Eliisa Vainikka

I am working as a post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences. I graduated as Doctor of Social Sciences in 2020. In my doctoral thesis titled ”Prekarisaation tunnemaisema – Vastustavat taktiikat, tunnelmat ja elämänpolitiikka verkon julkisuudessa” I studied anonymous online discussions and their societal significance, and the different operational logics of social media platforms and anonymously used discussion forums. 

The sub-studies in my thesis concerned social criticism and counter-publics in online discussions, the dissemination of radical thinking and hate speech as well as discussions about precarity, generalized instability in modern societies, in the intimate public of the online forum.

At the moment I am working on a project called Towards datafied production thinking, where we examine datafication in Finnish film and television productions. The aim of the project is to examine the agency of data in the production processes in the industry as well as the possibilities and/or risks of data-driven production thinking. 

The study will be based on a significant amount of interviews of professionals in the field and ethnographic observations in three television productions. The project is funded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation. 

In my research career I aim to combine my empirical observations from digital media or media work wih the current theoretical discussions in media studies and social theory. 

Social media, online discussion, media work.

Research Centre Comet - Tampere Research Centre for Journalism, Media and Communication

Media studies, journalism studies, social media, media literacy, reading practices

I have worked as a researcher in Tampere University since 2010. In 2020-2022 I worked in the Faculty of Social Sciences in the Flows of Power project (Academy of Finland 2019-2022), where we investigated the agency of journalistic media in the flows of information, public opinion and power. I have worked in several media-related projects during the past fifteen years, examining for example, visual culture as in Instagram and online memes, the political public sphere, journalistic work and the reading practices of young adults.

I graduated from the master's programme in media culture (University of Tampere) in 2009. In the past I have also worked as a journalist and copywriter.

Vainikka, Eliisa; Kanner, Antti; Era, Riikka; Harju, Auli; Koivunen, Anu; Seuri, Olli & Mäkelä, Eetu (2020). Kilpailukykyloikasta ruutitynnyriin. Metaforat ja affektiivisuus poliittisen kriisin journalismissa. Media & viestintä 43(4), 247–271. https://doi.org/10.23983/mv.100616

Vainikka, Eliisa (2020). Prekarisaation tunnemaisema – Vastustavat taktiikat, tunnelmat ja elämänpolitiikka verkon julkisuudessa. Akateeminen väitöskirja. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto. Linkki julkaisuun: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-1637-2

Vainikka, Eliisa (2020). The anti-social network: Precarious life in online conversations of the socially withdrawn. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(4), 596–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549418810075

Vainikka, Eliisa (2019). Naisvihan tunneyhteisö: Anonyymisti esitettyä verkkovihaa Ylilaudan ihmissuhdekeskusteluissa. Media & viestintä 42(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.23983/mv.80179

Vainikka, Eliisa; Noppari, Elina; Seppänen, Janne (2017). Exploring tactics of public intimacy on Instagram. Participations: journal of audience and reception studies. 14(1), 108–128. 

Herkman, Juha; Vainikka, Eliisa (2012). Lukemisen tavat: lukeminen sosiaalisen median aikakaudella. Tampere: Tampere University Press. 

All of my publications are found in ORCID .