The article examines the interactive uses of journalism, focusing on the changes brought by new communication technology in the everyday news media uses of young Finns. The study is based on a survey and in-depth interviews. The results indicate that even though young Finns have easy access to new communication technology, journalism is still predominantly used via television and printed newspapers. While nearly all subjects followed news regularly, a fifth of the respondents had taken advantage of participatory activities offered by the news media. Consequently, technology alone does not seem to alter news practices. The interactive usage of journalism thus seems to be individualized entertainment for the majority of the young people that were studied, and only for few was it a platform for active citizenship. The everyday practices of using journalism via new media point towards heterogeneous activity and the conflicting meanings given to them.
Allan, S. ( 1999 ) News Culture.Buckingham : Open University Press .
2.
Bardoel, J. ( 1996 ) ‘ Beyond Journalism. A Profession Between Information Society and Civil Society ’, European Journal of Communication11 ( 3 ): 283 – 302 .
Bucy, E.P. and K. S. Gregson ( 2001 ) ‘ Media Participation. A Legitimizing Mechanism of Mass Democracy ’, New Media & Society3 ( 3 ): 357 – 380 .
5.
Castells, M. and P. Himanen ( 2001 ) Suomen tietoyhteiskuntamalli [The Finnish Model of the Information Society] . Helsinki : WSOY .
6.
Drotner, K. ( 2000 ) ‘ Differences and Diversity. Trends in Young Dane’s Media Uses ’, Media, Culture & Society22 ( 3 ): 149 – 166 .
7.
Fairclough, N. ( 1992 ) Discourse and Social Change.Cambridge : Polity Press .
8.
Fornäs, J. ( 1999 ) ‘Digitaaliset rajaseudut. Identiteetti ja vuorovaikutteisuus kulttuurissa, mediassa ja viestinnässä’ [Digital Borderlands. Identity and Interaction in Culture, Media and Communication] , in A. Järvinen and I. Mäyrä (eds) Johdatus digitaaliseen kulttuuriin [Introduction to Digital Culture] , pp. 29 – 50 . Tampere : Vastapaino .
9.
Foucault, M. ( 1972 ) The Archaeology of Knowledge.London : Tavistock .
10.
Friedland, L.A. ( 1996 ) ‘ Electronic Democracy and the New Citizenship ’, Media, Culture& Society18 ( 2 ): 185 – 212 .
11.
Hall, S. ( 1997 ) ‘ The Work of Representation ’, in S. Hall (ed.) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices , pp. 13 – 74 . London : Sage .
12.
Hartley, J. ( 1996 ) Popular Reality. Journalism, Modernity, Popular Culture.London : Arnold .
13.
Heikkilä, H. and R. Kunelius ( 1997 ) ‘Julkisen journalismin äärellä’ [Access, Dialogue, Deliberation] , Tiedotustutkimus20 ( 4 ): 4 – 21 .
14.
Heinonen, A. ( 1999 ) Journalism in the Age of the Net. Changing Society, Changing Profession , Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 685. Tampere : University of Tampere .
15.
Heinonen, A. , M. Mäkinen , S. Ridell , A. Martikainen , M. Halttu and E. Sirkkunen (eds) ( 2001 ) Locality in the Global Net. The Internet as a Space of Citizen Communication and Local Publicness.Tampere : Journalism Research and Development Center, University of Tampere
16.
Heinonen, A. , S. Ridell and E. Sirkkunen ( 2001 ) ‘ Lessons Learned from the Project ’, in A. Heinonen , M. Mäkinen , S. Ridell , A. Martikainen , M. Halttu and E. Sirkkunen (eds) Locality in the Global Net. The Internet as a Space of Citizen Communication and Local Publicness , pp. 121 – 129 . Tampere : Journalism Research and Development Center, University of Tampere .
17.
Hujanen, J. ( 2000 ) Journalismin maakunnallisuus. Alueellisuuden rakentuminen maakuntalehtienteksteissä ja tekijäoiden puheessa [Regional Journalism. The Construction of Regions and Regionalism in Finnish Newspaper Texts and in Journalists’s Talk] . Jyväskylä : Jyväskylä Studies in Communication 11 .
18.
Hujanen, J. and S. Pietikäinen ( 2001 ) ‘Osallistujaa etsimässä’ [Looking for Participants] , in M.R. Luukka , J. Hujanen , A. Lokka , T. Modinos , S. Pietikäinen and A. Suoninen (eds) Mediat nuorten arjessa. 13–19-vuotiaiden nuorten mediakäytäot vuosituhannen vaihteessa [Media in Young People’s Daily Life] , pp. 196 – 207 . Jyväskylä : Jyväskylän yliopisto, Solki .
19.
Johnsson-Smaragdi, U. and A. Jäonsson ( 2001 ) From a Homogenous to Heterogenius Media World. Access and Use of Media Among Teenagers Over Three Decades.Växjäo : Växjäo Universitet Institutionen fäor samhällsveteskap .
20.
Kuusisto, P. and E. Sirkkunen ( 1999 ) Journalismi uuden kynnyksellä [Journalism on the Verge of Novelty] . Tampere : Tampereen yliopisto, Journalismin tutkimusyksikkäo, julkaisuja .
21.
Luukka, M.R. , J. Hujanen , A. Lokka , T. Modinos , S. Pietikäinen and A. Suoninen (eds) ( 2001 ) Mediat nuorten arjessa. 13–19-vuotiaiden nuorten mediakäytäot vuosituhannen vaihteessa [Media in Young People’s Daily Life] . Jyväskylä : Jyväskylän yliopisto, Solki .
22.
Mills, S. ( 1997 ) Discourse.London : Routledge .
23.
Näränen, P. ( 1999 ) ‘Interaktiivisuus mediautopiana ja televisiojournalismin mahdollisuutena’ [Interactivity as a Media Utopia and as a Possibility for Television Journalism] , Tiedotustutkimus22 ( 4 ): 50 – 61 .
24.
Papacharissi, Z. ( 2002 ) ‘ The Virtual Sphere. The Internet as a Public Sphere ’, New Media& Society4 ( 1 ): 9 – 27 .
25.
Pietikäinen, S. ( 2000 ) Discourses of Differentiation. Ethnic Representations in Newspaper Texts , Jyväskylä Studies in Communication 12. Jyväskylä : University of Jyväskylä .
26.
Pietikäinen, S. and J. Hujanen ( 2003 ) ‘ At the Crossroads of Ethnicity: Representations of Northern People and Regions in Finnish News Discourse ’, Media, Culture & Society25 ( 2 ): 251 – 268 .
27.
Rosen, J. ( 1991 ) ‘ Making Journalism More Public ’, Communication12 ( 4 ): 267 – 284 .
28.
Sirienni, C. and L. Friedland ( 2001 ) Civil Innovation in America.Community Empowerment,Public Policy, and the Movement for Civic Renewal and Civic Innovation in America.Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA : University of California Press .
29.
Süss, D. ( 2001 ) ‘ Computers and the Internet in School: Closing the Knowledge Gap ’, in S. Livingstone and M. Bovill (eds) Children and Their Changing Media Environment. A European Comparative Study , pp. 221 – 241 . London : Lawrence Erlbaum .
30.
Tambini, D. ( 1999 ) ‘ New Media and Democracy: the Civic Networking Movement ’, New Media & Society1 ( 3 ): 305 – 329 .
