Helsingin Sanomat Research Articles

Journalistic Framing of Finnish Ice Hockey Club Jokerit in the Russian-Led Kontinental Hockey League

One of the major franchises in Finland’s top division in men’s ice hockey (Liiga), Jokerit Helsinki, sold its home arena and half of its shares to Finnish-Russian oligarchs in 2013. Jokerit also switched to the Russian-led Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and competed there from 2014 to 2022. Russia’s KHL project and its expansion to the West can be viewed as a form of soft power. This study delves into the journalistic coverage of Jokerit during two specific periods: Its early days in the KHL and its later stages when exiting the league. These periods coincide with critical geopolitical events, such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea (2014), Belarusian protests (2020–2021), and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (2022). Our data consists of Jokerit-related articles in the newspaper <em>Helsingin Sanomat</em> as well as interviews of the journalists who followed the team closely. We explore the critical socio-political coverage of Jokerit in <em>Helsingin Sanomat</em> during these periods and investigate whether the sports journalists recognized the broader geopolitical context of the KHL project and, if so, how this influenced their reporting. Utilizing the framing theory, we identified five frames under which to divide the articles: (a) sports events, (b) international relations, (c) power and governance, (d) business, and (e) unity. The sports event frame predominated during the early KHL era, whereas international relations and power and governance frames only emerged later. These shifts were not initiated by sports journalists but resulted from the efforts of journalists in other fields and increased the societal scrutiny of ties to Russia.

The anatomy of austerity in Finnish media: The journalistic point-of-view towards Europe from the North

This article investigates how four Finnish media outlets, Helsingin Sanomat, YLE, Iltalehti and STT, framed the discussions about austerity policies and their impacts on Finland's national identity from 1998 to 2019. Using historical discourse analysis, the article shows the arc of austerity reporting and how Finland's position and role in the Euro crisis changed during the years. The analysis reveals something about the national self-understanding of Finland, as presented in the media in relation to other European countries. The article addresses three research questions. (1) How did the journalistic treatment of austerity change over time and what were the key turning points? (2) What kinds of perspectives and narratives did journalism construct in the coverage of austerity? (3) How was Finland as a nation represented and compared to other nations in the context of the Euro crisis and austerity? The article shows that the journalistic coverage of austerity evolved from a local issue affecting municipal economies to a global issue linked to the Euro crisis, and that Finland's national identity was constructed through a contrastive comparison with other Northern and Southern European countries. The article contributes to the discussion on media coverage of austerity by providing a longitudinal comparative analysis.

Technology hype, promises, and expectations: The discussion on small modular reactors in the Finnish newspaper ‘Helsingin Sanomat’ in 2000–2022

While the construction of collective promises is vital to the success of any techno-scientific innovation, it also entails the risk of overpromising and cycles of hype and disappointment. This article explores the discursive construction of the nuclear sector’s latest promise concerning small modular reactors (SMRs), using Finland as an example. It provides a brief overview of the Finnish context of SMR development and analyzes it's coverage in the leading Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat 2000–2022. Efforts at promise construction have so far been aimed at building legitimacy for SMRs, while strengthening credibility – another key element of successful promise construction – has only just begun. The increasing number of SMR-related articles indicates a growing hype, but the absence of a corresponding ‘hype language’ suggests that the considerable media attention does not automatically translate into emphatic media coverage and discursive hyping.

Agents of change or victims of transition? Media framings on household roles during the energy crisis

The energy crisis that began in late 2021 and escalated after the war in Ukraine in early 2022 was seen as a disruption accelerating the energy transition in Europe. It forced households to save energy and change their patterns of energy use in a struggle to cut dependency on Russian energy, and in public discussions, various kinds of agency were required from and allocated to households. In this article, we analyze a total of 220 articles on energy use published in the main Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, during the energy crisis between 1 November 2021 and 31 October 2022. We investigate how household agency driven by the energy crisis is framed in the media by analyzing the variety of roles assigned to households and the framings of the agency attached to those roles in relation to mitigating the energy crisis. The analysis provides insights into how households are embedded within the energy system and whether and how they are expected to facilitate the energy transition; moreover, the article contributes to a better conceptualization of the understudied roles and agency of households in transitions.

Audience metrics as disruptive innovation: Analysing emotional work of Finnish journalism professionals

Abstract Audience metrics in journalism can be seen as a disruptive innovation: a technological invention that boosts journalism but at the same time disturbs it. The use of metrics has therefore drawn journalists into a sensitive sense-making process: They do emotional work to be able to manage the metrics-related requirements of their work. To further assess why metrics in Finland remains a sensitive issue, in this article we ask: 1) What is the Finnish news professionals’ emotional work about metrics directed at? 2) What is the relationship between this emotional work and the cycle of disruption and innovation? The empirical material consists of nine qualitative interviews with Finnish news managers and a set of open-ended survey responses from the editorial staff of the largest Finnish daily, Helsingin Sanomat. In addition, eight background interviews with third-party analytics providers were used as supportive material. We conclude that the emotional work is centred on relief, excitement, and stress, and it is directed at seeing the audience as an algorithmic conception, increasing the organisations’ capabilities through learning, and maintaining autonomy, respectively. Emotional work thus alleviates and stimulates, as well as balances journalism's relationship with the disruptive innovation of metrics.

From evaluative authorities to involved narrators

Abstract Is the use of the first-person singular becoming more prevalent in journalistic writing, like often claimed, and what is it used for? In order to tackle these questions, we analysed 11,775 articles published between 1960 and 2010 in the cultural sections of ABC and El País (Spain), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), Le Monde (France), and The Guardian (UK). Our analysis focuses on the variation and change in the frequency and functions of first-person singular pronoun and verb forms over time and between different newspapers. We provide a logistic regression analysis of the whole dataset, as well as a qualitative analysis of the 1,077 articles containing at least one first-person singular. The analyses reveal a considerable amount of variation in first-person singular usage between each newspaper. The findings, however, converge to reveal that the frequency of first-persons singulars increases over time while its narrative uses become predominant at the expense of the evaluative and epistemic ones.

Managing Variable Cyber Environments with Organizational Foresight and Resilience Thinking

Combining business continuity management (BCM) and systematic cyber threat intelligence (CTI) can improve cyber situational awareness to support decision-making through the phases of the resilience cycle (plan, absorb, recover, adapt) to ensure the continuity of organizational operations when encountered by cyber disruptions. End-user needs, human factors, high ethical standards, and social impacts can best be adapted when professionals from different fields work together with end-users to refine and co-develop selected tools into a platform. A resilience assessment that combines BCM and CTI enables 1) quick or detailed assessment of the investigated industry and its critical processes, 2) measurement of performance goals based on information received from end users, where artificial intelligence-based self-learning approaches can be used for functional descriptions, 3) information on the sensitivity of the investigated industry and vulnerability and 4) resilience and BCM throughout the entire resilience cycle. A new Horizon Europe project DYNAMO (Dynamic Resilience Assessment Method including a combined Business Continuity Management and Cyber Threat Intelligence solution for Critical Sectors) works towards combining BCM and CTI to generate a situational picture for decision support. Having this in mind, certain cybersecurity and BCM tools will be developed, refined, and integrated into the DYNAMO platform to provide decision support and awareness to chief information security officers, cybersecurity practitioners, and other stakeholders. This paper reports a case study that explores how combining CTI and BCM can help in the case of a cyber-attack. The research material consists of the news articles by the largest newspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat (HS) of how the cyber attack against the therapy center Vastaamo progressed during the first week after the attack. The results show that cyber threat intelligence when flexibly integrated into the BCM approach could create better conditions for improved organizational foresight to react to unpredictable cyber threats to ensure business continuity.

Representations of Unwelcomed Children – Public Discussion in Helsingin Sanomat Newspaper about Finnish Children Living in Camp of al-Hol in Eastern Syria in 2019

In this article, we examine the representations of Finnish children living in the al-Hol refugee camp in Eastern Syria. Our data consists of materials published in 2019 in the Helsingin Sanomat, the largest subscription-based newspaper in Finland, which we analyzed using discourse analysis. As a result of our analysis, we identified and named three discourses representing children in al-Hol from different perspectives. These discourses are the victim and threat discourse, the legal discourse, and the problem discourse. In the victim and threat discourse, children were portrayed as both in need of assistance and as a potential security threat in the future both if brought to Finland, but also if they remained in the camp. In the legal discourse, bringing children to Finland was justified as a legal obligation, leaving aside other perspectives related to helping children. In the problem discourse, bringing children to Finland was described as highly problematic. Across all discourses, children were represented as unwelcome. This representation was strengthened by describing children through their mothers, justifying assistance as a necessary evil, and highlighting children’s connections to Isis.

Political Journalism Content in a New Era: The Case of Finnish Newspapers, 1995–2015

This article observes how developments in politics, society, the media, and journalistic ethos impact political journalism content in Finland between 1995 and 2015. The focus is on three newspapers: the dailies Helsingin Sanomat and Aamulehti, and the tabloid Iltalehti. Using a coding scheme developed by Benson and Hallin (2007) and utilizing earlier findings by Kunelius and Väliverronen (2012), the analysis indicates two different approaches to politics at story level: a neutral and policy-oriented style in the two dailies, and a more diverse take by Iltalehti. Within stories, journalistic interventionism increases in all papers until 2010 and then diminishes. Differences emerge between the dailies and Iltalehti in journalistic presence, reporting patterns and sources used. Notably, in recent years, Iltalehti’s approach has become more reminiscent of the dailies both at story level and within stories. The findings highlight the impact of the general journalistic ethos and the differing market considerations on the journalistic content.

‘A Shared Reality between a Journalist and the Audience’: How Live Journalism Reimagines News Stories

Live journalism is a new journalistic genre in which journalists present news stories to a live audience. This article investigates the journalistic manuscripts of live journalism performances. With the focus on texts, the article reaches beyond the live performance to explore the wider implications and potentials pioneered by live journalists. The data were gathered from <em>Musta laatikko</em> (‘Black Box’) manuscripts, a live journalism production by the Finnish newspaper <em>Helsingin Sanomat</em>. The manuscripts were analysed as <em>eudaimonic journalism</em> through four conceptual dimensions: self-transcendence, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The results show how eudaimonic journalism can contemplate history, the future, and the meaning of finite human life. Moreover, by describing self-determinant individuals and communal social relationships, eudaimonic news stories can foster a sense of meaning and agency in audience members. By employing eudaimonia, journalists at large can reflect on the meaning and purpose of contemporary life and offer a more comprehensive understanding of the world. Such understanding includes not only facts and analysis, but also values, affects, and collective meanings mediated through the subjectivity of a journalist.

Journalistic genre (Culture Coverage)

This variable describes the basic journalistic genres typically used in specialized cultural coverage. The fundamental distinction goes between fact-based objective-seeking genres, such as news and news feature, and opinionated articles based on subjective accounts, such as columns, essays, comments and reviews. In journalism, it is important to separate opinions from facts, and this is why subjective views are differentiated from ways of representation that are based on the strategic ritual of objectivity (Tuchman, 1972), i.e., presenting facts by referring to sources or simply describing them instead of exposing the journalists’ own opinions and feelings. Reviews present a specialist genre of their own, connected to the institution of criticism (Hohendahl, 1982). Reviewing – the evaluation of new cultural products on the market – underlies the assumption that only selected experts are allowed to write reviews (Chong, 2020). Newspapers are also constantly developing their means of presentation, which results in an increased number of different newspaper-specific and hybrid formats, both in print and online (see, e.g., Santos Silva, 2019). Being not only medium-specific, genres may also vary from one journalistic culture to another, which makes a nuanced cross-cultural comparison difficult and motivates a limited use of values. Field of application/theoretical foundation Journalistic genres constitute the epistemological ground on which cultural journalists and reviewers cover culture. Scholars have been interested in the shifts in cultural coverage that have occurred between descriptive, interpretative, and evaluative content (Widholm et al., 2019). Descriptive content is often regarded in professional terms as non-ambitious in culture, while the meaning-making subjective elements are preferred and conceived of as an indication of quality (proactive professional engagement rather than marketing of cultural events). In cultural coverage, it is yet often difficult to separate facts from evaluative accounts, as the description of products, phenomena, persons, and events often require that they are put into an evaluative frame. The selection of a genre is related to the production structures, as many reviews are written by freelancers outside the newsroom. The number and share of reviews are typically regarded as an indication of journalistic acknowledgement for expert knowledge, and also the volume of outsourced production, as a great majority of reviews are written by freelancer-based experts. A decreasing number of reviews is thus typically interpreted as a crisis of criticism (Elkins, 2003; Jaakkola, 2015). References/combination with other methods of data collection Journalistic genres are often studied in conjunction to the artistic genres (see variable “Forms of culture”). Some studies are only interested in tracing the number and volume of reviews. Sample operationalization The two basic journalistic genres are news and reviews. News coverage can be further broken down to news feature (phenomenon-led coverage also called reportage) and person-led feature (typically referred to as person portraits). Further, there are two typical opinionated genres, essays and columns, and many kinship genres such as analysis, (news) comment and preview, that can be separately identified or merged into one variable showing personal voicing of the author. Example study Jaakkola (2015) Information about Jaakkola, 2015 Author: Maarit Jaakkola Research question/research interest: Representation of the share of journalistic genres applied in covering culture on culture pages of daily newspapers across time, to expose the production structure Object of analysis: Articles/text items on culture pages of five major daily newspapers in Finland 1978–2008 (Aamulehti, Helsingin Sanomat, Kaleva, Savon Sanomat, Turun Sanomat) Timeframe of analysis: 1978–2008, consecutive sample of weeks 7 and 42 in five year intervals (1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008) Info about variable Variable name/definition: Journalistic genre Unit of analysis: Article/text item Values: Journalistic genre Description 1. News Informative, fact-based article intended to deliver an objective account on an event 2. Review Opinionated, subjective article related to a new cultural product with an intention to evaluate it, written by a reviewer or critic 3. Person portrait/feature An informative article, typically interview-based, in which a person constitutes the topic 4. Reportage/feature An informative article intended to give account of the context of a news event or examine a phenomenon 5. Essay A longer opinionated, subjective article written by a journalist or reviewer to cover a phenomenon, process, state of the art or arts, etc. 6. Other commentary A short opinionated, subjective article written by a journalist (non-reviewer): a column, causerie, comment, preview or analysis, sometimes related to a news article 7. Other A text item not suited for any other category; e.g., a list, visualization, hybrid format, or similar Scale: nominal Intercoder reliability: Cohen's kappa > 0.76 (two coders)

Healthy mistrust or complacent confidence? Civic vigilance in the reporting by leading newspapers on nuclear waste disposal in Finland and France

AbstractTrust and confidence have been identified as crucial for efforts at solving the conundrum of high‐level radioactive waste management (RWM). However, mistrust has its virtues, especially in the form of “civic vigilance”—healthy suspicion towards the powers that be. This article examines civic vigilance in the form of “watchdog journalism,” as practiced by the leading Finnish and French newspapers—Helsingin Sanomat (HS) and Le Monde (LM)—in their RWM reporting. Although both countries are forerunners in RWM, Finland constitutes a Nordic “high‐trust society” while France has been characterized as a “society of mistrust.” Employing the methods of frame analysis, key RWM‐related news frames were identified, consisting of varying combinations of confidence, skepticism, trust, and mistrust. LM's mistrust‐skepticism‐oriented framings reflect the classical watchdog role, in sharp contrast with the confidence oriented framings of HS, which tends to reproduce government and industry framings. Explanations for the observed differences can be sought in historically constituted political and media cultures, as well as national nuclear “regimes”. For further research, we suggest two alternative hypotheses concerning the implications that these distinct models of civic vigilance have for democracy.

Framing a Mosque Project as a Sunni–Shia Conflict

Abstract In January 2015, the City of Helsinki received a proposal for the construction of ‘a grand mosque’. In December 2017, the Urban Environment committee rejected the proposal. In the interim, the proposed mosque was the subject of intense public debate. A key point of dispute was whether the mosque would increase tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Finland. This article explores the ways in which the mosque project became framed as a Sunni–Shia conflict. Special focus is put on a newspaper article published in the Helsingin Sanomat in July 2015 and the framing devices used therein.

”Juhannuksena sää saattaa olla lämmin”

Ilmasto konkretisoituu ihmisten arkeen sään kautta; ilmaston merkitys välittyy sään kokemisessa ja säälle annetuissa paikallisissa merkityksissä. Näin sään ja sille annettujen kulttuuristen merkitysten tutkiminen tuo arvokkaan lisän ilmastonmuutoksen arkisten seurausten hahmottamisessa ja voi auttaa ymmärtämään erilaisia ilmastonmuutosnäkemyksiä ja näistä juontuvia ilmastopolitiikan konflikteja. Tämän vuoksi kiinnostus arkisten sääkokemusten tutkimukseen on kasvanut viime vuosina. Artikkeli tarjoaa katsauksen tähän kansainvälisesti kehittyvään kulttuurisen ilmastotutkimuksen kenttään, sekä tarkastelee empiirisesti sään kulttuurisia merkityksiä Suomessa sanomalehtiaineiston avulla. Empiirinen analyysi pohjaa sääuutisointiin erikoisena säävuonna 2018 kahdessa sanomalehdessä: Helsingin Sanomissa ja Maaseudun Tulevaisuudessa. Sääuutisoinnista nostetaan esiin kolme keskeistä piirrettä: kesän sään merkityksellisyys, sään epätavallisuuden ja ongelmallisuuden korostaminen sekä sääpuheen kontekstisidonnaisuus. Ilmastonmuutoksen näkökulmasta tutkimus tarjoaa eväitä sopeutumistarpeiden paremmalle ymmärtämiselle.

Live or recorded? Reassessing the “decline of the highbrow arts” debate using European newspaper data, 1960–2010

ABSTRACT Recent scholarship has argued that the concept of highbrow culture is undergoing radical changes, both in content and modes of appropriation. We introduce a new layer to this debate by bringing to the fore the format of the cultural product, distinguishing between “live” cultural products (concerts, exhibitions, live shows) and “recordings” (distributable items such as books or music albums). Using culture sections of newspapers (The Guardian, Le Monde, ABC, El País, Helsingin Sanomat, Dagens Nyheter) from 1960 to 2010 (n = 11,775) we ask what role the format of the cultural product plays for the highbrow/non-highbrow trajectories over time. We show that highbrow coverage faces a relative decline, mostly explained by the expanding non-highbrow arts coverage. Moreover, coverage on live events decreases, while coverage of recordings grows. This trend reflects the highbrow/non-highbrow divide, revealing that the “decline of the highbrow” phenomenon is under closer scrutiny a “decline of the highbrow live event”.

Concept «Family»: Actualization in Russian, Danish and Finnish Media Discourses

Introduction. In the epoch of globalization and intercultural integration the content of the concept "Family" as a sociocultural value is the point of interest. Family is the universal value and one of the essential social institutions. The aim of the research is the linguocultural analysis of a complex concept «Family». Considering rapidly changing world trends the comparative linguosociocultural research of the concept "Family" appears to be highly relevant and important. Methodology and sources. The study of the present-day mediatexts of different linguistic communities (Russian, Danish and Finnish) is based on linguocultural analysis. The lexical item «family» (Dan. - "familie", Finn. - "perhe") is regarded as a key word. Online media of Russia, Danmark and Finland were chosen as the research resource. For research there were selected articles featuring the lexical item "family" allowing for any possible morphological changes, as well as the relevance of the content of the articles to the considered topics. All in all more than 300 articles from Russian online media "Vedomosti" and "Rossijskaja gazeta", Danish online media "Berlingske" and "Avisen.dk", Finnish online media "Helsingin Sanomat" and "Iltalehti" were analysed. Results and discussion. The analysis is based on the comparative study of linguistic representation of this concept in the Russian, Danish and Finnish mediatexts. The hypothesis was that the comparative intercultural research of a value-based concept use in different linguocultures may reveal in its linguistic representation not only sociocultural factors of its formation but ethnopsychological as well. Linguocultural analysis of the concept "Family" in the selected mediatexts was held on grammatical (morphosintactic) and lexical-semantic levels. As a result there were defined characteristics of the concept "Family" realisation in Russian and foreign media discourses. Conclusion . Comparative analysis of semantic realisation of a complex concept "Family" enables to reveal in linguistic features of its representation essential characteristics of the social background peculiar for modern Russian, Danish and Finnish societies.

Representation of Children’s Views in Finnish Newspaper Media Across Three Decades

As the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, it is relevant to explore how understandings of children’s rights have appeared during these three decades. As a key public actor in society, the media provides an interesting field in which to study the salience of children’s rights in societal and public discussions. Thus, in this article, we examine how children’s views are represented in «Helsingin Sanomat», the main national newspaper of Finland, in 1997, 2007, and 2017. This examination is based on articles 12 and 13 of the UNCRC, where it is stated that children have the right to express themselves in all matters affecting them. The data collection for this article was based on a systematic random sampling method of these issues in the years mentioned above, and a systematic content analysis was also applied. The results show that, somewhat surprisingly, in 2017, less than a third of news stories concerning childhood and children reported children’s views on the matter, while in 2007, almost half of news stories reported on children’s views. Based on the data, it appears that macro-level issues remained within adults’ sphere of discussion during these years. English abstract Representation of Children’s Views in Finnish Newspaper Media Across Three Decades As the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, it is relevant to explore how understandings of children’s rights have appeared during these three decades. As a key public actor in society, the media provides an interesting field in which to study the salience of children’s rights in societal and public discussions. Thus, in this article, we examine how children’s views are represented in «Helsingin Sanomat», the main national newspaper of Finland, in 1997, 2007, and 2017. This examination is based on articles 12 and 13 of the UNCRC, where it is stated that children have the right to express themselves in all matters affecting them. The data collection for this article was based on a systematic random sampling method of these issues in the years mentioned above, and a systematic content analysis was also applied. The results show that, somewhat surprisingly, in 2017, less than a third of news stories concerning childhood and children reported children’s views on the matter, while in 2007, almost half of news stories reported on children’s views. Based on the data, it appears that macro-level issues remained within adults’ sphere of discussion during these years.

Politicisation of the Eurozone crisis in Finland: adaptation toward the radical right?

AbstractThis paper analyses the politicisation of the Eurozone crisis in Finnish public debate, in May-November 2010. We emphasise how the mainstream parties responded to the radical right Finns Party's framing, in addition to two context factors: first, the constraints posed on domestic policymakers by EU and EMU-level decisions, and secondly, the sharp, economic downturn, encouraging a zero-sum interpretation of distributive claims. To trace actor positions, we analyse 1183 actor-issue statements coded from Finland's main newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat. Our findings suggest that radical right-wing parties can benefit from the high salience of socio-economic issues, if distributive conflict can plausibly be portrayed as a in- and out-group conflict, and that the mainstream parties did not only adopt nationalistic rhetoric as a response to the radical right-wing Finns Party's framing, but were responding to a constraints such as the diminished room for maneuver in the EMU, moving them towards the Finns Party's position.

Ideologies of the Chinese language in Finland

AbstractIn recent years, the visibility and importance of the Chinese language (Mandarin) has been rising globally due to its emerging status as a significant global language used by native and non-native speakers and learners. This study looks into how Finland, a small country where English is used as a second language, deals with the growing prominence of the Chinese language. More specifically, we are interested in how Finnish policies and media respond and contribute to the emerging global discourses on the Chinese language. Drawing on critical discourse analysis we examined the discourses on the Chinese language presented in policy documents and two of the main news outlets in Finland—Yleisradio (Yle) and Helsingin Sanomat (HS)—with the aim to reveal what ideologies lie behind the construction of the Chinese language. Four prevailing categories of ideological discourses of the Chinese language emerged from our analysis of the political and media texts: Chinese as a useful language, Chinese as a world/global language, Chinese as an increasingly popular language, and Chinese as a different and/or difficult language. We argue that despite the multiple societal meanings the Chinese language appears to have in the policy documents and news articles, the discourses are related to the economic allure of China and share similar ideological roots that emphasize the symbolic capital of the Chinese language.

Female Bodies Adrift: Violation of the Female Bodies in Becoming a Subject in the Western Media

This article focuses on how the violation of female bodies in the case of mass harassment of women is rendered intelligible by the Western media and the refugees. Violation of female bodies is approached as a site for politicizing possibilities of becoming a subject in the Western media. Informed by Deleuzian notion of “becoming” and the subjectivation of the refugees, I argue that the understanding of “violation” is a central component in contributing to possibilities of becoming affirmed as a subject in the Western media. Empirical material subjected to critical text analysis includes a key text form the Finnish daily newspaper <em>Helsingin Sanomat </em>and refugee interviews. The analysis suggests that the repression of irreducible conceptions of “violation,” and the subsequent erasure of the uncertainty of a “self” in the process of becoming, yields to offering possibilities of becoming primarily in Western terms and the affirmation of Western ideological certainty in understanding mass harassment of European women by the refugees.