Managed Multiculturalism in Finnish Media Initiatives

Abstract

This paper focuses on Finnish mainstream journalism featuring multiculturalism. Three different initiatives are analysed with a qualitative text method founded on discourse and frame analysis. Finnish mainstream journalism took a multicultural turn in the mid-990s, two decades later than in neighbouring Sweden where similar initiatives were launched in the 1970s. The paper takes a critical look at the power relations these initiatives assert or transgress, how multicultural discourses position various actors in society, and how the mainstream media encounter cultural and ethnic differences in a changing demographic situation with a positive intention.