VAKKI Publications

Publication details

Sara Nyyssölä — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Editorial team and referees

Sara Nyyssölä — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Introduction: Communicating with Purpose / Merkityksellinen viestintä / Meningsfull kommunikation / Sinnvolle Kommunikation

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Translation as Language Making in Sign Language Revitalisation

Maria Andersson-Koski, Lieselott Nordman — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This article highlights the translator's crucial role in the revitalisation of the severely endangered FinlandSwedish Sign Language (FinSSL). By giving voice to professional translators, filling in lexical gaps in FinSSL as part of the translation task, we discuss the concept of “Language Making” in relation to language revitalisation. The data of the study comprises interviews with two translators responsible for translating official information by authorities in Finland from Swedish into FinSSL. The translators taking part in the study identify areas where lexical gaps occur and draw on different resources for filling in gaps. When filling in lexical gaps, the translators use both written Swedish and Finnish Sign Language as well as Swedish Sign Language and Finnish, thus showing a flexible view of linguistic borders not commonly recognised in Translation Studies (cf. Kuusi et al. 2022). Besides resources such as using dictionaries and contacting peers, the community of signers are given a normative role in the choice of signs for filling in gaps. In addition to a professional responsibility for the translation, the translators show moral responsibility in relation to the audience of the translation and in mediating information to the FinSSL community. However, they do not explicitly express a responsibility for the development of the language itself.

Med nyhetsmediekritik som utgångspunkt för kommunikation: diskutanters kommentarer till ett Facebook-inlägg från SVT Nyheter om elhushållning

Vincent Björkquist — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

On digital platforms, users can express public opinions in relation to the content of major organizations, e.g. public service broadcasters. Although media criticism has been a subject of scholarly interest, research has not primarily regarded communicative aspects of media criticism, despite such criticism potentially changing the premises for e.g. social media news reporting as a discursive practice. Building on a concept of communicative acts, this study investigates news media criticism in comments on a Facebook news post by Swedish public service broadcaster SVT on electricity housekeeping. Eleven news media critical arguments were identified according to two research questions – 1) what is the object of the criticism; 2) what is the communicative purpose of it? – resulting in seven groups of arguments. Focusing on both single instances of argument groups and combinations of groups within individual comments, the study emphasizes the communicative dynamics of news media criticism in altering between objects and purposes. Even though the result is heterogenous, some tendencies arise. Unlike constructive criticism, meant to change news reporting by media’s own standards, a majority of the most common argument groups consist of those who express strategic criticism, seemingly aiming to change media perceptions among a general news audience. Since this criticism regularly also addresses politics, the study further stresses the possibility of viewing media criticism as extended into e.g. political criticism.

Yritysten joukkorahoituskutsut genrehybrideinä koronapandemian ja Ukrainan sodan aikana

Maria Eronen-Valli — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Crowdfunding campaigns are a form of digital fundraising in which anyone can participate as a supporter (backer). The central genre of crowdfunding is campaign call, that is, a fundraising-oriented pitch published on a crowdfunding platform. This study focuses on crowdfunding campaign calls in times of two world-wide crises: Ukrainian war and Covid pandemic. The aim of the study is to find out what kinds of hybrid genres crisis-contextualized crowdfunding campaign calls are. The material of the study consists of 67 successful business-oriented campaign calls, 27 of which are from Ukrainian companies fundraising on Kickstarter during the Ukrainian war, while 20 Mesenaatti campaign calls belong to Finnish and 20 Indiegogo calls mainly to U.S. companies suffering from the Covid pandemic. The study utilizes Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS) and approaches crowdfunding campaign calls as mixtures or combinations of characteristics from several genres. The study discusses the five most typical genres found in the data: 1) entrepreneurial narrative, 2) advertisement, 3) conditions of contract and delivery, 4) project plan, and 5) political statement. The results indicate that in times of societal crises, crowdfunding campaign calls mix emotion-evoking storytelling and political stance-taking with more rational types, such as product information (a type of advertising) and project plan.

Mot en hållbar utveckling för meningsfull användning av flera språk nationellt? Ungas uppfattningar om en- och flerspråkighet vid kommunikation i Finland och Sverige

Sanna Heittola, Siv Björklund — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

In this article, we study how language majority and minority youth (Finnish-, Swedish- and Sami-speaking youth) in Finland and Sweden perceive the possibility to use languages in their countries. Our theoretical underpinnings are inspired by language policy and language ecology with a special focus on possible impacts of national language policy on language ideologies and language praxis circulating in increasingly multilingual societies. The results show that several statistically significant differences can be revealed between the youth from different countries and with different first languages. The differences indicate that national policy seems to have an effect on language ideologies among the participants. Nevertheless, the youth shares a common belief of the importance of multilingualism even if they recognize the practical challenges that people who cannot use the majority language of the country can face. Language is perceived not only as a medium for communication but also as an important part of the individual’s identity and culture. The result of this study shows that the youth perceives the use of different languages in their country of residence as self-evident.

Språkanvändning och språkval i undervisningen av svenska som det andra inhemska språket: läraruppfattningar om språklig praxis i tre olika lärokurser

Sanna Heittola, Siv Björklund, Sofie Henricson — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

In this article, we focus on the language practices of teaching Swedish as second national language in Finnish-medium primary schools. We examine teacher perceptions of the linguistic repertoires of the student group as well as of language use and language choices in the classroom. The analysis is based on interviews with teachers of different Swedish syllabi. The results show that some Swedish teachers see their students and groups as monolingual, while others both see and strive to acknowledge the students’
multilingualism. In general, the Swedish teachers consider themselves aware of the students' linguistic backgrounds. The study further shows that there is variation in the use and dominance of individual languages in Swedish teaching, with focus on Swedish and Finnish, and that there are differences in how teachers perceive language use and language choice between the different actors in the classroom. These differences are related to the characteristics of the three syllabi and divergences in the local linguistic
contexts. Although all teachers who participated in this study teach the subject of Swedish as second national language, their descriptions of the language practices varied in terms of language choices and multilingualism in the classroom. The pattern that emerges is that communication in the classroom according to the teachers is more Swedish-dominated in the native-level Swedish syllabus whereasthe classroom in the B1-Swedish syllabus is more Finnish-dominated. The linguistic practices in A-Swedish classrooms move between these two alternatives. The study gives insight to the de facto language policy of the classroom, which is of central importance for the possibility of enhancing a language pedagogy in accordance with today’s approach to language teaching and multilingualism.

Suunnitteluohjeen kehittäminen kognitiivisen ergonomian huomioimiseen käytettävyyden parantamisessa

Joni Hyyppä, Laura Havinen — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Today, it is almost impossible to avoid interaction with IT-related tools. Therefore, when designing systems, it is important to consider people’s cognitive abilities and limitations to avoid production errors and excessive burden on people. In cognitive ergonomics, the interaction between humans and technology is studied and designed especially from the viewpoint of human cognitive processes. Cognitive ergonomics aims to shorten task times, reduce mistakes made by people, shorten learning times, and improve people’s satisfaction with the systems. Cognitive ergonomics can be considered as an important scientific basis for user interface design. In this study, the aim is to find out how the system’s usability can be affected by improving cognitive ergonomics. The study was conducted using the design science research approach in the context of the technology industry. The human-centered design viewpoint of technology is increasingly important in the industry context as the number of IT-related tools grows. In the study, the usability of the target company’s SAP ME system was improved with a focus on the aspects of cognitive ergonomics. As a manifestation of the research’s aim, an IT artifact, i.e., design instructions for improving usability from the viewpoint of cognitive ergonomics, was created.

Kognitiivinen saavutettavuus valvotun tapaamisen sääntöasiakirjoissa

Mira Kainulainen — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This article investigates the cognitive accessibility of five rule documents for a supervised visitation service. In the study, I conducted a functional text analysis on the documents and identified factors that affect the cognitive accessibility of the texts. In the article, I examine the factors vis-à-vis instructions on cognitive accessibility. In the theory section, I explore cognitive accessibility and user-centered communication. In the conclusions, I examine cognitive accessibility of the documents in the context of social work. I also present some solutions for the problems revealed by the analysis. The results of this study show that cognitive accessibility in texts is particularly affected by content, vocabulary, sentence structures and the order of information. The functional text analysis provides a highly detailed understanding of the documents. The study also demonstrates that the instructions for cognitive accessibility, which are mainly designed for content in digital environments, can be used to improve the accessibility of written documents too.

Vertaileva korpusavusteinen diskurssintutkimus tiedekeskustelun teemojen muutoksesta Suomi24-keskustelupalstalla

Johanna Kalja-Voima, Vesa Jarva, Jenny Tarvainen — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This article focuses on the themes of science discussions on Suomi24 discussion forum and how these themes changed between two periods (2004-2006 and 2018-2020). The research questions are 1) What themes arise in the Suomi24 science discussions and how do the themes for 2004-2006 and 2018-2020 differ? 2) What do the themes tell about what interests the public in science? 3) What does a possible change in the themes tell about the role of science and scientific knowledge in society? The research method is modern diachronic corpus-assisted discourse studies. The data consists of two sub corpora from Suomi24 corpus, and the statistical method is keyword analysis. As a node, a Finnish lemma tiede ‘science, research’ is used. The results show that common themes in science discussion are explanation, science and religion. The themes of the old science discussion (2004-2006) are religion, regions and places, and society; the themes of the new science discussion (2018-2020) are beliefs, morals and values, and climate.

Med eller utan språk. Vårdares uppfattningar om kommunikation med äldre

Marja Kivilehto — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Previous research suggests that care work is increasingly about communication. Care workers write, speak and mediate as they plan, perform and follow up on their work. Studies on language development in the workplace have been carried out, but little attention has been paid to the conceptions of care workers on communication with older people. In this article, therefore, I focus on language and communication on the basis of empirical material consisting of interviews with eight care workers who work with the elderly. My research questions are: 1) What do language and communication mean in care work with older people? and 2) How important is verbal language in care work with older people? The results show that language and communication consist of encounters and the ability to see the individual. It is also important to respect the other person's wishes, whether it is small talk and silence or touch and distance. Verbal language is primary, but not only used for the exchange of information. Language has an important social function which becomes apparent in the context of different activities. Although the focus is on activities, the activities invite communication using language as a starting point. All in all, the conceptions of the care workers seem to be in accordance with person-centered communication advocated by nursing professionals.

Ilmastoviisaan asumisen teemat ja kontekstit – Kun systeemimaailma kohtaa elämismaailman julkisessa keskustelussa

Merja Koskela, Eveliina Salmela, Liisa Kääntä, Henna Syrjälä — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This study examines which topics climate-wise housing is connected to in public speech. Climate-wise housing stands for housing choices that take social, ecological and economic perspectives into account. The data of the study consists of a variety of journalistic texts and online discussions collected in a larger research project. Content analysis is used as a method, and the findings are discussed applying Habermas' concepts of system and lifeworld. The results show that in the journalistic media, the system-level starting
point is strong and the individuals’ point of view comes to the fore only in certain types of stories. Economics and technology in particular are important ways of understanding climate-wise housing. In online discussions, the starting point is citizens' own lifeworld, which is connected to their everyday experiences. However, the topics of the discussions are also connected to the system through the presence of the (market) economy, which leads to seeing citizens in the role of consumers. As a whole, our analysis shows that climate-wise living becomes a part of citizens' everyday life both through the system, for example as a result of political decisions, and through grassroot level choices. From both starting points, efforts can be made towards more climate-wise living.

Kunskapsorganisering, sökmöjligheter och läsvägar: en fallstudie av handböcker för hundägare

Hans Landqvist — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This paper explores how the anonymous authors of two Swedish handbooks for dog owners, published in 1823 and 1849 respectively, tried to communicate their knowledge about the treatment of dogs so that the readers of the handbooks could, hopefully, apply the information offered in their everyday life. The study clarifies how the authors organize the knowledge that they want their readers to take part of, how they show their readers opportunities to search for the desired knowledge and which reading paths within
the handbooks that the readers are offered. The two handbooks are regarded as multimodal, dialogical, final and addressive texts, and the study reported is qualitative and comparative; the handbooks are compared with each other, with other studies of dog owner manuals in Swedish, and with studies of other types of practical handbooks in Swedish. The results show great similarities between the two handbooks regarding the investigated variables, but the handbook from 1849 is judged to be more well planned and easier to use for contemporary knowledge-seeking dog owners. Finally, further studies of the handbooks are suggested, including syntactic-focused studies of them, comparisons with contemporary veterinary medical literature and studies of a larger material of dog owners’ handbooks.

Samarbetet mellan TNC och RTT 1938–1998: Terminologiarbete som resurs för meningsfull kommunikation

Hans Landqvist, Niina Nissilä, Nina Pilke, Sannina Sjöberg — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This article describes and analyses the contacts between the Swedish and Norwegian national terminology organisations between the 1940s and the 1990s. The Swedish Tekniska nomenklaturcentralen TNC (1941–2018; 2000–2018 Terminologicentrum TNC) was Sweden’s national center for special languages and terminology work for more than 75 years. Since its founding in 1941, the TNC was active not only in Sweden, but also in establishing and maintaining international contacts. The Norwegian Rådet for teknisk terminologi RTT was founded in 1938 and closed down in 2001. The research material used is the collection of correspondence in the TNC’s document archive, in particular the section stored with the code “Unor”, i.e., letters (N=374) documenting written communication between the TNC and the RTT. The article describes the topics covered in the communication, the individuals involved, the objectives and consequences of the communication and the results achieved. In a quantitative analysis, the themes of the letters are categorised in four main categories: publications, communication, information, and language issues. In a qualitative analysis, a specific terminological issue in the field of welding technology is analysed by close reading and content analysis. Finally, further studies, which complete the picture of
terminological cooperation on institutional level in the Nordic countries, are proposed.

Globalisation and Cultural Diversity in the Finnish School Curriculum: Ethical and Critical Perspectives

Tommi Lehtonen — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The purpose of this article is to explore and analyse how globalisation and cultural diversity are addressed in the Finnish national curriculum for comprehensive school. The study focuses on both the broad considerations of globalisation and cultural diversity as well as the unique challenges of various school subjects in addressing these topics. The analysis is particularly concerned with the ethical ramifications associated with critical perspectives on globalisation. The curriculum does not provide a direct answer to these concerns. Instead, it emphasises cultural diversity when presenting the many issues encountered by pupils. The primary finding of the analysis is that the conceptualization of globalisation in the Finnish curriculum lacks depth and substance. As an indication of this, the curriculum places a greater focus on cultural diversity than globalisation. Moreover, the Finnish curriculum perceives globalisation and cultural diversity as prospects rather than challenges. In terms of ethical considerations, the curriculum represents a kind of mixed model in which utilitarian considerations are emphasised but refined with duty-ethical considerations arising from universal human rights.

Wie zeigt sich Agency in technologievermittelten deutsch-finnischen Geschäftsverhandlungen? Bildungsexport im Nexus der Praxis

Maarit Leskelä — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Engaging in educational export negotiations online in English with German-speaking teaching professionals requires new kinds of competence compared to traditional business negotiations. In this study, the focus is on participants’ agency in business negotiations between teachers in Germany and Austria and Finnish service providers. The research strategy is nexus analysis, and the research materials include interviews, as well as observations and video footage from authentic business negotiations. The analysis
focuses on circulating discourses, participants’ positioning and the motives they provide for their perspectives on the digitalisation of school. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening participants’ agency and professional identity as well as providing opportunities for meaning making with their workplace community.

“Jos et aloita, mikään ei muutu”: Tulevaisuuksien rakentuminen median sijoitusdiskursseissa

Ella Lillqvist, Merja Porttikivi — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Over the past few years, individuals have become increasingly interested in investing and this investment boom is also reflected in news media content. Investing is an activity based on predictions and expectations about the future that seeks to actively influence accumulation of wealth and thus one’s own future. This study focuses on imagined futures in investment discourse and the performative role of imagined futures in the construction of financial markets and market society as a whole. The data spans the years 2015–2022 and consists of a 1.2-million-word corpus of articles and reader comments from four Finnish newspapers. This corpus is analysed using corpus-assisted discourse studies, combining quantitative and qualitative text analysis. In the light of the material, the future is imagined both from an individual perspective and from broader global or societal perspectives. Investors’ individualistic futures are mainly imagined as positive and can therefore motivate people to invest. Broader visions of the future are more negative, for example the idea that in the future society will not afford to pay pensions, which in turn requires the individual to prepare through investing. The investor is predominantly seen as a neoliberal subject who takes responsibility and is able to influence their own future.

It’s Time to See the Forest for the Trees – Rhetorical Argumentation about Forest Use on Twitter

Merja Porttikivi, Maarit Laihonen — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Twitter used to be a hotbed of topical societal debates. In this paper, we analyze discussions about Finnish forest use and conservation on Twitter during a five-month period in 2020–2021. By looking at the factual contents and the ways claims are justified, we ask how tweeters construct their arguments. The materials were analyzed by paying attention to background categories, content topic and style, and any additional information brought up by participants. Our findings show that a polarization between economic and ecological worldviews can be seen in Twitter debates, and that the participants use various methods to justify their stances. As a result, we also identified ways in which ordinary people take part in this debate by commenting, reframing, retweeting and sending their own photos as evidence.

Merkityksellisyyden perusteluja yritysten verkkosivuilla

Tessa Virta — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Companies are no longer valued solely for the products and services they offer, but also for what they represent. As expectations have increased, clarifying a company's purpose has become an essential factor in an uncertain society and competitive environment. This research addresses the question of how companies communicate their purpose on their websites. The study also outlines where this phenomenon fits in the field of organizational communication research. A rhetorical analysis of purpose-related websites suggests that companies' communication about purpose is factualizing, generic, industry-dependent, profitability-oriented, and primarily targeted at customers. The study shows that purpose is linked to four dimensions: environmental responsibility, customer orientation, solution orientation, and profitability. Compared to the dominant approaches in branding and management, the perspective of organizational communication highlights the strategic role of purpose, particularly in communicating company's goals and solutions.