N O R D I C M E D I A T R E N D S 10 Media and Communication Statistics Faroe Islands and Greenland 2008 Compiled by Ragnar Karlsson NORDICOM UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG 2008 NORDICOM’s activities are based on broad and extensive network of contacts and collaboration with members of the research community, media companies, politicians, regulators, teachers, librarians, and so forth, around the world. The activities at Nordicom are characterized by three main working areas. Media and Communication Research Findings in the Nordic Countries Nordicom publishes a Nordic journal, Nordicom Information, and an English language journal, Nordicom Review (refereed), as well as anthologies and other reports in both Nordic and English langu- ages. Different research databases concerning, among other things, scientific literature and ongoing research are updated continuously and are available on the Internet. Nordicom has the character of a hub of Nordic cooperation in media research. Making Nordic research in the field of mass communication and media studies known to colleagues and others outside the region, and weaving and supporting networks of collaboration between the Nordic research communities and colleagues abroad are two prime facets of the Nordicom work. The documentation services are based on work performed in national documentation centres at- tached to the universities in Aarhus, Denmark; Tampere, Finland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Bergen, Norway; and Göteborg, Sweden. Trends and Developments in the Media Sectors in the Nordic Countries Nordicom compiles and collates media statistics for the whole of the Nordic region. The statistics, to- gether with qualified analyses, are published in the series, Nordic Media Trends, and on the homepage. Besides statistics on output and consumption, the statistics provide data on media ownership and the structure of the industries as well as national regulatory legislation. Today, the Nordic region constitutes a common market in the media sector, and there is a widespread need for impartial, comparable basic data. These services are based on a Nordic network of contributing institutions. Nordicom gives the Nordic countries a common voice in European and international networks and institutions that inform media and cultural policy. At the same time, Nordicom keeps Nordic users abreast of developments in the sector outside the region, particularly developments in the European Union and the Council of Europe. Research on Children, Youth and the Media Worldwide At the request of UNESCO, Nordicom started the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media in 1997. The work of the Clearinghouse aims at increasing our knowledge of children, youth and media and, thereby, at providing the basis for relevant decision-making, at contributing to constructive public debate and at promoting children’s and young people’s media literacy. It is also hoped that the work of the Clearinghouse will stimulate additional research on children, youth and media. The Clearinghouse’s activities have as their basis a global network of 1000 or so participants in more than 125 countries, representing not only the academia, but also, e.g., the media industries, politics and a broad spectrum of voluntary organizations. In yearbooks, newsletters and survey articles the Clearinghouse has an ambition to broaden and contextualize knowledge about children, young people and media literacy. The Clearinghouse seeks to bring together and make available insights concerning children’s and young people’s relations with mass media from a variety of perspectives. www.nordicom.gu.se Media and Communication Statistics Faroe Islands and Greenland 2008 N O R D I C M E D I A T R E N D S 1 0 Media and Communication Statistics Faroe Islands and Greenland 2008 Compiled by Ragnar Karlsson N O R D I C O M UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG 2 0 0 8 Nordic Media Trends 10 Media and Communication Statistics. Faroe Islands and Greenland 2008 COMPILED BY: Ragnar KARLSSON © Nordicom, Göteborg University ISSN 1401-0410 ISBN 978-91-89471-69-6 PUBLISHED BY: NORDICOM Göteborg University P O Box 713 SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG Sweden EDITOR NORDIC MEDIA TRENDS: Ulla CARLSSON COVER BY: Roger PALMQVIST PRINTED BY: Livréna AB, Göteborg, Sweden, 2008 Environmental certification according to ISO 14001 Contents Foreword 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction: Media on the Edge of the World 11 Some Events of Media Development in the Faroes and Greenland 31 Statistics: Tables and Figures 35 Explanations of symbols 36 The Faroes Newspapers 37 Magazines 65 Books and Public Libraries 71 Radio 81 Television 103 Video 127 Film and Cinema 133 Phonograms 143 Telephone, PC and the Internet 149 Media and Communication Technology in Homes 159 Government Subsidises to the Media 163 Greenland Newspapers 167 Magazines 189 Books and Public Libraries 195 Radio 209 Television 233 Film and Cinema 261 Phonograms 269 Telephone, PC and the Internet 275 Media and Communication Technology in Homes 287 Government Subsidises to the Media 291 Demographic and Economic Data 297 Statistical sources 303 Addresses 307 5 Foreword When we speak of the Nordic region, more often than not we are referring to Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. But the region also includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland to the west. The West-Nordic economies and polities are quite different, both from each other and from the eastern Nordic countries. The populations are small and re- latively young; distances are vast; climatic conditions are challenging. All these factors have formed vital and distinctive local cultures. A centuries-old relationship with Denmark has influenced society and culture in both countries, as well. Given this background, it is particularly interesting in this era of globalization to study the role of mass media in the Faroes and Greenland. Data describing the media situation there have not been easy to come by, however. Nordicom has long hoped to produce media statistics for the two countries, but it proved to be no simple undertaking. Thus, it is with great satisfaction that Nordicom presents this statistical overview. Ragnar Karlsson of Statistics Iceland, Hagstofa Íslands, has performed a tremen- dous task in producing this volume, and we are greatly indebted to him and to all those in the Faroes and Greenland who assisted him in this pioneer effort. It is our hope that the material will be put to good use in numerous Nordic contexts and stimulate further cooperation in the area. Göteborg in October 2008 Ulla Carlsson Director Nordicom 7 Acknowledgements During the preparation of this publication, many individuals, media, institutions and organizations in the Faroes and Greenland rendered their help. They have provided invaluable assistance by contributing data, guidance to relevant sources of information, and by answering patiently and without complaints my tiresome and undoubtedly often naïve questions, through direct contacts during my short ‘field studies’ to Nuuk and Thorshavn in spring and autumn of 2004, and in the following, numerous telephone calls, and almost countless e-mails. The list would be too long of all people in the Faroes and Greenland who have contributed to this publication by suggesting where to seek information or by providing data far above their duty when requested, while still others have graciously read through drafts of the publication at various stages. I am deeply indebted to them all for their help, comments and suggestions, and they deserve my sincere thanks. None of them, however, can be held accounted for possible mistakes, errors and incorrect interpretations of the data – the responsibility is entirely mine. The final layout of the statistics has been the responsibility of Ulrika Facht at the office of NORDICOM at University of Gothenburg. She has shown admirable tolerance towards my many and sometimes eccentric suggestions of changes. Finally, I wish to give my warmest personal thanks to Ulla Carlsson, director of NORDICOM and instigator of this publication. From afar she has looked over my shoulders with an ‘eagle’s eye’ while the book was in the making. She has shown remarkable patience, as the publication has long been overdue, worked on as it was during moments stolen from family and friends. She has generously given encouragement when it was needed. Ragnar Karlsson 9 Introduction Media on the Edge of the World Ragnar Karlsson Lonely Places are the places that don’t fit in; the places that have no seat at our international dinner tables; the places that fall between the cracks of our tidy acronyms (EEC and OPEC, OAS and NATO). […] But, Lonely Places are not just isolated places, for loneliness is a state of mind. Pico Iyer, Falling off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World, 1993. Along with boundaries and identities, we need to consider scale. What I would like to suggest is that the factors of ‘scale’ (size, population, relative economic, social and cultural weighing) have usually not been adequately taken into account in reflections on the significance of frontiers and the identities these delimit. Tom Nairn, ‘Micro-states’, in Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited, 1997. What distinguishes the small nations from the large is not the quantitative criterion of the number of their inhabitants; it is something deeper. Milan Kundera, ‘Die Weltliteratur’, in The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts, 2007. No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. John Donne, ‘Meditation XVII’, in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions