New PhD thesis on discursive strategies in Finnish politicians' blog texts
Kristiina Savola is defending her thesis on confrontations in Finnish politicians' blog texts. The thesis is titled ”Rajanvetoja ja vastakkainasetteluja: Diskursiiviset strategiat suomalaisten poliitikkojen blogiteksteissä vaalivuonna 2015” (Eng. "Drawing borders and generating opposites : Discursive strategies in Finnish politicians’ blog texts during the election year 2015"). Savola has conducted her doctoral studies within the framework of the theme Language and Power within The Doctoral School in the Humanities.
The thesis examines strategies of confrontational discourse in Finnish politicians' blog texts from the Finnish parliamentary election year of 2015. The study approaches political discourse through critical discourse analysis and theories of politics and populism. The study examines the types of confrontations and their strategic and linguistic dimensions in the blog texts and analyses how the affective populist communication style affects their rhetoric.
The studied data is collected in the year 2015. Why is this year interesting in this context?
- The year 2015 can be seen as a populist turning point in Finnish politics, when the right-wing populist Finns party came to power for the first time as part of the government of Juha Sipilä (Centre Party). The year was marked by the impact of the financial crisis 2008 on the Finnish economy, the so-called refugee crisis and the social debate on the polarisation of the Finnish society.
Why is the language used by politicians, and especially their blogs, of interest?
- In the digital environment, language is easily disseminated and normalised. Politicians' language use is particularly exposed to media exposure and dissemination, thus shaping language use within society. Politicians create confrontations through discursive strategies, lexical, metaphorical, rhetorical and structural choices, and intertextual relations between texts. In 2015, for example, political opponents were referred to as the red-green tolerant people and the SSS government, and asylum seekers were metaphorically referred to as a tsunami of economic migrants.
Can you tell us something about the final results of the study?
- Politicians' blog discourse is affective and characterised by populist confrontations between 'the people' and 'the elite'. Through confrontations, politicians strengthen their position and agenda, create and maintain ingroups and outgroups, mark the differences between them and criticise 'the others'. In addition, politicians create political threat scenarios and defend themselves and their ingroups, such as the people and the state, from threatening actors and forces.
Why did you become interested in the topic?
- In the autumn of 2015, I noticed that something was changing in the climate of debate in Finnish society. Workers were protesting against the government's austerity policies and the so-called refugee crisis was arousing strong emotions among Finns. In these contexts, war metaphors started to be used increasingly: people talked about fighting both the government and refugees. I began to think that something socially and linguistically interesting was happening and developed an interest in issues of polarisation and confrontation.
How can your findings be applied in other contexts?
- My study can serve as a point of comparison for future research on political language and confrontation in different contexts. It is important that we remain aware and critical of the language used by politicians and how they use it to express power. The study shows both citizens and politicians themselves what political language use looks like in Finland and what effects it has on politics, opinion-forming and general language use.
Kristiina Savola is defending her thesis Friday 23 August 2024, 1 PM to 3 PM, in Auditorium 9, Södra huset. The defense will be in Finnish and it will be streamed via Zoom.
Last updated: August 9, 2024
Source: Section for Finnish