Shifting narratives of the Alta controversy: Innovations in memory studies using natural language processing

This article examines the evolving collective memory of the Alta controversy, a civic conflict in Norway spanning from 1978 to 1982, using a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and qualitative analysis of newspapers. By exploring a comprehensive corpus (N = 82,528), we analyse the transformation of the Alta controversy’s representation – from an environmental conflict to its current framing as a pivotal event in Sámi rights history. The findings reveal a dual trajectory: a gradual dominance of Sámi contextualization alongside conflicting narratives that persist in public discourse. Methodologically, this study highlights the utility and limitations of NLP in memory studies, offering innovative solutions for handling large datasets while emphasizing the necessity of qualitative inquiry to interpret narrative shifts. Beyond the Alta controversy, the article contributes to broader debates on how recent past and contested histories are mediated through journalistic memory practices such as commemoration, historical contextualization, and the use of analogies, thereby nuancing the role of newspapers as agents in shaping and reflecting collective memory.