Vikes supports Finnish journalists in internationalising and building international networks. Our aim is to provide opportunities for journalists at different career stages to develop as international journalists, for example through volunteering experiences.
Saga Sinisalo, a journalist and Master’s student in Global Development Studies, spent November 2024 in Nepal to learn about the work of Vikes’ partners. The purpose of the trip was to produce articles for Vikes about the work of our partners, create social media content during the trip and sell articles to other medias as well.
Volunteering was a great opportunity to combine my Master’s studies and work as a journalist. The experience lowered the threshold for going abroad to write articles.
During the trip, Saga visited the editorial offices of the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal (CIJ Nepal), the Nepali Times and the female journalists association Sancharika Samuha, among others. She also participated in a collaboration with the Finnish Abilis Foundation, doing communications for two of the Foundation’s projects on the occasion of Disabled People’s Day. Saga produced web content on the project visits and wrote a blog post for both Vikes and Abilis.
The trip also opened up new perspectives on the importance of international journalistic cooperation in defending human rights: “We discussed the links between Finnish restaurants and human trafficking at the Nepali Times. I was told about the cooperation between Nepalese journalists and Finnish journalists when an investigative piece on the subject was being written.”
Going abroad strengthens a journalist’s international skills
The volunteering experience was Saga’s first journalistic gig abroad. The trip strengthened her interest and confidence in international freelance journalism. However, working as a journalist abroad was very different from journalism in Finland.
“Conducting interviews abroad is very different. In Finland, it’s easy for people to understand what it’s all about when I tell them I’m doing a story for Helsingin Sanomat. Abroad, people don’t necessarily know what I’m doing, where the story will be published and what it will be like. In addition, the language barrier had a big impact on the interviews, and working with an interpreter was completely different from doing interviews in the same language,” Saga says.
A surprising finding also emerged in the design of the interview questions. The journalist’s background and cultural assumptions influence the questions more than one might imagine.
“When I visited an orphanage, I had prepared questions from a Finnish perspective. In the interview situation, I realized that my perspectives were not relevant in the local context. For example, I had read a lot about how growing up in an orphanage affects attachment relationships. But how can you ask someone who is unfamiliar with discussing attachment relationships about the topic?”
However, it didn’t hurt to revisit the questions, as Saga says the whole story was ultimately built around a new perspective that emerged in the situation.
During the volunteering trip, Saga wrote three articles for Vikes, which will be published on our website early this year. She also sold articles to Finnish media. The trip also left a special memory. “The best part was getting to meet colleagues outside Finland. It was inspiring to discuss journalism, compare ways of doing journalism and reflect on the media situation in different countries.”
