MAARIT JAAKKOLA The Contested Autonomy of Arts and Journalism Change and continuity in the dual professionalism of cultural journalism ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Board of the School of Communication, Media and Theatre of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the Paavo Koli Auditorium, Kanslerinrinne 1, Tampere, on June 23rd, 2015, at 10 o’clock. UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE MAARIT JAAKKOLA The Contested Autonomy of Arts and Journalism Change and continuity in the dual professionalism of cultural journalism Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 2072 Tampere University Press Tampere 2015 ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere School of Communication, Media and Theatre Finland The originality of this thesis has been checked using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service in accordance with the quality management system of the University of Tampere. Copyright ©2015 Tampere University Press and the author Cover design by Mikko Reinikka Layout by Erik Eliasson Distributor: [email protected] https://verkkokauppa.juvenes.fi Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 2072 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 1566 ISBN 978-951-44-9848-0 (print) ISBN 978-951-44-9849-7 (pdf) ISSN-L 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X ISSN 1455-1616 http://tampub.uta.fi Suomen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print 441 729 Tampere 2015 Painotuote Acknowledgements I would probably not have studied cultural journalism if I had not received a phone call from the managing editor of a regional newspaper who suggested that I should work my summer as a cultural journalist instead of a news journalist. The summer job, as well as my later work as a specialized journalist for both newspapers and a news agency, directed my research interests toward the questions discussed in this thesis. Even though the scope of my scholarly interests has grown beyond cultural journal- ism over the years I have spent at the university, my interest in cultural journalism has remained. I want to thank my supervisors, Professor Risto Kunelius and Dr. Heikki Hellman, for constantly catering to my scholarly appetite. Synchronizing the schedules of two multitaskers often represented a challenge at the level of advanced project manage- ment, but when we succeeded, Risto’s commentary always made me rethink my ideas from a new perspective. Furthermore, this study would not have been initiated or completed if it was not for my second supervisor Heikki. As a long-term cultural edi- tor of the culture section at the biggest Nordic daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, he truly understood the importance of studying the field. As Visiting Professor in Jour- nalism and later as the Dean of the School of Communication, Media and Theatre at the University of Tampere, Heikki helped me to elaborate my ideas showing constant support and inexhaustible curiosity toward my research questions. My colleagues in the culture department of Helsingin Sanomat taught me with their personal (hi)stories what it means to be a cultural journalist. The cultural jour- nalists Simopekka Virkkula from Aamulehti, Kaisu Mikkola from Kaleva, Seppo Kon- onen, Risto Löf and Sami Vainio from Savon Sanomat and Tuomo Karhu and Kimmo Lilja from Turun Sanomat helped by providing background information for the cod- ing of the data. My student assistants from the School of Communication, Media and Theatre at the University of Tampere, M.Soc.Sc. Aino Salonen and Kaisa Läärä, participated in the content analyses by coding parts of the data. Anonymous review- ers for the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Journalism, Journalism Practice, and Nordicom Review, who I am unfortunately not capable of thanking in person, provided invaluable opinions that helped me to make my arguments stronger. I am especially pleased that, while working on this thesis, a longstanding dream of cultural journalism researchers came into being: a Nordic network for studying cul- tural journalism was founded. I want to thank in particular Dr. Nete Nørgaard Kris- tensen and Dr. Unni From as well as the other members of the network, Dr. Karl Atle Knapskog, Professor Leif Ove Larsen, Professor Kristina Riegert, Dr. Anna Roosvall and Dr. Aske Kammer, for sharing with me their interest in cultural journalism. Fur- thermore, several colleagues at conferences in journalism and sociology of art pointed out aspects of the mediation of arts and culture that turned out to be useful for my work. For an emerging scholar, the encouragement provided by Dr. Dennis McQuail, Dr. Noël Carroll and Dr. Stig Hjarvard was vital. With regard to my home institution, the School of Communication, Media and Theatre at the University of Tampere, I would like to express my warmest thanks to my colleagues for their patience, especial- ly to Professor Ari Heinonen for his continuous understanding and moral support. Luckily, a teacher has the luxury of a number of engaged students with whom to test and elaborate ideas. Teaching summer school in Latvia in the summer of 2014 provided me with an excellent opportunity to address different dimensions of my research, an experience for which I would like to thank Dr. Ilva Skulte and Dr. Anda Rožukalne at Riga Stradins University. I am particularly delighted that the financial supporter of this thesis, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, showed faith in the future of cultural reporting by launching a nationwide educational programme for cultural journalists, of which I took part in as a lecturer in 2013. I also want to thank Dr. Mar- tin Eide for inviting me to guest lecture at the University of Bergen as well as Dr. Semi Purhonen at the University of Helsinki. A number of doctoral students and university teachers worked in synchrony with my projects and shared similar academic interests to mine. Thank you, Agnes Aljas, Shule Cao, Wei He, Riie Heikkilä, Merja Helle, Jaana Hujanen, Kari Koljonen, Hege Lamark, Maaria Linko, Ellen Loots, Magdalena Pancewicz, Jari Väliverronen, Henri- ka Zilliacus-Tikkanen, and many more, for your collegial support, inspiration, advice and shared reflective inquiry. In particular I want to thank Henri Suur-Inkeroinen for his outstanding methodological consultation, as well as Anja Salzmann for various forms of assistance, such as, for example, sending a book from a Norwegian publisher when needed. Additionally, I owe my gratitude to the pre-examinators of this thesis, Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen from Cardiff University and Professor Susanne Janssen from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Their positive resonance with my research played an important role in the finalization of this study. I am also thankful for the Science Foundation of the City of Tampere for providing financial aid for the finalization and publication of this book. Finally, I want to thank my family and friends for their encouragement and sup- port. My parents Sirpa and Markku have always been there for me, in particular my mother to discuss the trickiest of English language problems. My brother Santtu pro- vided me with an accommodation in Helsinki on my conference trips and showed me realities of a cultural worker and cinematographer. My beloved husband Erik assisted me with the layout of this book, followed me on my lecturing trips and ensured that this thesis remained my first priority. Friends who listened and supported me both online and face to face provided a necessary counterbalance, for which they deserve my warmest thanks. In Tampere, May 15, 2015 Maarit Jaakkola Abstract The contested autonomy of arts and journalism: Change and continuity in the dualistic professionalism of cultural journalism This study examines the changes in cultural journalism in newspapers in Finland be- tween 1978 and 2008. The object of study is professionalism, its structures and the structural changes in a developing production environment and cultural landscape. Cultural journalism is understood to include the specialized production of journal- ism published in the culture sections of newspapers. Culture departments in news- papers formed the major forum for cultural coverage during the research period. In the second half of the 20th century, an increasing amount of discourse concerned the crisis of cultural journalism and criticism. The crisis discourse formed the starting point for this study’s inquiry, particularly the question of whether the volume of cul- tural coverage and reviewing had decreased and whether the aesthetic consciousness of cultural journalism had become lower, as postulated. The study comprises five journal articles addressing the changes in arts and cul- tural journalism from different perspectives. In the introduction to the thesis, these different accounts are introduced into a professionalist structures model analysed in Pierre Bourdieu’s framework. The study presents a mixed-method approach using theoretical and methodological triangulation. The core of the empirical research con- sisted of data gathered through the systematic sampling of culture sections from five Finnish dailies: Aamulehti, Helsingin Sanomat, Kaleva, Savon Sanomat and Turun Sa- nomat. A quantitative content analysis was complemented and contextualized using data consisting of interviews with culture editors, ethnographical material and textual analysis. It was confirmed that the traditional high cultural canon had been complemented with a popular cultural canon and that the concept of culture had become more in- clusive. The average length of articles became shorter, and the share of reviews went down; of all the journalistic genres,