Why Do Russians Support Censorship of the Media?

This article analyses support for censorship in Russia as part of the democratization process. Censorship has been an important part of Russian history and it was strengthened during the Soviet era. After the collapse of the Soviet system formal censorship was banned even though the reality has been different. Therefore it is not strange that many Russians would like to limit the freedom of the media and to censor certain topics. The views of Russians on censorship have been studied on the basis of a survey carried out in 2007. According to the results, three different dimensions of censorship were found. These dimensions include moral censorship, political censorship, and censorship of religious materials. Support for these dimensions varies on the basis of socio-demographic characteristics and media use. The article concludes that many Russians reject new phenomena, while support for the censorship of political criticism is not as high, but political censorship seems to enjoy more support among elites than among the common people.

Given and News : Media discourse and the construction of community on national days

National anniversaries such as independence days demand precise coordination in order to make citizens change their routines to forego work and spend the day at rest or at festivities that provide social focus and spectacle. The complex social construction of national days is taken for granted and operates as a given in the news media, which are the main agents responsible for coordinating these planned disruptions of normal routines. This study examines the language used in the news to construct the rather unnatural idea of national days and to align people in observing them. The data for the study consist of news stories about the Fourth of July in the New York Times, sampled over 150 years and are supplemented by material from other sources and other countries. The study is multidimensional, applying concepts from pragmatics (speech acts, politeness, information structure), systemic functional linguistics (the interpersonal metafunction and the Appraisal framework) and cognitive linguistics (frames, metaphor) as well as journalism and communications to arrive at an interdisciplinary understanding of how resources for meaning are used by writers and readers of the news stories. The analysis shows that on national anniversaries, nations tend to be metaphorized as persons having birthdays, to whom politeness should be shown. The face of the nation is to be respected in the sense of identifying the nation's interests as one's own (positive face) and speaking of citizen responsibilities rather than rights (negative face). Resources are available for both positive and negative evaluations of events and participants and the newspaper deftly changes footings (Goffman 1981) to demonstrate the required politeness while also heteroglossically allowing for a certain amount of disattention and even protest - within limits, for state holidays are almost never construed as Bakhtinian festivals, as they tend to reaffirm the hierarchy rather than invert it. Celebrations are evaluated mainly for impressiveness, and for the essentially contested quality of appropriateness, which covers norms of predictability, size, audience response, aesthetics, and explicit reference to the past. Events may also be negatively evaluated as dull ("banal") or inauthentic ("hoopla"). Audiences are evaluated chiefly in terms of their enthusiasm, or production of appropriate displays for emotional response, for national days are supposed to be occasions of flooding-out of nationalistic feeling. By making these evaluations, the newspaper reinforces its powerful position as an independent critic, while at the same time playing an active role in the construction and reproduction of emotional order embodied in "the nation's birthday." As an occasion for mobilization and demonstrations of power, national days may be seen to stand to war in the relation of play to fighting (Bateson 1955). Evidence from the newspaper's coverage of recent conflicts is adduced to support this analysis. In the course of the investigation, methods are developed for analyzing large collections of newspaper content, particularly topical soft news and feature materials that have hitherto been considered less influential and worthy of study than so-called hard news. In his work on evaluation in newspaper stories, White (1998) proposed that the classic hard news story is focused on an event that threatens the social order, but news of holidays and celebrations in general does not fit this pattern, in fact its central event is a reproduction of the social order. Thus in the system of news values (Galtung and Ruge 1965), national holiday news draws on "ground" news values such as continuity and predictability rather than "figure" news values such as negativity and surprise. It is argued that this ground helps form a necessary space for hard news to be seen as important, similar to the way in which the information structure of language is seen to rely on the regular alternation of given and new information (Chafe 1994).

Paranormal, superstitious, magical, and religious beliefs

A lack of conceptual clarity and multivariate studies has impeded research on paranormal, superstitious, and magical beliefs. In this series of studies a new conceptual framework of these beliefs was presented. A general belief in the paranormal was shown to lead to specific paranormal, superstitious, and magical beliefs. The beliefs were defined equally as category mistakes where the core attributes of psychological, physical, and biological phenomena are confused with each other. This definition was supported by an empirical examination: Paranormal believers confused more core knowledge than skeptics. A multivariate study revealed that the best predictors of paranormal beliefs were intuitive thinking and a humanistic world view, while low analytical thinking was a less important predictor. Another study showed that women s greater belief in the paranormal compared to men was partially explained by women s higher intuitive and lower analytical thinking. Additionally, it was shown that university students were originally more skeptical than vocational school students, but university studies did not increase skepticism. The finding that paranormal beliefs mainly arise from an intuitive system, instead of a malfunctioning analytical system, explains why the beliefs do not vanish with the increase of education, scientific knowledge, and rational thinking. Religious and paranormal beliefs share important qualities and generally, they were positively related. The most religious people, however, abandoned paranormal beliefs. Religious people and paranormal believers differed from the skeptics similarly by being more intuitive, having experienced more mystical phenomena, and having peers and parents with more positive attitudes toward the supernatural. Religious people had, however, higher conservation and benevolence values than paranormal believers. The new conceptual framework presented in this series of studies integrates research on paranormal, superstitious, magical, and religious beliefs. Hopefully it will enable researchers to develop more elaborated hypotheses and theoretical statements about paranormal beliefs in the future.

Lähi-itä - mielikuvat, media ja konflikti : Tutkimuskohteena opettajaopiskelijat

This study examines Finnish student teachers' images of The Middle East conflict and its parties and medias' influence on these images. The research problems are 1) how student teachers understand the Middle East as a geographical and a cultural area 2) what kind of conceptions they have of the Middle East conflict and its parties; Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs and societies and religions closely connected to them and 3) how the media has influenced on these conceptions. Theoretical background of this study concerns with different mental images, their construction and meaning, stereotypes, intercultural competence, media and its influence as well as media literacy. The methods used in this study were survey and theme interview. Also headlines of the news were analysed. The survey was directed at student teachers of the University of Helsinki (n = 75). Six of them were interviewed. The survey was conducted in February and interviews were made in the turn of May and June 2003. The headlines analysed dealt with the Middle East conflict in the newspaper "Helsingin Sanomat" in January, April and July 2003. Main results: Images of the Middle East area differed largely from respondent to another. Student teachers didn't know much about the Middle East conflict. Stereotypes occurred in the conceptions connected to the parties of the conflict. Stereotypes appeared especially in the negative conceptions of islam and muslims and one-sided conceptions of Arabs. The influence of the conflict was noticeable in conceptions related to Israelis, Israel and Palestinians. Palestinians were sympathized. Attitudes towards Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs were negative to some extend and their societies were not valued very equal, open or modern. On the basis of the research, student teachers' intercultural competence was not good enough. Media had influence on the conceptions. Also skills in critical use of media varied largely. Some trusted strongly in the objectivity of a picture and the news. It can be argued, on the grounds of the results, that teacher education should concentrate more on themes of intercultural competence and media literacy. These two are interrelated and are both needed in understanding and conceptualising the world.

Saako terveysuskoja synninpäästön? : Naispappien käsityksiä laihdutus- ja terveyskulttuurista nykyisessä mediayhteiskunnassa

Background and aims. Fatness and dieting have been the object of interest between many fields for a long time. Home economics as a discipline enables a comprehensive inspection of fatness and dieting reviewing different disciplines. In addition to the aspect where the pursuit of dieting and health is seen from the perspective of medical and health science it is also been reviewd as a social and cultural phenomena. This study contemplates the influence of history, religion, medicalization and media on dieting and health culture. The objective is to find out if the modern dieting and health culture has gathered influences from centuries ago and absorbed religious features. The stress deriving from appereance has been discussed in the public and there are many solutions conserning weight issues. The purpose of this study is to find out what personal experiences and thoughts female pastors have conserning these questions. The media – which is one of the most influential systems nowadays – has undeniably a great effect on the consumer. The goal is furthermore to estimate the effect of the media on the changing of dieting and health culture. The three main research questions are: 1. What kind of conseptions do female pastors have of dieting and health culture and of its religious features? 2. What kind of personal experiences and conseptions do female pastors have of dieting and strivines of health? 3. How do female pastors regard the image the media has supplied of dieting and health culture? Material and methods. The qualitative data was gathered in year 2009 using the halfstructured theme interview -method. The data consists of interviews conducted with specialists of spiritual matters, i.e. ten female pastors who are between 35 and 60 years old and live in the metropolitan area. The analytical procedure used is called a theory based context analysis. Results and conclusions. Results of this study show that the idealization of slimness and healthiness is a matter discussed in the public on a daily basis. The problem faced was that the media provided contradictory information regarding fatness and dieting and the standard of slimness in commercials focused on females. The pursuit of dieting and healthiness was believed to include also religious elements. In the Middle Ages and the era after that the fatness, overeating and the pleasure one gets from eating was still seen as a condemnable matter in our culture. One could say this was like a sin. The respondents believed that healthiness, healthy living, optimal eating and good looks were a matter more or less equal than a religion. This was a derivative from the fact that treasuring health has become a life stearing value for many people. In the priest’s profession dieting and the pursuit of health was seen in the light of problems arising from weight issues. In ones profession for example the unhealthy eating in festive situations was seen as a matter that leads to unnecessary weight. Another aspect was the job circumstances that limited the degree of movement. The belief was that the female pastors would in a decreasing fashion confront stress deriving from appearence in their job. Keywords: dieting, fatness, healthiness, slimness, female pastors, religion, medicalization, media

Intergenerational Transfer of Sabbath Observance : How is Religious Tradition Transferred to Children among Finnish Seventh-day Adventists?

This study examined religious home education in educational, psychological, and sociological context. Growing up within a religious denomination is a process of learning the rules, norms, opinions, and attitudes, which serve to make the individual an active member of the group. It is a process of transferring the cultural inheritance between generations. Sabbathkeeping can be regarded as a strong indicator of the Seventh-day Adventist value system, which is also why I have concentrated on this specific issue in my study. The purpose of the study was to find out, how the Sabbath is transferred from parents to children among Finnish Adventists. It was also examined how parents could make the day of rest positively exceptional for children, and how the parental authoritativeness affects the process of transference. According to Bull & Lockhart s (1989) theory, the amount of Adventist generations in family history influences the transfer of religious tradition. This study aimed to find out whether or not this theory would apply to the present-day Finland. The nature of religious development among Adventist young people was also one of the interests of the research. The methods used in the study were in-depth interviews (n = 10) and a survey (n = 106). The majority of the interviewees was young adults (age 15-30) grown up in Adventist families. The interviews were taped and transcribed for the study, and survey answers were analysed with SPSS-data analysis program. The amount of survey questionnaires evaluated was 106, whole population of 15-30 year-old Finnish Adventists being about one thousand. Democratic relationship between parents and children, parents' example, encouragement to own thinking, and positive experiences of Sabbath and the whole religion, including the social dimension of the Adventism, seem to be some of the most significant factors in transference of religious tradition. Both too severe and too permissive education were considered to lead to similar results: unsuccessful transfer of values, or even rebellion and adopting a totally opposite way of life than that of the parents. In this study the amount of Adventist generations in family history does not correlate significantly with the end results of value transference. Keywords: Sabbath, intergenerational, value transference, religious home education Avainsanat: sapatti, arvojen siirtyminen vanhemmilta lapsille, uskonnollinen kotikasvatus

Self-reported bruxism : Associated factors among media personnel with or without irregular shift work

Tutkimuksen kohderyhmänä oli mediatyöntekijöitä, joiden toimenkuva on viime vuosina muuttunut yhä kuormittavammaksi epäsäännöllisen vuorotyön sekä jatkuvien teknisten, organisatoristen ja taloudellisten tekijöiden ristipaineessa. Väitöskirjatutkimus on osa laajempaa tutkimushanketta, joka suunniteltiin selvittämään epäsäännöllisen vuorotyön mahdollisia haittoja. Tutkimusta tukivat taloudellisesti Työsuojelurahasto ja Suomen Hammaslääkäriseura Apollonia sekä resurssipanostuksin Hammaslääketieteen laitos (HY), Työterveyslaitos ja Yleisradio Oy. Bruksismi on tahdosta riippumatonta hampaiden narskuttelua tai yhteenpuristamista. Hampaiden narskuttelu on rytmistä jaksoittain toistuvaa puremalihasten toimintaa, joka esiintyy nukkuessa -tavallisimmin kevyen unen ja havahtumisjaksojen yhteydessä. Valveilla ollessa bruksismi on terveillä ihmisillä lähinnä hampaiden yhteenpuristamista. Yleisen käsityksen mukaan toistuvaa unibruksismia esiintyy noin 10 %:lla ja valveilla tapahtuvaa hampaiden yhteenpuristamista noin 20 %:lla. Aiemmin bruksismi kuului kansainvälisen unihäiriöluokituksen (ICSD 1997) mukaan unen erityishäiriöihin, mutta tuorein luokitus (ICSD 2005) listaa sen unen liikehäiriöihin. Väitöstutkimuksen yleisenä tavoitteena oli kartoittaa koetun bruksismin ja uni- valvehäiriöiden yhteyttä. Tutkimus oli poikittainen vertailututkimus epäsäännöllistä vuorotyötä ja säännöllisiä päivävuoroja tekevien välillä. Mielenkiinto kohdistui myös bruksismin ja kasvojen alueen kivun mahdolliseen yhteyteen. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa selvitettiin joidenkin tunnetusti unen laatua huonontavien psykososiaalisten, neurologisten ja fysiologisten tekijöiden yhteyttä koettuun bruksismiin. Tutkimuksen kohderyhmän muodosti 750 Yleisradion epäsäännöllistä vuorotyötä tekevää työntekijää. Vertailuryhmänä käytettiin samansuuruista satunnaistetusti valittua kaltaistettua Yleisradion työntekijäjoukkoa, joka tekee samankaltaista työtä, mutta säännöllisenä päivätyönä. Kohderyhmälle lähetettiin kyselylomakkeet, jotka kartoittivat koetun bruksismin lisäksi mm. tutkittavien taustatiedot, yleisen terveydentilan, yleisiä koettuja stressioireita ja tuntemuksia, kipuoireita, sekä unen laatua. Lisäksi esitettiin jaksamista ja työympäristöä koskevia kysymyksiä. Kyselyyn vastasi kaikkiaan 874 henkilöä. Kokonaisvastausprosentti oli 58,3 % (53,7 % miehiä). Epäsäännöllistä vuorotyötä tekevien vastausprosentti oli 82,3 % ja säännöllistä päivätyötä tekevien ryhmässä 34,3 %. Työtehtävät sisälsivät ohjelmien toimitus- ja tuottamistyötä, teknistä tuotanto- ja tukityötä, sekä esimies- ja hallintotyötä. Miesten keski-ikä vuorotyöryhmässä oli 45,0 (± 10,6) vuotta ja naisten keski-ikä 42,6 (± 10,7) vuotta, vastaavat luvut päivätyötä tekeville olivat 47,4 (± 9,7) ja 45,5 (± 10,1) vuotta. Vuorotyötä tekevistä oli miehiä 56,6 %, päivätyöryhmässä miehien osuus oli 46,7 %. Usein koettua bruksismia havaittiin koko tutkimusjoukossa 10,6 %:lla. Bruksismin esiintyvyydessä ei ollut merkitsevää eroa epäsäännöllistä vuorotyötä ja päivätyötä tekevien välillä. Kun bruksismia ja stressiä arvioitiin suhteessa tyytyväisyyteen nykyiseen työaikamuotoon, molemmat olivat merkitsevästi vallitsevimpia niillä, jotka halusivat vaihtaa nykyistä työaikamuotoaan. Epäsäännöllistä vuorotyötä tekevät lisäksi ilmoittivat kokevansa enemmän stressiä kuin päivätyötä tekevät sekä olivat tyytymättömämpiä työaikamuotoonsa. Tutkittavista henkilöistä katkonaista unta esiintyi 43,6 %:lla sekä 36,2 % koki unensa virkistämättömäksi. Kasvokipua esiintyi 19,6 %:lla. Usein toistuva bruksaus sekä tyytymättömyys työaikamuotoon olivat erittäin merkitsevästi yhteydessä unihäiriöiden sekä riittämättömän unen oireiden kanssa. Bruksismi ja katkonainen uni osoittautuivat myös kasvokivun taustatekijöiksi. Tutkimus osoitti, että koetulla bruksismilla oli merkitsevä yhteys unihäiriöihin, kasvokipuun, koettuun stressiin ja ahdistuneisuuteen, nuorempaan ikään, runsaampiin hammaslääkäri- ja lääkärikäynteihin sekä siihen että oli tyytymätön työaikamuotoonsa (itse työaikamuoto ei ollut merkitsevä tekijä). Tutkimuksen yhtenä johtopäätöksenä todettiin, että koettu bruksismi voi terveillä työikäisillä henkilöillä olla osa stressaavaa tilannetta ja siihen liittyvää käyttäytymistä. Tämän tiedostaminen terveydenhuollossa voisi olla hyödyllistä.

Variation in the Understanding of Lutheranism and Its Implications for Religious Education : Meaning Discernment of Students and Teachers in Finnish Upper Secondary Schools

The study investigated variation in the ways in which a group of students and teachers of Evangelical Lutheran religious education in Finnish upper secondary schools understand Lutheranism and searched for educational implications for learning in religious education. The aim of understanding the qualitative variation in understanding Lutheranism was explored through the relationship between the following questions, which correspond to the results reported in the following original refereed publications: 1) How do Finnish students understand Lutheranism? 2) How do Finnish teachers of religious education constitute the meaning of Lutheranism? 3) How could phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning contribute to learning about and from religion in the context of Finnish Lutheran Religious Education as compared to religious education in the UK? Two empirical studies (Hella, 2007; Hella, 2008) were undertaken from a phenomenographic research perspective (e.g., Marton, 1981) and the Variation Theory of Learning (e.g., Marton & Tsui et al. 2004) that developed from it. Data was collected from 63 upper secondary students and 40 teachers of religious education through written tasks with open questions and complementary interviews with 11 students and 20 teachers for clarification of meanings. The two studies focused on the content and structure of meaning discernment in students and teachers expressed understandings of Lutheranism. Differences in understandings are due to differences in the meanings that are discerned and focused on. The key differences between the ways students understand varied from understanding Lutheranism as a religion to personal faith with its core in mercy. The logical relationships between the categories that describe variation in understanding express a hierarchy of ascending complexity, according to which more developed understandings are inclusive of less developed ones. The ways the teachers understand relate to student s understandings in a sequential manner. Phenomenography and Variation Theory were discussed in the context of religious education in Finland and the UK in relation to the theoretical notion of learning about and from religion (Hella & Wright, 2008). The thesis suggests that variation theory enables religious educators to recognise the unity of learning about and from religion, as learning is always learning about something and involves simultaneous engagement with the object of learning and development as a person. The study also suggests that phenomenography and variation theory offer a means by which it is possible for academics, policy makers, curriculum designers, teachers and students to learn to discern different ways of understanding the contested nature of religions. Keywords: Lutheranism, understanding, variation, teaching, learning, phenomenography, religious education

Valoa itään? : Kansanlähetys ja Neuvostoliitto 1967-1973

Light to the East? The Finnish Lutheran Mission and the Soviet Union 1967 1973 The Cold War affected the lives of Christian churches, especially in Europe. Besides the official ecumenical relations between east and west, there existed unofficial activity from west to east, such as smuggling Bibles and distributing information about the severe condition of human rights in the USSR. This study examines this kind of unofficial activity originating in Finland. It especially concentrates on the missionary work to the Soviet Union done by the Finnish Lutheran Mission (FLM, Suomen Evankelisluterilainen Kansanlähetys) founded in 1967. The work for Eastern Europe was organised through the Department for the Slavic Missions. FLM was founded within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, but it was not connected to the church on an organisational level. In addition to the strong emphasis on the Lutheran confession, FLM presented evangelical theology. The fundamental work of the Department for the Slavic Missions was to organise the smuggling of Bibles and other Christian literature to the Soviet Union and other countries behind the iron curtain. They also financed several Christian radio programmes produced and aired mainly by the international Trans World Radio. The Department diversified its activity to humanitarian help by distributing material help such as clothes and shoes to the unregistered evangelical and baptist groups, which were called the underground churches . In Finland the Department focused on information services. It published its own magazine, Valoa idässä (Light in the East), 5 to 6 times per year. Through the magazine and by distributing samizdat material received from the unregistered Christian groups, it discussed and reported the violations of human rights in the Soviet Union, especially when the unregistered Christian groups were considered the victims. The resistance against the Soviet Union was not as much political but religious: the staff of the Department were religious and revivalist young people who thought, for instance, that communism was in some way an apocalyptic world power revealed in the Bible. Smuggling Bibles was discussed widely in the Finnish media and even in parliament and the Finnish Security Police (SUPO, Suojelupoliisi) and in the Lutheran Church. From the church s point of view, this kind of missionary work was understandable but bothersome. Through their ecumenical connections, the bishops knew the critical situation of churches behind the iron curtain very well, but wanted to act diplomatically and cautiously to prevent causing harm to ecumenical or political relations. The leftist media and members of parliament especially accused the work of the Department of being illegal and endangering relations between Finland and the Soviet Union. SUPO did not consider the work of the Department as illegal activity or as a threat to Finnish national security.