A practice-based research project developing ethical visual journalism methods across governance, media, and public contexts.
In an era where images circulate faster than the contexts that give them meaning, the representation of Sámi political life and culture risks becoming detached, simplified, and shaped by algorithmic systems. This project positions entangled documentary practice as a form of durable democratic knowledge infrastructure, addressing democracy as an ongoing negotiation of voice, representation, and the circulation of knowledge across governance, media, and the public sphere.
Anchored in collaboration with Sámediggi, the project responds directly to the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report (NOU 2023:21), which identifies significant gaps in public understanding and media representation of Sámi history, governance, language, and cultural life.
At stake is not only misrepresentation, but the extraction and loss of situated knowledge, what can be understood as an invisible entanglement vulnerable to “placeholder logics” in contemporary image systems.
The project is affiliated with the multilingual and multimodal bachelor program for photo journalism and is part of OsloMet's strategic research area A Durable Democracy
Participants
More about the project
Through a two-year practice-based research design, the project develops and tests relational, situated, and non-extractive documentary methods. This project addresses this knowledge gap through a practice-based research design grounded in an embodied and entangled documentary methodology, where filmmaker, participants, environment, and temporal conditions function as co-constitutive forces.
Planned outputs advance more responsible, contextually grounded, and ethically accountable approaches to Sámi representation in Norwegian media and public communication.
Research issues
The project is guided by the following issues based on existing research and knowledge gaps:
- How can documentary practice function as a form of democratic knowledge infrastructure that strengthens trust, representation, and public understanding within Sámi governance contexts?
- How can practice-based documentary methods resist extractive and decontextualizing image practices in AI-mediated media systems while maintaining context, specificity, and accountability?
- What transferable ethical, linguistic, and collaborative frameworks can be developed to support responsible Sámi representation across journalism, documentary, education, and public-sector communication?
Partner institutions
The Sámi Parliament
