Tutkimuksessa pohditaan muun maussa sitä, kuinka uskonnosta ja sekulaarista keskustelu on muuttunut suomalaisessa mediassa sekä sitä, kuinka erottautuminen uskonnon ja sekulaarin sekä toisaalta luterilaisen kirkon ja valtion välillä näyttäytyy monikulttuuriseksi muuttuvassa ympäristössä.
Hanke alkoi viime vuoden syyskuussa ja päättyy elokuun lopussa 2014. Kokonaiskesto on kolme vuotta ja työ tehdään Turun yliopistossa (uskontotieteen oppiaine). Uskontojournalismi-blogi kysyi Tairalta tarkempaa tietoa hankkeen sisällöstä. Hän vastasi:
”Enimmäkseen käsittelen Hesarin pää- ja mielipidekirjoituksia vuodesta 1946 nykypäivään. (Kuten huomaat, tämän aineiston avulla ei voida käsitellä suoraan sitä, miten uskonnosta uutisoidaan, vaan sitä, miten median uskontodiskurssi on muuttunut suomalaisen yhteiskunnan modernisaatiossa.) Muu suomalainen media tarjoaa täydentävää aineistoa, erityisesti Turun Sanomat ja Aamulehti. Teen systemaattisen aineiston analyysin lisäksi ns. tapausanalyyseja, joissa laajennan aineistoa pää- ja mielipidekirjoitusten ulkopuolelle uutisjuttuihin. Lisäksi tapausanalyyseissa käydään läpi aineistoa myös iltapäivälehdistä, uusmediasta ja uskonnollisista julkaisuista”
Taira kertoo hankkeestaan myös Turun yliopiston historian, kulttuurin ja taiteiden tutkimuksen laitoksen verkkolehdessä
Ohessa ”Uskonnon ja maallisen diskurssi suomalaisessa mediassa” -hankkeen englanninkielinen tiivistelmä:
There has been a strong decline in church membership in Finland in the past two decades. It has also been a period of increasing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. The existing connection between the Lutheran Church and the state – not strictly a state church but solid cooperation – has come under attack: opponents usually refer to the need for a stronger distinction between religious and the secular, whereas defenders employ a different distinction between religion and the secular in reference to the significant role of the Lutheran Church in Finnish culture. Media is one of the main arenas in which these issues are debated.
The aim of the project is to examine discourse on religion and the secular in the Finnish media by concentrating on the three major newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, Aamulehti and Turun Sanomat. The special emphasis will be put on the relationship between the Lutheran Church and the state which is connected to more general distinction between religion and the secular in other institutions and practices such as education, healthcare, military, organisation of cemeteries and politics. The focus will be on the past two decades because of the changes in society, but also older material will be used.
The project seeks to answer: 1) how the discourse on religion and the secular has changed in the Finnish media after the Second World War, 2) how the distinction between, religion and the secular, especially between the Lutheran Church and state has been employed, defended and challenged in an increasingly multicultural context, 3) what these discourses tell us about the role and location of religion in the public sphere in Finnish modernisation, and 4) what theoretical ideas, research hypotheses and methods the study can generate that could be used to examine, analyse and compare corresponding developments in other locations.
Critical discourse analysis will be the main method, complemented by systematic and quantitative content analysis (coding themes by using the SPSS-programme) in order to identify key patterns and frequencies of themes. A discursive approach enables the identification and analysis of meaning systems that appear across coded themes. Readers’ letters and editorials will be used as the primary material. They will be supplemented by news articles that have triggered debate.
The project develops a research strategy according to which distinctions between religion and the secular are parts of discursive formations – and thus part of the power struggles and relative to a community’s changing interests and situations. In addition, the study will contribute to the interpretations of the public role and location of religion.
The examination of these questions will result in a longitudinal and comparative analysis of discourse on religion and the secular in the Finnish media. In addition to providing new knowledge on the relatively understudied area, the project also has methodological aims. Methodologically the project develops a robust and applicable research strategy which is expected to be implemented in new contexts. Theoretically the project approaches the categories of ‘religion’ and ‘secular’ as discursive items and thus argues for the importance of discursive study of religion. Furthermore, the project has a role to play in terms of knowledge exchange; discussion on religion in the media will be facilitated by organising policy events for journalists and religious communities.
The project is strongly linked to the applicant’s earlier and ongoing research and he has already established connections to national and international research networks.
Teemu Tairan oma Teetai-blogi löytyy täältä
Teemu Tairan oma Teetai-blogi löytyy täältä
- Olli Seppälä -
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