Tuonnista mallinnukseen

Kulttuuririippuvuus ja Suomen tiedonvälitys

Kirjoittajat

• Ullamaija Kivikiuru

Abstrakti

The article discusses problems of media dependency from the perspective of a small Western industrialized country like Finland, both theoretically and based on an empirical study covering 10 dailies, 7 popular weeklies, radio news and current programmes, plus television and cable programmes in March-April 1980. Further, secondary analysis is carried out in several other studies. In Finland, media dependency is clearly one-dimensional: A strong Anglo-American dependency found in the media, starting from the early years of this century, and concentrating in entertainment-oriented mass communication. Some 20 °7o of foreign news material originates from the Anglo-American countries. In entertainment, the Anglo-American ratio exceeds one- third of all foreign material. In news content, the Unites States is clearly the center of news transmission. The article develops a cyclic model describing the forms and stages of Finnish media dependency. The most crucial distinction is that between direct and indirect dependency, the latter taking most often the form of modelling: A Finnish medium or the media system produces domestic mass communication according to Anglo-American patterns. Modelling is the dominant mode of media dependency in Finland, leading Finnish mass communication content closer to the »mainstream» of transnational mass communication. The basic problem of the strong Anglo- American dependency is the fact that it supports journalistic ideals emphasizing routine and neglecting creative elements in the Finnish journalistic culture, thus promoting standardization of cultural production.