Browsing by Author "Isotalus, Pekka"

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    Analyzing Presidential Debates Functional Theory and Finnish Political Communication Culture
    (Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordicom, 2011-06) Isotalus, Pekka; Carlsson, Ulla; School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere
    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 of functional theory to the analysis of Finnish political campaigning. The results show that a Finnish presidential debate differs in many ways from an American presidential debate. The study shows how strongly the culture is reflected in political television debates and how important it is to take account of the cultural perspective in the development of a theory.
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    Political Scandal Tests Trust in Politicians The Case of the Finnish Minister Who Resigned Because of His Text Messages
    (Nordic Counil of Ministers, Nordicom, 2014-11-25) Isotalus, Pekka; Carlsson, Ulla; Nordicom
    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 episode intensively. The present article considers what kinds of qualities for political leadership the media called for during this scandal and how these qualities were justified. The paper is based partly on quantitative but mostly on qualitative content analyses of the four most read newspapers in Finland. The results show five categories, the qualities being professional competence, personal characteristics and behaviour, trustworthiness, maintenance of relations and communication skills. The results show that the requirements imposed by the media are high, but that evaluation of professional competence is still crucial. Further, the occurrence of a scandal seems to trigger discussions on trust in politicians.