Relationship between media culture and school in the Finnish trade union magazine for educators (Opettaja)

Authors

• Markku Vanttaja Turun yliopisto
• Tero Järvinen
• Tuomo Norvanto

Abstract

In this article, the discussion on the relationship between media culture and school in Opettaja (the Finnish trade union magazine for educators) during the early 21st century is analysed from the theoretical perspectives of moral panic and moral regulation. The focus is on the attitudes of educators towards different forms of media and the contents transmitted by them. The magazine under examination is understood as a discursive field in which teachers and other educators alike take a stand on various phenomena related to media culture and simultaneously define and construct the boundaries between good and bad taste, high and low culture and proper and improper behaviour. This analysis focuses on the risks and threats associated with media and media contents that have aroused resistance and moral concern. According to the results, the greatest worry has concerned negative phenomena related to the Internet and smartphones, such as copying assignments, cribbing and bullying using the Internet. In this discussion, these activities are linked to the erosion of the authority of schools and teachers. It seems that different forms of media culture, as well as the technological equipment used in the transmission of media contents, always cause the most worry when they first emerge. As they become part of everyday life, moral disapproval of them gradually dissipates.