Abstract
Politicians’ television interviews have been central in Finnish election campaigning since the 1960s. Earlier studies of the electoral debates have shown that the influence of the Finnish communication culture and political system on politicians’ communication styles could be readily identified. Before the Finnish municipal elections of 2021, the Finnish Broadcasting Company organized separate television interviews for all leaders of the parliamentary parties. This chapter reports on five of these interviews, focusing only on the leaders of the parties represented in the national government. This means the Finnish “Famous Five,” namely the government led by five female party leaders. The chapter concentrates on Finnish politicians’ responses in the interviews. The analysis is based on the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse and the model of Finnish political television discussion. The aim is to characterize Finnish political interviews and develop a method for interview analysis. The results show that in the television interviews the Finnish “Famous Five” performed both in the style customarily seen in Finnish politicians appearing on television and also in a way indicative of new nuances in politicians’ television performance. It was also possible to consider differences in the response styles of party leaders.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Benoit, W. L. (2007). Communication in political campaigns. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-007-0263-z
Benoit, W. L. (2014). Political election debates. Lexington Books.
Benoit, W. L., & Benoit-Bryant, J. M. (2013). Debates come to the United Kingdom: A functional analysis of the 2010 British Prime Minister election debates. Communication Quarterly, 61(4), 463–478. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2013.799513
Brownlow, S., Rosamond, J. A., & Parker, J. A. (2003). Gender-linked linguistic behavior in television interviews. Sex Roles, 49(3/4), 121–132. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1024404812972
Carbaugh, D. (1995). Are Americans really superficial? Notes on Finnish and American cultures in linguistic action. In L. Salo-Lee (Ed.), Language & culture in learning and teaching (pp. 53–60). University of Jyväskylä (in Finnish).
Feldman, O., Kinoshita, K., & Bull, P. (2017). Failures in leadership. How and why wishy-washy politicians equivocate on Japanese political interviews. Journal of Language and Politics, 16(2), 285–312. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15009.fel
Isotalus, P. (2009). Agreement and disagreement in focus: A cultural perspective on televised election debates. In R. Wilkins & P. Isotalus (Eds.), Speech culture in Finland (pp. 191–206). University Press of America.
Isotalus, P. (2010). Cultural perspectives on the analyses of interaction in presidential debates—Comparing two models. The Forensic of Pi Kappa Delta, 95, 1–18.
Isotalus, P. (2011). Analyzing presidential debates. Functional theory and Finnish political communication culture. Nordicom Review, 32(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0103
Isotalus, P. (2017). Media politician. Gaudeamus (in Finnish).
Isotalus, P., & Aarnio, E. (2005). The model of mediated electoral discussion. Puhe ja kieli, 25(3), 155–170. (in Finnish).
Isotalus, P., & Aarnio, E. (2006). A model of televised election discussion: The Finnish multi-party system perspective. Javnost—The Public, 13(1), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2006.11008907
Isotalus, P., & Almonkari, M. (2011). Current trends in political communication and criteria for political leaders: Perspectives of Finnish press and party leaders. In E. De Blasio, M. Hibberd, & M. Sorice (Eds.), Leadership and new trends in political communication (pp. 139–155). Luiss.
Karvonen, L., & Paloheimo, H. (2005). Views of democracy in Finland. In H. Paloheimo (Ed.), Election and democracy in Finland (pp. 290–304). WSOY (in Finnish).
Mäkelä, J., Isotalus, P., & Ruoho, I. (2015). The ball is in the women’s court: The portrayal of Finnish women as political leaders in newspapers. In J. Wilson & D. Boxer (Eds.), Discourse, politics and women as global leaders (pp. 293–314). John Benjamins.
Mason, R. (2010). “Pitbulls” and populism politicians: Sarah Palin, Pauline Hanson and the use of gendered nostalgia in electoral campaigns. Comparative American Studies, 8(3), 185–199.
Niemi, M. K. (2014). Pathways to the top. Media and party leadership in Finland from women’s breakthrough to the wave of populism. Annales Universitatis Turkuensis 385 (in Finnish).
Nuolijärvi, P., & Tiittula, L. (2000). Television discussion on the stage: Television institutionalism in Finnish and German discussion cultures. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura (in Finnish).
Paatelainen, L., Croucher, S., & Benoit, B. (2016). A functional analysis of the Finnish 2012 presidential elections. Studies in Media and Communication, 4(2), 70–80. https://doi.org/10.11114/smc.v4i2.1826
Pitkänen, V. (2014). From party discussions to media events. Annales Universitatis Turkuensia 375 (in Finnish).
Ruonala, K.-M. (1998). Presidential candidates in television interviews. In P. Isotalus (Ed.), Pal or player? Politicians in media (pp. 38–68). Atena (in Finnish).
Sallinen-Kuparinen, A. (1986). Finnish communication reticence: Perceptions and self-reported behavior. Studia Philologica Jyväskyläensia, 19.
Sallinen-Kuparinen, A. (1987). Television performance, media rhetoric, and political persuasion. Politiikka, 29, 120–133. (in Finnish).
Straub, S. K., Beller, J. L., & Hunt, T. W. (2012). I concur, you are absolutely correct that I am correct: Agreement as an argumentative strategy. Contemporary Argumentation & Debate, 33, 1–26.
Suleiman, C., & O’Connell, D. C. (2008). Gender differences in the media interviews of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 37, 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-007-9055-x
Tilney, M. (2015). Keeping the upper-hand: Pragmatic techniques in the media interview. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines, 7(2), 180–199.
Wilkins, R. J. (2005). The optimal forum: Inadequacies and excessiveness within the asiallinen [matter of fact] nonverbal style in public and civic settings in Finland. Journal of Communication, 55, 383–410. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2005.tb02678.x
Wilkins, R. J. (2009). The asiasta puhuminen event. In R. Wilkins & P. Isotalus (Eds.), Speech culture in Finland (pp. 63–84). University Press of America.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Isotalus, P. (2022). The Finnish “Famous Five” in Television Interviews: Cultural Characteristics of Party Leaders’ Response Style. In: Feldman, O. (eds) Adversarial Political Interviewing. The Language of Politics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0576-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0576-6_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-0575-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-0576-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)