This article examines the problematic associated with the coverage of the Zimbabwean crisis inthe Norwegian mainstream media. It examines the underlying messages and assesses whether theNorwegian media have an unconscious social, cultural or political bias, as manifested through theselection of sources, angling and in the narrative devices of frames used in the stories. Theconclusions from the analysis are that the Norwegian media reduced the complex Zimbabweanissue into a ‘typical’ African story of tragedy and despair. This conclusion is microcosmic of the‘stereotyped frames’ associated with the Western media and their tendency to portray the Africancontinent as an unrelenting series of disasters.