To Örebro University

This article explores the ways military magazines remembered and made sense of the Finnish civil war both directly after the 1918-1919 war and during the centennial anniversaries of the declaration of independence and the war in 2017-2018. Military organizations and their magazines were journalistic and organizational memory-makers. Due to their size and popularity among the winning side, they shaped public opinion and perceptions of the war. The winners’ perspective was disseminated through organizational activities, commemorative rituals, and ideological upbringing. Magazines were an important tool in strengthening the feeling of togetherness and common destiny. Although the military interest groups no longer have the same societal impact, it is interesting to see the changes that occur as the winners tell the tale a hundred years apart. In brief, the aim is to examine which issues are highlighted or suppressed, and on which grounds people are seen as friends or foes, i.e., whose Finland appears on the pages of the magazines a hundred years later.

In this chapter, we discuss the relation between ethnic minorities and the media through the ages and across different European countries. Drawing on findings regarding minority media in Spain, the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Austria, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Russia, the chapter illustrates the role of minority media in a struggle for voice and just representation by ethnic minorities and migrant communities under specific historical and political constellations and against the backdrop of evolving media environments. Furthermore, minority media are discussed regarding their contribution to a sense of community, as well as cultural and political belonging for minority people.

In 2018, it is hundred years since the Finnish Civil War, which ended in May 16 with the White Army’s victory parade at Senate Square in Helsinki. Nation is an imagined and commemorative community (Anderson 1993), and journalism functions as a social storyteller (Kitsch 2007, 2008; Zelizer 2008). Therefore, it’s interesting to study how the war was remembered in military magazines Suomen Sotilas, and Suojeluskuntalaisen lehti, founded soon after the war. Suomen Sotilas still exists, whereas Suojeluskuntalaisen lehti, later called Hakkapeliitta, was closed down in 1945. The material consists of articles published in both magazines in 1918-1919, and in Suomen Sotilas in 2018.  After the war the White Army was reorganized into the regular army, and the voluntary auxiliary defence organisations Suojeluskunnat and Lotta Svärd. Lottas used the military magazines until Lotta Svärd magazine was founded in 1928. Siironen (2012) sees these organizations as White Finland’s most important organizational core. In 1918-1919, stories written by/of women are few, and they contain hardly any references to the enemy (Ellefson 2016). Topics in male authors’ texts are similar in 1918 & 2018, but the framing changes from open hatred to understanding – but not necessarily accepting - the Red’s side of the story.

The Sami are indigenous people living in northern Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. The population is estimated as 20 000-40 000 people in Sweden, 50 000-65 000 in Norway, ca 8000 in Finland, and ca 2000 in Russia. There are several Sami languages: Northern Sami with its ca 17 000 speakers is the largest, whereas the other languages have only a few hundred speakers each.

This study compares audience/reader comments written for Sami related topics in majority and minority media. The material covers comments for both Northern regional newspapers, and Sami public service broadcasters. Newspaper comments were posted in 2012-2013, just before the newspapers closed anonymous commenting option. Johansson-Lönn (2014) has analysed the news stories but not the comments. SR Sameradion and SVT Oddasat target primarily Sami (speaking) audience. In spring 2017, they run a hashtag campaign, encompassing several interviews covering both personal experiences and expert opinions of everyday racism. These stories were also shared and commented on Facebook. The audience was asked to contribute with their own stories via #everydayracismagainstsami. Musician Sofia Jannok participated in the hashtag campaign via Sami broadcasters and her own Facebook fanpage. Those comments are included as well. In late 2017, UR (educational channel) aired a 3-part series covering Sami history, which is also a story of the Swedish state's expansion to Sami Homeland (Sapmi), including racism and discrimination. The series is available on UR Play and each episode was shared and commented on Facebook. The mentioned social media pages are open and public, but require login to Facebook or Twitter.

It is therefore interesting see if there is a difference between comments made for stories told from majority and Sami point of view, and if there is a difference between anonymous and non- anonymous comments. The method used is connected concept analysis based on the idea of distant reading (Lindgren 2012). The tool used is Textometrica developed by Lindgren and HumLab at Umeå University.

In newspapers CCA identifies two key nodal concepts: predators and reindeers. The main fault lines go between “wolf-positive” and “kill-them” attitudes, and between positive and negative attitudes to Sami reindeer herders. Content in public service broadcasters is per definition Sami focused, which is reflected in the comments. Thus the organizing key node is Sami, relating to minor nodal concepts of culture, racism, and Swedes. UR series’ third episode covers Swedish race biologists' scull measuring trips to Sapmi, which created a long discussion, finally ending to Hitler and Nazis. Reindeer herding is here more peripheral theme as there is more focus on language and other cultural aspects.

This presentation discusses the relationship between crime, ethnicity, social class and gender in Swedish dailies in the late 1930s. The 1930s can be seen as the beginning of the formation of the People’s Home. It is consequently interesting to study the crime news, which groups were perceived as deviant and what figural solutions were offered. Different groups can be excluded for different reasons and the degree of exclusion may differ. However, all the Others have one thing in common - Us. In Hegelian terms we could speak of the dialectic of the lord and the bondsman (Herr vs Knecht). Bird-Pollen (2013) says that the lord is ”stuck in his instrumental relation to the world in which he sees himself as the sole source of normativity // (and) recognises no one as his equal”.  In other words, We, the First, decide that the Second is not like Us, doesn’t behave like Us and We do not like him. In the process the Second turns into the Other. It is therefore interesting to examine the crime news’ construction of deviance in the light of the idea of People’s Home, who is included or excluded, who can be reformed and who is beyond honour and uprightness.  Crime news has a long history. Leth (1994) traces it to the 16-17th century newsletters and Chermak (1994) to the 18th century courtreporting. Carrabine (2008) speaks of ancient oral storytelling and early ’gallows journalism’. There is a complex relationship between news and social order. The media have an important role in mediating cultural norms and values. Pollack (2001) sees crime news as an arena for cultural conflict and says that both the law and the news are part of a hegemonic process. Ericson et al (1991) and Doyle (2006) think that as communicative processes news, myths and law work in similar ways. They belong to normalising, disciplining and naturalising discourses that are in an intertextual relationship with each other and with other normalising institutions and discourses (Ericson et al 1991).⁠ These communicative processes provide social stories, showing society’s shared values and beliefs. They offer recognition, a sense of security and credible answers and explanations for various phenomena and events.  The data consists of news items with Swedish and non-Swedish, male and female, lower and upper-class villains, as well as unruly communists and national socialists with alleged links to foreign powers. Crime news can thus reveal subtle imagined hierarchies. Although ethnicity had a stronger stigmatizing effect than social class, it didn’t apply equally to all ethnic groups. The poor whites were portrayed differently depending on their nationality. Finns and Travelers in particular were linked to knives, alcohol and fighting. Finns also appeared in the crime news as unruly Communists. Other ethnic minorities and foreigners were fairly invisible in this material. Reporting about female villains was a sensitive and difficult matter. Stories of mothers killing their children were potentially newsworthy but, in reality, got much less attention than male perpetrators.

Our aim is to examine how ethnic minority media emerged and became a factor in the development of media landscapes. What media is minority media? How important are societal contexts in different countries or regions? What key factors, forces and processes shape the minority media landscape? What differences and similarities can be identified, and explained? We discuss media produced by or for ethnic minorities, beginning with the foundation of minority language periodicals, and moving on to radio and television programming. We also discuss representation of ethnic minorities in mainstream media, and ethnic diversity - or lack thereof - in media companies. Finally, the emergence of broadcast media led to demands for minority programming, which has gradually expanded in the wake of migration and recognition of national minorities. Minority media, public or private, is vulnerable in times of economic crisis. Digitalization has opened new possibilities. But, the Internet is dominated by majority languages (Cunliff 2007).   In the late 19th century Europe technological innovations and favorable conditions created flourishing press markets. Ethnic or nationalistic activists followed suit, founding the first periodicals. However, multiple changes in borders, state formations and central concepts make it difficult to determine which ethnic groups can be seen as minorities. There are no universal definitions of ‘minority’, ‘indigenous people’ or ’migrants’. The concept of ‘minority’ arose in the aftermath of WWI and signing of first minority treaties (Jackson 1998). But, how do we conceptualize ethnic groups in the 19th century multiethnic conglomerate states? Such states either didn’t have ethnic majorities, or people weren’t conceptualized in that manner. We use the term ‘ethnic minority’, to encompass migrants, national minorities and indigenous people. Some ethnic communities changed status from minority to majority, or vice versa. Estonians, Russians and Finns are examples of this. The countries discussed are Spain, the UK, Germany, Estonia, Russia, and the Nordic countries. Although many minorities live in transnational spaces, the frame of reference is the nation-state. Media markets are in many ways national spaces which affect the markets’ functional and institutional completeness, i.e. the range of media outlets, formats and genres (Moring 2007). Catalans, Basques, Finnish Swedes, and Tatars are examples of minorities with access to the widest range of alternatives. Others have few outlets and the content is primarily news and children’s programs. Some of the languages, such as Nivkh, Evenki, Saami, and Scottish Gaelic, are endangered or at risk. Small ethnic and linguistic communities have difficulty sustaining commercial media outlets. In such cases public service plays an important role.

This chapter explores the retrospective meaning making of the 1918 Finnish Civil War, a dramatic rupture in the country’s history. The aim is to study how the war and pre-war activities were perceived, described and remembered by the Lotta Svärd organisation. Lotta Svärd was born out of bourgeois women’s desire to help the White Army and the voluntary auxiliary defence organisation Suojeluskunnat (the White Guards). Lotta groups were initially subordinated to local Suojeluskunta units and became a separate organisation in 1921. Due to its popularity and size, Lotta Svärd played an important role in shaping the national consciousness and memories of the 1918 war. The organisation is of great interest, since, over the years, Lottas have both lost and regained their good reputation.

The material consists of the Lotta Svärd magazine and Lotta pages in the military magazines Suomen Sotilas, Suojeluskuntalaisen lehti and Hakkapeliitta in the period 1919‒1939. As the Winter War began on 30 November 1939, memories of the 1918 war faded into the background. Much of remembering (and forgetting) is socially motivated, since memories need to be communicated (Cubitt 2007; Fentress & Wickham 1992). However, the early wartime experiences shaped the Lotta organisation’s activities, membership requirements, ideology and sense of belonging. Lotta pages and magazines often described individual members’ experiences and contributions to the national struggle. Texts were typically written from the point of view of ‘us’ or ‘I’, meaning that the individual was always positioned as serving the organisation and the Fatherland. The 1918 war was ‘kept alive’ by various rituals, involving sacralisation of the Nation, for example flag raising or visits to war cemeteries. Such events were also described in the magazines, meaning that there was an element of anniversary journalism (Kitch 2007; 2008). In the process these rituals were turned into Lotta rituals.

The Red and White Guards can trave their history back to the 1905 general strike. Such groups were formed on both sides to ’keep order’ in the streets. However, the first clashes occured during the strike. Suojeluskunnat grew out of this experience and formed an essential part of the Civil War White Army under mannerheim’s leadership. There is no established translation for Suojeluskunta (or, Suojeluskunnat in plural), which was an essential part of the White Army. Suojelus means ‘protection’. Kunta has several meanings, but in this context it refers to a collective, for example ihmiskunta means ‘mankind’. The word valkokaarti (White Guard) also exists, for example in Helsingin valkokaarti (White Guard of Helsinki). In Finnish Suojeluskunta is more common, since it is the official name of the organisation. Haapala and Tikka (2012, 81) speak of “Protection Guard”, combining suojelus and kaarti. Heimo and Peltonen (2006, 52) prefer “White Guard”. Lavery (2006), Nevala-Nurmi (2006), Ahlbäck and Kivimäki (2008) say “Civil Guard”. Kirby (2006) uses suojeluskunta but also mentions “the White Guards”. The Reds used the word lahtarit, i.e. the butchers. I will use “White Guards” to emphasise the political element and the link to the White Finland.

In the winter of 1935 a series of strange events began to unfold. It began with news items about a flying ark that would take the true believers to the Promised Land. A religious group called the Korpelans saw the new Finnish bible translation as the abomination of desolation, which meant that the end was near. They began to end their earthly lives by quitting their jobs, getting rid of their property, etc. Such peculiar behavior caught reporters' attention and the drive was on. Coverage of the movement consisted of various rumors and rather random accounts of threats, curses, and the constant praying of members and their retreat from everyday life and reality. Since the event took place among the Sami and Finnish minorities living in Northern Sweden at the juncture of the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian borders, there were also ample amounts of exoticism.

With history writing in general, press history is often linked to the framework of the nation state. Such nationalist approaches may, however, lead to a fragmented view of history. We should remember that many current European nation states have fairly short histories, and, even old kingdoms, such as Sweden, have changed shape several times. During the 17th and18th century, the Swedish Empire included Finland, Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, Pomerania, Wismar and Bremen/Verden, and the previously Danish areas in the south and northwest. Later, Sweden even had small colonies in Africa and the Caribbean. The empire, however, began to disintegrate during the Great Nordic War. During the 18th century Finland, Estonia and Livonia belonged to the Russian Empire. My purpose is to provide an overview of the development of the press in the Swedish Empire and the 19th century Finland, Estonia and Livonia, and discuss limitations of national perspectives.