The University of Oulu gets better coverage in international news

The number of news media articles written about the University of Oulu has increased in the last four years. The analysis of media coverage in 2022 shows that there is growth especially in the number of articles in international digital news media and their reach. Last year, more than 5,500 news items were written about the university, more than half of which, about 3,000, appeared in international media.

In Finland, the public service broadcaster Yle in particular wrote about the University of Oulu, focusing on the university’s research and expert statements. The university was also seen and heard in more than 80 television and radio broadcasts by Yle. Newspaper Kaleva wrote less about matters relating to the university than in previous years but published 318 related news items nevertheless.

“The university’s goal is to gain national and international visibility in order to be known and succeed in international competition. That is why our work is strongly focused on the media for a wide audience,” says Elina Mattila-Niemi, Communications Manager at the university.

The most visible articles internationally dealt with issues such as the effects of climate change on the Arctic infrastructure, the fear of dental care, the health risks caused by sitting and the history of dinosaurs. The university received the largest estimated reach through the BBC, Daily Mail, Nature and Yahoo! News.

In Finland, people were interested in, for example, the failure of the Raksila campus plans, the mosquito season, the revelation of OKTO pavement aggregate as the cause of car timing belts breaking down and the budgetary concerns of the Faculty of Medicine. Only three per cent of the digital news content in Finland was negative, while the rest was neutral or positive.

Internationally, the number of researchers who appeared in public was smaller than in 2021. The people who received most coverage in digital media were Jan Hjort and Matti Latva-aho. In Finland, the number of researchers was at the previous year’s level, and the most visible names were Marko Mutanen, Juha Auvinen, Juho-Antti Junno and Terhi Piltonen.

“We want as many researchers as possible to participate in the public debate, and we offer training and continuous support for this. I hope that researchers will not hesitate to contact communications or the designated science communication specialist of their faculty,” Mattila-Niemi says.

In 2022, the biggest topics concerning the university on social media were the university’s campus plans, the celebration of the conferment ceremony and the news on university rankings published by Good News from Finland.

Paper magazines and publication platforms, which cannot be reached with monitoring tools, are not included in the overall numbers.

The university’s media monitoring partner is Meltwater. An analysis of media coverage is carried out on an annual basis.