Unlike many other European societies, Finland has had a party press alive up to recent years, small but fairly lively papers presenting party views and organizational information with mainstream topicalities. However, in the 2010s these papers, from conservative to communist, have moved to a combination of webpage plus magazine, mainly because of financial reasons. There is no longer a single party daily in the country.
At the same time, also the political map has changed. The previous stable ‘four big’ setup has broken – two parties in power, two in opposition. Today, there are six medium-size parties fighting of power and visibility and several small ones emerging.
Although the change in the mediascape is as such relatively small, the development is interesting from various perspectives. First, it is worth analyzing, what kind of media formats the webpage plus magazine combination settles into. Is the ‘ancient’ media mode magazine flexible enough? Second, how has the change modified the contact with the public? Has the change restricted the messages more significantly than before to party members only? Does the combination allow bipolar communication, networking and social media platforms? Further, the most interesting question leads us to the basics of alternatives: do these magazines present challenges to mainstream journalism? Are they able to mobilize political movements? One could expect new thinking to be involved in this new situation, although the means to carry out the changes are financially strict among most of the papers concerned.
In this paper, the media modes of seven different political magazines are described and analysed. Further, attempts are made to combine the results with the research carried out among alternative media researchers (Atton, Couldry, Downing, Martin-Barbero).
The first round of research is already carried out. Based on a rough content analysis and its conclusions, three distinct magazine formats have emerged. The dominant format seems to be a news magazine with close contact to the party organization, but allowing blogs and columns – conservative party Nykypäivä (Today), Left Alliance Kansan Uutiset (People’s News). Another format is more modest, a membership journal with a strong bias to day-to-day party organization news: Finns Party Perussuomalainen (True Finn). The third category is an opinionated, less news bound magazine with a leaning to the publishing party but including also issues covering other social groups: Social Democratic Demokraatti (The Democrat), Communist Party Tiedonantaja (The Messenger), Greens Party Vihreä Lanka (Green String). The first and last groups allow discussion and debate, but their proportion is limited. Further, only the webpage of Nykypäivä gives space for social contacts and contributions from the public, while for the others, the webpage simply updates information. The dominant presentation mode is top/down, although the stories might include some debate and discussion.
The second round of research has only started, trying to find out whether the political magazines are able to develop alternative media practices and to articulate a new type of ‘politics of presence’.