Russian-language media in Finland: what, where, how large and how active?

We began the exploratory analysis of the Russian‑language media landscape in Finland by examining the 113 media actors that we had manually selected for our final database. This selection included their accounts on all major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, VK, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. This chapter presents the analysis of the general characteristics and activity metrics.

As a first step, the Russian‑language media actors in Finland have been categorized by type (see Table 1). The research shows that the most common type is an individual Russian‑language media actor, accounting for 40% of those analysed. Group media actors are the second most prevalent type, representing 28% of the total. Around 10% of all media actors had a community profile. It should be noted that the distinction between community and group actors is rather blurred – both are managed collectively, but ownership of group actors is not obvious. The share of actors categorized as non-governmental organisations and businesses that met our criteria was 8% and 6.2%, respectively. Only 6 out of 113 actors could be categorised as media outlets: Yle Novosti, Culturalist, Echo Helsinki, Satakieli, Gazeta and Rulehti. These media actors represent around 5% of the total Russian‑language media researched. Only one of the media actors is state-managed: Eto Finlyandiya, which is overseen by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

More than 40% of Russian‑language media actors in Finland focus on everyday life and lifestyles in the country, as well as providing everyday help and information about tourism. This is particularly true of individual and community actors (see Figure 1). The next largest groups of topics in Russian‑language media are culture (19% of all researched actors) and news (15% of all researched actors). Unsurprisingly, news is a more common topic among the actors categorised as media outlets. Topics related to culture, on the other hand, are more evenly distributed, accounting for 13–22% of different types of media actors, with group actors having the highest percentage at 28%. Another interesting result is that media actors categorized as business are more likely to post about education than any other type of media actor. This suggests that education, specifically Finnish language learning, could be a profitable field.

Almost two‑thirds of Russian-language media actors target the whole of Finland. Of the rest, almost 25% are aimed at the metropolitan area (for example, Helsinki Chat or Po v Espoo), while 12 out of 113 (10.6%) are regional media actors (for example, Turku po-russki, Nash Kuopio or Svetogorsk – Imatra). The distribution of different types of Russian‑language media actors is similar in metropolitan and regional areas, except for the business type, which is clearly concentrated in metropolitan areas (accounting for nearly 60% of all actors categorized as businesses).

From the analysis, we can conclude that the most common Russian‑language media in Finland are managed by individuals who post content about everyday life and lifestyles, provide information on localities and offer everyday help or tourism advice, targeting Finland as a whole. The second largest category consists of media managed by small, informal groups that lack a formal organisational structure. They provide news and information on culture, events and everyday life. Compared to other types of media actors, community or NGO are more likely to be politically organised activist groups, while business actors dominate in topics related to education.

Next, the social media accounts of all 113 Russian‑language media actors were examined. In total, our research identified 189 social media accounts belonging to media actors on all major platforms. The study revealed that the three most popular social media platforms used by the Russian‑language media are Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. Overall, 103 out of 113 actors (or 91%) have a social media account on either Facebook, Instagram or Telegram. By contrast, other platforms are used far less frequently. Of the less frequently used platforms, YouTube is popular among individual content creators, VK among groups and communities, and X among NGOs. There is also one TikTok account belonging to laiffimme_media, a podcast channel for young immigrants.

Out of the three main platforms, Instagram is the preferred choice among individual, media outlet and business actors (Figure 2). 71% of businesses and all actors categorised as 'media' outlet in this research have an Instagram account. Group or community actors are more likely to use Facebook or Telegram. NGOs are most prevalent on Facebook.

The majority of Russian‑language media (74, or 65.5%) use only one platform, while just 8% have accounts on all three largest platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Telegram. Most actors categorised as individual, group or community have only one account on their preferred platform. Businesses and NGOs, on average, have accounts on two platforms, while media outlets have accounts on three platforms, on average. Of the 113 social media profiles in our research database, only Eto Finlyandiya has accounts on six platforms (excluding TikTok), which is not surprising, given that it is an official state‑managed account with the resources to maintain accounts on several platforms. Nevertheless, it is important to note that a media actor's presence on multiple platforms does not necessarily mean they are active on all of them. This is why the activity metrics and follower base were analysed in greater detail.

Overall, it is easier to evaluate and predict the preferred platform of individual, group or community media actors, given that they are usually only on one platform. On the other hand, businesses and media outlets have accounts on several platforms, so their preferences require a deeper analysis. For example, activity, engagement or network metrics would be needed to determine which platform is preferred.

Social media accounts of the Russian‑language media actors are not large in terms of follower numbers. This is true of all platforms where 50% of accounts have up to 1500 followers. Only around 15% of accounts have more than 10 thousand followers across all researched platforms. The largest social media accounts in terms of follower numbers belong to the state and businesses. Topic‑wise, accounts focusing on education are larger on average. This is largely due to the fact that quite a few of these accounts are managed by businesses.

In terms of the follower numbers, the social media accounts of the Russian‑language media are the largest on average on YouTube (see Table 2). However, the standard deviation, or variation from the mean, is also the highest. On average, accounts on Facebook, Instagram and VK are similar in size, but the standard deviation on Facebook is much higher and similar to that on YouTube. In practical terms, a large standard deviation means that most accounts on the platform have few followers, while a small number of accounts have tens of thousands of followers. By contrast, the average number of followers on Telegram accounts is lower, but so is the standard deviation, indicating that values around the mean vary less and the accounts have a more equal follower distribution.

Eto Finlyandiya has the largest social media account on almost every platform except Telegram (Figure 3). This is easily explained by the fact that it is managed by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The popularity of this media actor on all social media platforms is probably due to the quality of the content that is supported and maintained by official resources, as well as the audience for the accounts on all platforms mostly being from outside Finland. Therefore, although the accounts fulfilled all five of our criteria for Russian‑language media in this research, it is quite likely that Finnish Russian speakers constitute only a small proportion of the followers.

Besides this official Russian‑language media actor, the other largest media clearly have distinct profiles on different platforms. The largest accounts on Facebook are managed by groups that are known for providing everyday question‑and-answer assistance or information on life in Finland. The largest accounts on Instagram are managed by education-related businesses. The largest Telegram accounts are followed for information on the Russian-Finnish border. YouTube is popular among individual vloggers; therefore, such accounts have the most followers. The biggest accounts on VK are managed by politically minded groups that are not very friendly towards Finland (especially Helsinki).

Overall, it is clear that the accounts with the most followers either have institutional or business support behind them, or are relatively low‑maintenance groups with minimal administrative effort, where anyone can post anything. These largest accounts continue to grow in terms of the number of followers they have, especially on Instagram. For example, during our research period from April to August, Eto Finlyandiya's Instagram following grew by 3085, OpiSuomi's by 1077 and Damochki Finlyandii's Facebook following by 1233. Only the largest Telegram accounts are shrinking slowly, which may also indicate a normalisation of border issues and a waning public interest in them.

On average, Russian‑language media in Finland is active on social media platforms for 123 days per year, equivalent to one-third of the year. However, it should be noted that the standard deviation, or variation from the mean, is very high at 115,186 days. This indicates significant differences in activity levels: while some media actors are highly active on their accounts, many others are inactive (for example, 25% of accounts have posts for no more than 34 days per year, which is equivalent to posting once every 10 days). Further examination of the percentile distribution of activity rates reveals that 50% of media actors post actively for an average of 79 days, while the top 25% are active for over 197 days. Nearly 4% of media actors are active on their social media accounts almost daily (over 90% of days in a year).

As might be expected, the most active accounts are those of state bodies (234 days on average) and media outlets (180 days on average), while individual accounts are the least active (73 days on average). Social media accounts of the media actors focusing on news are by far the most active, with an average of 201 active days per year. For example, the only 5 social media accounts where activity was recorded every day of the year – Yle Novosti and Vsyo o Finlyandii on Facebook, and Novosti Finlyandii, Yle Novosti and Granitsa on Telegram – were categorised as news providers in this study. For this reason, average activity rates are highest on Telegram and Facebook where the accounts focusing on news are concentrated, and are almost three times lower on Instagram.

There is a positive correlation between the number of active days in the analysed period and the number of posts an account produces (r = .520, N = 128, p = .001). This indicates that the more active media actor is on their social media account, the more posts they publish during that period (Figure 4). Also, media actors that are active on more days post more frequently on average during an active day (r = .612, N = 123, p = .000). In other words, the more active media actors not only post more often but also post more content per day. On average, the researched Russian‑language media post 2.6 times on an active day on their social media accounts, ranging from one to 40 posts per active day.

On average, groups and media outlets post the most per active day (4.6 and 3.1 posts per active day, respectively), while state bodies and communities post the least (about one post per active day). Accounts focusing on news have more posts, with an average of 4.9 posts per active day – far more than accounts focusing on other topics (see Figure 4). Media actors focusing on life in Finland are the second most active, posting an average of 2.7 times per active day. Accounts on Telegram have the most posts per active day (3.8), while accounts on Instagram have the fewest (1.2), and Facebook accounts publish an average of 3 posts per active day. The average activity rate on Telegram is largely determined by Granitsa, whose account has the most posts across all platforms (over 20 thousand posts during the research period).

In terms of audience engagement (likes, shares and comments), there is a clear distinction between highly active accounts and those that are not active at all. Accounts with more posts tend to have more followers (r = .272, N = 126, p = .002) and receive more likes, shares and comments overall (r = .279, N = 128, p = .000). However, the total number of posts does not correlate with the average level of engagement per post (Figure 5). In fact, when the average engagement per post is adjusted for the number of followers, the correlation becomes negative, albeit weak (r = ‑.181, N = 128, p = .041). In other words, accounts with more posts do not, on average, receive more engagement per post or have more active followers. Smaller, individual accounts that have less posts often have a more active follower base and receive more engagement per post on average. The same can be said of NGO social media accounts. It is likely that accounts of individual and NGO media actors create more personal connections with their audience, enabling them to receive more engagement from their followers.

On average, Instagram accounts have the highest engagement per post, while Facebook has the lowest. Among the accounts we researched, the two with the highest audience engagement per post are both on Instagram. Renata Yagudina's account has an average engagement of 1367 per post, despite having only 34 posts in total per year. Mirovaya Tanya's account has an average engagement of 1168 per post, despite having 115 posts in total. As we did not analyse the content of the posts in this study, it is difficult to predict which type of content triggers the most engagement from the audience. However, accounts focusing on politics and life in Finland receive significantly more engagement on average, and both Renata Yagudina and Mirovaya Tanya are categorised as focusing on 'Life in Finland'. Further research into the content of Russian‑language social media posts and audience engagement could provide more insight into engagement triggers and emotional nuances of audience responses.