Heikki Hellman

My background is firmly in journalism. I finished my master’s degree at the University of Tampere with journalism and mass communication as major in 1980. For 30 years (1980–2010), I worked as a journalist in Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's major national daily, most of that time as the Culture Editor of the paper. Besides journalism, however, I did research on programme competition in media and broadcasting policy. 

In 1993–1994, I took part in the Doctoral Programme of the CCIS at the University of Westminster, London, and defended my dissertation in Tampere in 1999. The study, From Companions to Competitors, dealt with the changes and uses of programming in broadcasting competition in Finland in the 1980s and the 1990s. In 2008–2009, I served as the Visiting Professor of Journalism and, in 2011–2016, as the Dean of the School of Communication, Media and Theatre (CMT) at the University of Tampere. In 2012, I published a book Koko illan ilo? (Pleasures all night long?) analysing the commercialization of television in Finland through a case study on Finland's Channel Three (Kolmoskanava). The study demonstrated how the launch of the new channel in 1986 signalled the beginning of the marketisation of television broadcasting in Finland.

Since 2017, serving first as Senior Research Fellow, I had a chance to concentrate fully on research. As to my research on journalism, I'm focusing on the dissolving authority of cultural journalism which, in many ways, predicts future developments of the profession. I contributed actively to a Nordic NOS-HS network aiming at promoting research in the field, resulting in several conference panel sessions, two edited volumes and various co-authored articles. 

In 2022, I took part in an audience study project on newspaper readership. We analysed how readers use print and online news outlets. We published a book Mä lehden luin [I read the news today, oh boy], which demonstrated how versatile and flexible the use of newspapers is, and how people often read different things in the print edition than in the online edition.

My most research interests include media policy issues and impact of media consolidation on media content. At the moment, I'm involved in a three-year project Concentrated media, homogenised contents?, funded by Kone Foundation.

In February 2019, I retired officially but continue as Docent, contributing to both teaching and research at the new Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC). 

Media and broadcasting policy, public service broadcasting, television programming patterns, digitalisation of television, cultural journalism, radio music

Member of the YLE (Finnish Broadcastng Company) Board of Executives, 2013–2017

News media consolidation, media and broadcasting policy, public service broadcasting, television programming patterns, cultural journalism, radio music.

Monographs:

Mä lehden luin. Yleisön suhde painettuun ja digitaaliseen sanomalehteen [I read the news today, oh boy: Readers' relationship with print and online newspaper]. Tampere: Tampere University Press. 

Koko illan ilo? Kolmoskanava ja television kaupallistuminen Suomessa [Pleasures all night long? Channel Three and the marketization of television in Finland]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2012. (Historiallisia Tutkimuksia 258; Kansallisen audiovisuaalisen arkiston julkaisuja.)

From Companions to Competitors. The Changing Broadcasting Markets and Television Programming in Finland. Tampere: University of Tampere, 199. (Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 652.)

Uustelevision aika? Yleisradiotoiminnan edellytykset television rakennemuutoksessa [Age of neo-television? Public broadcasting in the structural transformation of television]. Helsinki: Hanki ja Jää, 1988.

Refereed articles in English:

News from the Central Kitchen? Sustainability and Intra-Group Collaboration in Three Newspaper Chains. International Journal on Media Management, 28(2026):2, ss. 79–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/14241277.2026.2683787. 

Industry or Relevant Market? EMFA and Two Different Perspectives on Newspaper Concentration. Communication & Society, 38(2025):1, ss. 506–524. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.38.1.036.

Is There Diversity on Popular Music Radio? Developing a Methodology for a Quantitative Analysis of Radio Playlists. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 28(2021):2, ss. 193–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2019.1639054. 

Cultural Mediators Seduced by Mad Men: How Cultural Journalists Legitimized a Quality TV Series in the Nordic Region. Television and New Media, 20(2019):3, pp. 257–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476417743574. 

Public Service Hit Radio? Playlists and Product Differentiation in the Competition for Listeners. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 15(2017):1, 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao.15.1.27_1. 

What Is Cultural News Good For? Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish Cultural Journalism in Public Service Organisations. In: Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries / eds. Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert. Göteborg: Nordicom, 2017, 111–133. 

From Culture Wars to Combat Games: The Differentiation and Development of Culture Departments in Finland. In: Cultural Journalism in the Nordic Countries / eds. Nete Nørgaard Kristensen & Kristina Riegert. Göteborg: Nordicom, 2017, 49–68. 

Liquid Modern Journalists with a Difference: The Changing Professional Ethos of Cultural Journalism. Journalism Practice, 9(2015):6, 810–828. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1051361. 
– Published also in: Cultural Journalism and Cultural Critique in the Media / eds. Nete Nørgaard Christensen & Unni From. London: Routledge, 2017, 52–69.

Semi-Commercial or Semi-Public Service? Legitimacy and Regulation of Commercial Television in Finland. Comunicazioni Sociali, 35(2013):1, 44–57. 

From Aesthetes to Reporters: The Paradigm Shift in Arts Journalism in Finland. Journalism, 13(2012):6, 783–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911431382. 

Liberal Turn in Media Policy: The Case of Finland’s Digital Television. International Journal of Digital Television, 1(2010):2, 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1386/jdtv.1.2.193_1.

Digitalizing Diversity: Public Service Strategies and Television Program Supply in Finland in 2002. International Journal on Media Management, 6(2004):3–4, 152–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/14241277.2004.9669397. 

Does Market-Entry Regulation Matter? Competition in Television Broadcasting and Programme Diversity in Finland, 1993–2002. Gazette, 66(2004):2, 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016549204041473. 

Diversity – An End in Itself? Developing a Multi-Measure Methodology of Television Programme Variety Studies. European Journal of Communication, 16(2001):2, 181–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323101016002003.

Legitimations of Television Programme Policies: Patterns of Argumentation and Discursive Convergencies in a Multichannel Age. In: Rethinking the Media Audience: The New Agenda / ed. Pertti Alasuutari. London: Sage, 1996, 105–129.

The Formation of Television in Finland: A Case in Pragmatist Media Policy. In: Television in Scandinavia: History, Politics, Aesthetics / eds. Ib Bondebjerg & Francesco Bono. Luton: University of Luton Press, 1996, 91–111. (Acamedia Research Monograph 20).

A Toy for the Boys Only? Reconsidering the Gender Effects of Video Technology. European Journal of Communication, 11(1996):1, 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323196011001001.

The Formation of Television in Finland: A Case in Pragmatist Media Policy. In: Nordic Television: History, Politics and Aesthetics / eds. Ib Bondebjerg & Francesco Bono. Copenhagen and Roma: Department of Film and Media Studies, University of Copenhagen ja Festival Nordico, 1994, pp. 79–101. (Sekvens yearbook.)

Competition and Content in the U.S. Video Market. Journal of Media Economics, 7(1994):1, 29–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344394016001004. 

Public Service Television and the Tendency towards Convergence: Trends in Prime-time Programme Structure in Finland, 1970–1992. Media, Culture & Society, 16(1994):1, 47–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344394016001004. 

Economic Concentration in the Videocassette Industry: A Cultural Comparison. Journal of Communication, 35(1985):3, 122–134. 

Disarmament, Strip-Tease in the Ideological. Current Research on Peace and Violence, 6(1983):4, ss. 209–232.