
Pekka IsotalusTampere University | UTA
Pekka Isotalus
PhD
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Publications (71)
This exploratory study focuses on the public as a listening ensemble that takes part in public diplomacy on Twitter. Here, listening is considered as the receiving component of communication, and responsive behavior as its visible product. The focus is on public communication that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A total of 4,392 quote t...
Personalization of politics is a well-established field of research, yet not much is known about how the phenomenon has been influenced by the increased use of social media as a tool for political communication. In this research we analyze media personalization in newspapers and on social media posts of parties and party leaders during the 2019 Fin...
Presentation skills play a major role when entrepreneurs aim to attract investors’ interest. Although previous studies provide insights into important structural elements of sales pitches, research has not focused on investigating an effective sales pitch structure and entrepreneurs’ rhetorical strategies in a Finnish context. The aim of this study...
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to transition to online teaching almost overnight. This paper focuses on students’ perceptions of communication skills in a practice course in the spring of 2020. The beginning of the course was held face-to-face and conducted online at the end. We sought information regarding students’ experien...
Artikkelissa osoitamme, miksi medioidun vuorovaikutuksen perinteiset näkökulmat ovat riittämättömiä nopeasti kehittyvän viestintäteknologian ja sen käyttötapojen tarkastelussa ja pyrimme löytämään uusia näkökulmia aiheeseen. Argumentoimme, että interpersonaalisen viestinnän näkökulmasta uudessa ja arkipäiväistyvässä viestintäteknologiassa merkityks...
Politiikan toimijoiden viestintä sosiaalisen median alustoilla on tärkeä osa vaalikampanjaa. Puolueen puheenjohtajan merkitys erityisesti eduskuntavaalikampanjassa on kiistaton, mutta toistaiseksi on vasta vähän tutkittu, millä tavalla he näkyvät ja millainen rooli heillä on puolueensa viestinnässä sosiaalisen median alustoilla. Tutkimus käsittelee...
Commercial music artists seek celebrity capital, which has central value in the music industry and broader society. Previous literature suggests that besides advantages, fame is connected to interpersonal issues in close relationships. The marginalised celebrity discourses emerging from well-known artists’ close interpersonal relationships are exam...
Tämän teoksen kaksitoista, vertaisarvioitua artikkelia tarjoavat näkökulmia vaikuttavaan viestintään. Tarkastelussa ovat erityisesti ammattimaiset sosiaalisen median vaikuttajat ja yhteistyö, jota he tekevät organisaatioiden kanssa, mutta myös organisaatioiden asiantuntijat, ajatusjohtajat ja toimitusjohtajat, jotka usein toimivat sosiaalisessa med...
How is leadership communicated? Finnish CEOs on Twitter Twitter offers CEOs the opportunity to communicate with a wide audience. For corporate stakeholders, CEO communication is important because it can affect, for example, the corporate image or the information that company’s stakeholders receive about the company’s vision or values. So far, howev...
The communication environment of international relations has undergone tremendous changes in recent decades. In recent years, special attention has been paid to the rise of Twitter as an important arena for public diplomacy and world politics. Heads of state, governments and foreign ministries around the world have chosen Twitter as one of their ma...
Esitelmässä kuvataan Isotaluksen omien tutkimustensa kautta medioidun vuorovaikutuksen tutkimuksen kehitystä vuosikymmenten aikana. Ajan myötä mediaympäristön muuttuessa medioidun vuorovaikutuksen ymmärtäminen, käsitteellistäminen ja tutkimuskohteet ovat muuttuneet. Medioidulla vuorovaikutuksella esitelmässä tarkoitetaan ihmisten välistä vuorovaiku...
Our study aimed to describe and evaluate the applicability of the critical incident technique (CIT) in qualitatively identifying the health-related outcomes of professional–patient communication. We described and evaluated the applicability of the CIT by analyzing previous CIT studies in the field of multidisciplinary health research, as well as co...
Listening has become a key concept in practicing public diplomacy on social media. This study explores professional diplomats’ listening on Twitter, operationalizing their listening behavior as interaction involvement (II). II is related to knowing when and how to use language in social situations, and it covers three crucial aspects of listening:...
This article explores the concept of rhetorical diplomacy in understanding public diplomacy on Twitter. Recent years have witnessed the growing importance of Twitter in the field. In 2020, with its uncertainties, the United States and China plunged into diplomatic clashes and blame-shifting on the social media platform as they fought over the heart...
Political campaign communication has become increasingly hybrid and the ability to create synergies between older and newer media is now a prerequisite for running a successful campaign. Nevertheless, beyond establishing that parties and individual politicians use social media to gain visibility in traditional media, not much is known about how pol...
Politicians’ television interviews have been central in Finnish election campaigning since the 1960s. Earlier studies of the electoral debates have shown that the influence of the Finnish communication culture and political system on politicians’ communication styles could be readily identified. Before the Finnish municipal elections of 2021, the F...
Onnistunut omahoito edellyttää terveydenhuollon ammattilaisen ja diabeetikon välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa rakentuvaa toimivaa yhteistyötä. Omahoidon, yhteistyön ja vuorovaikutuksen välisiä suhteita sekä vuorovaikutuksen merkitystä yhteistyön toteutumisen kannalta on kuitenkin tarkasteltu tutkimuksissa vasta rajallisesti tyypin 2 diabeteksen hoidon...
Sosiaalisen median vaikuttajien seuraajille voi muodostua affektiivisia ystävyyden kaltaisia tunnesiteitä eli parasosiaalisia suhteita seuraamiansa mediapersoonia kohtaan. Sosiaalisessa mediassa on otolliset lähtökohdat parasosiaalisten tunteiden syntymiselle ja kehittymiselle, kun vaikuttajat päästävät katsojat kurkistamaan elämäänsä kuvien ja vid...
This study examined the use of an immersive virtual environment (IVE) in decreasing intergroup anxiety among university students. In Dinner-time360 , the students engaged in an interpersonal encounter by sharing a virtual dinner table with someone from another linguistic or cultural group. A control group watched the documentary in a traditional 2D...
In the postmodern age of social media, chief executive officers (CEOs) have become the public faces of their organizations on Twitter. Therefore, CEOs’ use of Twitter can be assumed to influence the social capital of the organizations they represent. In this mixed-methods study, this possibly influential relation is examined using the framework of...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual communication channels have been used to ensure physical distance between people. However, moving everyday social interactions into virtual platforms also affects the communication of relational distance – that is, immediacy – between people. The study goal is to understand the content, functions, and situation...
Parasosiaalinen kohtaaminen vieraaksi koetun ihmisen kanssa mahdollistaa hänen ymmärtämisensä moniulotteisena, yksilöllisenä olentona yleistävän kulttuurisen luokittelun sijasta. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitimme, (1) miten parasosiaalinen kohtaaminen immersiivisessä virtuaaliympäristössä on yhteydessä katsojien ahdistuksen tunteeseen (intergroup anxi...
Yliopistoista valmistuvilta edellytetään nykyisin monipuolisia viestintätaitoja. Siksi yliopistojen opetukseen on vakiintunut myös puheviestinnän opintojakso osaksi yliopistotutkintoihin sisältyviä pakollisia kieli- ja viestintäopintoja. Aikaisemmat selvitykset tästä opetuksesta osoittavat, että vuosikymmenien aikana opetuksessa on tapahtunut monen...
Type 2 diabetes is a contradictory chronic illness that needs to be managed in cooperation with health care professionals. Despite the significant role of the professional-patient relationship in diabetes management, the meaning of this relationship as part of diabetes management has not yet been studied. The aim of this qualitative study is to des...
The aim of our study is to determine the relational communication characteristics of professional–patient communication situations that have either facilitated or impeded patients’ self-management. Conducted from the perspective of Finnish patients in the context of type 2 diabetes care, we used as our research methods an open e-survey and semistru...
A significant part of the general public’s observations and image concerning the police comes through the mass media. It has been assumed that one factor affecting the level of trust is the way the media handles the police. This article describes the media uproar that arose in Finland in November 2013 about police misconduct, and its effects on the...
Tarinat ovat osa sosiaalisia todellisuuksia, jotka rakentuvat ihmisten välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa. Näistä tarinoista yhä useampi syntyy nykyään sosiaalisessa mediassa, koska sen merkitys ihmisten vuorovaikutukselle kasvaa jatkuvasti. Tässä artikkelissa pyrimme osoittamaan tarinoita fantasioiksi kutsuvan symbolisen konvergenssin teorian tarjoamat...
Al-Anon members (n = 20) were interviewed to investigate the association between communication and the helping mechanisms of Al-Anon. The research material was thematically analyzed and resulted in six mechanisms of supportive communication (sense of belonging, seeing oneself in relation to others, experiencing self-efficacy, developing a new story...
The study examined 25 Finnish judges’ perceptions of professionally optimal listening and tensions related to it. These themes were approached from the perspectives of professionalism and relational dialectics. The data were gathered using semi-structured interviews. In the data analysis, some strategies of grounded theory methods were applied. The...
Al-Anon is a mutual-aid group for the significant others of alcoholics. In Al-Anon, members benefit from receiving support from others as well as providing it themselves. Focusing specifically on supportive communication, this study aims to determine the elements of support Al-Anon members consider helpful in the groups and to discover why these fe...
Political scandals have been observed to be increasingly common everywhere. In April 2008, the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ilkka Kanerva, was compelled to resign because of the sensation arising from the enormous number of suggestive text messages that he had sent to a young female erotic dancer. During the scandal, the media followed...
This qualitative cross-cultural study sought to contribute to the understanding of listening competence, dialogic listening, and the use of human agency in promoting well-being at work. The participant groups (N = 103) consisted of n = 76 U.S.-American and n = 27 Finnish attorneys. Results suggest that in order to examine listening and well-being a...
The article presents a model of televised election discussion combining elements of communication, culture and the political situation, and the ways in which these elements infl uence the nature of political discussion. The main argument is that in the multi-party political system of Finland the televised election discussion is indeed a "dis- cussi...
Background
In medical students’ communication training, the doctor-patient encounter can be simulated through experiential learning methods, such as simulated patients (SPs) and role-play. However, more theater and drama education–based methods have not been widely used in the context of medical education.
Aim
In this mixed-method study, we compar...
Drawing on relational dialectics, this study examines definitions of optimal listening, the tensions affecting it, cultural differences in both of these and strategies for managing tensions. The participant sample (N = 101) consists of 76 American attorneys and 25 Finnish judges. The results suggest that differences in national communication cultur...
This study focuses on Finnish men’s talk about troubles and on contexts that shape the communication situation. The data consists of 25 thematic interviews with Finnish- born men of varying ages. We found that men talked about their troubles in face-to-face settings that enabled them to relax. Two specific cultural terms for talk about troubles wer...
When examining listening competence researchers have been interested primarily in the listening that takes place in personal relationships. This qualitative study (N = 113), focusing on courtroom communication and drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT), approaches listening from both theoretical and practical perspectives by examining the dimensi...
Mediatization of politics has been observed to occur in many different ways. In the research of mediatization, one central area focuses on political actors and the degree to which they are governed by media logic or political logic. In this area, the political leaders have a key role. In this study, we focus on the relationship between the media an...
Political scandals have been observed to be increasingly common everywhere. In April 2008, the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ilkka Kanerva, was compelled to resign because of the sensation arising from the enormous number of suggestive text messages that he had sent to a young female erotic dancer. During the scandal, the media followed...
This study describes Finnish men's support provision for same-sex friends. Two main problem scenarios—break-up and sudden unemployment—were used, which were moderated by alcohol abuse. These data consist of 25 episode interviews and were analyzed with qualitative and quantitative methods. Results showed that men provide support by giving perspectiv...
Vuorovaikutusosaamisen merkitys on kasvanut työelämässä lähes kaikilla aloilla. Työelämän vuorovaikutustilanteet tuovat uusia haasteita myös vuorovaikutuskoulutukselle. Puheviestinnän opettamisen kentällä on käyty keskustelua, miten asiantuntijoita tulisi opettaa, jotta heidän ammatillinen vuorovaikutusosaamisensa kehittyisi parhaalla mahdollisella...
AIMS - This study examines the kinds of support that alcoholics’ friends and relatives provide each other in Al-Anon mutual-aid groups. The study examines, first, the types of supportive communication in mutual-aid group meetings directed toward friends and relatives of alcoholics, and second, how contextual features affect supportive communication...
This study aimed to distinguish beneficial and non-beneficial support for men in same-sex friendships. The empirical material was gathered using thematic interviews with 25 Finnish men. Two supportive sequences and five beneficial support approaches were identified. These approaches were listening, compassion, reassurance, appraisal, and distractio...
This study aimed to outline the current communication skills of political leaders. Media data, in total 5,697 items, were collected from four newspapers in Finland over a period of six months in 2008. The interview data consist of eight interviews with Finnish party leaders. All materials were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Two kinds of...
One central task in higher education is to provide students with interpersonal communication competence in their profession. To achieve this, specialised training, based on an understanding of disciplinary communication practices and appropriate assessment methods, is needed. However, there is a lack of reliable assessment instruments which are des...
Despite numerous studies exploring medical students' attitudes to communication skills learning (CSL), there are apparently no studies comparing different experiential learning methods and their influence on students' attitudes.
We compared medical students' attitudes to learning communication skills before and after a communication course in the d...
Lääkärin ammatissa tarvitaan ammatillisten tietojen ja kliinisten taitojen hallinnan ohella vuorovaikutusosaamista, jota voidaan kehittää vuorovaikutuskoulutuksen avulla. Tässä tutkimuksessa1 kuvataan ja verrataan puheviestinnän opetuskokeiluun osallistuneiden lääketieteen toisen vuosikurssin opiskelijoiden (N = 132) itsearvioituja oppimistuloksia...
Purpose
This study aims to compare Finnish medical students' perceptions of the suitability of three experiential methods in learning interpersonal communication competence (ICC). The three methods it seeks to explore are: theatre in education; simulated patient interview with amateur actors; and role‐play with peers. The methods were introduced in...
One of the most used theories in the research of political debates is the functional theory of campaign discourse. However, the theory has been criticized for being too culturally limited. In the present article, a Finnish presidential debate is analyzed from the perspective of functional theory. The goal is to critically evaluate the applicability...
Course: Health Communication (doctor-patient communication) Objectives: Students analyze doctor-patient communication and practice interpersonal communication to understand effective communication in a patient-physician relationship.
Studies consistently confirm that there is an extensive need for new theoretical and practical directions for communication in disciplines (CID) programmes. The CID pedagogy calls for more specialized training with more specialized methods in particular professions. This study presents a method developed for practical training studies in pharmacy b...
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Interface agents are increasingly being used to enhance the user-friendliness of computers. In the new mobile technology of handheld computers, interface agents are also being used to present on-line news. The purpose of the study was to explore how the gender of the interface agent and the user affect evaluations of the agent and the news service....
The aims were to analyse Finnish pharmacy students' opinions of feedback given to them in patient counselling training during their internship period, and to evaluate the guidelines used.
The study was based on reports written by 136 students, analysed qualitatively. To examine the significance of the guidelines and the perceived quality of the fee...
Mönkkönen, J., Pyörälä, E. & Isotalus, P. (2007). Medical students' perceptions of simulated patient interviews with amateur actors. DRAMA - Nordisk dramapedagogisk tidsskrift, 4, 20-25.
Artikkelissa tarkastellaan teoreettisesti poliitikkojen viestintäosaamista. Aihetta lähestytään kolmen eri näkökulman kautta, Ensimmáinen ja konkreettisin tarkastelunäkökulma onlkilätaso eli viestintäosaamisen merkitys polütikon henkilökohtaisen viestinnällisen toimintakyvyn ja menestyksen kannalta. Polütikon näkökulmasta viestintäosaaminen edistää...
The present study considers the design and implementation of immediacy behaviors for an animated agent and the influence of such an agent on viewers. Immediacy, a widely studied construct in human communication research, is defined as the verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors that enhance physical and psychological closeness between people....
The aim of the study was to explore the association between the context of television, and the speech employed in television broadcasts. Verbal and nonverbal communication in the presenters' on-screen performances was analyzed using qualitative observation techniques. The relationship of the television context to performance was studied by describi...
The study examined the effect of situational demands on arousal in public speaking, small group, and dyadic contexts. Heart rate level of nine university students varied significantly according to the demands of the context. The nature of the context was also reflected in subjects’ heart rate variation. The advantages of expanding the physiological...
For the past twenty years, the concept of change has been much discussed within the sphere of political communication. According to Negrine (2008), the discussion concerns the question of the speed, intensity and extent of change in the structures of communication and in the ways in which political communication is carried out. This change has also...
Summary: Presenter on screen. Väitösk. -- Jyväskylän yliopisto.