FUTURE NEWS WORLDWIDE 2017 — A Finnish perspective for the future of news

“You guys have an amazing educational system, everyone thinks so in my country!”
“I heard it’s really safe.”
“Tell me: is there anything wrong in Finland?”
The branding team for Finland should be very pleased — the comments above are just a small selection of the praise I heard from the delegates attending the Future News Worldwide Conference in Edinburgh a few weeks ago. And while some of the compliments were probably a bit overstated, it made me think what a great country Finland is for journalists.
We have free education, which guarantees that everyone, no matter what their financial background is, has the freedom to pursue a career in journalism. Sure, the job markets are dwindling and the budgets shrinking, but it is still a step in the right direction in making sure that the journalists in this country come from diverse backgrounds. In this era of “fake news” it’s important that the people who work in the media are representative of the people they work for — the audience.
We’ve got a pretty easy access to technology that helps when creating great journalistic content. We’ve got high internet speeds — something which I realised while speaking with some of the delegates from Africa can be a real problem. Similarly, we don’t often have worry about hiding our identity or worry for our personal safety as journalists — freedom of speech is held in high value.
Our audiences trust us — 62% of Finnish people trust the news most of the time. (In the UK only 43% of the people feel the same way, compared to 23% in South Korea).
I’m not saying that Finland is a perfect country (just look at the most recent Freedom of Press Index). But let’s be honest: for journalists, things are looking pretty great.
Of course, news media everywhere faces great challenges currently. Like everyone else, The Finns are trying to figure out how to keep the audiences engaged with their content, and how to get them pay for the content they consume. The digital platforms are full of opportunities, but the ever-increasing importance of social media also puts pressures on journalists to be constantly present online and switched on. Young journalists struggle with unpaid placements and the lack of diversity in the workplace.
The Future News Worldwide conference talked about many of those challenges, and the general conclusion was that there is no silver bullet — no quick, easy or obvious fix.
We talked a lot about possible solutions, and I think Finnish journalists have a great base to build upon. But the most innovative ideas for the future of news will probably come from global collaboration.
It seems that increased collaboration, not competition, between media professionals is needed to ensure the future of quality media. One of the points The Herald contributing foreign editor David Pratt hammered home with his talk is that the audiences are still interested in good-quality foreign news. In an increasingly connected world, the geography of news matters less and less — the audience wants to know what’s happening around them.
Therefore, one of the most fruitful aspects that the #FNW2017 conference provided was the chance for young journalists from across the world to meet, chat and connect. Meeting all these delegates passionate about journalism was an eye-opening experience and made me feel a bit more hopeful as to where the media industry is headed.
There are already some collaborative projects in the works following the conference — who knows where they will lead?
