Laura Ahva

I am a journalism researcher and educator. I have a doctorate (Doctor of Social Sciences) in Journalism and Mass Communication from Tampere University. I am Docent at the University of Helsinki. Here is a short profile video about me. 

I am an Academy Research Fellow (until 31.8.2025) and Professor of journalism studies at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences.  

My current project is a five-year (2020-2025) Academy of Finland Research Fellow project called "The Future of Dispersed Journalism: The Power of Start-ups, Metrics Analysis and Event Production" . This project investigates how start-up culture, metrics analysis and event production have become part of journalism in Finland. I also lead a project called "Individual paths of journalists" and it aims to follow the lives and careers of about 40 young journalists for ten years. The project is funded by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation. I am also presently co-leading a project that focuses on the role of AI in journalism funded by the Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland.

I also act as the associate director of Taru – Research Centre for Communication Sciences where I lead the Journalism Studies Group. 

I also supervise PhD researchers and MA students.

The themes I have been interested in throughout my research career are: (1) the democratic and constructive role of journalism in society, (2), the relationship between journalists and the audience, (3) journalistic work practices, and how to improve them, (4) participation in the media: why and how people use the media so that they sometimes want to take part in producing it, and (5) the changing nature of journalism and its future, and how to theorize it.

I am currently a member the international editorial borad of Media & Journalismo. I am also one of the founders of Nordic Forum for Social Responsibility in Journalism.

Journalism, journalistic work, practice theory, participation, journalism movements (public journalism, conciliatory journalism), audiences, news use, datafication, the public sphere. 

Communication sciences, media studies, journalism studies.

In 2018-2020 I was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advaced Social Research at Tampere University, and before that at Research Centre Comet. There I acted as th e principal investigator in the research project titled "Conciliatory Journalism" (2016-2017). This action research project developed ways how journalism can act as a mediator between conflicting parties in various disputes. This led me to examine news diversity and take part in developing the News Source Diversity Meter.

My postdoc research project (2013-2016) analysed how and why the notion of ‘participation’ has become consolidated in European journalism practice. The study concentrated on recognised participatory journalism in Finland, Sweden and Paris/Brussels. My article based on the study was awarded in 2018. 

I have also acted as the national coordinator (2012-2017) in Finland for the second wave of Worlds of Journalism Study that assesses the state of journalism throughout the world. A book comparing journalists in 67 countries was released in 2019. I have also worked with the comparative research initiative Journalism Students Across the Globe. 

Previously I have worked in research projects dealing with audiences ('Amateur images: A comparative study on how user-generated content is shaping journalism' and 'Towards Engaging Journalism'). My PhD dissertation (2010) analysed forms of public journalism in the Finnish press.