About

Background

The West is a concept and social category whose usage is rarely problematized in science, journalism, and politics. Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine has increased public discussion about the role, unity, and essence of Western countries, but on the other hand, it has also simplified and homogenized public discourse about the West.

Objective

The Imagined West research project focuses on analyzing narratives about the West or Western countries in Finnish news media in the context of the war in Ukraine. The research examines how the West, as a concept and community, is constructed and manifested in Finnish news media, and what significance this has for the formation of identity and geopolitical views.

The main objective of the research is to describe and understand so-called Occidentalist (occident = West) narratives in Finnish news media. The research particularly focuses on how Western discourse is produced, reproduced, and challenged. The analysis of the material utilizes corpus analysis and qualitative narrative analysis.

The project’s main objectives are to publish a special issue in Finnish on the topic, an international edited volume, and to organize an international symposium on the project’s theme.

Impact

The research project produces new knowledge about the construction and significance of narratives of the West in public discourse. The results of the research help to understand the geopolitical and identity-political significance of West-talk, its role in the formation of human and worldviews, and the significance of news media in reinforcing or challenging narratives about the West.

The results of the research can be utilized by researchers, journalists, and political actors in their work, aiming for informative, neutral, and critical language use.

Project members and partners

The responsible researcher for the project is Jukka Jouhki. The project also employs postdoctoral researcher Jere Kyyrö (starting 1.8.25) and research assistant Suvi Mononen. The project has a multidisciplinary and international advisory group, which supports the implementation of the project.

Funding