Browsing by Subject "blogit"

The purpose of the study was to examine the communication of Finnish anti-immigration politicians, especially their representations of immigrants. Previous studies have shown that the self-named "immigration critics" have played an important part in making stigmatizing and derogatory talk about immigrants seem more acceptable. The theoretical framework of this study was built on Smith's (2007a) model of stigma communication. Stigmatizing messages consist of marks to recognize and categorize people, labels to distinguish people as a separate social entity, cues of responsibility to imply blame, and implications of peril linking people to physical or social dangers. The aim of the study was to find out if these contents can be found in anti-immigration discourse. The data were drawn from six blogs written by True Finn candidates who got elected in 2011 Parliamentary election. The data also contains the Sour Election Manifesto (Nuiva vaalimanifesti) signed by them. The main method in analyzing the data was theory-driven qualitative content analysis. Methods of rhetorical discourse analysis were used as a complementary analysis in reviewing the strategies of this communication. The results show that the strongest mark was affixed to the groups that have the lowest positions in the prevailing ethnic hierarchy. Muslims and people of African origin were marked most strongly, but marking was for most part indirect. The marked were labeled as culturally backward and strongly separated from "us". Responsibility was linked with the immigration itself: it was implied that the labeled people had only left their country in search of an easy life. Prejudice was claimed to be caused by the immigrants' own actions. Presenting the immigrants as both physical and moral threat to the Finnish community was the most dominant stigma message and it was used to justify stigmatization. Immigrants were presented as a homogeneous mass (part of label), but there were also claims that they should be seen and judged only as individuals. This color-blindness makes it possible for the stigmatizers to never actually face their victims, because they are not seen as members of a stigmatized group on an interpersonal level. It is also very hard for the stigmatized to change the stigma in these circumstances. The model of stigma communication proved out to be an effective tool for qualitative interpretation in this context. Further study should investigate the receiving end of these stigma messages, in this case it could mean studying the comments or the readers of political anti-immigration blogs.

Lately the discussion of fast fashion’s impacts on the climate and environment has got more coverage on the Finnish media. Media usually emphasize the responsibilities of the consumer: what can the individual do to make better choices? The purpose of this study was to research the discourses of sustainable fashion consumption in Finnish blog texts that concentrate on sustainable fashion. The study was built on the theorical aspects of the sustainability in consumer culture, such as sustainable development and the phenomena around it such as sustainable consumption and fashion. The aim was to contribute to the discussion of the construction of sustainable consumption in media texts, especially from the viewpoint of sustainable fashion consumption in the blog texts. The inductive qualitative study was carried out by applying the methods of discourse analysis. The data consisted of eleven blog texts that deal with sustainable fashion. The blog texts were collected from the internet sites of the three Finnish blogs. The data was analysed by searching expressions that could embody sustainability or sustainable fashion consumption. These expressions were then categorized as possible discourses of sustainable fashion consumption. Four discourses of sustainable fashion consumption were found. The discourse of consumer ideal was constructed on the ideas of responsibility, reasonability and well-thought decisions. Green consumerism was especially a part of careful clothing maintenance. The discourse of unaware consumer constructed the consumer who is unconscious of the sustainability knowledge and doesn’t know how to act right, and the information the texts offer, are solution to that gap. The discourse of passive consumption was constructed on the emotional and informational manipulation and domination of the marketing, businesses and advertising over the consumers. The bad quality of the clothes was seen particularly to be the fault of clothing companies. The discourse of alternative consumption constructed on the thoughts of circular economy activities such as product-service systems, active change agents, system change and reduction of consumption. The blog texts construct a multidimensional phenomenon of the sustainable fashion consumption. The discourses are in part conflicted, emphasizing the tensions that have been present in earlier consumer studies, such as passive/active and individual/mass. Special to this data was the tension between the facts and “not-knowing” of the consumer.