TV will resolve presidential election in Finland
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Television is the most important medium in Finland's presidential elections, and viewers consider their voting decisions on the basis of the information they receive from various TV programmes.
In almost all other elections, the most important role is held by newspapers.
The information is based on a research project entitled Changes in Finnish TV-Election Campaigns conducted by Professor Tom Moring of University of Helsinki's Swedish School of Social Science. The project group included researchers from various universities.
In Finland's presidential elections, the most popular TV programmes after news and current affairs slots appear to be election debates. Only after them come the newspapers. Moreover, campaign advertisements seem to be less significant than editorial material.
After the presidential elections of 2000, as many as 46 percent of all respondents believed that their voting decisions were somewhat or very much based on some significant information they had received from the election debates.
Even in 1994, over 40 percent of all under-35-year-old respondents and over 30 percent of all over-35-year-old voters questioned estimated that TV debates had given them some important information.
There are several reasons for the supremacy of TV. A small number of candidates and a live performance both also seem to be convenient for TV debates.
"From the voter's point of view, the decision-making situation, the dramatics created by television, as well as the medium itself all fit in", Moring remarks.
On the other hand, the press has been the most important medium for the over-35-year-old respondents in parliamentary, municipal and European parliament elections.
Furthermore, the editorial material of the press has had the most important role in all age-groups since the beginning of the 1990s, except for the year 2004. In that year, the most important medium for the youth was TV in the European Parliament election, and the online election "voting-machine" in the municipal elections.
The influence of election machines (which pair up voters and participating candidates via a selection of questions and answers on topical issues) increased only during the Parliament election of 2003.
After the latest municipal election, as many as 40 percent of the young respondents believed that they had received some important information from the election machines. Moring regards the number as hair-raising.
"I am looking forward to seeing how successful election machines will be during the upcoming presidential election. We do not know yet how well-suited they are for an election with so few candidates and so much publicity", Moring contemplates.
The significance of television entertainment for the next election is also a mystery. Some entertainment programmes, including the family quiz Tuttu juttu in 1994 and Uutisvuoto (Have I Got News for You) in 2000, are said to have shown up some differences between the presidential candidates. For other elections, TV entertainment programmes have been unimportant.
Conan O'Brien, the host of the American talkshow Late Night with Conan O'Brien, has been getting a lot of attention in Finland since he recently mentioned his alleged facial resemblance to President
Tarja Halonen.
According to Moring, it is too early to say whether or not Conan O'Brien will have any decisive role in the presidential election, even though it gave Halonen's campaign a good start.
All Finnish TV channels will air their own election debates, starting with the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE's live election debate on December 7.
The survey was financed by the Swedish School of Social Sience and Åbo Akademi, with co-funding from Finnish political parties and Gallup Finland.
The panel survey was carried out by Gallup Finland on a computerized respondent network that had been selected to represent the adult population in Finland. Since the presidential election in 1994, the number of respondents has been 1,000 to 1,500.
The first round of voting in Finland's next presidential election will be held on January 15th, 2006. Preliminary voting will be arranged on January 4th to 5th and on January 7th to 10th, 2006. If an absolute majority is not won by one candidate, and a second round run-off between the two leading contenders proves necessary, it will be held on January 29th.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 14.11.2005 - TODAY |
 TV will resolve presidential election in Finland
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