The news about racism in late summer 2023 brought negative media visibility to Finland. Especially in Europe, the racism scandals and the minister’s resignation that followed were reported quite broadly.
The exceptionally broad visibility has increased knowledge about Finland in other countries. The country brand comparison based on the Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index shows that the number of people who know about Finland increased by eight percentage points over the past five years. During the same time period, the share of those with a positive view about Finland grew from 57 to almost 70 per cent. However, the trend in the perceptions concerning Finland is strongly divided: in Russia and countries following the Russian media the attitudes have turned much more negative, at least in part.
The negative trend in perceptions related to governance were also reflected in the country brand studies, even if the positive image concerning good governance has been a key strength for Finland throughout the time these studies have been made. In particular, the perceptions concerning the competence and integrity of the administration and citizens’ rights and fair and just treatment had turned more negative.
The new publication How the World Sees Finland combines data from international studies and media monitoring with the expertise of Finnish missions abroad. It replaces the earlier publications Finland in the World Media and the annual overview of Finland’s country image. How the World Sees Finland provides a comprehensive picture of themes and content related to Finland that came out in country brand studies and media monitoring. It also present analyses of the past year by press officers of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who follow news about Finland from the perspective of their host countries.
Finns in world media
Themes related to education, equality and the environment were seen as Finland’s strengths in country brand studies as well. The most positive development from the year before took place in perceptions related to living and working in Finland. In indicators related to tourism the growth trend in Finland is also above the average.
Comprehensive picture in new publication about country brand
During 2023 the Finns were mentioned in the foreign media hundreds of thousands of times. President Sauli Niinistö was the most frequently mentioned person in connection with Finland, but in headings Prime Minister Sanna Marin had by far the widest visibility. Besides politicians, athletes were again strongly represented. Emil Ruusuvuori, Valtteri Bottas, Kalle Rovanperä and Lauri Markkanen were the Finnish athletes that were mentioned the most often. In the culture sector the film Fallen Leaves led to high media visibility for the actors in the leading roles, as well as the director Aki Kaurismäki.
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Media contacts and requests for interviews
- Meira Pappi, Country Image Specialist, tel. +358 40 140 8940
- The email addresses of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are in the format firstname.lastname@gov.fi.