Cristina Archetti

• Archetti, Cristina & Ranji, Banafsheh (2025). Grappling with thin air: The ontological and epistemological challenges of researching racism in journalism. Journalism - Theory, Practice & Criticism. ISSN 1464-8849. 0 (0), p. 1–19. doi: 10.1177/14648849251399702. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Journalism is not immune to racism, even in countries characterized by democratic values and freedom of expression. In such contexts, however, because racism is assumed not to exist, it is extremely difficult to expose it. This article addresses the challenges of producing knowledge about racism in journalism in Norway, where racism is widely denied. The analysis draws on a critical discourse analysis and ethnographic observations of the responses to our research, a study of the representations of immigrants in Norwegian media during the pandemic and the reverberation of these portrayals on the belonging of individuals with immigrant background in Norwegian society. It addresses the question: What happens when the systemic discrimination mechanisms one uncovers work against the researcher? The article makes theoretical and methodological contributions beyond the case of Norway: it explains why racism in journalism keeps on existing practically unchallenged; it shows the epistemological significance of researchers’ emotional labour; it demonstrates the utility of relational ontologies in capturing processes relevant to journalism beyond the “obvious” domains of investigation; it points at the benefits of art-based communication, not just for the dissemination of one’s study findings, but also for performing change in situations where merely mentioning racism creates discomfort.

• Archetti, Cristina (2024). Foreign Correspondence and Cross-Border Journalism: Theoretical and Methdological Challenges. In Rothenberger, Liane; Löffelholz, Martin & Weaver, David H. (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Cross-Border Journalism. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783031230233. p. 135–148. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-23023-3_9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter deals with the challenges of researching cross-border journalism. It does so by drawing on the author’s long-term experience of investigating different manifestations of cross-border journalism in a multidisciplinary perspective. The analysis first develops a critique of the limitations in the way existing research makes sense of the actors and processes of cross-border journalism. Second, it shares examples of alternative theoretical and methodological approaches that have proved fruitful in overcoming some of the blind spots of this research. The goal is ultimately to encourage the researchers of cross-border journalism to become aware of the constraints that theories and methods currently impose on one’s research, in order to be able to move beyond them and pursue new avenues of investigation.

• Archetti, Cristina (2024). Infertility as trauma: Understanding the lived experience of involuntary childlessness. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. ISSN 0165-005X. 48, p. 940–960. doi: 10.1007/s11013-024-09871-7. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Infertility, to those who are affected by it, is much more than whether one manages (or not) to have a child: it can be a traumatizing experience. Based on a clinical case study that involved one-to-one psychotherapy sessions and semi-structured interviews with six involuntarily childless women living in Norway, this article develops the argument that there is a need to treat infertility as trauma, both conceptually and from the perspective of therapeutic practice. The analysis contributes to our understanding of trauma as a disruptive event that erodes a person’s moral agency. It does so by outlining conceptual and therapeutic tools that illuminate what happens in the psyche as a result of the trauma: they help explaining why the moral agency of different individuals is damaged to different extents, and how therapy can repair it. In relation to the issue of involuntary childlessness, the analysis shows where infertility fits within one’s traumabiography—a map of the way adverse experiences over the life-course have affected one’s psyche and behavior—both as traumatizing in itself and connected to previous traumas. This understanding enables more effective therapeutic support and better care for many individuals whose long-term suffering would otherwise remain unacknowledged and untreated.

• Archetti, Cristina & Ranji, Banafsheh (2024). “I Feel It in My Body, in My Soul, in My Mind”: Journalism, Racist News and Immigrants’ Experience of Belonging. Journalism Studies. ISSN 1461-670X. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2024.2439014. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We know that journalism, and particularly news, has an essential function in society and politics and that it shapes our understanding of reality. Yet, we fail to recognize its far-reaching implications on the lived experience of those who consume it. This article contributes towards addressing this gap by examining the response of individuals with an immigrant background to racist representations of immigrants in Norwegian news during the Covid-19 pandemic. It involved 21 in-depth interviews that mapped how the coverage both was entwined with and refracted through the participants’ emotions, embodied and situated experiences, impacting their sense of belonging in Norwegian society. The analysis demonstrates the devastating reverberations of racist news discourse on all domains of an immigrant’s life: far from merely providing information, news profoundly affects an immigrant’s sense of safety, health and well-being, and feeling (or not) “at home.” The study has relevance beyond the Norwegian case and the timeframe of the pandemic in so far as it moves beyond existing research about “news effects” and “audience studies.” Theoretically it conceptualizes news as both elemental and existential. Methodologically, it approaches it as woven into the experience of immigrants rather than as an external influence on it.

• Ranji, Banafsheh & Archetti, Cristina (2024). The details that matter: Racism in Norwegian media during the Covid-19 pandemic. Media, Culture and Society. ISSN 0163-4437. 46(7), p. 1397–1413. doi: 10.1177/01634437241241482. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article is about the role of the media in the phenomenon of contemporary racism. More specifically, it outlines the discursive mechanisms through which insidious, hidden forms of racism are able to exist “invisible in plain sight,” even in the media and public discourse of countries, like Norway, that regard themselves as democratic and tolerant. The study is part of a broader investigation into the role of the media in the life-experience of immigrants. It addresses the question: How did Norwegian media portray immigrants during the Covid-19 pandemic? Based on a discourse analysis of media coverage, the study demonstrates how racism is hidden “between the lines,” in the assumptions behind a text. It also explains how racism is produced and reproduced covertly, yet systematically, through a media text’s small, even “irrelevant”-looking details. The analysis, importantly, reveals the presence of already existing and widely shared racist scripts which, although they became more noticeable during the Covid-19 crisis, actually underlie public- and media discourse at all times. The results of the study, while related to the case of Norway and the pandemic crisis, help us more broadly understand how and why racism, under the shape of “normality,” tends to remain practically unchallenged.

• Archetti, Cristina (2023). Deviations: Poetic Reflections on Method. Screenworks. 13(1). doi: 10.37186/swrks/13.1/3. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This short essay film weaves the personal story of a researcher and human being with broader methodological and existential questions. It particularly explores the role of the moving image as a means of engagement with a non academic audience and as a tool for investigating the depth and complexity of lived experience in a world on the brink.

• Archetti, Cristina (2023). Lessons learned from examining the actors and processes of cross-border journalism: Overcoming the theoretical and methodological challenges. In Rothenberger, Liane; Löffelholz, Martin & Weaver, David H. (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Cross-Border Journalism. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783031230233. p. 135–148. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-23023-3_9. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2022). Researching Experience in Journalism: Theory, Method, and Creative Practice. Journalism Studies. ISSN 1461-670X. 23(8), p. 974–997. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2022.2061576. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Investigating experience is becoming a greater concern in Journalism Studies. However, while “experience” is often mentioned, it is either never fully discussed or it is approached in terms of mere sensory or emotional response. Experience, instead, involves additionally (and simultaneously) situatedness, embodiment, and continuous re-processing over time, most of which lies beyond consciousness and is not easily articulated by words. Drawing on Whitehead's processual philosophy and Gendlin's philosophy of the implicit, this article addresses the calls in the field for “taking experience seriously.” Theoretically, it tackles the ontological leap required to be able to conceive experience. Methodologically and empirically it demonstrates the potential for applying creative techniques to retrieve and express the knowledge beyond words that is not captured by established methods. It does so by sharing the author's reflection matured through long-term experimentation with creative practices in research and the creation of an embroidered collage inspired by the project “Being a foreigner at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: The impact of news consumption on the everyday life of migrants in Norway.” The article takes the form, in itself, of a collage and invites the reader to join into an experiential taster of its arguments.

• Archetti, Cristina & Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla (2022). Enabling Knowledge: The Art of Nurturing Unknown Spaces. Nordic Journal of Art & Research (A & R). 11(1). doi: 10.7577/information.5053. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article is both an exploration and a reflection on the process of generating knowledge from an encounter with the unknown. It documents what practising the ‘ethics of the unknown’ (Eeg-Tverbakk 2016) consisted of and what insights it led to in relation to two projects: ‘Childism’ (2015), based on documents from an informant who experienced child abuse, and ‘Embodied’ (2018), a performance lecture presenting both research and lived experience of involuntary childlessness. To reflect the fluidity, multi-directionality and, at points, messiness- of the process of practising the ethics of the unknown, theory and practice are not as rigidly separated in the text as the conventions of academic publication would normally require. The text alternates analysis, the voices of the authors, as well as sound files and images designed to offer experiential glimpses into the performances and the arguments. Theoretically, the concepts outlined are inspired by quite different strands of materialist thinking (object-oriented philosophy and new materialism). The research takes liberties when relating to different philosophical concepts that have proven to be useful in the practice of staging documentary material. We are not proposing a ‘method’ but rather arguing along with Erin Manning for ‘research creation’, where methods have to be invented and developed for each project. As such, this article also places itself within the discussions on post-qualitative, non-representational and performative research.

• Archetti, Cristina (2021). Making contact: When research needs to touch the heart and get under the skin. Samfunnsviter'n. p. 16–17. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2021). When public relations can heal: An embodied theory of silence for public communication. Public relations inquiry. ISSN 2046-147X. doi: 10.1177/2046147X211014095. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article extends the conceptualization of silence in public relations beyond strategic communication. It develops a new theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms through which suffering and pain felt inside the body translate into silence, exclusion from public debate, and communication gaps in health communication. This happens through intermediate steps that involve, among others, the role of the media in the narrative construction of the body and the self. This framework advances an understanding of public relations oriented towards civil society and is based on the empirical case study of involuntary childlessness (i.e. not having children not by choice): even in the age of ubiquitous communication, despite affecting about 25% of the adult population of virtually all developed countries, this issue is shrouded in taboo and seldom heard of. The analysis makes the case for a more material, indeed embodied, approach to conceptualizing silence in public relations.

• Archetti, Cristina (2020). Research, methods, and the Zen art of questioning what you know. Norsk medietidsskrift (NMT). ISSN 0804-8452. 27(2), p. 1–7. doi: 10.18261/ISSN.0805-9535-2020-02-06. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2019). Mapping Transnational Journalism in the Age of Flows: Or How I Ditched “Foreign Correspondence” and the “Immigrant Press” and Started to Love Histoire Croisée. Journalism Studies. ISSN 1461-670X. 20(15), p. 2150–2166. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2019.1568905. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article is about the conceptual and methodological challenges of mapping twenty-first-century transnational journalism. They are examined by focusing on the case study of a journalistic genre that spans the local, national and transnational dimensions at once: online local news in English from non-English-speaking countries. This kind of news appears to defy the boundaries of existing journalistic categories. Given that defining a problem (ontology) affects the way we go about researching it (methodology), the absence of a clear definitional category a researcher can assign this news-phenomenon to raises important questions: Which strategies might be employed to map this genre of news, to identify what is relevant to it, and ultimately to understand it? The analysis first outlines the limitations of existing journalistic categories in capturing the fluid reality of contemporary transnational news. Then, borrowing from the toolkit of International History, it suggests an alternative inductive and relational approach to examining transnational journalistic practices—histoire croisée. The benefits of this approach are illustrated through an empirical mapping of the actors, connectors and connections that make up the “circulatory regime” of the leading provider of local news in English in Europe: The Local.

• Archetti, Cristina (2019). No life without family: Film representations of involuntary childlessness, silence and exclusion. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics. ISSN 1740-8296. 15(2), p. 175–196. doi: 10.1386/macp.15.2.175_1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Forming a family and having children constitutes an adulthood rite of passage, one of the tacitly assumed requirements of a fulfilled life. What happens, then, when the “family dream” does not materialize? This article addresses the dark sides of the “family imperative” by focusing on representations of involuntary childlessness (i.e. childlessness not by choice) in film. It advances the argument that popular culture, far from being “mere entertainment”, plays an important role in wider processes of stigmatization, silencing and, as a result, exclusion of those who do not have a family. The analysis, which is informed by a broader study into the structure of silence surrounding childlessness, presents the findings of a comparative qualitative content analysis that examined the (troubling) representations of involuntary childless individuals in 50 films from Italy, Norway and the United States. It discusses their far-reaching cultural and political implications, making practical suggestions to counter their stigmatizing effects.

• Boer, Marjolein de; Archetti, Cristina & Solbrække, Kari Nyheim (2019). In/Fertile Monsters: The Emancipatory Significance of Representations of Women on Infertility Reality TV. Journal of Medical Humanities. ISSN 1041-3545. p. 1–16. doi: 10.1007/s10912-019-09555-z. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Reality TV is immensely popular, and various shows in this media genre involve a storyline of infertility and infertility treatment. Feminists argue that normative and constructed realities about infertility and infertility treatment, like those in reality TV, are central to the emancipation of women. Such realities are able to steer viewers' perceptions of the world. This article examines the emancipatory significance of representations of women on 'infertility reality TV shows'. While the women in these shows all have 'abnormal' qualities, we consider their portrayal as figurations of monstrosity. In the literature, monstrosity is understood as a way to challenge nonemancipatory norms by offering an alternative identity. Through a content analysis of seven reality TV shows, we identified four types of in/fertile monsters: the cyborg, the freak, the abject, and the childless. We show that these monsters are predominantly non-emancipatory as they all involve mechanisms of altering, excluding, or condemning infertility in relation to what is considered normal and acceptable womanhood. Therefore, at the end of this article, we make a plea for more diverse and emancipatory representations of infertile women in popular culture.

• Archetti, Cristina (2018). The Unbearable Thinness of Strategic Communication. In Biola, Corneliu & Pamment, James (Ed.), Countering Online Propaganda and Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy. Routledge. ISSN 9781138578623. p. 81–98. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2017). Narrative Wars: Understanding Terrorism in the Era of Global Interconnectedness. In Miskimmon, Alister; O'Loughlin, Ben & Roselle, Laura (Ed.), Forging the World: Strategic Narratives and International Relations. University of Michigan Press. ISSN 9780472130214. p. 218–245. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2017). Image, self-presentation and political communication in the age of interconnection: An alternative understanding of the mediatization of politics. Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook. ISSN 1601-829X. 15(1), p. 89–109. doi: 10.1386/nl.15.1.89_1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The way politicians ‘look’ is taken to be one of the essential aspects of the ‘mediatization’ and ‘professionalization’ of politics. Yet there is very little research about the role of image and self-presentation in political communication. This article presents the results of a study that aims to fill this gap by mapping where and how image fits within broader processes of identity and meaning construction in contemporary politics. On the basis of 51 interviews, it compares the role of personal image in the everyday political practices of both British and Italian local politicians and members of the European Parliament. The analysis develops an alternative conceptual framework to make sense of the role of image in twenty-first century politics, showing that the alleged deleterious effects of a ‘cult of appearances’ on democracy reflects more the narrowness of academic enquiry and the legacy of outdated linear models of politics-media relationships than the much more variegated and networked reality of contemporary politics.

• Stanyer, James; Archetti, Cristina & Sorensen, Lone (2016). The United Kingdom: Hybrid Populisms, Mixed Fortunes, and Unstable Support. In Aalberg, Toril; Esser, Frank; Reinemann, Carsten; Strömbäck, Jesper & Vreese, Claes De (Ed.), Populist Political Communication in Europe: Comprehending the Challenge of Mediated Political Populism for Democratic Politics. Routledge. ISSN 9781138654792. p. 165–177. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2015). Terrorism, Communication and New Media: Explaining Radicalization in the Digital Age. Perspectives on Terrorism (PT). 9(1), p. 49–59. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article aims to demonstrate that a greater understanding of communication in the 21st century is essential to more effective counterterrorism. In fact, while “strategic communication” and “narratives” are advocated by many analysts as essential weapons in countering extremism, few seem to truly understand the reality of the digital-age information environment where such tools need to be deployed. To contribute to bridging this gap, the article outlines some problematic misunderstandings of the contemporary information environment, provides an alternative communication-based framework to explain radicalization, and draws some counterintuitive lessons for tackling terrorism.

• Archetti, Cristina (2015). Bringing Back Emotion, Imagination and the Senses: Creative Writing in Journalism Research. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics. ISSN 1740-8296. 11(2), p. 239–249. doi: 10.1386/macp.11.2.239_3. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2015). Journalism, Practice and…Poetry: The Unexpected Effects of Creative Writing on Journalism Research. Journalism Studies. ISSN 1461-670X. 18(9), p. 1106–1127. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2015.1111773. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article examines the role of creative writing in understanding journalism. It argues that non-academic writing—poetry in this case—can play a far more significant part in journalism research than that of an entertaining genre for disseminating a study's findings, mainly to audiences beyond academia. Not only can poetry complement traditional “academic” texts by filling the gaps of the vivid details of the situated practices of journalism as they are lived in real life. It also has far-reaching epistemological and ontological implications: it raises fundamental questions about the world where journalists operate, the role of imagination, sensory perceptions and materiality in everyday manifestations of journalism, as well as the place of the scholar in the research process. The benefits of creative writing are illustrated through examples of actual poems written while conducting a comparative study of foreign journalists in the United Kingdom, Norway and Somalia. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

• Archetti, Cristina (2015). Terrorism, Communication and the Media. In Kennedy-Pipe, Caroline; Clubb, Gordon & Mabon, Simon (Ed.), Terrorism and Political Violence. Sage Publications. ISSN 9781446272800. p. 134–152. doi: 10.4135/9781473917248.n11. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2014). Journalism & the City: Redefining the Spaces of Foreign Correspondence in London and Oslo. Journalism Studies. ISSN 1461-670X. 15(5), p. 586–595. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2014.894354. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Place matters a great deal in journalism, even in the era of the “death of geography.” Yet space never produces effects through its existence alone. To understand the relevance of location beyond its most immediate assigned role of “logistic constraint,” we must rework not only our understanding of journalism, but of the whole social world. This article presents a comparative analysis of foreign correspondents’ practices in London and Oslo. The foreign journalists’ experiences in the case studies are analytically dissected through the lens of Bruno Latour’s Actor Network Theory (ANT). The analysis shows the utility of the application of Latour’s framework to the study of international journalism in two respects. First, by mapping how local practices—identities, newsgathering routines and story outputs—are relationally constructed through the interactions of social actors, technologies and material infrastructures, ANT provides an understanding of the role of location that transcends the merely physical and geographical dimensions. Second, by showing how situated practices are the outcomes of unique network configurations, ANT questions the validity of any generalized one-size-fits-all statements about the current state of foreign correspondence.

• Archetti, Cristina (2013). Journalism in the Age of Globalization: The Evolving Practices of Foreign Correspondents in London. Journalism - Theory, Practice & Criticism. ISSN 1464-8849. 14(3), p. 419–436. doi: 10.1177/1464884912472140. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article challenges the widespread notion that, in the age of global and instantaneous communication, foreign correspondence is becoming ‘redundant’. Based on a range of in-depth interviews with foreign correspondents in London, it examines the identity, newsgathering routines, and outputs of journalists working for a range of foreign media organizations. The study suggests that foreign correspondence is indeed evolving, but that the changes are not necessarily for the worse. In fact, not only are foreign journalists not disappearing, but the heavy use of new communication technologies – rather than leading to superficial and low-quality reporting – also supports the pursuit of exclusive news-story angles and a fuller delivery of the correspondent’s value.

• Archetti, Cristina (2012). Which Future for Foreign Correspondence? London Foreign Correspondents in the Age of Global Media. Journalism Studies. ISSN 1461-670X. 13(5-6), p. 847–856. doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2012.664352. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Place matters a great deal in journalism, even in the era of the “death of geography.” Yet space never produces effects through its existence alone. To understand the relevance of location beyond its most immediate assigned role of “logistic constraint,” we must rework not only our understanding of journalism, but of the whole social world. This article presents a comparative analysis of foreign correspondents' practices in London and Oslo. The foreign journalists' experiences in the case studies are analytically dissected through the lens of Bruno Latour's Actor Network Theory (ANT). The analysis shows the utility of the application of Latour's framework to the study of international journalism in two respects. First, by mapping how local practices—identities, newsgathering routines and story outputs—are relationally constructed through the interactions of social actors, technologies and material infrastructures, ANT provides an understanding of the role of location that transcends the merely physical and geographical dimensions. Second, by showing how situated practices are the outcomes of unique network configurations, ANT questions the validity of any generalized one-size-fits-all statements about the current state of foreign correspondence.

• Archetti, Cristina (2012). The Impact of New Media on Diplomatic Practice: An Evolutionary Model of Change. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. ISSN 1871-1901. 7(2), p. 181–206. doi: 10.1163/187119112X625538. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Based on a range of interviews with foreign diplomats in London, this article explains the considerable variation in the way that communication technologies both affect diplomatic practices and are appropriated by diplomats to pursue the respective countries’ information-gathering and public outreach objectives. The study shows that London, as an information environment, is experienced differently by each of the diplomats and embassy actors. The analysis elaborates a model of the ‘communication behaviour’ of foreign diplomats, based on an evolutionary analogy: foreign diplomats in the context of the British capital, within their respective embassy organizations, can each be compared to the members of a species that is attempting to survive in a natural environment. The nuances highlighted by the explanatory model challenge the largely homogeneous and generalized nature of current debates about media and diplomacy, as well as public diplomacy.

• Archetti, Cristina (2011). Friend or Foe? Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in Political Communication. European Political Science. ISSN 1680-4333. 10(4), p. 1–16. doi: 10.1057/eps.2011.40. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The aim of this article is questioning the commonly held assumption that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is necessarily good for students. Drawing on the experience of teaching a postgraduate module about terrorism and the media as a case study, it shows that PBL can definitely benefit the Political Communication curriculum. However, this is only part of the story. PBL, in fact, appears to have an ‘amplifier’ effect on the learning outcomes of a module: the achievement of outstanding results for those who are committed to the coursework; lower achievement than would have been gained through more ‘traditional’ learning methods for those who do not fully engage with it. As the case study suggests, students’ individual expectations and previous experiences of coursework, although currently overlooked, appear to make all the difference within the learning process.

• Archetti, Cristina (2010). Comparing International Coverage of 9/11: Towards an Interdisciplinary Explanation of the Construction of News. Journalism - Theory, Practice & Criticism. ISSN 1464-8849. 11(5), p. 567–588. doi: 10.1177/1464884910373536. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article presents an interdisciplinary model attempting to explain how news is constructed, by relying on the contributions of different fields of study: News Sociology, Political Communication, International Communications, and International Relations. It is a first step towards developing a holistic theoretical approach to what shapes the news that bridges current micro to macro approaches. More precisely, the model explains news variation across different media organizations and countries by focusing on the different ways the sense of newsworthiness of journalists is affected by three main variables: national interest, national journalistic culture, and the editorial policy of each media organization. The model is developed on the basis of an investigation into what shaped the media coverage of 9/11 in eight elite newspapers across the USA, France, Italy and Pakistan.

• Archetti, Cristina (2008). News Coverage of 9/11 and the Demise of the Media Flows, Globalization and Localization Hypotheses. International Communication Gazette. ISSN 1748-0485. 70(6), p. 463–486. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  An international comparative study of the elite press framing of 9/11 in the US, Italy, France and Pakistan reveals that there is little empirical backing for the claims of three core strands of research about news exchanges within the field of international communications. The findings of the empirical investigation neither support the existence of international news flows, nor the idea that news is becoming homogenized on a global scale. The analysis does not suggest a localization of news at a national level either. News coverage, instead, appears to be markedly different at the level of the single newspaper and this can be explained through different variables than the international macro-processes addressed by news studies within the field. The analysis fundamentally suggests that, if research within international communications wants to explain news in the information age, it needs to broaden its horizons and to adopt a multidisciplinary perspective that includes both the analysis of national political processes and a deeper understanding of the dynamics of news production in each single media organization.

• Archetti, Cristina (2008). Unamerican Views”: Why US-Developed Models of Press-State Relations Don’t Apply to the Rest of the World. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (WPCC). ISSN 1744-6708. 5(3), p. 4–26. doi: 10.16997/wpcc.87. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article shows the limitations of the “indexing” hypothesis, an influential conceptualization of state-press relations based on the notion that the media tend to reproduce the range of debate within political elites. The hypothesis, as confirmed by an international comparative investigation of the elite press coverage of 9/11 in the US, Italy, France, and Pakistan, cannot be applied outside the American context. The analysis finds that the variation in the levels of correlation between elite press coverage and governmental discourse are explained by previously neglected variables: national interest, national journalistic culture, and editorial policy within each media organization. The article argues that more international comparative research and multidisciplinary approaches are needed in order to renew old paradigms, especially at a time when the distinction between foreign and domestic politics is disappearing.

• Archetti, Cristina (2007). A Multidisciplinary Understanding of News: Comparing Elite Press Framing of 9/11 in the US, Italy, France and Pakistan. Journal of International Communication. ISSN 1321-6597. 13(1), p. 86–118. doi: 10.1080/13216597.2007.9674709. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Political Communications, International Communications, News Sociology, all claim to offer an explanation for what shapes the news, but provide extremely different, if not contradictory suggestions. Political communications almost takes for granted the fact that official actors have a major role in shaping news stories at the national level. International Communications points at several possibilities: structural economic imbalances lead to unidirectional news flows from rich countries towards poor countries; globalization causes news to become homogenised on a worldwide scale; news is geared to the tastes of local audiences by national news producers. News sociology, instead, argues that the news product of each media organization is the unique output of patterns of social interactions among media professionals. An international comparative study of the elite press framing of 9/11 in the US, Italy, France, and Pakistan reveals the limits of these approaches: none of them alone is able to explain the patterns of news contents that were detected in the empirical investigation. The analysis suggests that the content of press coverage in the newspapers under analysis is more effectively explained in terms of selection of newsworthy sources, guided by national interest, journalistic culture, and editorial policy. The study points to the benefit of adopting international comparative research designs and fundamentally argues that, if we want to explain news in the information age, we need to approach its study in a multidisciplinary perspective.

• Archetti, Cristina (2004). Are the Media Globalizing Political Discourse? The War On Terrorism Case Study. International Journal of the Humanities: Annual Review. ISSN 1447-9508. 2, p. 1301–1308. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The article challenges the claim that an increasingly global media is creating a homogenisation of political discourses at the international level. In particular, it explores the extent to which the U.S. government managed to affect global perceptions of the War On Terrorism through the media in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 events. The research starts from the consideration that the U.S. government created, through the repetition of consistent messages, a very specific interpretation of the 9/11 events (a War On Terrorism frame) and attempted to export it globally in order to support its own foreign policy objectives. The analysis then focuses on the comparison between the War On Terrorism frame as delivered by the U.S. government and its reproduction within both the political and media discourses in a range of local cases at the international level. They include the U.S., France, Italy and Pakistan. The research questions current literature on globalisation by drawing on political communications’ framing theory. More in detail, it suggests first that there is no evidence of an on-going globalisation of either political or media discourses; secondly that the local nation-state level plays a key role in understanding the mechanisms of frames’ spreading at the global level; and thirdly that national culture is a major determinant in defining local political and media discourses’ contents, even in presence of a strong persuasion attempt by a powerful international actor such as the U.S. government.

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• Archetti, Cristina (2026). The Trauma of Infertility: The Experience of Involuntary Childlessness. Zeta Books. ISBN 9786066972031. 442 p. doi: https:/zetabooks.com/all-titles/the-trauma-of-infertility/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Infertility is often understood primarily in medical terms, as a problem of reproduction and treatment outcomes. This book argues that such an approach overlooks the experience itself and the way it can reshape an entire horizon of life. For those who live through infertility, it may become a profound rupture that reaches far beyond the inability to conceive, altering one’s sense of self, one’s relation to the body, connections with others, and the way the future is imagined. Bringing together phenomenology, trauma theory, psychotherapy, and Gloria Anzaldúa’s thought, the book proposes an original framework for understanding infertility as trauma. It draws on philosophical reflection alongside personal narrative and experiential research, while placing lived experience at the centre of both interpretation and care. Rather than presenting infertility simply as a medical condition or a private struggle, it approaches it as a transformation of one’s way of being in and with the world. The result is what the author calls a phenomenology of nepantla: a phenomenological exploration of the spaces opened by rupture and displacement, attentive to experiences of being in-between and to the uncertain movements through which healing can gradually take shape.

• Archetti, Cristina (2020). Childlessness in the Age of Communication: Deconstructing Silence. Routledge. ISBN 9780367409944. 284 p. doi: 10.4324/9780367810399. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Cristina Archetti started researching childlessness after being diagnosed with "unexplained infertility". She soon discovered that, although involuntary childlessness affects an increasing number of women and men across the world, this topic is shrouded taboo and shame. This book is both a first-person reflection about the existential questions posed by involuntary childlessness and a readable account of the way the silence surrounding this topic is socially and politically constructed. Revealing the invisible mechanisms that, from the microscopic details of everyday life to policy, make up the structure of silence around childlessness, Archetti demonstrates what it means not to have children in a society that is organized around families. Through a prose that mixes analysis, excerpts of interviews, media fragments, and evocative writing, she develops a new language of feeling-in-the-body fit for the twenty-first century and exposes the devastating effects infertility has on relationships, identity, health and well-being, in societies that fetishize parenthood.

• Archetti, Cristina (2014). Politicians, Personal Image and the Construction of Political Identity: A Comparative Study of the UK and Italy. Palgrave Pivot. ISBN 9781137353412. 108 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2012). Understanding Terrorism in the Age of Global Media: A Communication Approach. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137291387. 218 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2010). Explaining News: National Politics and Journalistic Cultures in Global Context. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230109667. 258 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Archetti, Cristina & Ranji, Banafsheh (2024). Innvandrersmitte--Immigrant infection: A performance on news, immigration, belonging. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina & Ranji, Banafsheh (2024). Racism Hidden Between the Lines in Norwegian News Media. RightNow!. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2023). Atlas of pain/Atlas of healing. Resonans. ISSN 2535-2601. p. 40–45. Full text in Research Archive
• Archetti, Cristina (2022). More fragile than you think: Journalism and freedom of expression beyond the rhetoric. Norsk medietidsskrift (NMT). ISSN 0804-8452. 29(1), p. 1–7. doi: 10.18261/nmt.29.1.6. Full text in Research Archive
• Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla & Archetti, Cristina (2020). Of cross-disciplinary encounters: Introducing movement, breath and other artistic interventions in academic research. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A performance-lecture exploring silent narratives that memories, bodies and artefacts bring to a traditional paper format. We raise open-ended experiential and sensory reflections on how the application of creative approaches to research enables more holistically capturing the complexity, nuance, and ambivalence of human practices.

• Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla & Archetti, Cristina (2018). EMBODIED, a Performance lecture on involuntary childlessness. Full text in Research Archive

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