mediakenttä

mediakenttä (Finnish for the 'media field') is a concept used in Finnish media studies to describe the social arena in which actors within the media system—such as news organisations, broadcasters, publishers, digital platforms, advertisers, regulators, and audiences—interact, compete, and negotiate influence. The term foregrounds the patterned relations and hierarchies that shape what gets produced, how it is framed, and who gains credibility and resources.

rooted in field theory, mediakenttä treats actors as positioned within a structure of capital and legitimacy. Economic capital (funding, subsidies, revenue), social capital (relationships to sources, access to networks), cultural capital (reputation, editorial practices), and symbolic capital (credibility, status) interact to determine actors' power to influence agenda setting and content quality. The framework emphasizes that power is distributed unevenly and can shift with technology, policy, and market changes.

The mediakenttä is dynamic and continually reshaped by digitization, platformization, and changing business models. Platform power, algorithmic curation, and online advertising intersect with traditional journalism and public service media, creating new gatekeeping and monetization pressures. Researchers use the concept to analyze ownership concentration, funding structures, editorial independence, audience behavior, and policy effects on media freedom and pluralism. Common methods include content analysis, interviews, surveys, and network analyses.

In practice, mediakenttä is applied to map the Finnish media landscape, including public service broadcasting, private media groups, and digital platforms, as well as regulatory and societal debates about journalism subsidies, platform accountability, and the resilience of democratic communication.