Research group focuses on exploring the significance of sound in a journalistic and media theoretical context. The approach represents the international field of sound studies, which examines sound as a combination of material, mediating, and meaning-making aspects. In the technology-saturated environments, sound is embedded our lives, for example, via speaking and listening devices. Moreover, sound plays a crucial role in acquiring and perceiving information about the environment, especially when the idea of text and textuality is changing because of the development AI-technologies. The research group also delves into questions about sound’s role in the sensory system and bodily agency, which are connected with many accessibility-related issues.
At present, the research group is working on projects that focus on podcasts in journalistic work, sonification and listening as a means of using media in a post-textual era.
Research group leader
Tarja Rautiainen-Keskustalo is a professor of sound studies bringing together the perspectives of sound studies, media anthropology, and media studies in her research. She
aims to develop the understanding of sound and listening as a part of human sensory and bodily activity. In her extensive publication output, she has analysed how sound offers a perspective to study human action in various everyday situations, in media and as part of technology-mediated interaction. She has worked as a visiting researcher and teacher at the University of Salford (UK) and supervised dissertations, for example, at Indiana University (USA). Key partners in research projects have been the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Statistics Finland, the City of Tampere and the Youth Research Network.
In her recent studies, she has examined the new role of sound in media (podcast, TikTok) and issues of accessibility and ecological sustainability in technology-mediated activities.
Vice leader
In her doctoral research on journalism, M. Soc. Sc. Anna Eveliina Hänninen focuses on journalistic voice and voice-related professional practices in journalism. She is especially interested in how voice and speech are becoming tools for newspaper journalists and content in newspapers. In the articles of her dissertation, the talking journalist is discussed from the perspectives of live journalism and podcasts. Her background in music studies and working as a radio journalist have given her inspiration for sound and voice related research. Working as a journalist in local newspapers has given her an interest in how the rise of speech and sound changes the roles of a newspaper journalist and the contents of the newspaper media.