Research group

Professor Mikko Villi

Mikko Villi, PhD, @mvilli, is professor of journalism in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä.

Mikko’s research interests include media management, media work, and the digital transition in the news media, thereby joining the study of organizational communication with journalism and media studies. Media management has gained increasing relevance in media studies primarily due to the disruptions experienced by legacy media organizations.

Mikko has conducted extensive cross-national comparative research in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Argentina, and Israel. He has received two of the most prestigious awards in the academic community of journalism scholars: the Wolfgang Donsbach Outstanding Journal Article of the Year Award and the Bob Franklin Journal Article Award, both in 2023.

Senior Lecturer Kaisa Lindholm

Kaisa Lindholm, PhD, is a senior lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä, Department of Language and Communication Studies.

Her research interests entail technology-mediated interpersonal and organizational communication, virtual teamwork, as well as socialbots and other communicative intelligent technologies in the workplace. Laitinen has previously worked in a research project called Interpersonal Communication Competence in Virtual Teams funded by the Academy of Finland. She is currently a project member in the “SODA – Fluid organizing on digital platforms” project. She has spent a semester as a visiting scholar in United States, at University of Texas at Austin.

Post-Doctoral researcher Minna Koivula

Minna Koivula is a post-doctoral researcher in journalism at the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä.

Minna’s research examines journalism through the lens of organizational communication research and explores the shifting institutional context of work in the media field. She defended her dissertation on creativity, innovation, and learning in contemporary newsrooms in January 2024, and she currently works in the Watchdogs or Activists? Meaningfulness of work in Finnish journalism project.

Doctoral researcher Anniina Huusko

Anniina Huusko is a PhD student in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at University of Jyväskylä.

She has participated in GloBound project which examines global workers’ information sharing on social media platforms, and boundaries between professional and private life, as well as PARIS-project focusing on the paradoxes and tensions related to enterprise social media use. Her research interests include the changes that communication technologies have brought about employees’ daily work, and employees’ individual approaches to manage the positive or negative consequences of digital connectivity.

Doctoral researcher Pinja Päivänen

Pinja Päivänen is a doctoral researcher in journalism at the Department of Language and Communication studies at University of Jyväskylä.

Pinja research interests include combining media work and organisation studies and her thesis examines the meaningfulness of work as experienced by Finnish journalists. She is currently working in the Watchdogs or activists? Meaningfulness of work in Finnish journalism project.

Doctoral researcher Shiqi Yang

Shiqi Yang is a doctoral researcher in journalism at the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä. She is part of the doctoral program coordinated by the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI).

Her research explores AI and trust-building, with a particular focus on public perceptions and user relationships with Generative AI and its implications for trust in journalism. She specializes in computational methods, including  Topic Modeling, correlation analysis, cosine similarity, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and sentiment analysis.

Doctoral researcher Vilja Hautamaa

Vilja Hautamaa is a doctoral researcher in journalism at the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä.

Her research focuses on emotional labour practiced by journalists in the context of news coverage on the war in Gaza. The goal of the research is to create an understanding of the negotiation journalists go through between their emotions and the demands of their work.

Ph.D. Marika Paaso

Marika Paaso, @marikapaaso, has a Ph.D. in Communication from the Department of Language and Communication Studies at University of Jyväskylä. She also has extensive experience as a journalist for the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle. In her doctoral thesis she focused on privacy, publicity, professional identity and impression management of journalists on social media. Marika works as a Senior Specialist in media and advocacy communication at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.