Representation of a politician in Finnish media: a case study

In discourse analysis the main focus is on language in context, or in other words how language is used and to what purpose. This research focuses on how Finnish mass media use language, how they represent a Finnish politician, Jussi Halla-aho. This work will also include a small comparative section between Finnish and non-Finnish media as a teaser to see if there is a difference. There were two study questions: 1. How do Finnish mass media represent Halla-aho and 2. How do non-Finnish mass media represent Halla-aho. As a qualitative research the idea is to analyze and to give information on the case of representation of Halla-aho. Ideas about language use and features of mass media that are commonly accepted in (critical) discourse analysis serve as the theoretical framework. Halla-aho has received a lot attention in Finnish mass media and this research should help shed some light on what the nature of this news coverage is.

Autorentext

Mimmi J. Kytölä, Linguistics: Studied English, German and political science at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.