According to Maria Lindén, the media simplifies US politics into a “battle between good and evil” because it evokes emotions and brings readers.
Finnish US news reporting is plagued by the “poppers show attitude”, says a researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Maria Lindén.
– News about things that make for good entertainment.
According to Lindén, the Finnish media frame US politics as a struggle between good and evil, which Finns watch like a horror movie: with a mixture of fear and pleasure.
– However, those things touch us too, but we still think that it’s not our country, it’s nice to watch them do something stupid.
It can be difficult for a Finnish reader to understand the twists and turns of US domestic politics. Instead of factual issues and analysis, things are sold with dramatic confrontations, says Lindén.
– No one was interested, what Joe Biden said in his speech, but whether he won.
Incumbent President Biden pilloried the Republican Party and ex-Pres Donald Trump In his State of the Nation speech on Friday. In the November presidential election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump will almost certainly face each other, as in 2020.
Does the Finnish media entertain the politics of the United States too much, and does it distort the picture of the country’s politics, asked the journalist Rosa Kettumäki The last word from the guests of the program.
The media exaggerates confrontations if they are not dramatic enough, says the researcher Oscar Winberg From the John Morton Center of the University of Turku.
According to Winberg, this is especially evident when there is news about the internal power struggles of American parties. It doesn’t matter which individual is in power, but whether he represents Democrats or Republicans, Winberg says.
For example Nikki Haley’s and Donald Trump were exaggerated, especially in Finland, because the media wanted to create excitement for the Republican primaries.
– Haley was built into such a moderate character, which her politics in reality do not match at all.
Is the Finnish media under the spell of the USA? Watch the entire “Last word” broadcast on Areena.