How journalism forgets: on the journalistic representation of colonial biopower in Greenland

Abstract

This article presents a postcolonial and feminist analysis of 44 newspaper articles published between 1965 and 2022 about “the coil campaign” in Greenland, which fitted Greenlandic Inuit women with the IUD in the 1960s and 1970s, at times without their knowledge or consent. Using a media archive search and conducting a discursive analysis, we explore how journalistic reporting and debates enabled a discourse of colonial virtues and modernization processes deemed necessary, which in turn supported the medical practice. Moreover, the historical media archives show us that journalism not only uncovers these harsh truths and hold politicians accountable but also helps support postcolonial politics and discourses, such as the discourses underpinning the coil campaign to begin with.