Kanerva's texting had all the ingredients of a classic scandal

Pasi Kivioja is writing a doctoral dissertation on the evolution of scandals - just as a big one broke

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By Tuomas Peltomäki
     
      A couple of years ago, Finnish media researcher and journalist Pasi Kivioja began work on a doctoral dissertation that is unusual to say the least - the evolution of scandals.
      The subject-matter is not only a little-researched topic, it is also a stunningly topical one in the wake of the revelations about Ilkka Kanerva’s suggestive SMS messages, which led last week to the Foreign Minister’s replacement.
     
“This is just not something that gets studied. I noticed this back when I was writing my master’s dissertation on a subject that touched upon it. People tend to think of it as mere entertainment and not worthy of academic treatment. The events of recent weeks have shown that even research such as this has real meaning”, says Kivioja, who is currently on leave from his desk at the late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat and pursuing his post-graduate work at the University of Tampere.
      Kivioja decided he would also keep a blog on the progress of his thesis.
      His posts on the blog also provide comments on the current Finnish media and celebrity landscape.
     
The bible of scandal research in the wider world was written by a Briton, John B. Thompson, a professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge.
      Thompson’s Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age (2000), awarded the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Science for 2001, explored how scandals are born and how they unfold before our eyes.
      Scandals generally adhere to certain specific patterns and have common features.
      Usually a scandal begins with an transgression and the hiding of it. A well-known or influential figure breaks the law, or transgresses against moral norms, or otherwise behaves in an unsuitable manner.
      He (or she) often attempts to cover up the actions.
      The deed, whatever it may be, is exposed, and the person is publicly chastised.
     
The dough of a scandal rises really high in the bowl when the object of the scandal denies his or her actions.
      Former U.S. President Bill Clinton took this course when caught in an “inappropriate” extra-marital relationship with one of his White House interns.
      In this respect he acted immorally in the eyes of the public and then also tried to lie about what he had done.
     
The “second-order transgressions” that may be involved in the denial phase can ultimately be much more significant than the original offence.
      On his blog, Kivioja cites the after-shocks of the Lahti doping scandal of 2001 in this context.
      “This doubles the impact of the error made”, explains Kivioja.
     
But even though Thompson’s seminal work was written as recently as 2000, things have already changed since that time.
      The earlier genus of scandals that were unearthed by dogged investigative journalists has given way to a kind of “on a plate” scandal, in which the whistle-blower of the piece sells a ready-made package to the media and in so doing gets to bask in publicity himself or herself.
      “We have seen the landfall, even in Finland, of ‘kiss and tell’, although in the current decade a better term for it might be ‘kiss and sell’, given the element of making a profit from it.”
     
Kivioja describes the new breed of scandal as the “manufactured scandal” or “generated scandal”.
      Examples of this variant have gained a good deal of visibility in Finland in the past decade, for example when Finnish model and sex therapist Marika Fingerroos disclosed her affair with married businessman Vesa Keskinen, and later her relationship with the then Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ilkka Kanerva in 2005.
     
A good many other women have come into the public eye as the consequence of a scandal.
      The pattern was always the same: one of the parties to the relationship approached some magazine or tabloid with a complete package. In return she got publicity and a certain amount of money.
      “In Finland it was very much driven by a desire for publicity, and not for cash. Abroad this could be a way of getting rich, but in the Finnish market the sums involved are too small”, says Kivioja.
     
Political scandals in Finland have emerged at the rate of maybe one every year or two years.
      Hence Pasi Kivioja felt that there was a reasonable chance of one such incident surfacing while he was engaged on his thesis.
      And then early in March Johanna Tukiainen reported that she had received a couple of hundred SMS messages from Foreign Minister Kanerva.
      A scandal broke.
      Suddenly, Kivioja’s blog was getting a serious number of readers.
     
Pasi Kivioja spotted straightaway that the case had all the ingredients of a major-league scandal.
      When Kanerva further went and denied his text-messaging, things slid inexorably and completely into the second, expanded version of the genre as described by Prof. Thompson.
      On top of that, the scandal was generated by Johanna Tukiainen and by the gossip magazine Hymy - in other words, the phenomenon was also a textbook example of a manufactured scandal, complete with its own skein of problems.
      “Particularly with this sort of ‘exclusive story’, the problem is that the scandal takes off, but few of those continuing the narrative in the media actually have first-hand information or a means of confirming the claims made. There is just material borrowed from others and one party’s word against another’s.”
     
Then again, Kivioja is quick to point out that politics today has become a matter of image marketing.
      Voters are sold the advertising agencies’ manipulated and retouched images of squeaky-clean politicians.
      The political parties become associated less with their manifestos and more with their leaders, and their image is shaped to be as attractive as possible.
      “It is therefore essential that voters do get a chance to see more than just this glossy PR material”, says Kivioja.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 2.4.2008
     
     
The blog associated with Kivioja’s research can be found at the link below. It is predominantly in Finnish.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  MEP Alexander Stubb to replace Ilkka Kanerva as Foreign Minister (1.4.2008)
  Foreign Minister Kanerva to Slovenia; controversial SMS messages may be published next week (27.3.2008)
  Kanerva apologises over SMS uproar (14.3.2008)
  President sees FM change as indication of "new times" (4.4.2008)
  Scrutiny of private lives of government ministers seen to reflect political change (3.4.2008)
  Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Ilkka Kanerva upbraided for inappropriate SMS messages (16.6.2005)

Links:
  Kivioja discussing scandals with Prof. James Lull (October 2007)
  Journalism Research and Development Center, Univ. Of Tampere
  Pasi Kivioja´s Skandaali blog
  Synopsis of John B. Robinson´s Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age (Waterstones)

TUOMAS PELTOMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
tuomas.peltomaki@sanoma.fi