Fjölmiðlarnir og fréttirnar — the media and the news

News Icelandic

Icelandic news writing has its own small verb set, and it leans on grammar you have just learned: the passive, reported speech, and samkvæmt + dative for sources.

Reporting verbs and events

expression	meaning	register
greina frá + dat	to report on	written
koma fram	to be stated, to emerge	written
birta + acc	to publish	neutral
eiga sér stað	to take place	written
verða fyrir + dat	to be subjected to, to suffer	neutral

to report on, to relate (written register)greina frá is the written sibling of *segja frá*: the reporter, not the storyteller. to take place (written register)eiga sér stað is what events do in print — in speech you would say *gerast*. to be subjected to, to suffer (+ Dative)verða fyrir takes the dative for what hits you: slysi, tapi, áhrifum.

What the news is made of

Morðið (the murder) and morðinginn (the murderer) run the crime pages; hermaðurinn (the soldier) the foreign pages; sannleikurinn (the truth) is what everyone claims to print.

Receiving media

An umfjöllun is a review or a piece of coverage; a heimildamynd is a documentary; an útdráttur is the summary you write in school. And to follow Icelandic conversation about any of it you need kaldhæðnin (the sarcasm) and húmorinn (the humor) — the two things the curriculum says a B2 listener must catch.