<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>In this study, we examine the choice of interviewees and discussion topics made by Finland’s national broadcasting company YLE during the so-called “asylum-seeker crisis” of 2015 and 2016. The rapid increase in asylum-seekers, combined with deepening political tensions regarding the situation and the entry of a populist anti-immigration party into government, created a challenging environment for the media. This was especially true for YLE, which is committed to political neutrality and cultural diversity. Our data shows that the “crisis” was framed as a crisis hitting Finland and European decision-making rather than as a humanitarian crisis. Despite long-term academic criticism of bias in expert interviewee selection (e.g. the underrepresentation of minority and female interviewees), the media continued to use traditional sources of knowledge. However, in a novel approach for Finland, the media engaged the large-scale involvement of politicians, and especially representatives of the populist Finns Party.</p>
</abstract>

In this study, we examine the choice of interviewees and discussion topics made by Finland’s national broadcasting company YLE during the so-called “asylum-seeker crisis” of 2015 and 2016. The rapid increase in asylum-seekers, combined with deepening political tensions regarding the situation and the entry of a populist anti-immigration party into government, created a challenging environment for the media. This was especially true for YLE, which is committed to political neutrality and cultural diversity. Our data shows that the “crisis” was framed as a crisis hitting Finland and European decision-making rather than as a humanitarian crisis. Despite long-term academic criticism of bias in expert interviewee selection (e.g. the underrepresentation of minority and female interviewees), the media continued to use traditional sources of knowledge. However, in a novel approach for Finland, the media engaged the large-scale involvement of politicians, and especially representatives of the populist Finns Party.

Asylum Seekers Arrived, Elites Occupied the Air: Topics and Interviewees in YLE’s Magazine Programmes During the “Asylum-Seeker Crisis”

Director of the InnoLab research platform

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this study, we examine the choice of interviewees and discussion topics made by Finland’s national broadcasting company YLE during the so-called...

Asylum Seekers Arrived, Elites Occupied the Air: Topics and Interviewees in YLE’s Magazine Programmes During the “Asylum-Seeker Crisis”

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 79 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2018-0013

Keywords
asylum-seekers, Finland, framing, news source, public expertise

© 2018 Annu Perälä et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Asylum Seekers Arrived, Elites Occupied the Air: Topics and Interviewees in YLE’s Magazine Programmes During the “Asylum-Seeker Crisis”

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 79 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2018-0013

Keywordsasylum-seekers, Finland, framing, news source, public expertise

© 2018 Annu Perälä et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
asylum-seekers, Finland, framing, news source, public expertise