“I find this really entertaining” – First look of the relationship between vocational school students and various media

This paper presents the findings of an on-going study on how young vocational school students in Finland frame themselves in society and whether they are seen in various media, and what effects this may have in relations to societal power relations, fake news and information operations globally. The explorative research with n=213 vocational school students as co-researchers, tell us that young vocational school students use framing to create understandings of themselves, of truths and trusted sources in society and in media. Co-researchers view themselves as missing in traditional media but find freedom, news and information freely on social media. Content from various media is viewed as reliable and trustworthy but also as problematic propaganda based on personal value framing. Thus, in this paper, the aim was to present the breadth of their thinking and to draw conclusions from the empirical data produced solely by the co-researchers. Do news media paint a picture of uninterested young vocational school students, and for what purpose? To sustain power relations? At first sight, yes. The broader questions are: why and at what cost? The empirical results show that co-researchers do live in their own worlds compared, in their view, to those portrayed in the (Finnish) media. Thus, Lippman’s (1922) notion rings true. The co-researchers say that they are othered in various media and society because they do not view vocational school students as important or worthy. Co-researchers think that traditional gatekeeper media are not gatekeepers anymore, and shy away from the difficult language and hard-to-understand content. While news and information are consumed mostly from social media, but traditional media has not been abandoned altogether. Yet co-researcher say that the traditional print and news frames them as lazy, less credible and legitimate actors in society. Social media and its many platforms felt more “owned” by the co-researchers. The most popular platforms to use and to find information and news from were Instagram, with TikTok and Snapchat coming after. Social media was seen as natural part of life, as a news and information outlet, but also as a dangerous place where nothing is real, and nothing should be trusted due to fake news, information operations by various actors, deepfakes, opinions framed as factual information, and various negative effects. While they look for that entertaining content across the media spectrum, bullying from adults, journalists and other youths is an ever-present concern. Also, co-researchers noted that both traditional print media and social media can be used as propaganda either by the state or by the editorial staff and “owning class”. Although power relations in information and content creation have changed rapidly, what possibilities and threats may arise and to whom? It will not be enough to address this in relation to journalists and content producers but those influential actors who may be hidden from the so-called mainstream debates. Indeed, in the future of democracies the questions of trusted sources, fake news, deepfakes, information operations and influencing through information are fundamental.