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RISC Monitor audience rating and its implications for journalistic practice

University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, jaana.hujanen{at}jyu.fi

Conceptualizations of good news are increasingly driven by detailed audience research. This article examines the application of Research Institute on Social Change (RISC) Monitor in the context of Finnish press journalistic practice and considers the views on journalism and the audience RISC Monitor reinforces. This international and widely used market research tool monitors social change by analysing people's life-styles, attitudes and values. Here the focus is on the implications the use of RISC Monitor has for the idea(l)s of journalism as the transmission of information and as a resource for public participation and active citizenship. The study is based on qualitative interviews with Finnish press journalists. Discourse analysis is used as a theoretical and methodological framework. The analysis finds that RISC Monitor is applied in heterogeneous ways in newsrooms. The criteria for good journalism are (re)negotiated according to the perceived wants and needs of target groups, and readers are seen as consumers. However, the idea(l)s and practices that emerge also aim to serve people as active citizens.

Key Words: K E Y W O R D S • audience research • citizenship • discourse analysis • journalism • the press

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