Kati Parkkinen, Ulla Timlin & Arja Rautio
The aim of this media analysis is to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in Finnish Lapland during its first years from the perspective of a local newspaper. The data consists of published articles during years 2020 – 2021 which concentrated on the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was collected from one local newspaper called “Inarilainen” by using paper versions of the newspaper. “Inarilainen” is published on a weekly basis, reaching out to people in the northernmost municipalities of Finland, including Sámi and non-Sámi, and being an important source of information for locals. Papers were reviewed, and news was initially included if it provided any information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis continued to find answers to following questions: what kind of information related to COVID-19 was published, who provided the information and what kind of content and style the news used. During the analysis four journalistic styles were found: authority style, humane style, societal style, and realistic style. When identifying the main results, the reviewed articles were found to be solution seeking, empowering and empathetic, because humane and societal styles were emphasized in the communication.
