"Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy

This thesis investigates the formation of the Finnish nation brand by examining the portrayals of Finland and Finnishness in the Instagram posts of two Finnish embassies. The topic was inspired by a personal interest of mine for the Foreign Affairs of Finland and further motivated by my experience...

Täydet tiedot

Bibliografiset tiedot
Päätekijä: Siekkinen, Peppi
Muut tekijät: Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kieli- ja viestintätieteiden laitos, Department of Language and Communication Studies, Jyväskylän yliopisto, University of Jyväskylä
Aineistotyyppi: Pro gradu
Kieli:eng
Julkaistu: 2025
Aiheet:
Linkit: https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/103540
_version_ 1835128570500874240
author Siekkinen, Peppi
author2 Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Kieli- ja viestintätieteiden laitos Department of Language and Communication Studies Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä
author_facet Siekkinen, Peppi Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Kieli- ja viestintätieteiden laitos Department of Language and Communication Studies Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä Siekkinen, Peppi Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Kieli- ja viestintätieteiden laitos Department of Language and Communication Studies Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä
author_sort Siekkinen, Peppi
datasource_str_mv jyx
description This thesis investigates the formation of the Finnish nation brand by examining the portrayals of Finland and Finnishness in the Instagram posts of two Finnish embassies. The topic was inspired by a personal interest of mine for the Foreign Affairs of Finland and further motivated by my experience as an intern for the Embassy of Finland in Canada. Due to the current global situation and on-going international competition, the measures that nations take to establish a certain image of themselves play a significant role when it comes to their standing on the global stage. With nation branding, countries aim to project a desired image of them-selves with different actions, including social media presence. The contemporary nation branding comprises the digital public diplomacy, and this research aspires to study the phenomenon in the Finnish context. The research questions for this thesis govern the discursive construction of Finland and Finnishness in the cho-sen Instagram posts of Finland in the USA and Finland in Thailand by examining all the multimodal re-sources, including symbols that are applied to form the Finnish nation brand. Furthermore, the study aims to discover whether the Instagram posts of these two embassies depict Finland and Finnishness similarly. The question is based on the policy formulation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland which has stated that the USA belongs to the focus countries of the Foreign Ministry, whereas Thailand does not belong to those countries that have highlighted public diplomacy and communication endeavors. The findings of this research show that Finland and Finnishness are portrayed through the discourse of the essence of Finnish-ness which is constructed with discourses governing nature, national culture, happiness and symbolic signif-icance of Finnish consumer brands. The applied symbols include landscapes, nature’s phenomena, nationally recognized elements, such as national scenery and animals, Christmas, sauna, foods, consumer brands, flags, logos and uniforms. Additionally, the results show that stereotypes and borealism were applied when creating the image of Finland and Finnishness. The research data was examined by applying a social semiotic multimodal research analysis which strived to discover the culturally and socially tied elements within the data. As based on my findings I suggest a more diverse and inclusive take on the Finnish nation brand that does not resort to stereotypical assumptions.
first_indexed 2025-06-16T20:00:37Z
format Pro gradu
free_online_boolean 1
fullrecord [{"key": "dc.contributor.advisor", "value": "Siitonen, Marko", "language": null, "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "advisor"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.author", "value": "Siekkinen, Peppi", "language": null, "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "author"}, {"key": "dc.date.accessioned", "value": "2025-06-16T08:28:37Z", "language": null, "element": "date", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "accessioned"}, {"key": "dc.date.available", "value": "2025-06-16T08:28:37Z", "language": null, "element": "date", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "available"}, {"key": "dc.date.issued", "value": "2025", "language": null, "element": "date", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "issued"}, {"key": "dc.identifier.uri", "value": "https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/103540", "language": null, "element": "identifier", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "uri"}, {"key": "dc.description.abstract", "value": "", "language": "fi", "element": "description", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "abstract"}, {"key": "dc.description.abstract", "value": "This thesis investigates the formation of the Finnish nation brand by examining the portrayals of Finland and Finnishness in the Instagram posts of two Finnish embassies. The topic was inspired by a personal interest of mine for the Foreign Affairs of Finland and further motivated by my experience as an intern for the Embassy of Finland in Canada. Due to the current global situation and on-going international competition, the measures that nations take to establish a certain image of themselves play a significant role when it comes to their standing on the global stage. With nation branding, countries aim to project a desired image of them-selves with different actions, including social media presence. The contemporary nation branding comprises the digital public diplomacy, and this research aspires to study the phenomenon in the Finnish context. The research questions for this thesis govern the discursive construction of Finland and Finnishness in the cho-sen Instagram posts of Finland in the USA and Finland in Thailand by examining all the multimodal re-sources, including symbols that are applied to form the Finnish nation brand. Furthermore, the study aims to discover whether the Instagram posts of these two embassies depict Finland and Finnishness similarly. The question is based on the policy formulation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland which has stated that the USA belongs to the focus countries of the Foreign Ministry, whereas Thailand does not belong to those countries that have highlighted public diplomacy and communication endeavors. The findings of this research show that Finland and Finnishness are portrayed through the discourse of the essence of Finnish-ness which is constructed with discourses governing nature, national culture, happiness and symbolic signif-icance of Finnish consumer brands. The applied symbols include landscapes, nature\u2019s phenomena, nationally recognized elements, such as national scenery and animals, Christmas, sauna, foods, consumer brands, flags, logos and uniforms. Additionally, the results show that stereotypes and borealism were applied when creating the image of Finland and Finnishness. The research data was examined by applying a social semiotic multimodal research analysis which strived to discover the culturally and socially tied elements within the data. As based on my findings I suggest a more diverse and inclusive take on the Finnish nation brand that does not resort to stereotypical assumptions.", "language": "en", "element": "description", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "abstract"}, {"key": "dc.description.provenance", "value": "Submitted by Paivi Vuorio (paelvuor@jyu.fi) on 2025-06-16T08:28:37Z\nNo. of bitstreams: 0", "language": "en", "element": "description", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "provenance"}, {"key": "dc.description.provenance", "value": "Made available in DSpace on 2025-06-16T08:28:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0\n Previous issue date: 2025", "language": "en", "element": "description", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "provenance"}, {"key": "dc.format.extent", "value": "67", "language": null, "element": "format", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "extent"}, {"key": "dc.language.iso", "value": "eng", "language": null, "element": "language", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "iso"}, {"key": "dc.rights", "value": "In Copyright", "language": null, "element": "rights", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": null}, {"key": "dc.subject.other", "value": "country image", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "other"}, {"key": "dc.subject.other", "value": "nation branding", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "other"}, {"key": "dc.subject.other", "value": "Finnishness", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "other"}, {"key": "dc.title", "value": "\"Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room\" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy", "language": null, "element": "title", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": null}, {"key": "dc.type", "value": "master thesis", "language": null, "element": "type", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": null}, {"key": "dc.identifier.urn", "value": "URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202506165353", "language": null, "element": "identifier", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "urn"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.faculty", "value": "Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta", "language": "fi", "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "faculty"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.faculty", "value": "Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences", "language": "en", "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "faculty"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.department", "value": "Kieli- ja viestint\u00e4tieteiden laitos", "language": "fi", "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "department"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.department", "value": "Department of Language and Communication Studies", "language": "en", "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "department"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.organization", "value": "Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4n yliopisto", "language": null, "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "organization"}, {"key": "dc.contributor.organization", "value": "University of Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4", "language": null, "element": "contributor", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "organization"}, {"key": "dc.subject.discipline", "value": "Intercultural Communication (maisteriohjelma)", "language": "fi", "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "discipline"}, {"key": "dc.subject.discipline", "value": "Master's Degree Programme in Intercultural Communication", "language": "en", "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "discipline"}, {"key": "dc.type.coar", "value": "http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdcc", "language": null, "element": "type", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "coar"}, {"key": "dc.rights.copyright", "value": "\u00a9 The Author(s)", "language": "fi", "element": "rights", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "copyright"}, {"key": "dc.rights.accesslevel", "value": "openAccess", "language": null, "element": "rights", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "accesslevel"}, {"key": "dc.type.publication", "value": "masterThesis", "language": null, "element": "type", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "publication"}, {"key": "dc.subject.yso", "value": "suomalaisuus", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "yso"}, {"key": "dc.subject.yso", "value": "br\u00e4nd\u00e4ys", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "yso"}, {"key": "dc.subject.yso", "value": "br\u00e4ndit", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "yso"}, {"key": "dc.subject.yso", "value": "sosiaalinen media", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "yso"}, {"key": "dc.subject.yso", "value": "Suomi-kuva", "language": null, "element": "subject", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "yso"}, {"key": "dc.rights.url", "value": "https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/", "language": null, "element": "rights", "schema": "dc", "qualifier": "url"}]
id jyx.123456789_103540
language eng
last_indexed 2025-06-16T20:02:56Z
main_date 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z
main_date_str 2025
online_boolean 1
online_urls_str_mv {"url":"https:\/\/jyx.jyu.fi\/bitstreams\/82af2074-ad60-45bf-8d12-bb1da0734f0f\/download","text":"URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202506165353.pdf","source":"jyx","mediaType":"application\/pdf"}
publishDate 2025
record_format qdc
source_str_mv jyx
spellingShingle Siekkinen, Peppi "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy country image nation branding Finnishness Intercultural Communication (maisteriohjelma) Master's Degree Programme in Intercultural Communication suomalaisuus brändäys brändit sosiaalinen media Suomi-kuva
title "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy
title_full "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy
title_fullStr "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy
title_full_unstemmed "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy
title_short "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room"
title_sort moomins black candy and a simple heated room the essence of finnishness as a nation branding strategy
title_sub the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy
title_txtP "Moomins, black candy and a simple heated room" : the essence of Finnishness as a nation branding strategy
topic country image nation branding Finnishness Intercultural Communication (maisteriohjelma) Master's Degree Programme in Intercultural Communication suomalaisuus brändäys brändit sosiaalinen media Suomi-kuva
topic_facet Finnishness Intercultural Communication (maisteriohjelma) Master's Degree Programme in Intercultural Communication Suomi-kuva brändit brändäys country image nation branding sosiaalinen media suomalaisuus
url https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/103540 http://www.urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202506165353
work_keys_str_mv AT siekkinenpeppi moominsblackcandyandasimpleheatedroomtheessenceoffinnishnessasanationbrandingstra