Keiden tasa-arvo tai yhdenvertaisuus? : Yhteiskunnallisen oikeudenmukaisuuden kielet uutisjournalismissa 1999–2018

Abstract

Equality and non-discrimination are core concepts in the Finnish political vocabulary. The concept of equality has a long history, whereas non-discrimination only began to gain prominence in Finnish political debate on social justice after the constitutional reform of 2000 and the Non-Discrimination Act of 2004. In this article we use journalistic datasets from 1999 to 2018 to analyse how the concepts of equality and non-discrimination appeared in Finnish news media before and after the Non-Discrimination Act. We also operationalise the political vision embedded in the concepts of equality and non-discrimination as a question of representation and voice-giving: Whose political language are these concepts, and has the conceptual framing of non-discrimination expanded opportunities for representation and voice-giving and influenced the political agenda? To what extent were equality and non-discrimination talked about in public? How did this change with the development of legislation? We show that the Non-Discrimination Act did not bring a marked increase in the use of the concept of non-discrimination. However, after 2010 the use of both equality and non-discrimination increased in all our data sources. The rise in frequency was seen first in op-ed and opinion texts, followed by interpretative journalism and core news reporting. With the exception of legal experts, most language users in our data did not make a strong differentiation between the two terms but used them interchangeably. According to our data, the language of non-discrimination has paved the way for new groups and themes: in the 2010s both asylum seekers and sexual and gender minorities have gained increased coverage. A related and aligned phenomenon is that NGOs have emerged as relevant participants in the public debate. Our data shows that the language of non-discrimination has expanded the agendas of both politics and public debate and made way for new themes and voices. In this way, it has fostered both representation and voice-giving. Keywords: journalism, computational methods, non-discrimination, equality, political discourse.