The High North Tour 2021
The High North Tour 2021 is underway. A journey for and about the Arctic human. (Still photo: Martin Losvik)
The High North: For almost a year, journalism has been done from the desk in our own homes. Apart from sports journalism, that is, which appears to be exempt from all regulations. Whether or not we have been hit by a pandemic outbreak will soon be the only thing we know about each other.
And since there has hardly been any infection in the High North, only restrictions that accompany it, I am left with a feeling that we are almost forgotten.
Everything is cancelled. What is left, can be viewed on a screen.
Making a newspaper for the Arctic and the High North from the office of your home is demanding.
Being a journalist without meeting people is like riding without a horse.
Therefore, I have swapped my home office for the next weeks and months with a mobile office.
I want to be out there.
I want to meet the people, the institutions, the culture sector, and companies that live and have lived in the shadow of the pandemic’s ravaging. Those who are unable to break through in the national and international media.
See people in the eye
I want to see people in the eyes, not just through the treacherous surface of the computer screen.
When people are digitalized, eye contact disappears.
I want to try and find out what happened, and what is happening, from a period that will be historic.
So far, the northern parts of Sweden and Finland are closed. Perhaps borders will open again. Perhaps even Russia will open up.
A journey like this is also a personal challenge. I need something to strive towards after hibernating. Being a writing journalist, I am now to take on the challenge of sound and image. It is demanding, but in every mistake lies a potential to move on.
A solid High North News editorial staff at home will continue covering the daily news, nationally as well as internationally, from the Arctic and the High Noth.
If you have tips or ideas about stories that should be told, feel free to get in touch with me. Send me a message on Facebook or get in touch directly. Nobody, least of all I, know where my mobile home office will pop up next time.
The High North Tour 2021 is on!
A journey for and about the Arctic human.
This article was originally published in Norwegian and has been translated by HNN's Elisabeth Bergquist.