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Media Geographies Media Geographies Inka Salovaara-Moring Media Geographies Regional newspaper discourses in Finland in the 1990s Viestinnän julkaisuja 9 Department of Communication University of Helsinki Media geographies Inka Salovaara-Moring Department of Communication University of Helsinki Viestinnän julkaisuja 9 ISSN 1457-2184 ISBN 952-10-1618-3 ISBN 952-10-1619-1 (PDF) www.valt.helsinki.fi/comm/julkaisut/ Cover and figures: Toni Liikanen Print: Gummerus 2004, Saarijärvi 4 Abstract Inka Salovaara-Moring MEDIA GEOGRAPHIES Regional newspaper discourses in Finland in the 1990s This study investigates the ways in which differences between four Finnish regions are represented in regional newspaper texts, during the economic crisis of the 1990s. The aim is to compare how the different aspects of the economic crises are constructed discursively in newspapers texts, and how these differences shape the interpretations of the economic crises within the regions. The study is based on three methodological bases: it is comparative; it leans on methods of textual analysis (content analysis and discourse analy- sis); and it makes pragmatic use of theories within the critical tradition in the interpretation of the texts. It introduces a spatial approach to media studies, combining it with the theory of legitimation crisis and relational thinking as a way to construct identity, space, region, and change. For the study, four newspapers were selected from regions that were different, both economically and culturally. Theoretically, the regions are seen as dynamic entities consisting of different processes. The research ques- tions were approached with the help of data collected from the newspapers between the years 1988-1997. The time-span covers the last years of the economic boom of the 1980s, the economic crisis, and the recovery at the end of the 1990s. 5 According to the study, among the several variables that affect the por- trayal of economic crises, the economic wealth of the region, the regional policies obtained by the state, and the types of economic activity typical to the region are especially influential. Also the internal journalistic culture of the newspaper, as well as the policy-line and earlier commitments of the newspaper have an impact. Theoretically-distinguishable subsequential phases of the crises – evolving at the levels of legitimation, rationality, and motivation crises of the regional community – were identified. The news- papers first presented the economic and financial part of the crisis as the main problem. In a following phase, the newspapers presented political interventions, dealing with the economic problems, as a rationality crisis, based on the difficulties to construct a stable social order on an instable market economy. This was followed by a broader legitimation crisis, the timing and severity of which varied from region to region. In this phase, the State and the political elite lost part of its legitimacy, due to the inability to reconcile conflicting demands regarding the re-planning of the economic system. In certain areas, the competitive drive and work ethic were further weakened, leading to a motivation crisis which also threatened the social integration of the region. Every region experienced the modes of crises in a different way, constructing distinguishable periods of crisis representation. The concept of “a meaning-market” was developed as a tool for assessing how journalism interacts with other parts of the regional system. The study reveals that the journalistic representations were not merely reflections of dominant cultural values, but also sums of equations based on the nation’s political history, the main staples of economic systems, and geographical relations between the center and the peripheries. When the central system was threatened by the legitimation crisis, the ontological se- curity was constructed on a local scale, in a symbolic exchange of micro- economies with the help of regional meaning markets. Keywords: media geographies, space, regional newspapers, discourse, comparison 6 Preface In 1997, the Academy of Finland launched a multidisciplinary, problem- oriented, and applied research programme: “The economic crisis of Finland in the 1990s.” The mission of this research programme, the largest ever in the social sciences in Finland, was to explore the economic, social, and cultural dimensions of the exceptionally deep economic crisis that hit the country in the early 1990s. It is one of life’s strange ironies that my doctoral dissertation started as part of this project, focusing on the very phenome- non of which my generation had become a victim. The aim of the media subproject was to analyze the public discussion of the economic crisis and the challenges this crisis created for a democratic system. My part in the project was to compare differences in media repre- sentations from the regional point of view – in more generic terms, to ex- plore the cultural geography and identity politics of the crisis. However, my inspiration for this theme had a deeper basis. It can be traced back to those early moments of my childhood when I was listening to the family legends told to me by my grandmother. During the last century, my grandparents lived in the Pyhäjärvi region, in Finnish Karelia. When the Winter War began, the families of the region were forced to evacuate to the Finnish side. The Karelia Isthmus, where my grandparents had lived, was turned into a military zone. According to fam- ily legend, my grandma refused to leave the old elementary school house where they lived. She had an old rifle she could not use, a shepherd dog, a fiery spirit of resistance, and a decisive attitude not to leave the territory in the hands of the enemy. When the Soviet Union air force began to drop 7 reconnaissance parachuters on the shores of Pyhäjärvi and into the woods nearby, she stood on the school yard, on guard, watching into the darkness. When some of them entered the house, in order to set up a radio connec- tion to the Soviet command center, my grandmother hid upstairs with a basket containing glowing embers. As she could not handle the rifle she fought the intruders by dropping glowing coals onto their backs. Eventually, the retreating Finnish troops forced my grandma to pack her things and get on one of the last trains that took her over what today is the border between Russia and Finland. This bitter conflict was one of the pre- ludes to World War II. As a result of the war, the Karelia region was ceded to the Soviet Union and it became a buffer zone in the cold war period. More than 400 000 inhabitants of Karelia had to leave their homes to settle in other parts of the country. Finland has often been perceived as a homogeneous country, both cul- turally and socially. Finns are supposed to share the same norms, values, and symbols. Perhaps the reality is not so black and white. Living in a border- land between East and West, the people have carried a mixture of tradi- tions, mentalities, and identities within themselves. Geopolitical interven- tion is part of the history of this small corner of the world. Finnish mentality and cultural geography form a texture that takes its colors and figuration from endless family stories telling about leavings, retreats, and new starts. Our human geography is like a colorful, knitted rug. This is why my study about the differences of the regions really came to concern more profound differences in the ways we make sense of the world, depending on where we are, where we come from, and in which direction we are heading. My grandmother’s tiny figure often hovered in my mind while I worked with my dissertation. What is reproduced from the past has the limitations of an old photograph. Some qualities are suppressed and some qualities are glossed. But still, one can easily understand how the past tense of history becomes present tense in the daily life of people. During the past five decades Finland has been changing quickly. It has been transformed from an agricultural country into an urbanized, service and high technology-oriented economy. Also, the outer reality has changed. During the last decade, Finland joined the European Union and shifted its external relations. Finland has become an open economy, part of the gener- al trend towards globalization. However, alongside these changes, within the European Union there is also a tendency towards a more influential role for regions. One of the adventures, for me personally, has been to find out 8 more about the process of identity formation that maintains and moulds this feature of today’s Europe. In the course of completing my work, I have accumulated many debts, personal and professional. It is impossible to thank everyone who has helped to make my work possible, but certain people stand out. My supervisors, Professor Ullamaija Kivikuru from the University of Helsinki, and Professor Jouni Häkli, from the University of Tampere have stood by me with their valuable time and knowledge whenever I needed it. At times this may have required a more than reasonable amount of supportive understanding, for which I am sincerely grateful. I was privileged to enjoy the support of such outstanding scholars. My external reviewers, Professor Jan Ekecrantz, from Stockholm and Associate Professor Per Jauert, from Århus, with critical eyes, gave insight- ful and detailed guidance. Their invaluable and perceptive comments made this work better than it would otherwise have been. My gratitude also goes to those numerous people who have read my articles and manuscript during the process. They are too numerous to single out in this context, but I wish to mention a few, the top of this iceberg. Dr. Terhi Rantanen-Collins from the London School of Economics, with whom I have shared the good and the bad in this process: Thank you for being my close friend, sparring partner, and academic mentor throughout the years and the sudden changes in our lives, both in tears and in laughter.
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