Beyond representation: newspapers and citizenship participation in the case of a minority ethnic group

Abstract
Processes of defining citizenship become particularly exposed in a media context, sincethis is an arena where a broad range of actors get their voice heard. The aim of this con-tribution is to explore the claims-making activities by different actors in stories about theRoma in Finnish newspapers. I want to elucidate the access to the mediated space andprovide some examples of how citizenship claims are raised and contextualised. Theempirical study is based content analysis and qualitative text analysis of articles from1990-2003 in both the largest Finnish-language and the largest Swedish-language dailynewspapers (Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet). While Romani voices do havethe possibility to contest dominant views in newspaper stories related to the Roma, thisarticle argues, firstly, for a diversified coverage on Romani issues and, secondly, for in-creasing dialogue between a broader group of actors