Abstract

In the context of the political and media system in the Scandinavian region, Finland has an exceptional history of audiovisual electoral broadcasts and spots produced for television by parties, candidates or non-affiliated groups. While broadly situated within the “Democratic-Corporatist Model” that according to Hallin and Mancini (2004) developed in Northern and Central Europe, and often compared to its Scandinavian neighbors (Pfetsch, 2014, p. 29), Finland is a special case. The country was earlier than its Scandinavian neighbors in introducing paid advertising on television and allowing commercial political spots on television. Finland also has an election system that is more personalized than the party-list election systems in Sweden, Denmark or Norway. Thus, Finland stands out as an interesting test-case for how the introduction of political advertising on television and Internet and the growing campaign activities in social media affect the political system. Interestingly, 25 years of political advertising on television and 10 years of growing activities on the Internet would indicate that the answer is: not much.