The Last Word program discussed the relationship between social media influencers and journalistic media.
– Is it, for example, a lack of critical reading skills? Someone in HS’s editorial office has read through that story, Salmi thought.
Salmi referred to an opinion piece published by Helsingin sanomati, which was signed by a number of social media influencers who do business with Dove.
Later, social media influencers have said that they had signed the text written by the communications office. According to Salmi, the opinion page is not a place to promote the activities of any brand.
One of the influencers who collaborated with Dove also ended up on Yle’s broadcasts.
– One influencer had gotten through to Yle’s broadcast, first on TV and then on radio. No one has thought that if the only thing that is being referred to here is a survey of a multinational cosmetics company, then maybe there is something more behind this than just good will.
According to Salme, it should have been clearly stated in the broadcasts that the social media influencer received money for advertising Dove. Now the viewer and listener had no chance to know the influencer’s connection to Dove, unless they visited his social media account. According to Salmi, reporting the connection would have been above all the media’s responsibility.
The other interviewees of the program considered what happened to be human and not so exceptional.
– Advertisers have always tried to get involved in journalism. Now the process has gone wrong. But there is nothing surprising about it, Kauppinen said.
Can the supplier do commercial cooperation?
The program also discussed whether a journalist can do commercial cooperation in addition to his work. Ronja Salmi is a journalist, but in the last two years has also done commercial cooperation campaigns.
– It is a good question whether it challenges my credibility as a journalist. If I wanted to be an investigative reporter specializing in political journalism, I certainly wouldn’t be able to do commercial cooperation, Salmi thought.
According to him, the most important thing is that the journalist is able to narrow down the topics on which he has done commercial cooperation.
Perttu Kauppinen strongly disagreed with Salme.
– It’s an absolutely absurd idea that the supplier would also cooperate commercially. For example, the collective agreement of the press is based on the fact that a journalist is not allowed to take orders, and he is not allowed to do text advertising. It’s strange to me to think that there are people like this elsewhere, juggling between advertising and journalism. I don’t accept it.
Salmi sued Kauppista over the advertisements published by Iltalehti.
– After all, your website also has articles about commercial cooperation. Why can a media house do that, but a private freelance journalist can’t?
According to Kauppinen, the advertisements in Iltalehti are clearly flagged as advertisements. Salmi, on the other hand, pointed out that the advertisements were not always clearly distinguishable to the reader from the journalistic content.
– They appear in the same place and adapt to other things, including font choices, Salmi said.