My PhD examines normalised racism in Finland in the past and today. In one of my articles I looked at the way the Finnish press wrote about Jews before the Second World War, and in another I looked at the way the press wrote about migration and migrants during the years 2019–2021.
These studies show that normalised racism has not changed markedly in the past two hundred years – regardless of the fact that during that time period we witnessed the Holocaust which led the Western world to firmly proclaim: "Never again."
My future research will focus on answering the inescapable "Why?"
The first article of my PhD, "Puhummeko nyt rasismista?" ("Are we talking about racism now?") appeared in Media & Viestintä in the year 2020. It examines racism-related terms whose meanings are sometimes blurred even for (and because of) the academics and other experts of the field.
The second article appeared in Ethnicities in 2023. It looks at the representation of Jews in the Finnish press before the Second World War. The study shows that antisemitism was commonplace and reminiscent of the discourses elsewhere in Europe and the United States.
The third article looks at how the Finnish media talks about migration/migrants today. It shows that migrants' media representation is divided in two distinct groups: refugees and others (mostly white people originating in Western countries). The press coverage which deals with refugees has a noticeable negative slant, whereas the coverage which deals with other migrants has an even more noticeable but positive slant. In the article I also provide a tentative outline of the process which leads the media in portraying asylum seekers as criminals and/or enemies.