Who are you?
I am Elina Vaahensalo, doctoral researcher in Digital Culture at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Turku, in the Degree Programme in Digital Culture, Landscape and Cultural Heritage. In addition, at the beginning of October I will start as a researcher in the Academy project
What is your research topic?
In my dissertation, I examine online discussion that produces otherness, especially from the perspective of anonymous Finnish-language online communities. I am interested in how confrontation, alienation and even violent hostility are constructed in Finnish-language online discussion cultures, and what different forms the concept of otherness takes in these cultures. Otherness is a fruitful conceptual starting point for research on online discussions because it can be used in a variety of ways to outline descriptions of community, group identities, and the sense of being an outsider or downgraded and different. In Finnish-language online discussions, otherness takes very different – and also contradictory – forms: the other can be an enemy who is violently and dehumanisingly opposed, but also a relatable fellow sufferer with whom one shares common, peer-based experiences of marginalisation.
In addition, my colleague Lilli Sihvonen and I have studied online cultures from the framework of media archaeology. In particular, we are interested in what happens when a cybercultural phenomenon or object – a meme that has gone viral or a social media platform – dies, and what kind of afterlife can be associated with it. Our interest is driven by the perception of the vulnerability of digital phenomena. In our view, online phenomena in Finnish, for example, are particularly vulnerable because they often do not spread globally and are therefore not stored very widely online. In storing Finnish-language online cultural phenomena, Kielipankki has therefore done a valuable job by depositing online discussions from both the
In my research for the SoliPro project, I will continue my work on othering, but from an even more robust perspective of community and solidarity. My aim is to examine the descriptions of community, otherness and solidarity shared by young people on social media.
How is your research related to Kielipankki?
In my more recent research, I have used qualitative and ethnographic online discussion data that was collected by myself, but the Suomi24 data from Kielipankki also plays an important role for the beginning of my research career. In 2017, I started as a research assistant in the
From time to time, I also teach digital culture students, and my teaching focuses on the tools and methods that can be used for conducting qualitative research on online discussions. I always encourage my students to use the online discussion corpora in Kielipankki, as they are unique collections of Finnish online culture, and they also prove that the language used online is worth saving and remembering.
Recent publications
Vaahensalo, E., & Sihvonen, L. (2022). Elävät, kuolleet ja elävät kuolleet keskustelufoorumit: verkkoyhteisöjen elämänvaiheet ja niiden tutkiminen. In R. Mähkä, M. Ahonen, N. Heikkilä, S. Ollitervo, & M. Räsänen (Eds.), Kulttuurihistorian tutkimusmenetelmät (pp. 411-429). Turun yliopisto.
Vaahensalo, E. (2022).
Vaahensalo, E. (2022).
Vaahensalo, E. (2021).
Vaahensalo, E. (2021).
Vaahensalo, E. (2021).
Suominen, J., Saarikoski, P., & Vaahensalo, E. (2019). Digitaalisia kohtaamisia: Verkkokeskustelut BBS-purkeista sosiaaliseen mediaan. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.
Corpora
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project project
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