Browsing by discipline "Viestintä"

Tutkielman lähtökohtana on sen aineisto, Alkon vuoden 2014 televisiomainos ja -verkkovideokampanja. Kampanjassa on aistittavissa keskiluokkaisen habituksen ja tyylin läsnäolo. Kampanjan oletetun luokkasidonnaisuuden takia tutkielman teoreettiseksi viitekehykseksi on valittu sosiologi Pierre Bourdieun makuun perustuva yhteiskuntaluokkateoria. Tutkimus pyrkii selvittämään, minkälaisista osista kampanjan oletettu keskiluokkaisuus koostuu? Miksi monopolia on puolustettu keskiluokkaisen tyylin keinoin? Minkälaista hallintaa keskiluokkaisen habituksen avulla toteutetaan? Tutkielman metodi on sosiosemioottinen representaatioiden analyysi. Metodin avulla paikannetaan ja analysoidaan aineiston osien ja kokonaisuuksien kulttuurisia merkityksiä. Sosiosemiotiikka ymmärtää merkit ja merkityskokonaisuudet semioottisina resursseina, jotka saavat merkityksensä siitä sosiokulttuurisesta taustasta, jossa ne on tuotettu. Sosiosemioottisessa merkityksen tuotannossa tärkeässä osassa ovat ne kontekstit, joihin merkit liittyvät. Tutkimuksen työkaluina toimivat aineistoon liittyvät kontekstit: suomalainen uuden keskiluokan tutkimus, aineiston tuottajien kontekstointihaastattelut sekä yhteiskuntahistoriallinen alkoholipoliittinen narratiivi. Viimeksi mainittu narratiivi perustuu yhteiskuntahistorioitsija Hanna Kuusen esitykseen, jossa Suomen alkoholipolitiikan liberalisoitumista on ohjannut filosofi Michel Foucault’n teoretisoima liberaali hallintalogiikka. Tutkielman keskeiset tulokset liittyvät uuden keskiluokan habituksen ilmenemiseen aineistossa. Kampanjan tyyli koostuu lukuisista vapauden ja kontrollin osista, jolloin tyylin yhteisvaikutelma on ambivalentti. Tyyli on kommunikoitu epäsuorasti, ja sen funktio on vedota kampanjan kohderyhmään. Kampanjan argumentointi koostuu arvoista, jotka voi jakaa vapauden ja kontrollin kategorioihin. Vapautta ilmaisevat valinnanvapaus, palvelu, ekologisuus ja solidaarisuus. Kontrollia ilmaisevat sosiaalinen kontrolli, turvallisuus ja kontrolli maun avulla. Aineiston edustama vapaus on positiivista vapauutta erotuksena talousliberalismin negatiiviseen vapauteen. Kaikki aineiston kommunikoimat arvot liittyvät uuden keskiluokan habituksen vapaus-kontrolli-ulottuvuuteen. Maun avulla toteutettu kontrolli on tutkielman tärkein yksittäinen tulos. Se paljastaa aineistosta vaikuttamismekanismin, joka ei perustu rationaaliseen suoraan argumentaatioon. Tutkimuksen tärkein oivallus on teoreettinen. Bourdieun habituksen käsitteen ja Foucault’n identiteetin käsitteen välisen yhteyden osoittaminen tuottaa mielekkään tulkinnan aineistosta. Tutkielma osoittaa, että Alkon kampanja on rakennettu palvelemaan uuden keskiluokan habitusta. Alkon monopoliasema tarjoaa positiivista vapautta ja kulttuurisia resursseja uuden keskiluokan käyttöön. Kulttuuriset resurssit mahdollistavat pääomien kartuttamisen ja luokkaposition parantamisen. Habituksen palvelemisen lisäksi kampanja asettaa myös määritelmän oikeanlaisesta luokkaperformanssista – laadullinen suhde alkoholiin parantaa luokkapositiota, mutta määrällinen suhde heikentää sitä. Kampanjan kuvaama habitus ja sen määrittämä oikea luokkaperformanssi ovat Alkon kannalta ihanteellisia, koska ne ovat suopeita Alkon monopolia kohtaan.

The pressure toward companies to tackle the challenges of our societies has grown higher. Consumers are expecting companies not only to consider their impact on the society in form of corporate social responsibility (CSR), but to explicitly express their stances on socio-political issues. Also, while the concept of CSR is currently being reshaped, the ways in which CSR is communicated are changing. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of how CSR is communicated in the context of social media from the perspective of new CSR. The theoretical framework of this thesis builds on literature about CSR, social movements, and CSR communication on social media. The literature review constructs a framework of new CSR, which in this study means extended responsibilities that derive from the concepts of political CSR, corporate advocacy and activism. Some of the main source materials are provided by Aronczyk (2013), Baur and Wettstein (2016), London (2010) and Schrerer and Palazzo (2011). The study approach is qualitative, and the data consists of the Finnish textile company Finlayson’s Facebook posts from 2016 to 2017. The analysis is data-driven but guided by the theoretical framework. The analysis methods used are qualitative theme analysis and frame analysis. The findings of this study indicate that Finlayson’s CSR communication is a hybrid mix of traditional and new CSR. The study finds that the main CSR-related themes Finlayson communicates are environmental protection and political grievances. The first is an indication of a traditional CSR theme, and the study implies that these kinds of traditional CSR topics have now found their way into new platforms such as social media. However, political grievances imply an orientation toward newer CSR. The company addresses controversial socio-political issues and takes stances, for instance, on LGBT rights, racism and equal pay. When it comes to the ways in which Finlayson communicates CSR, this study identifies three responsibility communication frames: the credibility frame, the captaincy frame, and the cooperation frame. The credibility frame emphasizes past CSR initiatives and communication is informative and one-way by nature. The captaincy frame emphasizes the company’s future aspirations, and responsibility is personified to the CEO of the company, thus indicating forms of CEO activism. The cooperation frame emphasizes collaboration and establishing a mutual understanding between the company and its stakeholders. Furthermore, the cooperation frame mobilizes the company’s stakeholders to take action. Thus, the results imply that new CSR should be understood as an integral part of CSR studies and that the relationship between activism and CSR has become increasingly fluid.

In Finland, interest groups have traditionally had a somewhat permanent role in policymaking process. Interest groups use a variety of tactics to influence policymaking. These tactics have often been considered as part of two strategies: inside strategy, which is directed to decision-makers, and outside strategy, which is more public-oriented. According to traditional views, the use of these strategies depends on the level of access the group has in decision-making. However, as the role of interest groups in policymaking process has become less permanent and the importance of media has been increasing as a part of mediatization development, the ways of influencing might become more diverse. Newer studies have suggested that interest groups combine a variety of different tactics. A number of other factors have also been found to affect the use of different influence tactics, such as group type, resources, political system and groups’ position in the policy network. The theme of this study is built against this framework. The aim of this study is to understand what kind of tactics groups use to influence climate policies in Finland. In addition, this study attempts to find the factors that explain the tactic choices. The data of the study were collected in 2014 as a part of Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks -research project. The study was conducted as a quantitative analysis based on a questionnaire sent to Finnish organizations that try to influence in climate policies. The respondents included 79 organizations, of which 59 interest groups were included in the analysis. The effect of different variables that were chosen based on earlier studies was tested by using statistical methods. The results show that Finnish interest groups seem to prefer using inside tactics and are highly connected to key ministries. However, the use of media is also very popular, which supports the views that media has become a necessary channel for all kinds of groups for influencing. In contrast, activating and mobilizing citizens was used by only a small minority of groups. However, it seems that interest groups use a variety of tactics and do not necessarily choose between two strategies. Interestingly, different tactics were explained by partly different factors. As some of the newer studies, the results questioned the relevance of access in tactic use: access to ministries was not able to explain the use of most tactics. Most importantly, it seems that network position was able to explain the use of tactics better than access, which indicates that using policy network approach has some potential in future research of the subject. In addition, it did not seem that tactic use was divided between group types: the most popular tactics were generally used by all kinds of groups.

The purpose of this study was to examine how media representations of masculinity, patriotism and militarism in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) relate to other corporate and political interests, and, in what ways (if any) does the UFC act to legitimize violence within the sport of mixed-martial-arts (MMA). This research was carried out within the theoretical framework of the “New American Militarism” (Bacevich, 2013) , as well as hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995). Through a critical content analysis of 13 “UFC Fight for the Troops” videos, it was argued that UFC has a symbiotic relationship with the U.S. military. The goal of this research was to contribute to a further understanding of the how political ideologies found in sports shape our daily lives. The paper examined ways U.S. military uses the UFC as a means to build morale for its troops before they are sent to war, and how the UFC benefits from the U.S. military through financial support and an increased fan base. Moreover, the UFC promotes nationalism and patriotism by making competition between individuals appear as competition between nations. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study was provided by showing how the UFC legitimizes violence within the sport of MMA. We can see obvious consequences of this for the athletes, but more research is needed to understand how this relationship has evolved over time, and how it shapes the worldview of millions of viewers.

Since colonial times, the media has been used as a tool in the quest for engendering social change in developing countries in general. In the East African state of Tanzania in particular, there has been a strong tradition of using the media to educate and inform the citizenry. The approaches have varied from the early top-down attempts to modernize the nation to the more recent trends of emphasizing participation and the role of the citizens. One of the social actors working in the field of development in Tanzania is Twaweza, a ten-year initiative that emphasizes the role of communication and the media in creating an active citizenry. This study was motivated by the desire to understand how the media can be deployed in the quest for development in a country still very much on the wrong side of the digital divide. Thus the aim of this study was to gain insight on how and why this single social actor is striving for sustainable change in Tanzania through the promotion of active citizenry. This study was conducted as a qualitative case study of Twaweza and four relevant media actors in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. As the aim of the study was to gain understanding, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were chosen as the main data collection method. Six Twaweza representatives and four media representatives were interviewed. In addition, prior to the interviews document form data was collected for background material. The data gathered was analyzed using thematic analysis. During the analysis five central, intertwined themes (social change, citizen agency, information, the mass media, the government and other social actors) rose from the data. From these discussions the key findings were that citizens are, indeed, believed to be at the root of sustainable change. All will not act to create change, but some can be activated through timely and well-targeted messages sent through the media. Yet, information alone will not activate people especially in a cultural and social context such as Tanzania. A key implication of this study for the organization is that it needs to clarify its ideology and focus its operations if it is to reach the ambitious goal of creating bottom-up change in East Africa.

Global news networks played an important role in carrying powerful images from the Arab spring, whether on television or electronic screens. Furthermore, they provided the space for various individuals to voice their opinions and challenge government’s state television propaganda. However, as news networks compete against each other, they may provide different interpretations of the same event or issue, which may indicate their support for a particular political stance. The on-going events of the Egyptian 25th January revolution that led to the ouster of President Mohamed Hosny Mubarak, and the aftermath of Mubarak’s ouster, were highly covered global news networks. Similarly, Morsy’s ouster, a year later, by the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Armed Forces brought worldwide media attention. This thesis seeks to determine how political actors are framed during the period of Mubarak’s ouster, in comparison to during the period of Morsy’s ouster, by CNN International edition (CNNI) and Al Jazeera English (AJE) news sites. Political actors during the period of both ousters include: Mubarak and Morsy as presidents, their regimes, the pro-government supporters and anti-government protestors, the United States and the Egyptian army. To examine how these political actors are framed, I have conducted a comparative framing analysis by using a quantitative and qualitative mixed method on a sample of news stories from CNNI and AJE news sites. Additionally, a quantitative analysis is conducted on the use of sources by both news sites. Data in this thesis includes 78 news stories from both news sites in total. I have chosen to examine CNNI news site as branch of CNN’s news network, as it reflects a Western, and particularly an American stance, on foreign issues. Also, I have chosen AJE news site as a branch of Al Jazeera’s news network, as it is an alternative non-Western channel that is described as having contributed positively to the pan-Arab media landscape. Results of this study indicate that even though CNNI is expected to represent a Western or American standpoint and AJE is expected to represent a non-Western alternative perspective, both news sites used the same frames in portraying political actors. However, there are some differences in the way both news sites used the same frame, which reflected their different political ideologies and interests. Furthermore, data results suggest that sources contribute greatly to the way both news sites framed political actors. For example, the concentration of US officials in CNNI’s news stories during the period of Mubarak’s ouster, reflected the US’ dilemma as a political actor between its interests with Mubarak’s government and its ‘democratic ideals’. Similarly, during the period of Morsy’s ouster, the concentration of US officials in CNNI’s news stories reflected a neutral stance then a critical stance over the military’s intervention in ousting Morsy. In AJE’s news stories, Al Jazeera’s apparent role as a political actor itself is reflected in how AJE’s reporters, who conveyed the voices of anti-Mubarak protestors, are the highest news sources present during the period of Mubarak’s ouster, whereas members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood are the highest news sources present during the period of Morsy’s ouster.

Connections between organizational engagement and internal communication have gained much interest in recent years, due to existing evidence suggesting that employees who engage with their organization affect organization’s effectiveness and that, in turn, internal communication can influence organizational engagement. However, there is little evidence about such connection seen from an employee perspective and therefore, this study sought to explore linkages between employee organizational engagement and internal communication, on the basis of experiences of employees. This thesis draws on theoretical concepts such as knowledge workers, internal communication and organizational engagement as well as on an empirical research inspired by principles of grounded theory. The research analyzed twelve semi-structured interviews to employees working for a global knowledge-based organization; aiming at exploring the factors that had the potential to influence their engagement with the organizational; their key expectations towards internal communication and the implications that their overall experiences suggest for the practice of internal communication. Key findings indicated that organizational engagement can be influenced by organization-level internal communication and suggested that, while there cannot be a universal internal communication strategy to engage employees with their organization, the responsibility to engage and to achieve effective internal communication which supports engagement needs to be shared by all members of the organization, whereby employees’ accountability and empowerment is central. The findings also suggested a revision of the role of leaders and managers of the organization and the role of the function of internal communication. Overall, this study suggested that, in the relationship between organizational engagement and internal communication, seen from an employee perspective, both the organization and the employees could have significant gains.

The thesis is a study of journalists ethics in health and beauty field. The research is aiming to answers questions as follows. Firstly, how do PR agencies get publicity for their clients and their products by using journalists as a tool? Secondly, how does it affect journalists ethics when a PR company wants to achieve the best results for their clients project? Thirdly, how do journalists experience objectivity towards readers when dealing with PR practitioners? Advertisers influence in the process is also taken into account. The starting point for the study is the hypothesis that British journalists are more biased than their Finnish colleagues because the industry is bigger in the UK and they get more gifts from public relations machinery. My view changed towards the end of the research; the study results indicate that both countries are in a similar situation. The readers are one of the main reasons why this study was conducted. They are the ones that suffer from unethical journalism. Journalism industry has its own code of conduct in both countries and the thesis examines the impact on journalists attitudes. The study is qualitative and the method used is thematic interviews. For this study seven journalists from Finnish and six from British monthly magazines were interviewed. The interview questions were designed to find out what is the public relations practitioners impact on journalists work. The theory of the thesis includes theories of ethics, journalism, journalism ethics and public relations. The concept of ethics used n this research is western. Thematic analysis is used in order to find out research results. Main result is that it is not the amount of gifts that affects journalists ethics but rather the relationship between the journalist and a public relations practitioner. Journalists get harassed by the public relations practitioners to the point that a journalist gives in just that she can have a peace of mind. The relationship between PR people and journalists can also be extremely friendly and as a result a journalist might feature their products. Advertisers play a key role on editorial content. They have power to tell what to feature and which launch event a journalist should attend. The results were similar in both Finland and in the UK other than one exception. A publisher in the UK has its own ethical rules that employees have to obey. The concept is more helpful when resolving ethical issues comparing to codes of conducts that are issued from an institution such as National Union of Journalists.

1900-luvun lähestyessä loppuaan länsimainen demokratia ja poliittinen elämä olivat tulleet murroksen eteen. Perinteiset poliittisen osallistumisen muodot olivat alkaneet menettää vetovoimaansa kansalaisten silmissä, teknologisen kehityksen – erityisesti internetin – tarjotessa samaan aikaan uusia kanavia ja keinoja kansalaislähtöiselle poliittiselle keskustelulle ja toiminnalle. Edustuksellisen demokratian nähtiin ajautuneen kriisiin ja sen murenevan legitimiteetin paikkaamiseen alettiin etsiä vastauksia niin uudesta teknologiasta kuin demokratiateorian yhdeksi keskeisimmäksi suuntaukseksi 1990-luvulla nousseesta deliberatiivisesta demokratiasta. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma tarkastelee yhdessä näitä kahta demokratian 'pelastajaksi' esitettyä ajatusta: deliberatiivisen demokratian teoriaa sekä verkkoa poliittisen keskustelun areenana. Tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, mitä deliberatiivisen demokratian teoria voi tarjota verkon eri julkisuusareenoilla käytävän poliittisen keskustelun tutkimukselle. Tutkielmassa kuvataan, millaiset lähtökohdat deliberatiivisen demokratian teoria antaa verkkokeskustelujen yhteiskunnallisen merkityksen ja demokraattisen arvon analysoinnille ja arvioimiselle, sekä tarkastellaan teorian soveltamiseen liittyviä haasteita. Samalla pohditaan, millainen keskustelu ylipäänsä on demokratian kannalta merkittävää. Miten deliberatiivisen demokratian ytimen muodostava ideaali julkinen keskustelu, deliberaatio, tulisi määritellä? Aihetta lähestytään tutkielmassa teoreettisesti: deliberatiivisen demokratian alla esitettyjä näkemyksiä kriittisesti tarkastellen ja vertaillen, teoriaa problematisoiden sekä vaihtoehtoisia näkökulmia esiin nostaen. Deliberatiivisen demokratiateorian eri haarojen edustajat sekä teorian kriitikot asetetaan vuoropuheluun, jonka kautta esiin nousevat niin teorian edut kuin sen ongelmakohdat. Deliberatiivisen demokratian teoria nostaa demokratian tärkeimmäksi ominaisuudeksi kollektiivista päätöksentekoa edeltävän julkisen keskustelun ja harkinnan. Tutkielmassa lähdetään liikkeelle tarkastelemalla julkisen keskustelun roolia demokratian historiassa ja demokratiateoreettisen keskustelun eri vaiheissa; tätä kautta hahmottuvat deliberatiivisen demokratian teoreettiset juuret ja lähtökohdat. Deliberatiivisen demokratiateorian muotoutumiseen ovat vaikuttaneet erityisesti John Rawls ja Jürgen Habermas, joiden ajatukset saavat keskeisen sijan myös tässä tutkielmassa. Rawlsin ja Habermasin ajatusten pohjalta deliberatiivista demokratiaa on kehitellyt edelleen joukko toisen polven teoreetikkoja, joita tässä tutkielmassa edustavat mm. Amy Gutmann & Dennis Thompson, Jane Mansbridge ja John S. Dryzek. Deliberatiivisen demokratian haastajana esiin nostetaan Chantal Mouffen ja Bonnie Honigin edustama agonistinen demokratiakäsitys, kuin myös Iris Marion Youngin ja Lynn M. Sandersin esittämät kriittiset näkemykset. Keskeisenä näkökulmana verkon poliittisen keskustelun tarkasteluun toimii puolestaan Deen Freelonin esittämä moninorminen viitekehys. Julkisen keskustelun merkitystä korostava deliberatiivinen demokratia tarjoaa kiinnostavan näkökulman verkon julkisen keskustelun tarkastelulle. Deliberatiivisen demokratiateorian esittämät ihanteet – muun muassa julkisen keskustelun rationaalisuus, argumentatiivisuus ja konsensushakuisuus – muodostavat pohjan normistolle, jonka avulla verkkokeskustelujen luonnetta voidaan arvioida. Nämä samat ideaalit muodostuvat kuitenkin myös teorian ongelmakohdiksi. Paitsi että monet teoreetikot ovat kyseenalaistaneet deliberatiivisen demokratian kuvaamien ideaalien tavoiteltavuuden ylipäänsä, on normatiivisten ideaalien suhde verkon eri foorumeilla todellisuudessa tapahtuvaan keskusteluun myöskin ongelmallinen. Liian tiukka sitoutuminen deliberatiivisiin ideaaleihin jättää huomiotta muut verkkokeskusteluille ominaiset ja demokratian näkökulmasta yhtälailla olennaiset kommunikaation muodot: yhteisöllisyydestä ja yhteistyöstä kertovan kommunitarismin sekä vapaata mielipiteenilmaisua kuvaavan individualismin. Tutkielman johtopäätöksenä todetaan, että deliberatiivisen demokratian teoriaan perustuva viitekehys on liian kapea verkon julkisen keskustelun analyysiin. Laajentamalla deliberaation perinteistä määritelmää sekä ottamalla mukaan kommunikaation yhteisöllisyyttä ja individualismia kuvaavat normit, verkon poliittisesta keskustelusta on mahdollista saada kattavampi kuva. Deliberatiivisen demokratiateorian kriittisen tarkastelun kautta muotoutuu viitekehys, joka ei rajoitu ainoastaan yhteen julkisen keskustelun muotoon, rationaalisena argumentointina ymmärrettyyn deliberaatioon, vaan pyrkii kuvaamaan laajemmin verkossa tapahtuvan kansalaiskeskustelun luonnetta ja tuomaan esiin sen koko demokraattisen potentiaalin.

Finländsk television har under senaste år upplevt en enorm ökning av inhemska reality-tv-program samtidigt som media allt mer konsumeras mångmedialt. De flesta program förses således med en officiell programhashtag som antagandevis ska ge ett mervärde till tittarupplevelsen och generera diskussion bland tittarna. Den här pro gradu-avhandlingen kombinerar dessa två aktuella aspekter i en granskning av hur den specifika reality-tv-serien Iholla:s officiella programhashtag används av konsument och producent. Frågan är om #Iholla blir mer än enbart ett informativt tillägg i twittrandet eller marknadsföring för producenten. Analysen har gjorts på #Iholla tweetar som samlats in kring seriens tredje säsong (1.8.2014 – 20.11.2015) och som metod har en kvalitativ textanalys samt en mindre, kompletterande, kvantitativ granskning använts. Analysen grundar sig Wohn och Na:s (2011) uses- och gratifications teori som utgår från en kedje-effekt av tv-tittande och twittrande. Dessutom grundar sig diskussionen på tidigare forskning om fenomenet social tv, det vill säga simultant tv-tittande och twittrande samt Nikunens (2005) tankar kring trendfanbeteende. Forskningen utgår från att #Iholla-twittrarna är en liten specifik grupp av Iholla-publiken samtidigt som studien är induktiv och öppen för olika typer av aktiv och publik. Min analys kunde likt tidigare forskning inom området påvisa att Twitter används som bakgrundskanal till reality-tv-serien Iholla och att det trots det lilla antalet aktiva twittrare i Finland skapas en betydelsefull diskussion och tittargemenskap som förlänger tittarupplevelsen. Fallstudien fokuserade specifikt på #Iholla men kunde också påvisa tendenser av ett bredare mönster hos twittrarna att använda sig av officiella programhashtagar som en del av tittarupplevelsen. #Iholla blev dels en modern tv-soffa och dels ett forum för kortvarigt men intensivt fanbeteende. Dessutom kunden diskussionen kring trendfans utvecklas genom att se social tv som en möjlighet till tydligare tittargemenskaper trots det kortvariga intresset. Fallstudien kunde också uppvisa nya mervärden inom social tv i och med reality-tv-genrens närhet till vardagen som skapade en verklig möjlighet för tittarna att skapa en relation med seriens karaktärer. Till slut kunde dynamiken mellan producent och konsument beskrivas som ett ömsesidigt beroendeförhållande med minskad maktskillnad.