Dear colleagues, One of my Masters students is examining how Norwegian newspapers re-report Norwegian-related news in the U.S. and the U.K. - specifically, the recent fun poked by U.S. news sources regarding "the firewood program," accounts of Bogdøy prison island, and the nomination of the Kon-Tiki movie for an academy award. Our broad inquiry circles around (a) why are these sorts of re-reports - including on occasion a positive spin on what was originally a negative report - important components of news reporting - specifically with a view towards (b) their function as part of a fostering and reinforcing a sense of national identity? We are looking broadly at Anderson's notion of national identity as an imagined community - but we're hoping to find more recent analyses and theoretical sources that would be helpful as well. A specific wrinkle here is that while we can find plenty of good work on how contemporary media serve to foster specific aspects of _individual_ identity (e.g., using Goffman, Simmel, and/or others in conjunction with social media) - we're trying to focus on a sense of collective or shared national identity and how such media (re)reporting seems to be important in contributing to and fostering such an identity. There are further specific wrinkles affecting a sense of national identity, including relatively recent independence (1905) that may also play relevant roles in accounting for this form of reporting - and thereby suggest specific sorts of similar research in other countries as well? In all events, I hope this query is specific enough to spark specific responses; if you have suggestions for us, please share these offlist - though I will be more than happy to collect these and repost. Many thanks in advance, - charles Associate Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication Director, Centre for Research on Media Innovations <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/center/media-innovations/> University of Oslo P.O. Box 1093 Blindern NO-0317 Oslo Norway email: charles.ess@media.uio.no