Elina Noppari

Mediatization in context: Consensus culture, media and decision making in the 21st century, the case of Finland

Abstract This article makes an empirically based contribution to the general debate on the mediatization of politics by looking at the Finnish policy networks as a particular context in which the general processes of mediatization are recognized and where the influences of mediatization are negotiated. Drawing on a qualitative interview sample of 60 elite decision-makers and an elite survey (N = 419), three themes related to mediatization are highlighted: the role of trust in policy networks, the dynamics of the mutual professionalization of media and politics, and the differentiation of network rationality and media rationality. These findings are at the same time evidence of a general process of mediatization and of how local conditions shape that process.

`Podracing': experimenting with mobile TV content consumption and delivery methods

Recently, mobile TV has been launched in several countries. While mobile TV integrates television contents into mobile phones, the most personal of communication devices, it becomes interesting to know how this feature will be used throughout the day and in varying contexts of everyday life. This paper presents empirical results on the use of mobile TV with different delivery mechanisms and both quantitative and qualitative results on how end-users prefer to use mobile TV contents in different situations. The data is based on ongoing empirical research in Finland in 2006 and 2007. The mobile TV services under study included both news and entertainment contents, and were tested in 3G, DVB-H and Wi-Fi networks using different delivery paradigms: broadcast, on-demand and download. To explore the use of different delivery methods and content consumption, we have developed a mobile TV service protoype, called Podracing. The analysis shows that users appreciated up-to-date information and information-rich media forms and contents especially for mobile news delivery. There was high demand for only the latest news on mobiles. The real-time property was considered important. Most of the users looked at the headlines or followed the news several times a day – much more often than the traditional TV and news prime times would allow.

Talk to me! Possibilities of constructing children’s voices in the domestic research context:

This self-reflective article explores the possibilities of producing children’s ‘voice’ in the domestic research context. We look at producing voices as the process of giving an account of children’s meaning making and life. We examine the methodological challenges of producing voices in the home environment from three perspectives: power, trust and ethics. The findings presented in the article are based on an ongoing longitudinal study of Finnish children’s media environments, which began in 2007 and will continue through 2016.

Comparing media types and delivery methods on mobile terminals

If a user had a choice of watching the latest television news on the mobile phone, or listening to the news on the radio, or reading text news with the mobile, what would he choose? The project conducted three trials, in which mobile terminals were used in such a variety of situations that no single media type and no delivery method was able to fulfill all needs. Unlike previous studies, the results indicate that mobile television does not involve low commitment: The users did not usually do anything else while watching. Furthermore, just surfing around or viewing an arbitrary program flow seems not to be enough. Even though one of key motives of mobile television use is to kill time, people may want to kill time with content which is appropriate for that particular moment. Entertainment in mobile broadcast content was found problematic, because mobile viewing is typically short-term and fragmentary; thus the users often missed the beginnings of episodes.

Ihmisiähän tässä kaikki ollaan

Seka yleisessa tutkimuskirjallisuudessa etta julkisessa keskustelussa on tapana ajatella, etta suomalaisten vallankayttajien ja toimittajien valinen suhde olisi tasaisesti muuttunut 1980-luvulta lahtien etaisemmaksi ja kriittisemmaksi. Taman artikkelin haastattelu- ja kyselyaineisto osoittaa, etta huolimatta toimittajien ja paattajien valisesta vastakkainasettelusta, suurella osalla paattajista on hyvin toimivia toimittajasuhteita. Naissa suhteissa vaihdetaan myos arkaluontoista ja luottamuksellista tietoa. Artikkelissa pohditaan toimittajien ja paattajien valisen luottamuksen merkitysta ja sen rakentumisen mekanismeja. Toimittajien ja paattajien vuorovaikutuksen tarkastelu tuo vivahteita myos yhteiskunnan ja paatoksenteon medioitumisesta kaytyyn keskusteluun: medioituminen nayttaytyy toimittajien ja paattajien vastavuoroisena professionalisoitumisena. Artikkelin aineiston muodostavat teemahaastattelut (N=60) ja kyselytutkimus (N=419), joissa seitseman eri yhteiskuntasektorin paattajat kertovat suhteestaan julkisuuteen, mediaan ja toimittajiin.