SYMPOSIUM: “MEDIA, WAR AND GEOPOLITICAL RE-ALIGNMENTS”
9 October 2026, 12:10-18:00, University of Helsinki, Main Building, Hall F3017 or remotely at https://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l73.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s accession to NATO, and wider shifts in the international order have transformed public debate, journalism, and media representations of security, identity, and geopolitics. How do these changes reshape journalistic practices, public narratives, and understandings of the world around us? The symposium brings together researchers studying the changing relationship between media, war, security, and geopolitical imaginaries.
The event presents key findings from three research projects funded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation’s special call “War Became the Topic: What Is the Role of the Media?”
The research projects are:
- Forces of Change in War Journalism: Open Source Intelligence, Information Warfare, and Patriotic Pressure by Joonas Koivukoski & Markus Ojala (PI) (University of Helsinki)
- Imagined West: Occidentalist Narratives in Finnish News Media in the Context of the War in Ukraine by Jukka Jouhki (PI), Jere Kyyrö & Suvi Mononen (Tampere University)
- The Securitization of the Eastern Border in Media Debate by Mervi Pantti, Risto Kunelius (PI), Marko Ampuja, Nuppu Pelevina & Erjon Skenderi (University of Helsinki)
Programme
12:10-12:15 Welcome
12:15-13:00 Keynote by Antal Wozniak (University of Liverpool): “Thinking about the Day After Tomorrow: News Media, War, and Polycrisis”
13:00-14:00 Presentations associated with the Imagined West project:
“Imagining the West at War” by Jukka Jouhki & Jere Kyyrö (Tampere University)
“Influential Weak Links? The Baltic States in Zakharova’s Framing of the ‘Collective West’” by Kiryl Kascian & Viktor Denisenko (Vilnius University)
“Stories about Finland’s Geopolitical Future in News Media during the War in Ukraine” by Elise Kraatila (Tampere University)
“De-centring the West: Language as Symbolic Action and the New Cold War Narrative in African Online News Reports” by Sisanda Nkoala & Doniquah Allies (University of the Western Cape)
“Perceptions of the West in Ukrainian Social Media During Wartime” by Vladyslav Vodko (K.D. Ushinsky South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University) & Stanislav Hrabovetskyi (University of Vienna)
“The Amero-West on the Offensive: Chinese Media Narratives of the role of ‘the West’ in the Russo-Ukrainian War” by Matti Puranen (Finnish National Defence University)
14:00-14:20 Coffee break
14:20-15:20 Presentations associated with projects Forces of Change in War Journalism, and The Securitization of the Eastern Border in Media Debate
Project Forces of Change in War Journalism:
“Covering ‘our war’: Patriotism and Professional Autonomy in War Journalism” by Markus Ojala & Joonas Koivukoski (University of Helsinki)
Project The Securitization of the Eastern Border in Media Debate:
“Border Law and the Securitization of Geopolitical Imagination in Finland” by Marko Ampuja (University of Helsinki)
“New(s) Media as a Battlefield – Security Debates in Times of Geopolitical Turbulence” by Nuppu Pelevina & Erjon Skenderi (University of Helsinki)
15:20-15:40 Coffee break
15:40-16:40 Panel discussion: “Media, War and Geopolitical Re-alignments: the Role of the West”
Panelists: Noora Kotilainen (University of Helsinki), Ville Similä (Helsingin Sanomat), Antal Wozniak (University of Liverpool), Johanna Vuorelma (Tampere University)
Panel host: Henna-Riikka Pennanen (Tampere University)
16:40-16:50 Final words
17:00-18:00 Finger food & refreshments
Register by 30 September 2026 here.
Contact: jukka.jouhki@tuni.fi