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About me

I am a journalism researcher and am particularly interested in journalistic practices. I received a doctorate (Doctor of Social Sciences) in journalism from Tampere University in 2021. My current research career started at the beginning of 2023; earlier, I worked as a journalist for over two decades.

Responsibilities

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences. Currently, I am working on a research project Journalism Shaped by Data, in which I am doing an ethnotraphic study considering how audience metrics are featured in the everyday newsroom practices at a Nordic tabloid Iltalehti, and how this affects the ways in which audiences are imagined and served with news. In a forthcoming research project in 2024, I will concentrate on the feedback sent by audience members to Finnish newsrooms, and the effects of it on journalistic work.

Fields of expertise

I am especially interested in journalistic work and its practices, the relations between journalists and audiences, and journalistic professionalism. I have experience in newsroom ethnography, which I have used as a method in both my dissertation and the current research project.

Main positions of trust

In March 2023, I was appointed secretary of The Finnish Association for Media and Communication Studies (Mevi ry). The association keeps in contact with Finnish and international researchers, organizations, and research institutes, publishes the journal Media & viestintä, and organizes conferences, among other things.

Research unit

Tutkimuskeskus Comet, https://research.tuni.fi/comet/

Funding

Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, Journalistisen kulttuurin edistämissäätiö Jokes [Foundation for Advancing Journalistic Culture]

Selected publications

Penttilä, P. (2021). Toisto journalismin kentällä. Etnografiseen aineistoon perustuva mallinnus journalismiprofession kentän sisäisestä dynamiikasta. [Repetition on the Field of Journalism. Model of Inner Dynamics of the Field based on Ethnographic Material. Doctoral thesis.] Tampere: Tamperen yliopisto. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-1940-3

Penttilä, P. (2021). ”Ufosta” hahmottuu toimittajan valta journalismiin. [From the "UFO," You Can Oversee Journalists' Power over Journalism. Lectio praecursoria.] Media & Viestintä, 44(4), 71–77. https://doi.org/10.23983/mv.112869