Blogging a la Tampere

I am pleased to enter and proud to present our collective doctoral students' blog on Media and Journalism research. This is our chance to keep each other informed and alert - by supplying the blog with posts and comments as well as links to related blogs and websites.

In order to make our blog archives as useful as possible, I suggest that we use quite specific, informative titles when we publish new posts; titles which give a hint about the question, topic, theme or the event, book or article which is introduced or brought up for discussion.

On the network website Gitte and I have let the hattivatti/the Hattifatteners of Moominvalley make a prominent appearance. Being Finnish and electric the hattivatti seem fit to remind us all of the place we first met, namely Tampere, home of the first electric light bulb in the Nordic countries (you know). But are the hattivatti supposed to represent us, the doctoral students? Well, at Wikipedia the Hattifatteners are described as

silent and serious, having neither the ability to talk nor to hear. They also seem melancholy in character. The Hattifatteners travel the earth in small boats, meeting every year on a lonely island. Their main interest is in the weather ... Some think they are wicked, but this is due to their strangeness.

Or do they rather represent our common business, the problems of the news media? Well, this might be true insofar as

the Hattifatteners always appear in great hosts. Nobody really knows where they are coming from or where they are going, but their presence can be sensed as electricity in the air

(says the Moominworld Naantali website). Actually, we hope that the network will help prevent such hattifat disorientation in our studies and in our field. So please post your comments, tell us about the conference, the seminar, announce a publication, join the conversation.