Katja Lehtisaari

• D. Soc. Sc.
• Senior Lecturer at Tampere University

Koronapandemia lisäsi ajankohtaisen ja luotettavan tiedon tarvetta niin kansalaisten arjessa kuin kriisin viranomaishallinnassa. Tiedotusvälineet asemoituivat uuteen tilanteeseen: niiden odotettiin toimivan vastuullisesti ja osaltaan hillitsevän terveyskriisin pahenemista, mutta samalla tarkastelevan viranomaisten ja muiden päättäjien toimia kriitt...

The notion of intervention is gaining traction among Western environmental journalists. While existing research has predominantly focused on countries outside the Nordic region, in our study we investigate the self-perceptions of professional journalists in the Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Through semi-structured interv...

Audiences’ declining trust in legacy media, including PSM, has been a concern for several decades. The Nordics have been a region where media trust is still strong–despite the worldwide economic challenges of journalism, the prominence of global platforms, and increasing threats posed by disinformation in national media markets. A lesser-researched...

The study explores the journalistic role perceptions and role performance of local interloper media practitioners in Finland. The examined media include non-commercial outlets funded by a city administration or other local authorities as well as commercial online-only outlets. The outlets are conceptualised as interlopers because they apply journal...

This research report examines the current state of the concentration of news media ownership and its impact on media content in Finland, as well as ways to regulate the concentration and its effects. The focus is on journalistic media. National players continue to have a crucial role in the Finnish media. While digital platforms are growing, tra...

Tämä raportti tarjoaa katsauksen kahteen vuonna 2023 toteutettuun kyselytutkimukseen, joissa on yhtäältä tarkasteltu mediapäättäjien näkemyksiä suomalaisesta journalismin kentästä, toisaalta kysytty yleisöjen mielipiteitä median vallasta, vastuusta ja luottamuksesta. Selvitimme, miten suomalaiset mediapäättäjät näkevät luottamuksen journalistiseen...

The Nordic countries have been observed to have developed similar media and communications policies and communication rights. However, for historical reasons, the practical implementations of media policies and regulations in these countries also differ. The consequences of these varying implementations are especially observable in responses to cur...

This chapter is based on a conversation between Lani Watson, author of The Right to Know: Epistemic Rights and Why We Need Them (2021), and the editors of this book. They discussed why epistemic rights are fundamental to our digital age, which institutions are central to their realisation, and what issues need to be made more prominent in consideri...

In today’s era of accelerating digital disruption, optimism about democratic dialogues, diversity, inclusion, and other such good things is hard to come by. Digitalisation may empower us to connect and communicate, but it is also increasingly impeding our fundamental rights. Epistemic rights concern people’s capability to understand information and...

Ever since the launch of the World Press Freedom Index almost 20 years ago, Finland has always been among the top fi ve countries of that index. According to the annual Reuters Digital News reports, Finnish people also have the highest level of trust in the news media and one of the highest levels of press readership in the EU. Most of the media co...

Koronapandemia on nostanut esiin tiedontuotannon ja tiedon leviämisen monimutkaisuuden ja tiedon epävarmuuden keskellä olemisen sekä asiantuntijatiedon haastamisen. Vaikka ammattimaisen uutismedian rooli on ollut merkittävä, tietoa pandemiasta ja sen ehkäisystä ja hoidosta ovat tarjonneet myös lukuisat muut viralliset ja epäviralliset lähteet. Täs...

This paper explores the blurring boundaries between local journalism, strategic and marketing communications and civic information. The study at hand produces new knowledge regarding the conceptions and practices that are emerging in the middle ground between local journalism and communications. The data consist of 10 thematic in-depth interviews w...

In this chapter, we present an overview of hyperlocal media business models in a global media environment. Our aim is to analyze operational rationales, with a specific focus on long-term survival and resilience. Hyperlocal media is a new addition to local media ecosystems and has been discussed as an important element for building a feeling of bel...

The article examines Finnish news professionals’ views on the ethical challenges that ensue from emerging and intertwining forms of local professional journalism and communications. Besides describing the current situation, the article employs data from a survey of editors-in-chief to investigate how news professionals anticipate the relationship b...

This chapter explores how three Scandinavian legacy media companies have reinvented their business models to focus on creating value for digital subscribers. They have developed similar strategies to measure value, for instance, with tailor-made analytical systems that are attuned to the editorial goals of the newsroom. In general, metrics-based au...

The aim of the Road to freedom research project was to fnd out how the Finnish news media are dependent on the technology giants of Silicon Valley, mainly Meta (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp), Alphabet (Google, Youtube, Android), Apple and Amazon. In this report we present an examination of whether the nature of dependence is disproporti...

The aim of the Road to freedom research project was to find out how the Finnish news media are dependent on the technology giants of Silicon Valley, mainly Meta (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp), Alphabet (Google, Youtube, Android), Apple and Amazon. In this report we present an examination of whether the nature of dependence is disproport...

Platformisation: The penetration of infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks of digital platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life as well as the reorganisation of cultural practices and imaginations around these platforms has changed media landscapes dramatically in the past decade—not only globally but als...

This article focuses on the role of passion in news journalism from a managerial perspective. The analysis is based on a data set of 40,621 web-based job advertisements obtained from Journalismjobs.com, from the year 2002 to 2017. The quantitative analysis shows that passion has been on the rise as only 4% of the job advertisements in 2002 asked fo...

The role of hyperlocal media is of increasing relevance as traditional local journalism experiences a decline due to centralisation and consolidation. The affordances of Internet and digital technologies also enable hyperlocal initiatives to enhance civic engagement in localities and serve as a place and resource for local deliberative processes. T...

Local journalism and communication is in a changing state, with new communication channels and actors coming to the field. In this situation, the question of the blurring boundaries of local journalism and communications has arisen. To examine this phenomenon, this report addresses the ethical principles, practices and motives of local journalism a...

The notion of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is operationalized here to explore the influence of press freedom (PF) on the performance of news media firms. We find that growth in reader revenues (RR)—digital and print—is statistically significantly correlated to both EO and PF, suggesting that subscriptions to independently produced news are like...

Researchers and academics in media economics and management with a Northern European affiliation have played a major role in the development of the field and in creating strong international networks, including The World Media Economics and Management Conference (WMEMC) and European Media Management Association (emma). The chapter provides an overv...

The aims, functions and work practices of hyperlocal start-ups and citizen- or community-initiated information sharing vary. We know little about how hyperlocal practitioners’ perceptions of their roles are constructed as a part of wider media ecosystems. This article examines how Nordic and Russian hyperlocal practitioners define their roles, focu...

This research report examines the development of Finnish media and communications policy and the media industry from three perspectives. It analyses the media economy and business, the access of citizens to media services and media pluralism. The analyses are based on the indicators outlined in the previous study (Ala-Fossi et al. 2018). The focus...

This chapter reports on two Finnish cases based on recently commissioned research projects on media management: a study focusing on the state of media and communications policy in Finland, and a three-study project on new business models in news media (focusing on Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the United States and Germany). A public authority, the M...

Purpose: This paper sheds light on the distinctive nature of entrepreneurial-oriented behaviours in news media firms. We reconsider conceptualisations of exploitation and exploration in the industry and seek to explore the extent to which they are related to organisational performance. Methodology: In a cross-sectional study, we draw on data from a...

In the Nordic countries, local and regional newspapers have functioned as keystone media. This article examines the emergence of hyperlocal initiatives as part of evolving local media ecosystems in Finland, analysing the extent and characteristics of hyperlocal media, and how they relate to wider changes in the Finnish media ecosystem. The data gat...

This paper focuses on media innovation among publishers of metropolitan newspapers in the United States, in cities such as San Diego, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia and Dallas. The situation for metropolitan newspapers is difficult, as they fall between national newspapers, which can aim for extending their reach both nationally and globally, and loca...

Academic debates tend focus on attempts to codify and promote communication rights at the global level. This article provides a model to analyse communication rights at a national level by operationalising four rights: access, availability, dialogical rights, and privacy. It highlights specific cases of digitalisation in Finland, a country with an...

This special issue provides a timely reflection on the Russian media system, which is currently at a crossroads. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of previous theorisations of the post-Soviet Russian media and suggest that they seemingly go in waves. The first wave, to our mind, is linked to the analysis of the perestroika’s ‘Glasno...

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the digital environment affects the ecosystem of news media in Germany. We explore how the business operations of news organizations, especially newspapers, are changing. This report offers a fresh perspective on new business models and forms of revenue in Germany, which can be utilized by the Finnish new...

The article focuses on innovation and social media strategies in newspaper companies in the US and three Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Norway and Denmark). Many previous studies have focused on the state of journalism and media industry in single countries, although media have distinct features in different countries. Through the comparative sett...

This chapter analyses the framing of annexation of Crimea by Russian Federation in March 2014 and conflict in Eastern Ukraine during the spring of 2014 in newspapers of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The focus is in possible linkage of Crimean annexation to relations between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, including the possibility of similar annexa...

The state of media- and communications policy and how to measure it Final report This research project has been commissioned by the Ministry of Transport and Communications as part of the preparation of the government’s new media policy program and has been conducted in cooperation with media and communication policy stakeholders. Its aim was to p...

NEW BUSINESS MODELS IN U.S. NEWS MEDIA The purpose of this study is to analyse how the digital environment affects the ecosystem of news media in the United States. We explore how the business operations of news organizations, especially newspapers, are changing. This report offers a comparative perspective on new business models and forms of reven...

This paper reflects on entrepreneurship, leadership and the entrepreneurial orientation of firms in order to propose a construct of entrepreneurial leadership and to discuss its link to organisational performance in the context of the contemporary news media industry. Drawing on original data collected from 68 countries through a 22-question survey...

This paper reflects on entrepreneurship, leadership and the entrepreneurial orientation of firms in order to propose a construct of entrepreneurial leadership and to discuss its link to organisational performance in the context of the contemporary news media industry. Drawing on original data collected from 68 countries through a 22-question survey...

In this book the expert international contributors attempt to answer questions such as: How far is it possible to attribute change in contemporary Russia as due to cultural factors? How does the process of change in cultural institutions reflect the general development of Russia? Are there certain philosophical ideas that explain the Russian interp...

Perinteisen median vaikeudet eri puolilla maailmaa ovat pitkälti seurausta mainostajien valinnoista ja yleisön muuttuvista median kulutustavoista, mitkä johtuvat suurelta osin digitaalisen teknologian nopeasta kehityksestä ja erityisesti internetin tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia hyödyntävien uusien liiketoimintamallien esiinmarssista. Viime vuosina muut...

Leading a news media business has never been simple, but success in today’s increasingly turbulent and competitive environment requires entrepreneurial leadership distinct from other behavioural forms of leadership. This paper reflects on both entrepreneurship and leadership in order to develop a construct of entrepreneurial leadership in the conte...

This article is concerned with changing online strategies in newspaper publishing. It examines the situation through the case of Finland, a country with an exceptionally high rate of printed press circulation. Despite declining readership, newspapers have still maintained a relatively stable economic position. Newspaper publishers have not rushed i...

Este artículo trata sobre las cambiantes estrategias en línea en la edición de diarios. Examina la situación a través del caso de Finlandia, un país con un índice muy alto de circulación de diarios impresos. A pesar del descenso en el número de lectores, los diarios finlandeses han mantenido una posición económica relativamente estable. Sus gerente...

The recent changes in media regulation in Russia seem to be leading towards the same goal of increasing manoeuvring by the state. http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/english/insight/AI_15_1.pdf

The word “market” is at the core of the process of modernization in Russia, especially in regard to the economic aspects of modernization. This article analyzes the usage of the word “market” (rynok in Russian) in the metropolitan and provincial press in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia from 1990 to 2010. “Market” has been a keyword — in...

The book Sanomalehti uudessa mediamaisemassa [The newspaper in the new media landscape] discusses the current and future newspaper publishing challenges using Finnish newspaper industry as a case. Topics covered include e.g. the challenges from convergence, the changing reading habits, changing media regulation, changes in journalistic work and way...

Article on workshop Russian and East European media: Perspectives on consumption and Social Change, held on May 16.-17. at the Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the newspaper industry in Finland responds to the challenges arising from technological change and socio-economic transformation. For the newspaper industry, media convergence represents enormous challenges but also possibilities to utilize new platforms and contents to serve new consumer needs. Characteriz...

The basic task of the financial press is to provide useful and interesting information for businessmen and others who are interested in financial and economic questions. In Russia, economic reforms and structural changes have meant a boom in the popularity of business publications since the early 1990s. When Russia took its first steps towards a ma...

This article discusses the main trends in the Russian business press in comparison with international practices. Such trends include commercialisation, differentiation of products and professionalisation. To achieve a coherent view, the market is viewed from a structural perspective and from the perspective of acting business journalists. This arti...