Vikes invites media houses to join a project to work with editors to find ways to make more diverse journalism a reality. Make media more diverse now! will also support journalists from immigrant backgrounds and create a network for underrepresented groups in the media.
In the end of 2022, there were already around half a million native speakers of a foreign language living permanently in Finland. This number has doubled in 11 years, and foreign-language speakers account for 9% of the total population. How is their voice, or that of other minorities, heard in the media?
Vikes is now inviting editors to participate in the “Make Media More Diverse Now” project, where interested editors can receive training tailored to their needs to strengthen diversity.
Survey finds that the transformation of the media in Finland is slow
In early 2024, Vikes commissioned a survey to map the state of diversity in Finnish media and previous attempts to increase pluralism. It revealed that the media is moving very slowly in the direction of diversity, both in Finland and in some of its peer countries.
Previous studies have shown that the lack of cultural and ethnic diversity in the media creates otherness: the media not only reflect what is happening in society, but even produce divisions between us and them. Those belonging to ethnic or other minorities do not necessarily feel represented by the media if the representations are not diverse. Conversely, if the media does not change with society, it may be difficult for those in the majority to perceive the more multicultural reality of contemporary Finland.
At worst, the result is that news coverage of minorities focuses on negative issues such as gang violence and unemployment. On the other hand, by building trust between different groups, the media can play a role in solving problems.
The situation can also be addressed by openly reflecting on the state of diversity in Finnish editorial offices and by developing tools to increase diversity.
We are now starting to do this work with two-year funding from the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation as part of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs-funded Global Education Programme, together with Tampere University and Haaga-Helia’s Journalism Education.
Vikes Make Media More Diverse Now! is led by journalist and global education expert Kristiina Markkanen, who has long experience in journalism related to immigration, minorities and discrimination at Helsingin Sanomat, Me Naiset magazine and Iso Numero magazine, which is a magazine committed to improving the social position of the homeless, unemployed and low-income people.
-Now is the time to tackle the distortions in the media. It is time for the voices of different minorities to be heard. In the age of artificial intelligence, we must not just get ahead of technology, but take care of the content. They should broaden our world view rather than narrow it. Therefore, Make Media More Diverse Now! , Markkanen says.
What kind of change do we expect to bring about?
Our project has three objectives:
The first and most important objective is to create a sustainable basis for media houses and editors’ own diversity work through tailor-made training. Several studies and surveys of editorial experience have found that news coverage of migrants and other minorities is too limited, incomplete or one-sided.
However, the desire and will for news coverage that takes into account the diversity of social groups exists, but in busy editorial offices it is often difficult to change practices and news criteria. That’s why we offer media houses tailor-made workshops or even 1.5-year training packages to enable sustainable and permanent culture change in their daily work.
Secondly, we want to support journalists with a migrant background in developing their professional skills and networking. We offer tailor-made training for journalists with a migrant background to complement their existing skills.
Thirdly, we will create a wider network of multilingual media to promote the representation of underrepresented groups. In addition to immigrants, Sámi people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ I+ people, women, young people, people with low incomes and people with lower education are underrepresented in the media. At its best, our project will contribute to the media representation of all underrepresented groups.
Specific plans for increasing diversity and equality will be created for each of the editors involved in the project
The work can also be supported by The News Source Diversity Meter, a tool created for editorial use to automatically monitor who is speaking out in different editorial texts.
The indicator has been developed for several years in cooperation between the University of Tampere and Sopiva – Conciliatory Journalists Association in two different research projects, and it has been tested in the newspaper Kaleva and Yle. Yle built a similar tool for Yle’s online news this spring, based on the experiences of the research project.
The third partner in the project, STT, is using the indicator on an ongoing basis. The News Source Diversity Meter started in 2019 as an innovation of Sopiva ry, which participated in the HS Foundation’s Uutisraivaaja competition and reached the final.
Matleena Ylikoski, a Vikes’ partner and researcher involved in the development of the meter, says that the need to develop diversity in journalism is a widely shared experience in the field, but there have been few, if any, tools available.
“The aim of The News Source Diversity Meter is to make the selection of interviewees more informed and planned, and thus more diverse,” says Ylikoski, who examines the diversity of journalism and the design process of The News Source Diversity Meter in her doctoral thesis.
