Challenging the status and constructing the culture of an indigenous group: Attention paid to YLE Sápmi radio digital news in Finland

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the attention paid by the YLE Sápmi radio audience to news published on the website. The study is based on the attention economic theory. YLE Sápmi is a regional indigenous radio channel of the public Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. The attention data consist of web comments and Facebook likes. The most commented news focused on the Sámi area or culture, often associated with ethnic tensions. On the radio website, the comments were from time to time highly controversial, while Facebook likes show support towards positive cultural developments. This study contributes to knowledge on the research potential of the attention data on social media websites. This research method not only enables the study of themes interesting for the audience, but also how the media itself channels discussions in certain directions.

Keywords

Attention economy digital footprints indigenous media social media YLE Sápmi radio

Introduction

The ambition of a large proportion of minority language media is to encourage dialogue among minority groups themselves and advance mutual understanding between the minority and the majority. The media may also be a forum of communal knowledge, action and experience. Minority radio stations can be a means of empowerment enabling people to recognize themselves in news and other programmes, not necessarily enabled by media run by the majority, and to contribute to the discussion with their own concerns (Pietikäinen, 2006, 2008). The Internet allows traditional media, for example, broadcasting services to expand their services online, resembling print and on-demand usage (Moring, 2013: 46) and enabling access both from a wider area and at any time. The Internet enables audiences to participate in the discussion, the agenda of which is set by the media, but which, however, does not necessarily frame the whole discussion (Zhou and Moy, 2007: 79). Participants in the discussion not only express their views but, simultaneously, their attention to the contents of the media they comment on (Chatfield, 2013).

In this article, we are interested in the web interaction of the audience with the YLE Sápmi minority language radio station. Qualitative analysis of the interaction reveals topics that raise dialogue and the news items that matter for the audience.

YLE Sápmi is a regional radio channel of the public Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, reaching across Northern Finland and broadcasting in minority Sámi languages. In addition to broadcasted news, the news items are delivered on the Web and are open for comments and Facebook activities. The Sámi People are the only indigenous people of Europe living in four countries: Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. In Finland, there are about 10,000 Sámi inhabitants and there are three Sámi languages spoken in the country. However, the audience may consist not only of the Finnish Sámi population but also of the Sámi-speaking audience in Norway, Sweden and Russia, or anybody who knows the language. Publishing some news also in Finnish further increases the potential audience. Minority language media and the Internet have also been studied earlier by, for example, Moring (2013), Markelin et al. (2013) and Vincze and Moring (2013), but not from an attention economy theory viewpoint.

We apply the attention economy theory to studying the web interaction between the indigenous YLE Sápmi radio and its audience. According to attention theory (Davenport and Beck, 2001), people’s attention is attracted by Internet sites that are relevant to the readers and which communicate a sense of ownership and belonging through co-creation and recognition. Attention can also be viewed as a mutual form of construction of the content of an Internet website (Chatfield, 2013). When producing content, websites can try to focus the attention of their audiences on the topics they want (Goldhaber, 1997), while the audience can choose itself what to pay attention to. In the web environment, attention is indicated by the digital footprints left, such as visiting a site, bookmarking, liking or commenting on it (Kortelainen and Katvala, 2012). In mediatization theories, it is stressed that interactivity dissolves some of the lines of division between producers and consumers and displaces the position of the ‘author’ (Jansson, 2013). The contribution of the attention economy viewpoint is in its emphasis on the reader’s role as not only being a receiver but also a contributor, a so-called produser as mentioned by Bruns (2009). The expression of attention on a special item may add to its worth or value and, according to previous studies, also to further the attention it receives (Markelin et al., 2013): A reader may notice on Facebook a story that she or he had not noticed when it was first published on the original site. This is an example of how a reader’s attention to a topic may affect its visibility and further use.

Attention has been defined as time spent interacting with someone or something (Simon, 1971: 41) or as mental engagement on a particular item of information (Davenport and Beck, 2001: 20). The attention economy is driven by the reader: It binds the reader to the author and content in the media concerned (Yardi et al., 2009: 2072). Because of its scarcity, attention has been compared to a currency (Simon, 1971: 40), land (Ott, 2011), gold or oil (Chatfield, 2013): that is, there is a finite amount of these items. Also, human attention is limited because each of us has only 24 hours a day. Attention is desirable, but difficult to achieve (Goldhaber, 1997) and people can focus their attention wherever they want, whenever they want (Goldhaber, 2012). It can be bought, and it is possible to try to sell it. There is most certainly demand for it. As the amount of information increases, the demand for attention increases, while the amount of attention available does not increase. Gains in attention share for one medium can only be made at the expense of another, which means that audience attention is a zero-sum. Website features that attract attention include nonlinear structures, in addition to being easy to read, enter and leave a site, as well as having lifelike, realistic and authoritative messages (Davenport and Beck, 2001: 7–11, 80–82, 102, 105). Also, publishing on several forums increases attention (Davenport and Beck, 2001), and according to Markelin et al. (2013), Sámi media nowadays reach out through social media, finding audiences not accessed by traditional channels. The term social media was first used to describe Internet sites for social networking such as Myspace and Facebook (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010: 60), but nowadays also covers other kinds of interactive Internet-based sites.

Digital footprints reflect the attention that the users of different web services have allocated to them. Web participation may mean visiting or clicking a blog or other website, bookmarking it, commenting, liking or sharing a Facebook posting, retweeting a tweet or, for example, following a twitter which can all be labelled as a form of attention data (Kortelainen and Katvala, 2012: 661). Besides the production of texts or pictures, web participation may also consist of passive reading or viewing, which all generate attention data in the form of digital footprints.

The purpose of this research is to study the attention paid by the YLE Sápmi radio audience to its news. What topics raise debate among the audience understanding Sámi languages, and what forms of attention do they display: commenting, sharing, liking, tweeting and so on?

On the YLE Sápmi radio website, comments are given anonymously, while on Facebook they are given with real names. It is also interesting to study whether the former differ from the latter and with what consequences? We also ask what interpretations could be drawn about the empowering potential and other significance of the YLE Sápmi radio on this basis. Attention economic theory has mostly been applied in marketing research, less in media audience research and so far very little to the study of social media. This research contributes to the knowledge in applying and interpreting attention data in (social) media audience research.

Our research material has been compiled from the YLE Sápmi web pages and Facebook site. We analyse the comments, ‘likes’ and sharing of the news both quantitatively and by qualitative content analysis. The methodological contribution of the study comes from the content of the attention given, instead of studying the mere number of visits or clicks, and the theoretical contribution from applying theory of attention economy.

YLE Sápmi radio

YLE Sápmi radio has had a strong role in nation building and as a public voice for the Sámi nation (Lehtola, 1997; Pietikäinen, 2006, 2008). This discourse-based work comes close to what Anderson (1983) calls an imagined community, a process where a nation or community is socially constructed and ultimately imagined by the people who feel that they are part of that group

The main structure of the Sámi media today is based within the public service radio and television system that still remains strong in the Nordic countries. In each of the public service companies of Norway (NRK), Sweden (SVT and SR) and Finland (YLE), there is a unit producing programming in Sámi mainly for the Sámi audience, while the Sámi media are less developed in Russia. Although the Sámi are one people, they stretch over four nation states and contain great internal diversity in terms of both language and culture. There is as of yet no fulltime radio or television channel that would service the whole Sámi population transnationally. However, a notable recent development has been the increasing international collaboration between indigenous broadcasters (Alia, 2010; Markelin and Husband, 2013: 70–74).

The development of the YLE Sápmi (radio) has been the result of the persistent and long-term effort by the Finnish Sámi community to bring Sámi Radio into existence. From the first sporadic programmes in the Northern Sámi language in 1936, Sámi Radio has developed into being a present day media centre with news, magazine, cultural and children’s programmes (Pietikäinen, 2006). A 5-minute television bulletin of news only broadcasted in Finland was launched in January 2013. YLE Sápmi radio news can be heard twice on weekdays in Sámi. Since 2001, the public radio service companies of Norway, Sweden and Finland have produced a 15-minute TV-news programme in the Sámi language which is broadcasted nationwide on weekdays. The editorial office of YLE Sápmi is in Inari, in a Sámi area, and radio and TV programmes are also accessible via the Internet. The Act of the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE (2005/635) obligates the company to provide services in Sámi languages.

News produced by YLE Sápmi is published on their website, and a few of the items are translated into Finnish (Yleisradion hallintoneuvoston kertomus, 2013: 17). The web pages were founded in 1997 and the Facebook site was launched in 2010. In 2012, between 1500 and 2000 different browsers visited the website each week (Yleisradion hallintoneuvoston kertomus, 2013: 17–23), and in 2013, the figure tripled to 5700 (Näkkäläjärvi P, 31 March 2014, an e-mail statement by the head of YLE Sápmi radio). The development of the Internet services and TV broadcasts has meant a considerable improvement in the ability of the Sámi programmes to reach outside the Sámi homeland where about 65 percent of the 9900 Sámi inhabitants live. Yet, the fact that only less than 30 percent of the Finnish Sámi speak or understand Sámi languages limits the potential audience (Saamelaiset Suomessa, 2014).

Web publishing opens up potential for the Sámi media to address and gain new audience segments especially among the younger generations. Generally, 74 percent of 16- to 74-year-old Finnish people use the Internet to browse web newspapers and TV-channel websites (Konttinen, 2011). The same trend can be seen among the youngest audience of YLE Sápmi: People older than 60 years prefer the radio as the best source of information on Sámi issues, 30- to 60-year olds see TV programmes as best and 15- to 29-year olds view the Internet services of YLE Sápmi as their preferred source of information on Sámi matters (Yleisradion hallintoneuvoston kertomus, 2013: 17).

Research material and methods

The research material was gathered from the web pages of YLE Sápmi between 21 October and 27 November 2013, and between 15 April and 2 June 2014, by visiting the web and Facebook sites of YLE Sápmi and compiling all the news published between the dates, in addition to the comments and ‘likes’ they received. The research material represents time periods that do not include any special jubilee periods, elections or other events.

The research material originates from sources that can be regarded as publicly accessible archives, the contents of which are intended for the public by their authors (Ess, 2011; Markham and Buchanan, 2012). In this study, web comments and likes on Facebook have been generated without any influence from the researchers and can therefore be regarded as authentic. Private Facebook sites are not included in the study, and ‘likes’ on the website or Facebook are only scrutinized quantitatively. In this study, attention is operationalized as likes and comments, not clicks. The number of clicks received by news is used only to validate the results concerning the attention received as likes or comments. Facebook likes can be used to indicate the focus of attention of the audience, but, however, do not reveal the framing of the audience response to the news. Frame analysis (e.g. Gitlin, 1980; Juppi, 2011; Watkins, 2001) would be a relevant method to explore the potential differences between the framing of the news and comments. However, it is not suitable for the study of Facebook likes or sharing. Instead of frame analysis, we apply attention economy theory that has not previously been applied in minority media research.

According to the policy of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, all comments on the broadcaster’s website must be anonymous and moderated (Kommentoidaan, 2014). Therefore, the individuals behind the comments cannot be identified.

During the first study period, all news with the exception of crime news and some news in Finnish (4–5 news a week) was opened to discussion (Näkkäläjärvi P, 20 January 2014, an e-mail statement by the head of YLE Sápmi radio). After this, the moderation policy became stricter. According to the head of the YLE Sápmi, web commenting was closed between 24 and 30 March partly due to complaints by the audience about inappropriate discussions taking place on the website. The radio defined new guidelines of moderation for the editors. The guidelines emphasize a matter of fact policy and not publishing any form of hate speech, not allowing the comments to become personal and publishing only comments concerning the news (Näkkäläjärvi P, 9 April 2014, an e-mail statement by the head of YLE Sápmi radio). The radio also decided to create discussion articles about news on notable political topics. During the latter study period, the new moderation rules concerned web discussion.

Quantitative data were studied using the SPSS statistical program and was used to describe the amount of attention different news items received. To study the contents of the news and comments received, qualitative content analysis was used (see, for example, Alasuutari, 1995). The interpretation of the news and its related comments is based on previous cultural studies on Sámi issues.

The validity of the study is maintained through scholar triangulation: One researcher represents Sámi cultural studies and sociology, and the other researcher information studies, especially those of social media. The combination of these special areas of expertise enriches the premises of the interpretation of the results and contributes to the reliability of the conclusions.

Distribution of attention

The YLE Sápmi Radio published 236 news items during the first study period between 21 October and 27 November 2013, and 237 during the second study period between 15 April and 2 June 2014. Each piece of news consisted of a photo and a text that at their shortest were a couple of rows long and at their longest two- to three-page-long reports or interviews. Most of the articles were written in the Northern Sámi language which is spoken in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Some news was published in the minority Sámi languages Skolt Sámi and Inari Sámi languages and also in Finnish.

The news items were divided into five categories: politics, economics, culture, environment and other. Politics concerned municipal, national and international political and social issues. Economics included reindeer herding, tourism, the mining industry and, for example, transportation. Science, schools, theatre, music, media and indigenous craft were included in the category of culture. Environmental news dealt with, for example, global climate change, wildlife protection and Greenpeace activism. The category ‘other’ consisted mostly of public announcements. According to Pietikäinen (2006), the ‘own’ peculiar topics of Sámi radio news include culture, for example, topics concerning minority language, politics concerning, for example, land ownership and economics consisting mainly of reindeer herding, game hunting, fishing and so on (see also Länsman, 1987) (p. 12). Figure 1 shows the division of the news into the five categories during the study periods.

Figure 1.

Categories of news items of YLE Sápmi in the first and second study periods (politics, economics, culture, environment, other).

The great majority, 360 news items (76%), did not receive comments or likes on the website or on Facebook, reflecting the scarcity of attention, but simultaneously emphasizing the importance of the news receiving it. In the attention data focusing on 24 percent of the news items, the number of Facebook likes was significantly larger than that of web comments. In the second study period, the number of Facebook likes became threefold compared to the first period, while the number of comments decreased. Tweets appeared in the second study period and came to 24 altogether. Two news items were shared by Google+ increasing the types of social media applied to the site.

The news received a total number of 272 comments, 167 of them during the first and 105 during the second study period. On Facebook, the news items were liked 683 times during the first and 1933 times during the second study period, altogether 2616 times (Table 1). The comments and ‘likes’ focus on different topics: Web comments mostly concern political issues, while ‘likes’ concentrate on culture. The news items that received the most attention were reviewed more closely in the following.

Table 1.

Most liked and commented on news.

Comments	Contents of the most commented news	Category	Likes	Contents of the most liked news	Category
64	Controversial dissertation	Politics, culture	370	Finnish Sámi winner of a Sámi transnational music grand prix	Culture
47	Ratification of ILO Convention No. 169	Politics	362	Sámi language TV news	Culture, politics
40	The renewal of the Act on Sámi Parliament	Politics	309	Sámi superstar concert	Culture
17	Karelian Diamond Resources granted exploring claim reservations	Politics, environment	106	Young Sámi Cosplay role game player	Culture
12	CEO of Sámi Soster	Politics	61	Interview with a new Sámi high school graduate	Culture

ILO: International Labour Organization.

Although the number of clicks for each news item is not the focus of this study, there is correspondence between the most clicked, liked and commented news. In 2013, three news items concerning a controversial dissertation belonged to the 10 most clicked news items (4043 total clicks). The launching of the Sámi language news received 1042 clicks, and the definition of a Sámi (connected to the renewal of the Act on Sámi parliament) received 1039 clicks (YLE Sámi jagi 2013, 2014).

Many people are multilingual in our research area, and comments are published both in Sámi (Sa) and in Finnish (Fi). Therefore, we cannot identify the ethnic background of the commentator.

A controversial dissertation

To some degree surprisingly, the issue that received most comments (64) concerned a scientific award granted to a Finnish researcher for her dissertation¹ defended in June 2012. The study deals with a group of people she defines as non-status Sámi, people who are of Sámi descent, but do not belong to the electoral rolls of the Sámi Parliament. Several researchers of The Sámi University College challenged the granting process, and their open letter was published by YLE Sápmi. There were altogether three news items on this topic, and they were commented on both in Sámi (Sa), mostly critical, and in Finnish (Fi), both criticizing and defending the researcher:

The researcher must understand that when striving for Sámi identity, while not being one, will cause public discussion … (Sa)

A mega class attack not only against the researcher but also a large group of other non-Sámi people. (Fi)

Some comments even identified persecution against the researcher, but this view was not approved in later comments and instead regarded as normal scientific critique. Some comments expressed the gloomy atmosphere in a central Sámi village (Inari) and saw it as a consequence of this controversy.

Comments also concerned the quality and content of the dissertation and partly the academic quality assurance of the Finnish Universities:

It is always difficult to approve research that challenges one’s own theories and ‘united view of the own society’. The dissertation unbalances the doctrines of the Sámi community. (Fi)

The dissertation does not override the doctrines. The dissertation is based on wrong premises. (Sa)

Unfortunately dissertations which are too weak are sometimes approved in Finnish Universities. (Fi)

The discussion about the ‘subjectivity’ of Sámi research and ‘objectivity’ of non-Sámi research has been going on since the 1970s and has always also included the question of the political use of research concerning the inside/outside perspectives (Keskitalo, 1974; Kuokkanen, 2000; Lähteenmäki, 2004; Lehtola, 2005).

The dissertation also caused discussion in other local and regional radio, newspapers and social media receiving both sharp criticism and support concerning its results and interpretation of ethnic belonging in Finland and in Norway. In the background lies a political struggle in minority and indigenous politics concerning the Sámi people in Northern countries and Russia that has been going on since the 1950s (Lehtola, 2004; Nyyssönen, 2011; Pääkkönen, 2008).

Later, the focus of the discussion turned to the use of pseudonyms when discussing politically sensitive matters in the context of ethno politics:

I’d like to see the commentators on the Facebook site with their own names. It is so easy to hide behind a pseudonym and from there spout the ‘truths’ of their own. Who would say anything critical about the Sámi on Facebook because it would lead to being labelled anti-Sámi which in its turn legitimizes the bullying of the speaker. (Fi)

Followed by

Why are you yourself hiding behind a pseudonym? What prevents you from discussing things in a constructive way also on this page. (Fi)

Some fears manifested in the comments were used to legitimize the use of pseudonyms:

[The researcher] who was granted has a lot of support among the Sámi, but it is wisest to refrain from openly commenting in order not to risk your own chances of employment in the service of the Sámi people. So, if you present a differing opinion which is regarded as not being suitable in certain quarters, you are at once labelled as being anti-Sámi minded. (Fi)

The pro-Sámi argue on the basis of past oppression, while the opponents argue on the basis of their fear of expressing their own opinions so as not to risk employment opportunities. However, the discussion on pseudonyms is in vain because the Finnish broadcasting company YLE (including YLE Sápmi) supports commenting on the news with a pseudonym in order to keep the discussion rich and lively and to avoid misunderstandings (Kommentoidaan, 2014).

Comments also concerned the definition of a Sámi person:

I ask: how can the researcher conclude that there are Non-Status Sámi people because half of the interviewed informants did not consider themselves as non-status Sámi. (Sa)

Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been a dispute over who can properly be regarded a Sámi person – a member of the indigenous Sámi population. Sámi cultural autonomy is based on 1996 legislation regulating the Sámi Parliament, a representative body for people of Sámi descent in Finland. Many of those who do not belong to the electoral rolls of the Sámi Parliament feel that the present definition is too restrictive and discriminatory, while the majority of the members of the Finnish Sámi Parliament would like to narrow it (Erkkilä, 2012; Nyyssönen, 2013; Pääkkönen, 2008; Valkonen, 2009; Aikio and Åhren, 2013).

The high level of interest in this issue can be interpreted as an indication of the multidimensional negotiation processes concerning the membership of an indigenous group. Indigenous peoples as a concept is quite new. The term was established in the latter part of the 20th century (Niezen, 2002: 25). It is more political than analytical (Eriksen, 2002: 14) and linked to international conventions and ethno-political struggles of the rights of indigenous peoples with a long history of colonialism (ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 2000).

The ratification of the ILO Convention No. 169

The discussion about the ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention No. 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples has been going on for over 20 years in Finland. In April 2014, the Finnish government published a draft convention for its ratification, and there were several news items on this issue. According to the government, the convention can be ratified without changes in Finnish legislation or any extra resources for the promotion of Sámi culture. YLE Sápmi had already opened a discussion on this topic in January 2014, compiling a total of 47 comments by the end of our second study period. The commentators both supported and problematized the ratification. Several comments called for peace between different ethnic groups and also discussion about the impacts of the implementation of the convention. It is noteworthy that the whole discussion was conducted in Finnish, while the news items were published in Sámi:

The Sámi Parliament should tell the UN that they have no negotiation partner in Finland any more concerning the ratification of the ILO convention. The proposal of the Finnish government insults the Sámi people. (Fi)

Instead of arguing whether to ratify the convention or not, it would be more justified to discuss the content of the convention and its practical impacts. Who would be wise enough to start a discussion of the facts? (Fi)

In Finland there are no tribal peoples whom the ILO convention would concern. The ratification of the convention does not have any objective rationale. (Fi)

Why not ratify as it is to return peace on earth. (Fi)

The discussion about the convention also concerned the definition of a Sámi person and even broke into insults, including phrases like wannabe-Sámi, identity thieves, fake-Sámi, elite-Sámi, ILO-Sámi and revengeful clansmen. The comments resemble the previous ones, but emphasize even more sharply the borders between ethnic groups.

The renewal of the Act on the Sámi Parliament and the contested definition of a Sámi person

In June 2012, a Justice Ministry working group put forward a proposal to redefine who can be legally recognized as a member of the indigenous Sámi population in Finland (Oikeusministeriö, 2012). In the research material, there were 30 news items about the Sámi Parliament Act renewal presenting the content of the proposal. Both Sámi and Finnish local- and national-level politicians and citizens were interviewed and asked to comment on its various aspects, producing numerous comments from the audience. The details of the act were both criticized and supported, but the act itself was not opposed.

The Act on the Sámi Parliament defines a Sámi person as a person who considers himself a Sámi, provided (1) that he himself or at least one of his parents or grandparents has learnt Sámi as a first language; (2) that he is a descendent of a person who has been entered in a land, taxation or population register as a mountain, forest or fishing Lapp or (3) that at least one of his parents has or could have been registered as an elector for an election to the Sámi Delegation or the Sámi Parliament (Act on the Sámi Parliament, 974/1995). The original version (Asetus saamelaisvaltuuskunnasta, 824/1973) was based on a linguistic definition, while the renewed version in 1995 widened it to involving the descendants of those who were registered in the land and tax legislation register. If approved, the new definition will stress ties to family and community. Compared to the present act (974/1995), it would no longer be possible to claim Sámi identity solely as a descendant of a person who was documented as a Sámi in old land, tax or population registries. The key feature in the redefinition is that an individual has adopted a Sámi lifestyle or culture in family life. This usually means having grown up in a Sámi family. The working group also stressed the significance of group identification, that is, who the Sámi community views as being a member (Who is a Sámi? 2013).

The news items were followed by 40 comments where the most controversial issue was the definition of the Sámi which the committee proposed changes to. The opposing comments referred to the role of the proposed family ties as part of the definition of a Sámi person because the ties have not been defined precisely enough. According to opponents, the proposal increases the ‘despotism’ of the Sámi Parliament:

It is absolutely ‘terrible’ if the number of Sámi will increase, breaking the hegemony of certain families. A certain kind of Sáminess is approved, and another kind is not. (Sa; Fi)

I assume that all Sámi people do not agree with the proposal. I would have expected a more objective definition from the Finnish state. (Fi)

The extension of the definition would be a great step towards the assimilation of the Sámi into the Finnish people. (Fi)

The defending comments of the proposal can be compacted into

Sámi society has always known who belongs to it and the proposal confirms this practice. (Sa)

The ministry of Justice launched a special page on its website to enable citizens to take a stand on the proposal of the Sámi Parliament Act (3 December 2013–15 January 2014) (Otakantaa.fi, 2014). The Act proceeded in the Finnish Parliament in 2014.

Facebook likes and Tweets

The most liked news items concerned cultural events and issues (Table 1), and the item most liked of all was the winner of a Sámi transnational music grand prix, with 370 likes on Facebook. Musicians from the whole of Sámiland participate in the contest and many current Sámi music stars are winners of this contest. YLE Sápmi streamed part of the contest.

The second most liked piece of news was about the launching of 5 minutes of TV news in the Sámi language on weekdays nationwide. It received 362 of the total 2616 likes. The nationwide visibility of the Sámi language is important for the Sámi people because the majority Finnish population knows rather little about this people. In the mainstream TV news, Sámi questions are often left in the margin and their own voice is seldom heard (Pietikäinen, 2006), which emphasizes the significance of this news.

The other news item with a lot of likes was the upcoming concert of Mari Boine, a Norwegian Sámi musician known for adding jazz and rock to traditional Sámi music. In 2003, Boine was awarded the Nordic Council Music Prize and she has been appointed knight, first class in the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for her artistic diversity on 18 September 2009 (Mari Boine, 2014; Tonstad, 2012). Mari Boine is an exception in the research material where the other most liked news items on YLE Sápmi concerned Finnish Sámi.

The likes on Facebook show that the younger Sámi generation actively follows the YLE Sápmi news and liked news items about topics such as a young Sámi Cosplay role game player and an interview with a new Sámi high school graduate.

The likes on Facebook are focused on news which can be characterized as being positive, innovative and being a progressive cultural phenomenon. They clearly differ from the news items that are commented upon on the YLE Sápmi website.

The first tweets appeared during the second study period although there were only 24 of them, focusing mostly on the same themes as the Facebook likes. The only political news receiving tweets concerned the Karelian Diamond Resources mining plans. This was the only topic that was also shared by Google+, implicating the importance of the issue for the audience.

Summary of attention

One-fourth (24%) of the 473 published news items during the study periods received attention from the audience: 272 web comments and 2616 likes on Facebook. The great majority of news items did not receive attention in the form of likes or comments on the website or Facebook. News items unconnected to the Sámi region or culture were especially left without attention, for example, trade union salary negotiations and international environmental topics. Instead, the focus of attention was on political news concerning the Sámi region or culture, or news interpreted from the viewpoint of the ethnic Sámi group (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Summary of attention.

The most commented political news items were associated with ethnic tensions such as questions of cultural belonging, maintaining ethnic identities and drawing ethnic borders. Examples of these are the contested definition of the indigenous Sámi group, the ownership and objectivity of Sámi research and exploitation of Sámi cultural symbols. These topics have been discussed nationally and internationally, some of them for several decades both in politics and in science. A rising topic in the comments was the arrival of the international extractive industry with plans for exploring for diamonds in the reindeer herding area in Northern Finland.

Whatever the most commented YLE Sápmi news concerned, the comments eventually led to discussion on the definition of a Sámi person.

The above pattern results partly from the activity of YLE Sápmi itself in producing news items and choosing their topics. The renewal of the Act on the Sámi Parliament was dealt with in several (30) news items, and the ratification of ILO Convention No. 169 was the topic of a larger article on the website which served as a basis for continuous discussion: the audience was specially asked to comment on this issue. That focus has landed YLE Sápmi in some controversy. Covering a proposal for a new Sámi Parliament act, the radio station was criticized for leaning too heavily towards one side. The same thing happened again when the station covered a new ILO convention (Jarratt and Thomson, 2014). Instead, the controversial dissertation that was granted in Norway is an example of a topic present on several forums (newspapers, local papers, social media, etc. both in Finland and in other Northern countries) receiving, consequently, a lot of attention in the same forums. This discussion contributes to drawing borders of a symbolic Sámiland, while Facebook likings, focusing on cultural events, do this from another viewpoint, emphasizing recognition, ownership, belonging and co-creation (Davenport and Beck, 2001) of Sámi culture and its mutual construction (Chatfield, 2013). However, YLE Sápmi does not direct the entire setting of the agenda for the audience, which today can aim its attention according to its own interests (Goldhaber, 2012).

The Sápmi, the symbolic Sámiland spreading across four nation states in Northern Scandinavia and Russia, is a region in which the majority and indigenous cultures, languages and ways of living have co-existed in the same territory for centuries. The region is a multicultural place, a contact zone (Pratt, 1992) or a border land (Lehtola, 2004) where disparate cultures and languages interact and clash in asymmetrical relations of power. In this research, this is implied by the discussion, independent of the original topic, eventually leading to the same issue of the challenged definition of the Sámi ethnic group. Clicks, comments and Facebook likes also indicate that the audience is familiar with digital media, heartening Sámi media to develop it further. The importance of a rich and varied media landscape in minority languages is also emphasized by Vincze and Moring (2013).

Discussion

The purpose of this research was to discover what kinds of news items received attention on the YLE Sápmi radio web and Facebook sites, as well as what news items were discussed in the most lively manner and what characteristics of discussion the news brought about. We also asked what interpretations could be drawn about the significance of the radio station on this basis.

Attention economic theory contributed to this research by focusing the study on the orientation of the attention of the audience. The starting point for discussion was the radio news, but its later development depended on the interests of the audience. The commentators did not necessarily frame their comments according to the viewpoint of YLE Sápmi news, but instead expressed their own standpoints.

Our study contributes to the knowledge on the research potential of attention data on social media websites enabling the study of themes which are interesting for the audience. Focusing research on attention can raise new research questions emphasizing the new role of the audience as ‘produsers’, a combination of both reader and a producer of contents. In this study, for example, the strong support shown by Facebook likes towards cultural innovations would not have been revealed by concentrating only on a content analysis of the news produced by YLE Sápmi nor by concentrating on the number of clicks registered on the website.

In traditional audience research, the audience is interviewed or asked to keep a media diary in order to find out their interests in different programmes. In media research, the comments could be studied by frame analysis which, however, cannot be applied to likings on Facebook. Our research is based not only on ‘clicks’ (e.g. Lee et al., 2014) indicating visits to a website, but instead the digital footprints indicating the orientation of a reader’s focused attention.

The nature of the attention on the YLE Sápmi radio website and Facebook likes radically differ from each other. The commentators on the website are anonymous, attention on the website is mostly paid to political news and is from time to time highly controversial, in some cases challenging the agenda set by the radio station. The discussion concerning the most commented on news eventually led to the definition of a Sámi person regardless of the topic of the news, indicating agenda setting by the audience. The proposal of the Justice Ministry to redefine who can be legally recognized as a member of the indigenous Sámi and the ILO Convention No. 169 provoked discussion during the study period, but the discussion has, however, been going on for several decades in Finland. The multi-voiced and confrontational character of the discussion is present also in the comments of YLE Sápmi news in this study.

Facebook likes and comments are given with the person’s own name and critical discussion such as presently found on the radio website does not exist on the respective Facebook site, where likes are used to express support of cultural phenomena, such as a Sámi superstar concert and success of young Sámi students. Moreover, comments and Facebook liking can disseminate news to a wider audience (Markelin et al., 2013). The recognition by liking on Facebook also generates ownership and contributes to the co-creation of an own culture.

The practice of commenting with the author’s own name may influence the contents of comments. Due to the YLE Sápmi moderating practice, comments on the radio website were anonymous. Anonymity, as a social practice, is often meant to facilitate non-identifiable content. On the other hand, the use of real names is linked to maintaining a decorous level of discussion. Pseudonyms are often used as a means of avoiding discrimination, cyber bullying (Hogan, 2013) and identifying theft. In multicultural Sápmi, however, commenting behind pseudonyms may intensify the disagreements between various groups and generate hate speech. The possibility to comment on the news enables citizen journalism by encouraging people to participate in, take stands on, express one’s opinion and join the interaction and debate on joint topics in media forums. This may enhance empowerment. However, anonymity erodes the democratic (Macafee, 2013: 2768) and empowering potential of web discussions: open political participation requires the use of real names.

YLE Sápmi is one of the resources used to maintain and develop Sámi culture and language (Markelin et al., 2013; Markelin and Husband, 2013; Pietikäinen, 2006). Although the service area of the radio station is limited to northernmost Lapland, the Internet makes it global. The heavily multi-voiced nature of the attention paid to YLE Sápmi news shows that it is a place for sharing experiences, initiating discussion, as well as presenting and testing new ideas. The programmes in the own language of an indigenous group can actively present new views and solutions and invite people to reflect on issues (Pietikäinen, 2006: 1–2). The study reveals the role of the radio station as a cultural innovator, diffuser of new ideas and as a space for critical ethno-political discussion, supporting and challenging the articulation of the imagined indigenous Sámi nation (Anderson, 1983), ethnic borders and identities.

Footnotes

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

Biographical notes

Terttu Kortelainen works as university lecturer at the unit of Information Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu.

Anni-Siiri Länsman is the Director of Giellagas Institute for Sámi studies at the University of Oulu.

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Challenging the status and constructing the culture of an indigenous group: Attention paid to YLE Sápmi radio digital news in Finland

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

YLE Sápmi radio

Research material and methods

Distribution of attention

Most commented news

A controversial dissertation

The ratification of the ILO Convention No. 169

The renewal of the Act on the Sámi Parliament and the contested definition of a Sámi person

Other commented topics

Facebook likes and Tweets

Summary of attention

Discussion

Footnotes

Funding

Notes

Biographical notes

References