Journalism in Finland: interview with Tom Moring
Tom Moring is a journalist and an emeritus professor at the Swedish School of Social Sciences, at the University of Helsinki, in Finland. He also works as a researcher on media, minorities, politics and public opinion. Also, he is a regular keynote speaker and has given courses and lectured in universities around the world.
Born in Finland and based in Sweden, Moring has worked as director of radio programs at the Finnish Broadcasting Company, and chair of the board of the newspaper publishing house HSS Media. He has dozens of published articles and book chapters, where the topics of minorities are frequent. Recently he has been engaged in research projects on immersive automation of media content at the University of Helsinki, and presidential politics, at the University of Södertörn, in Sweden. Currently he is involved with the COST network Language In The Human-Machine Era. Read more in the interview below.
Enio Moraes Júnior - Some statistics show Finland in the top list of quality of life and more happy countries. What does mainstream national journalism say about the country's daily life? Which topics come up most often?
Tom Moring - Your questions find me at a time when the tide is turning, and the future looks winding like a huge question mark. Yes, Finland is a country that generally treats its people well, at least on the issues that research on wellbeing usually understands to address. Happy people? I am not so sure. Maybe ‘content’ would be a better characterization. This is achieved at a cost. The share of the economy covered by the state is high, and the state’s budgetary deficit is growing.
At this very moment (July 2023) the most discussed item in the media is the formation of a new right-wing government that also includes far-right activists from the populist Finns Party. This is met by harsh critique from the left. In Finland, as in many other countries, we see more polarized political sentiments than before.
The main focus of the media, however, is now on some ministers from the Finns Party and their connection to far right and even Nazist movements. This has triggered a general chase, carried out in social media—also reflected in mainstream media—of past sins of various politicians. The media focus is at this moment less on political content and more on individual political leaders. By time this will pass, and focus will return more to content—probably still in a polarized way.
EMJ - In April, Finland became a member of NATO, despite threats of Russia. How have the repercussions of it been in the national media?
TM - The decision to seek NATO membership was made with very little internal opposition in Finland after the Russian full attack on Ukraine in February 2022. In Parliament only 7 of 200 members voted against, and both the government and the opposition were in favor, with only some critique levelled from the far left. The national media, in editorials and in news coverage, also reported positively on this dramatic reverse of Finnish non-alliance. Opinion pieces opposing NATO membership were published, but very little negative opinions or critical reviews could be found in leading national media. The Russian attack also dramatically changed the popular opinion. According to all opinion polls since the 1990’s until February 2022, a clearly bigger share of Finns had been against the alliance compared to those who supported it, although Finnish defense policies had been leaning on an increasingly close cooperation with NATO. Immediately after Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian borders toward Kiev this opinion changed.
EMJ - Minorities, migrants and refugees are important in your research. They were by the way a topic for an interview recently published at Extraprensa, from University of São Paulo. How does the Finnish press cover migration?
TM - Migration is a key dividing issue in Finland, the dividing line being between the far right (again, Finns Party) and all other parties. A main opinion, combining representatives of industry and business and a vast majority in the parliament is that Finland needs more immigrants. The population is aging, and the birth rate is low, this is considered to be a threat against future welfare. The Finns Party, however, was successful in negotiating restrictions in migration policy, as a price for supporting the formation of a right-wing government.
How is this reflected in media coverage? Well, the press broadly sides with more liberal politics, supporting migration and opposing restrictions in reception of refugees. The worries of decline in economy and welfare are frequently covered through interviews with politicians, scientists, and economic elites. On the contrary, in social media, activists on the far right take a leading role in spreading alarmist views. Their focus is on ‘wokeism’, migration as a threat to Finnish values, increasing violence, and even an ethnic reversal of the population.
Considering the small proportion of migrants in Finland (8.5 percent in 2021) this campaign appears absurd. It has, however, found support among voters, as one of five voters voted for this party in 2023. An ugly feature that has been growing is targeted defamation attacks on journalists who write positively on migration and critically on chauvinistic nationalism with fascist tendencies.
EMJ - In the interview you recognize news and public information as a relevant basis for migrants’ integration. How can the journalism from countries such as Finland provide qualified information to the public that sometimes don't speak the local language, for example?
TM - Migrants speak many different languages, they form a heterogenous group. Finnish is a difficult language to master for people who have their language background in Indo-European languages that differ in structure. Many, particularly among refugees, do not master English which is the main foreign language spoken in Finland.
While recognizing this, it is crucial that migrants are given the opportunity and tools to fully integrate as citizens. This, of course, includes the access to news and public debate. This, again, is the main task of the media; in addition to news and current affairs they present various views. Doing all this, they offer a portrayal of the world on which citizens can act. This, however, does not include newcomers.
There are various internet sites targeted at bigger language groups, some maintained by authorities, some by voluntary organizations, and some as internal networks on Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc. These are, of course, not sufficient although migrants may get support for their ingroup identity and also practical information this way.
Sad to say, Finland is not a good example in serving migrants through the press or public service media. Special programs on public television were mainstreamed some years ago. In practice this meant that the few news programs targeted at various migrant groups were reduced to a minimum. News in English are frequently available, but as said, this is not helpful for the most vulnerable migrant groups.
There are language courses as part of integration schemes, mainly in Finnish but some also in the other national language, that is Swedish. This is a slow way, and very demanding for people who have much on their palette. Particularly women with families are in a difficult position when they are isolated in their homes. This, again, reflects negatively on how language skills are fostered among children. Fortunately, the Finnish education system is good. In time, this may make a difference.
Future hope is directed at automatic translation services based on artificial intelligence solutions that media actively develop. This can give access to mainstream news in languages thus served. However, the need for targeted news reflecting the lived reality of the migrants themselves cannot be served this way but requires journalism and journalists with in-group insights.
EMJ - When we talk about regional and local journalism, we have to address many particularities of local communities. How does it work in Finland? What other topics come up most often?
TM - The press, and also public service radio and television, is highly locally diversified in the Nordic countries. This means that all regions have leading newspapers covering their area. You must understand that Finland, relative to its population, is waste and there is a strong tradition of self-sustaining local municipalities within distinct regions.
Readership of newspapers is at an internationally high level. There are 40 daily newspapers, and according to the News Media trade association 95 percent of Finns frequently read newspapers, either in printed form or digitally. The credibility of news media is also at an internationally high level. According to Reuter’s Digital News Report, in Finland the reliance on news as trustworthy has for several years been the highest among almost 50 countries studied. In 2022, 69 percent of Finns signaled trust in news media, compared to 48 percent in Brazil and 26 percent in the USA.
Based on my research I have claimed that the press is a key component in the formation of regional identities that maintain a regionalized structure of Finland. Although the ownership of the press has concentrated recently, and digitalization of readership is a dominating development, the regional character remains.
A source of worry is the shrinking income due to competition on advertising markets with big international actors such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and others. Some relatively small financial support is to be established, although at much lower level than in other Nordic countries, and taxation of subscriptions is also comparatively higher in Finland. So far, however, the basic structure of the press has shown remarkable persistence, irrespective of lack of public financial support.
The Swedish speaking population in Finland (ca. 5,5 percent of Finns) has its own press and also public service radio channels and half a TV channel. The small Sami population has a radio station that also produces some television, and the public service company Yle broadcasts daily TV news on weekdays in Sami language. This success story of traditional minorities does, of course, excuse the lack of accessible news coverage serving the various migrant minorities.
EMJ - Social media has changed the way news are produced around the world. What are the positive and negative aspects of this change in Finland?
TM - Let us start with positive aspects. The publications on social media by various sources are a richness. Be it politicians, economic elites, culturally active artists, various culturally distinct groups, and also a broader public, they all contribute to a rich and vivid public sphere. It offers a rich source for journalists who can take a role to pick and publish highlights of this jungle of information and opinions. And they do. The role of the journalist as the gatekeeper of civic debate gets a, not new, but enriched function. In the best of worlds, all this contributes to even better and sharper journalism. I will not here dwindle into the question of Artificial Intelligence, as you do not pose that question, but briefly my opinion is that AI will be a good servant but a bad master to journalism, and journalists must definitely learn to use it properly, according to good ethic and professional standards.
The negative aspects relate to hate speech, to the marketization of the public sphere, and to an all the time growing overload of information that diffuses democratic process. We see growing polarization in society, as described above. We see conspirationist activism, and systematic AI-supported trolling. We see in many countries a growing—and also politically administered—disbelief in media that further feeds into radical polarization
For those who belong to linguistic and cultural minorities, the change is two-fold. It opens opportunities to easily form ingroup networks, communicate and inform. At the same time, it threatens earlier established structures that have given the minorities a place in the public sphere through public support schemes—where such exist. The marketization of the public sphere favors big players and majority languages. The support for minority culture does not follow pace in this very fast development. This offers a real threat to smaller minorities.
I am hesitant on the question of what AI will bring. Automatic translation will be available in many languages that have a sufficient data resource that can be mined and used to develop translation to a reasonably functional service. But so many languages lack this resource and will be left behind. This concerns many migrant languages, where the reality might look very different for different migrants. And, again, the crucial contribution is not to only translate mainstream media, but for journalists to delve into the social and cultural reality of the various minorities and serve their needs for voice as well as their need for integration. This is crucial in order to build a sustainable civic status.
EMJ - How do you evaluate the training of journalists in Finland? What can you say about the future of journalism in the country?
TM - Finland has a long history of training journalists. The quality and focus of the education vary, from hands-on to more theoretical, and also research related. My own view is that the media need staff that have a thorough journalism education. Media also need staff who have other special knowledge, and an ability to expand the spectrum. The best staff mix for media is a diverse professional composition of journalist backgrounds. Journalism is an open trade, with its specialties, integrating also other specialties, in dialogue.
In Finland the trade has developed in this way. When I compare the quality of Finnish journalism with journalism in other countries I follow, I would say that it is rather traditional. Less of profiled narcissist columnists (although they unfortunately have arrived). More news reporting and substance-oriented analysis. Maybe this explains why Finns still show such a high level of credibility in their news media?
And, the future. Well, it looks difficult. Boulder after boulder has been piling up in front of my former students, now active in press and electronic media. The economic decline when international companies took big chunks of the ad market. The competition for attention among young people who turned towards social media in all their different forms. The double production requirements when the press and radio/TV digitalized and stories had to be produced for various platforms, with no increase in staff. And the situation for media targeting minority audiences, having to face a blunt competitive environment where big players have all the advantages without any remedies in support structures. My students and I have worked all the way through this boulder climbing. It has been tough; it will be tough. But life has always been tough in this trade.
The positive note, on which I wish to end my responses to you, is that the challenges to the profession itself is the source of its continuous success. There is not a student of journalism who does not want to be a journalist. Why? Because it is an important, creative, dynamic, and thrilling profession where you know you can make a difference. New gadgets arrive, such as AI and automated journalism. We take them onboard, learn to use them in our way. We get better, faster, broader in spectrum, go deeper in search. Hopefully we get better—much better—in taking also migrant cultures on board. And so, we improve our ability to offer a portrayal of the world on which citizens can act. X
This interview is part of a series on journalism around the world, an initiative of researcher and journalist Enio Moraes Júnior together with Alterjor — Study Group of Popular and Alternative Journalism at the University of São Paulo. The interviews are also published in Portuguese at the Observatório da Imprensa.
Enio Moraes Júnior is a Brazilian journalist and professor. A PhD in Communication Sciences at the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), he has lived in Berlin since 2017. Access his portfolio: EnioOnLine.
