Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.07.2015, Blaðsíða 23

23The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 10 — 2015
When the New York Times published its first edi-
tion on September 18, 1851, Iceland was home to
just over 60,000 people under Danish rule. It was
53 years away from being granted home rule, 67
years away from becoming a sovereign nation,
and 93 years away from achieving independence
from Denmark. Needless to say, it wouldn’t have
been surprising to open the paper and find no
mention of this far-flung colony in the North At-
lantic. But in fact there was news of Iceland, and
it was specifically news about its local politics.
Near the end of an article called “News From
Europe”—a roundup of news from Great Britain,
France, Austria, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Bre-
men, Bavaria, Frankfort, Prussia, Lombardy,
Tuscany, the Papal States, and Switzerland—
there was a small blurb about Iceland. It read:
“The Diet of Iceland was opened on the 5th of
July at Reykjavik. Amongst the bills presented
was one enacting that from the 15th June, 1852;
foreign vessels shall be allowed to enter the port
of Reykjavik without passports of the authorities
of the island, and shall be treated as Danish ves-
sels.”
The Diet it referred to was actually a more
noteworthy event than the New York Times sug-
gested. Also at this meeting, which is known as
the National Assembly of 1851, Independence
hero Jón Sigurðsson put forth a bill that would
have given Iceland significantly more autonomy.
When the Danish governor refused to discuss
it and instead dissolved the Assembly, Jón and
the rest of the Icelandic delegates reportedly ut-
tered in unison the now famous words “Vér mót-
mælum öll” (“We all protest”). This is considered
a particularly momentous event in Iceland’s in-
dependence struggle and those words have con-
tinued to serve as a national rallying call, notably
resurfacing in the Pots and Pans Revolution after
Iceland’s financial crisis at the end of 2008.
Since that first article, the word “Iceland” has
appeared in more than 17,000 articles in the New
York Times or on its website nytimes.com. While
it goes without saying that not all of these articles
are specifically about Iceland, which has for in-
stance made plenty of cameo appearances as a
bookend to emphasize the great range or scope
of something—“from Iceland to Indonesia,” “as
far afield as Iceland and São Paulo,” and “as far
away as Iceland, Japan and Guam”—it’s also clear
that New York Times coverage of Iceland is not
a recent development. In fact, Iceland has seen
regular spikes in coverage since the early 20th
century, with a number of highly newsworthy
events driving increased coverage, including the
arrival of US troops in Iceland in 1941, the chess
match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer
in 1972, and the Reagan-Gorbachev summit held
in Reykjavík in 1986.
Based on the results of this study, it’s not
hard to tell if Iceland has received an outsized
amount of coverage in the New York Times, but
it has at least received three time as much cover-
age as Malta over the ten-year period from 2004
through 2013. Yet, the Icelandic media picked
up a significantly greater proportion of articles
about Iceland than the Maltese media did about
Malta, and was seemingly more impressed by
the feat of making it into the international news,
though such an achievement is hardly novel.

The 15 Iceland-related subjects most fea-
tured in the New York Times account for 218
of the 445 articles about Iceland over the ten-
year period, from 2004 through 2013.
1. Financial crisis
Number of articles: 41, picked up: 39%
Iceland experienced a financial crisis at the
end of 2008. The NYT covered the crisis
heavily in its immediate aftermath and re-
visited the subject regularly in the following
six years.
2. deCODE
Number of articles: 27, picked up: 41%
A human genetics company founded in 1996
by Kári Stefánsson, who was named one
of Time Magazine’s 100 “men and women
whose power, talent or moral example is
transforming the world”.

3. Eyjafjallajökull
Number of articles: 25, picked up: 12%
The volcano erupted in 2010, releasing a
cloud of ash that paralyzed air traffic and
stranded passengers at airports all over
Europe.

4. Icesave
Number of articles: 19, picked up: 32%
Iceland, the U.K. and the Netherlands were
embroiled in a years-long legal dispute over
so-called Icesave accounts, in which U.K.
and Dutch depositors lost money.

5. Björk
Number of articles: 17, picked up: 53%
-Yup. Björk.

6. Ólafur Elíasson
Number of articles: 16, picked up: 44%
-The Danish Icelandic artist designed the fa-
çade of Harpa. His work is regularly covered
in the New York Times.

7. Bobby Fischer
Number of articles: 11, picked up: 55%
Iceland granted the controversial chess
master citizenship in 2005.

8. EU
Number of articles: 9, picked up :33%
Following the financial crisis in 2008, Ice-
land applied to the EU.

8. Kaupthing
Number of articles: 9, picked up: 11%
This bank collapsed in the financial crisis.
Bad news.

10. Election
Number of articles: 9, picked up: 11%
In 2009, Iceland elected its first left-wing
government, and then, in 2013, it brought
back the right-wing parties who presided
over Iceland in the year’s leading up to the
financial crisis.

10. Snowden
Number of articles: 8. picked up: 13%
There was a lot of talk about granting
whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum in
Iceland.

12. Sigur Rós
Number of articles: 8, picked up: 38%
Iceland’s Next Big Thing, after Björk, Sigur
Rós hardly need an introduction.
13. Whaling
Number of articles: 7, picked up: 0%
Iceland’s controversial practice of whaling
makes the news. Interestingly enough, the
Icelandic media didn’t pick up any of these
articles.

14. Baugur
Number of articles: 6, picked up: 17%
An Icelandic investment group that started
out in the supermarket and retail business
before becoming a major player in the busi-
ness sector, purchasing numerous companies
in Iceland and the UK. Filed for bankruptcy
in the financial crisis.
15. Ragnar Kjartansson
Number of articles: 6, picked up: 83%
This Icelandic artist represented by i8 gallery
has had a number of high-profile shows in
New York, London and elsewhere.

An overview of how Iceland featured in the New
York Times from 2004 through 2013.

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
The number of articles about an Icelandic person,
place or entity.
Iceland became increasingly visible in the New
York Times over this decade, and it appears at
least in part to be due to the financial crisis in
2008 and the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010.

26%
24%
20%
8%
6%
6%
5%
3%
2%
Arts
Economy
Politics
Science
Eruption
Other
Sports
Travel
Culture
Articles featuring an Icelandic person, place or
entity, by categories that roughly correspond to
newspaper sections.
The New York Times has been most interested
in the Arts, with just over a quarter of the 445
articles about Iceland falling into this category.
The Arts was followed closely by Economy, with
just under a quarter of the articles being in that
category, and by Politics, with a fifth of the ar-
ticles being in this category.
Despite the fact that there was a significant
spike in the number of articles about Iceland
in the year that Eyjafjallajökull erupted, it’s in-
teresting to note that the articles in the Science
category outnumbered those in the Eruption
category. It is also remarkable that despite the
catastrophic and highly newsworthy financial
crisis in 2008, articles about Icelandic arts out-
numbered articles about the Icelandic economy
over this ten-year period.

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Arts
Economy
Politics
Science
Eruption
Other
Sports
Travel
Culture
2010 2011 2012 2013
The number of articles featuring Iceland by cat-
egory over time.
The three spikes in the number of articles about
Iceland in 2008, 2010 and 2013 were largely due
to increases in the number of articles in certain
categories. As expected, the first one, in 2008,
was dominated by an increase in the number of
articles in the Economy category, and the second
one, in 2010, was dominated by an increase in the
number of articles in the Eruption category.
Perhaps less expected, the third and largest
spike, in 2013, was dominated by a significant
increase in the number of articles in the Poli-
tics category, which the New York Times had
covered increasingly since the financial crisis in
2008.

Given that the Icelandic media deems it newsworthy when the New York
Times covers Iceland, one could be led to believe that this “stórblað” (“major
paper”)—as the Icelandic media often describes it—has a newfound interest
in the country. Quite to the contrary, however, the New York Times has
been covering the island nation for as long as the paper has been in print.
Iceland Is In
The New
York Times!
Again!
The Top 15
Most Featured
Subjects
How Iceland
Featured In
The New York Times
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
!
18
51
18
58
18
65
18
72
18
79
18
86
19
83
19
00
19
07
19
14
19
21
19
28
19
35
19
42
19
49
19
56
19
63
19
70
19
77
19
84
19
91
19
98
20
05
20
12
The number of articles in the New York Times that mention the word “Iceland,”
from the paper’s first issue in 1851 through 2014