Reality and Finnish TV Criticism

Abstract

This article examines realism conceptions in Finnish TV criticism. The analysis concentrates on journalistic evaluations of long and middle-length serial dramas in TV2 (YLE) between 1961-1996. The intention is to analyze in detail in what ways journalistic television criticism has seen as important or less important the fact that series in one way or another participate in reality. The article starts with conceptualization of 'realisms' and continues by considering the substance of journalistic television critique, and its special characteristics. Following conceptualization, the article gives an empirical overview of the data, which consist of 411 critiques of different kinds. The qualitative analysis concentrates on reviews and critiques written about the following family series: Pääluottamusmies (1970), Rintamäkeläiset (1972), Oi kallis kaupunki (1975), Tankki täyteen (1978), and Kohtaamiset ja erot (1994). These five series are chosen because of their comparability and distinctiveness as regards the selectivity of social realism as convention and the 'utility drama' as discourse. As the study shows, the majority of the critiques establish some sort of a relationship between the dramas and 'reality' as well as the critics' assumed connection to reality. On the general level of the analysis, these relationships and connections can be examined from three points of view, following Stuart Hall's analogy on language (Hall 1997, 24-25): reflective, intentional and constructionist. With the first view, critics evaluate whether or not existing reality is reflected in the TV series. According to the second view, the author, for example the writer or director, is considered to have her or his own unique way of seeing and talking about reality that can also be recognized by critics. In third case, criticism fairly openly builds its own reality, seemingly independently from the 'reality' portrayed in television drama.

Documentarism, Imagination, and Social Change in Finnish Television Culture

“…The depictions of reality repeated in the Finnish family serials in the 1960s and 1970s can be regarded as directly connected with the change described above (Ruoho, 2001a(Ruoho, , 2001b. The aim was to get rid of the prewar economy and pave the way for the welfare state and the modern individual.…”

“…And vice versa, commercial television has been forced to represent the cultural form (Williams, 1974) as ''non-realistic'' and therefore ''escapist'' television (Ruoho, 2000(Ruoho, , 2001a(Ruoho, , 2001b. And vice versa, commercial television has been forced to represent the cultural form (Williams, 1974) as ''non-realistic'' and therefore ''escapist'' television (Ruoho, 2000(Ruoho, , 2001a(Ruoho, , 2001b.…”

“…citizenship by offering balanced information has been an essential framework for defining its esthetic quality. And vice versa, commercial television has been forced to represent the cultural form (Williams, 1974) as ''non-realistic'' and therefore ''escapist'' television (Ruoho, 2000(Ruoho, , 2001a(Ruoho, , 2001b. The public service ideology seemed to be particularly strong in the 1960s and the 1970s, but the advent of media competition in the mid-1980s and the end of the monopoly of public service television in the early 1990s strengthened the role of commercial television.…”