedet/borskommentar/article2168148.eceIn this story the Norwegian journalist writes "Oljeselskapene er partnere i forbindelse med gassutvinning i Liard-bassenget i Britisk Colombia i Canada. Nå er oljeselskapene klare for å teste nye potensielle områder og de er optimistiske til fremtiden." The Canadian province of British Columbia is spelt "Britisk Columbia", not "Britisk Colombia" as the journalist has written. Colombia is a country on the continent of South America. The mistake was promptly corrected after contacting the journalist.
6) 19 milliarder til bilindustrien (By NA24) 21 December 2008
http://www.na24.no/imarkedet/article2480091.ece
This is not a long story, but there are a few mistake, and one comment that could be taken as an insult, and it's an excellent example of how Canada is seens as fairly insignificant by some in the Norwegian press. NA24 writes:
"19 milliarder til bilindustrien""Canda følger i storebrors fotspor."
"Lørdag kunngjorde canadiske myndigheter at de følger USAs eksempel. De tilbyr landets bilindustri 19 milliarder kroner i kriselån. Canadas statsminister Stephen Harper kunngjorde pakken dagen etter at USA tilbød bilindustrien der til lands om lag 94 milliarder kroner i kriselån. - Vi vil ikke akseptere en katastrofal kollaps. Men bilindustrien blir nødt til å forandre på måten de driver forretningen på betraktelig, sier statsminister Harper til Bloomberg News."
First mistake, "Canda" is spelt Canada. Second, is it really necessary to say the USA is Canada's big brother, and portray Canada in comparison to the USA in this way? How often do Canadian journalists write Sweden or Germany is Norway's big brother? It just goes to show the mentality the exsists in some of the Norwegian press to continually treat Canada as some smaller player compared to the USA, instead of a country of 33 million people and the G-7 nation it is. It seems a strange mentality coming from a country of just 4.7 million people where many of the people constantly complain how people say Sweden is their big brother and they're not Swedes. Third, it seems the NA24 journalist isn't too clear about the currency in Canada. The December 20 Bloomberg story states: "Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC will get C$4 billion ($3.3 billion) in government loans from Canada and the province of Ontario, a day after the U.S. agreed to aid to keep the two automakers operating." Well, if we do the math $4 billion Canadian currency x 5.80Nok (CAD-NOK) exchange rate is 23.2 milliard NOK to Canada's auto industry, not the 19 milliard NOK the NA24 journalist reports. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a423KVNUfxX). It seems for some reason NA24 has taken the clearly marked USD amount and converted it with the CAD-NOK exchange rate to incorrectly report the correct amount the Ontario and Canadian governments are contributing. So, in this brief story, the amount is wrong, some strange comment to Canada following its big brother, and Canada spelt wrong. If Norwegians really new and understood the auto industry on the continent of North America, they would realise that Canada, Mexico, and the USA all have an auto industry, and that the Canadian province of Ontario is the largest juridisction in North America for automobile manufacturing. In addtion, Canadians don't build just American cars, they also build Honda, Toyota, and Suzuki. And at one time Volvo. In addition, "'85 per cent of production from Canadian auto plants is sold in the United States.' The issue is not Canadian demand, the issue is American demand'" http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/autos/
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060516/honda_plant060516?s_name=&no_ads=

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kreativt Forum - 1 Story

Regjeringen.no / Government of Norway - 4 Stories

Norsk Telegrambyrå AS (NTB) - 908 Stories