A new research project aims to redefine professional journalism and its value in mass media landscape. Kimmo Mäkilä, Janne Zareff and Jarno Liski have launched several smaller projects that all focus around the theme of journalistic work and its value now and in the near future. As of now their project is divided into three sections.

The first smaller project revolves around the how and if the journalistic work is valuable to the readers. They analyze the news items crafted from press releases by Finnish news and picture agency STT-Lehtikuva. In addition to text analysis, interviews of journalists will be conducted to find out their motives and routines that shape the creation of news.

The second project aims map out the possibilities of automated news robots in Finnish newsrooms.

The third smaller project will redefine the classic news values to account for the real conditions of news work today. How does constant business, for example, impact which information is deemed newsworthy.

Further information about the research project(s) is available here (in Finnish).

The project is funded by C.V.Åkerlund Foundation and Jokes.