Tiina Räisä

My research interest is best described as the changing practices of mediated culture, and the power of the media as an institution. In my doctoral thesis, I analyzed the oldest media ritual in Finland, the official Swedish speaking Lucia, from both a diachronic and synchronic perspective and as sequential, editorial practices that shapes the functions and discourses of the media ritual, i.e. to construct a distinct cultural community. In analyses of media texts, I have adapted theories of mediatization, and e.g. the relationship between two institutions, the university and the media, and how the first adjusts its practices to the prevailing logics of the latter. Recently I have studied the mediatization of the family institution and the role of emotions in an intimate and digital environment such as WhatsApp. I am also interested in the changing practices of reading and the role of books and vernacular reviewing in a datafied and visual context such as Instagram. I have a background as a news journalist and I find it important to study the intertwining of the media and politics as how they shape the prerequisites of democracy. Lately I have coordinated a multidisciplinary research network, Nordic network for research in Epistemic injustice, digitalization and higher education.