Suomalaisten vaalikoneiden sisällöt: mediajatkeista kohti yksilöllistä yhteisöllisyyttä?

Kirjoittajat

• Jenni Haukio Politiikan ja talouden tutkimuksen laitos, Yleinen valtio-oppi

Abstrakti

The variety of Finnish voting advice applications (VAA) has grown more abundant in number and more varied in content in the last ten years. This article focuses on the publishers of VAAs, their substantive contents and framing of the questions. The overall aim is to examine the role and development of electoral engines in the media field. Main research questions presented in the article are: Which organizations create and publish VAAs in Finland? What kinds of agendas the questions contents of the VAAs form? Are the contents of the questions electorally specific or do they refer to issues unrelated to elections? What does the substantive frame analysis tell about the contents of the VAAs? How does the general collectivist trend prevailing in the Internet show in the VAAs and affect their development? The empirical data of the article is a sample of the VAAs used during the European Parliament election in 2009. The content analysis shows that the VAAs largely follow the agenda of current politics and tend to ask electorally relevant questions. Frame analysis reveals a frequent pattern of presenting politics as a strategic game. However, this is not exclusive. A fairly large proportion of questions frame politics as issue-based problem solving. Finally, some reflections on the interactive VAAs are provided.