Bronze Soldier goes Transnational: Mediascapes and the Formation of Identities in Internet Discussions

Abstract

In this paper, the transnational movement of discourses on both national symbols and belonging and the formation of identities in mediated discussions are examined. The empirical data for the article consist of internet forum conversations of Russian-speaking inhabitants of Finland concerning the dismantling of the Monument to the Fallen in World War II and other related media materials. To analyse the interrelations between mediated (televised) national discourse and internet-based conversations in a transnational context, the concepts fan democracy and activated public are implemented, which have been developed by studies in popular entertainment media. The starting point for the analysis is the intention to conceptualize mediascapes, ethnoscapes and technoscapes intersectionally and thus reciprocally constructed within new media. Based on the observations, it is concluded that Russian-speaking inhabitants of Finland are active media users and producers; they create a rich, multilayered transnational mediascape where Russian and Finnish media overlap, come into conflict and contextualize each other. Media text activates its readers to participate in passionate deliberations on the issues presented. Transnational media users engage in complex power relations with the ‘nationally’ defined (state-based) media. Intertextuality, active meaning creation with the help of the user's combined cultural and technological recourses, seems to be a powerful mechanism in the adoption of or resistance to the discourse set by national media.