Kokoomuksen ja Suomen Sosialidemokraattisen Puolueen sosiaalisen median sivistykselliset käytännöt: Tarkastelussa Suomen turvallisuuspolitiikkaa koskevat Instagram-julkaisut keväällä 2022

One of the ideal societal roles of political parties is to present their political views and thus offer alternatives to democratic debate, which can be considered an adult educational task. The aim of this article is to examine the social media content of the National Coalition Party (Kansallinen Kokoomus) and the Social Democratic Party of Finland (Suomen Sosia-lidemokraattinen Puolue), as educational practices. The study focuses on the security policy debate that took place in Finland in 2022. The study examines Instagram posts related to security political alternatives presented by the two parties mentioned and their party leaders. The research questions are 1) what security policy alternatives do the parties present through their educational practices and 2) what are the prerequisites that enable and constrain the presentation of these security policy alternatives? Drawing on practice theory, the study shows how the studied parties, along with their party leaders, primarily present support for Ukraine and joining NATO as desired security policy alternatives. These alternatives are presented based on different preconditions. The presentation of the National Coalition Party’s alter-natives is characterized by concise language linked to either party gatherings or statements by party leaders. The Social Democratic Party presents alternatives by relying on official political expressions, modes of action, and roles. The examined social media practices provide limited contextualization of the alternatives, making the assessment of political alternatives challenging, thus sidelining educational potentials.