Cultural data typically contains a variety of biases. In particular, geographical locations are u... more Cultural data typically contains a variety of biases. In particular, geographical locations are unequally portrayed in media, creating a distorted representation of the world. Identifying and measuring such biases is crucial to understand both the data and the socio-cultural processes that have produced them. Here we suggest to measure geographical biases in a large historical news media corpus by studying the representation of cities. Leveraging ideas of quantitative urban science, we develop a mixed quantitative-qualitative procedure, which allows us to get robust quantitative estimates of the biases. These biases can be further qualitatively interpreted resulting in a hermeneutic feedback loop. We apply this procedure to a corpus of the Soviet newsreel series 'Novosti Dnya' (News of the Day) and show that city representation grows super-linearly with city size, and is further biased by city specialization and geographical location. This allows to systematically identify geographical regions which are explicitly or sneakily emphasized by Soviet propaganda and quantify their importance. Impact Statement. We develop a novel approach to study biases in the way cities are represented in a media corpus. We apply the developed systematic quantitative-qualitative procedure to a historical corpus of Soviet news, elucidating the distorted representation of world geography in the Soviet propaganda. This approach is transferable to a variety of cultural datasets, opening up new ways to examine, quantify and interpret biases in geographical representation.
Kysymykset kansakunnan alkuperästä ja roolista historiassa pohjautuvat 1800-luvun nationalistisii... more Kysymykset kansakunnan alkuperästä ja roolista historiassa pohjautuvat 1800-luvun nationalistisiin historiantulkintoihin, ja ne elävät edelleen populaarissa historiakulttuurissa. Tämä näkyy artikkelissamme, jossa tarkastelemme millaisia merkityksiä Rurikin alkuperälle annetaan suomen- ja venäjänkielisissä 2000-luvun verkkokeskusteluissa. Tutkimme mistä lähteistä tietoa ammennetaan ja millaisia ovat keskustelujen erot ja yhtäläisyydet. Tulkinnat Rurikin taustasta ovat keskeisessä roolissa keskusteluissa joissa pohditaan oliko hän slaavi, normanni, suomalainen vai ruotsalainen. Lisäksi osoitamme, kuinka tiedon leviäminen internetissä ja kansalaisten saataville tulleet kaupalliset geenitestit ovat tuoneet uusia kerroksia keskusteluun, joka kilpistyy ikiaikaiseen oman ja oman “kansan” identiteetin pohtimiseen. Uutta tutkimuksessamme on, että tarkastelemme keskiaikaiseen henkilöhahmoon liittyvää kieli- ja kulttuurirajat ylittävää verkkokeskustelua ja miten keskusteluissa rakennetaan omaa usein kansallisuuteen kytkeytyvää identiteettiä. Artikkelin tutkimusaineisto pohjautuu suomen- ja venäjänkielisistä verkkosivuista, foorumkeskusteluista ja blogiteksteistä 2019-2020 louhittuihin aineistoihin sekä yksittäisiin, kohdistaen haettuihin aineistoihin. Artikkelin tutkimusmenetelmänä olemme käyttäneet kriittisen sisältöanalyysin ja tietokoneavusteisten menetelmien yhdistelmää. In English: The nineteenth-century nationalistic reading of history still persists in the popular ways of writing about history and in reflections about nations’ origins and political influence. Our article (in English A Finn, Swede, Norman or a Slav? The origin of Russian founder Rurik in Finnish and Russian online discussions of the twenty-first century), explores the meanings given to the origins of the early medieval semi-legendary ruler Rurik in the twenty-first-century Finnish and Russian online discussions. We examine from what sources the information is drawn and what are the differences and similarities between the discussions. An important part of the discussions are interpretations of Rurik's origins: whether he was a Slav, a Norman, a Finn or a Swede. In addition, we show how the circulation of information on the Internet and the DNA testing made available to the public has brought new layers of meanings to the debate, which, however, often culminates in an age-old contemplation of one’s own and one’s “nation’s” identity. The novelty of the research is that we look at the cross-linguistic and cultural online discussions related to a medieval character and how the online users capitalize on the character’s perceived ethnic background to build on their own identity, often linked to nationality. The research material of the article is based on materials extracted between 2019 and 2020 from Finnish and Russian websites, forum discussions and blog posts, as well as individually selected materials. We have used a combination of critical content analysis and computer-aided methods as research methods.
Audiovisual news is a critical cultural phenomenon that has been influencing audience worldviews ... more Audiovisual news is a critical cultural phenomenon that has been influencing audience worldviews for more than a hundred years. To understand historical trends in multimodal audiovisual news, we need to explore them longitudinally using large sets of data. Despite promising developments in film history, computational video analysis, and other relevant fields, current research streams have limitations related to the scope of data used, the systematism of analysis, and the modalities and elements to be studied in audiovisual material and its metadata. Simultaneously, each disciplinary approach contributes significant input to research reducing these limitations. We therefore advocate for combining the strengths of several disciplines. Here we propose a multidisciplinary framework for systematically studying large collections of historical audiovisual news to gain a coherent picture of their temporal dynamics, cultural diversity, and potential societal effects across several quantitati...
It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural... more It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural broker Sergei Obraztsov during the latter’s visit to Paris in 1954. From that encounter to the departure of Montand and his wife Simone Signoret for the Soviet Union, preparations for the event were subject to hesitations and tergiversations against the dynamic backdrop of international events throughout 1956. Together with Georges Soria, acting on behalf of the French L’Agence Littereraire et Artistique and the Soviet tour office Gastrolbureau, Obraztsov played a major role in the preparations for the tour, with the latter also active in raising Montand’s profile in the Soviet Union. A contract was signed in early 1956, but over that year the events in Poland and Hungary led to Montand’s plans becoming the subject of bitter controversies in France. Montand himself expressed anger at the Soviet actions, and in November he announced he was postponing the tour. Sartre advised the singer that whichever decision he made, he would be condemned by one side or another, and so it transpired. Notwithstanding the postponement, Montand continued to be attacked and threatened, and finally, defiant, he rescheduled and departed for the Soviet Union on 16 December.
Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth c... more Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth century. It extends from the aftermath of World War I to the dawn of the post-Cold War era. Chapter 4 briefly outlines his life prior to his arrival in Moscow in 1955. He was born on 13 October 1921 in the province of Tuscany in Italy, in the small village of Monsummano Alto, and died on 9 November 1991 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. Montand’s real surname was Livi, and his first name was Ivo, later gallicised as Yves. By the end of 1923, the Livi family escaped the rising fascism in Italy and moved to southern France, and Yves Montand spent his early life in the suburbs of Marseilles. He became known as a singer from the late 1930s and as an actor after World War II. He became a transnational star whose activities were carefully followed. In 1951 he married Simone Signoret, and Montand/Signoret became one of the most famous intellectual couples in France at the time, known for their sympathies for the left and for the growing peace movement.
The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances i... more The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances in Paris, already familiar to Soviet audiences through recordings and radio. Part of the pleasure they derived from his concerts therefore included that of hearing material they already knew, delivered in person by the artist himself, who enjoyed cult status. The presentation of the songs included in the documentary Yves Montand Sings, and the audience reception as portrayed in the film, along with the voice-over Russian commentary, present a narrative of perfect harmony between Montand and the Soviet audiences. This is underlined by scenes of interaction between him, Signoret, and members of the public. But the synergy presented in the film is in many ways misleading, as we know from such sources as published memoirs and unpublished primary documents. A careful examination of the music itself reveals that something is ‘lost in translation’, and there are disparities between the message sent by Montand’s music, and what is received by the audiences. There are odd dissonances between the content of the music and the way it appears as being interpreted by Soviet audiences, particular in the matter of attitudes to jazz.
Montand’s Soviet tour occurred during the Thaw era, an unusual period in Soviet history. Beginnin... more Montand’s Soviet tour occurred during the Thaw era, an unusual period in Soviet history. Beginning gradually after Stalin’s death in 1953, the Thaw era’s relaxation of political repression and the opening of the Soviet Union to the outside world made Montand’s Soviet tour possible. Montand became an emblem of the Thaw within the Soviet Union, when cultural and intellectual processes began to develop parallels with Western Europe to an unprecedented degree. Nikita Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful coexistence resulted in a significant expansion of possibilities for interaction with foreign citizens and cultures. The policy of peaceful coexistence and opening up to the world outside the Soviet bloc was manifested in increasing activities related to cultural diplomacy, such as cultural exchange agreements with foreign countries. Agreements with Western countries were a practical implementation of the objective of improving the cultural image of the Soviet Union in the international arena.
The preparations for Montand’s tour, and the tour itself, took place in the context of extreme in... more The preparations for Montand’s tour, and the tour itself, took place in the context of extreme international turbulence both in the West and within the Soviet bloc. Khrushchev sought to defuse the situation through the ‘Thaw’ and the policy of peaceful coexistence, but an unforeseen consequence was the manifestation of more public signs of dissent, which in turn led to reassertion of central control. Two outcomes in particular in 1956 formed the backdrop to the preparations for Montand’s tour: massive strikes in Poland and the uprising in Hungary, both of which were suppressed by armed force. At the same time, the Suez crisis also destabilised the international balance of power, with ripples also affecting Soviet interests. Through 1956, in particular, there were therefore increasing, and often violent, international movements against ‘colonialist’ enterprises in which France, Britain and the USSR were targets and in which the US was implicated. Thus, in the same period in which both the US and the USSR were at one level trying to develop the policy of cultural diplomacy and peaceful coexistence—the Thaw—and at another level very serious and complex tensions were bursting to the surface.
The scale of newspaper digitization and emergence of computational research methods has opened ne... more The scale of newspaper digitization and emergence of computational research methods has opened new opportunities for scholarship on the history of the press-as well as a new set of problems. Those problems compound for research that spans national as well as linguistic contexts. This article offers a novel methodological approach for confronting these challenges by synthesizing computational with conventional methods and working across a collaborative multilingual team. We present a case study studying the transnational and multilingual news event of Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth's journey to the United States in 1851-52. Our approach helps to demonstrate some of the characteristic patterns and complexities in transatlantic news circulation, including the pathways, reach, temporality, vagaries, and silences of this system. These patterns, in turn, offer some insights into how we understand the significance of this era for histories of the press.
The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances i... more The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances in Paris, already familiar to Soviet audiences through recordings and radio. Part of the pleasure they derived from his concerts therefore included that of hearing material they already knew, delivered in person by the artist himself, who enjoyed cult status. The presentation of the songs included in the documentary Yves Montand Sings, and the audience reception as portrayed in the film, along with the voice-over Russian commentary, present a narrative of perfect harmony between Montand and the Soviet audiences. This is underlined by scenes of interaction between him, Signoret, and members of the public. But the synergy presented in the film is in many ways misleading, as we know from such sources as published memoirs and unpublished primary documents. A careful examination of the music itself reveals that something is ‘lost in translation’, and there are disparities between the message sent by Montand’s music, and what is received by the audiences. There are odd dissonances between the content of the music and the way it appears as being interpreted by Soviet audiences, particular in the matter of attitudes to jazz.
of paper 0234 presented at the Digital Humanities Conference 2019 (DH2019), Utrecht , the Netherl... more of paper 0234 presented at the Digital Humanities Conference 2019 (DH2019), Utrecht , the Netherlands 9-12 July, 2019.
Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth c... more Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth century. It extends from the aftermath of World War I to the dawn of the post-Cold War era. Chapter 4 briefly outlines his life prior to his arrival in Moscow in 1955. He was born on 13 October 1921 in the province of Tuscany in Italy, in the small village of Monsummano Alto, and died on 9 November 1991 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. Montand’s real surname was Livi, and his first name was Ivo, later gallicised as Yves. By the end of 1923, the Livi family escaped the rising fascism in Italy and moved to southern France, and Yves Montand spent his early life in the suburbs of Marseilles. He became known as a singer from the late 1930s and as an actor after World War II. He became a transnational star whose activities were carefully followed. In 1951 he married Simone Signoret, and Montand/Signoret became one of the most famous intellectual couples in France at the time, known for their s...
It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural... more It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural broker Sergei Obraztsov during the latter’s visit to Paris in 1954. From that encounter to the departure of Montand and his wife Simone Signoret for the Soviet Union, preparations for the event were subject to hesitations and tergiversations against the dynamic backdrop of international events throughout 1956. Together with Georges Soria, acting on behalf of the French L’Agence Littereraire et Artistique and the Soviet tour office Gastrolbureau, Obraztsov played a major role in the preparations for the tour, with the latter also active in raising Montand’s profile in the Soviet Union. A contract was signed in early 1956, but over that year the events in Poland and Hungary led to Montand’s plans becoming the subject of bitter controversies in France. Montand himself expressed anger at the Soviet actions, and in November he announced he was postponing the tour. Sartre advised the singer t...
Cultural data typically contains a variety of biases. In particular, geographical locations are u... more Cultural data typically contains a variety of biases. In particular, geographical locations are unequally portrayed in media, creating a distorted representation of the world. Identifying and measuring such biases is crucial to understand both the data and the socio-cultural processes that have produced them. Here we suggest to measure geographical biases in a large historical news media corpus by studying the representation of cities. Leveraging ideas of quantitative urban science, we develop a mixed quantitative-qualitative procedure, which allows us to get robust quantitative estimates of the biases. These biases can be further qualitatively interpreted resulting in a hermeneutic feedback loop. We apply this procedure to a corpus of the Soviet newsreel series 'Novosti Dnya' (News of the Day) and show that city representation grows super-linearly with city size, and is further biased by city specialization and geographical location. This allows to systematically identify geographical regions which are explicitly or sneakily emphasized by Soviet propaganda and quantify their importance. Impact Statement. We develop a novel approach to study biases in the way cities are represented in a media corpus. We apply the developed systematic quantitative-qualitative procedure to a historical corpus of Soviet news, elucidating the distorted representation of world geography in the Soviet propaganda. This approach is transferable to a variety of cultural datasets, opening up new ways to examine, quantify and interpret biases in geographical representation.
Kysymykset kansakunnan alkuperästä ja roolista historiassa pohjautuvat 1800-luvun nationalistisii... more Kysymykset kansakunnan alkuperästä ja roolista historiassa pohjautuvat 1800-luvun nationalistisiin historiantulkintoihin, ja ne elävät edelleen populaarissa historiakulttuurissa. Tämä näkyy artikkelissamme, jossa tarkastelemme millaisia merkityksiä Rurikin alkuperälle annetaan suomen- ja venäjänkielisissä 2000-luvun verkkokeskusteluissa. Tutkimme mistä lähteistä tietoa ammennetaan ja millaisia ovat keskustelujen erot ja yhtäläisyydet. Tulkinnat Rurikin taustasta ovat keskeisessä roolissa keskusteluissa joissa pohditaan oliko hän slaavi, normanni, suomalainen vai ruotsalainen. Lisäksi osoitamme, kuinka tiedon leviäminen internetissä ja kansalaisten saataville tulleet kaupalliset geenitestit ovat tuoneet uusia kerroksia keskusteluun, joka kilpistyy ikiaikaiseen oman ja oman “kansan” identiteetin pohtimiseen. Uutta tutkimuksessamme on, että tarkastelemme keskiaikaiseen henkilöhahmoon liittyvää kieli- ja kulttuurirajat ylittävää verkkokeskustelua ja miten keskusteluissa rakennetaan omaa usein kansallisuuteen kytkeytyvää identiteettiä. Artikkelin tutkimusaineisto pohjautuu suomen- ja venäjänkielisistä verkkosivuista, foorumkeskusteluista ja blogiteksteistä 2019-2020 louhittuihin aineistoihin sekä yksittäisiin, kohdistaen haettuihin aineistoihin. Artikkelin tutkimusmenetelmänä olemme käyttäneet kriittisen sisältöanalyysin ja tietokoneavusteisten menetelmien yhdistelmää. In English: The nineteenth-century nationalistic reading of history still persists in the popular ways of writing about history and in reflections about nations’ origins and political influence. Our article (in English A Finn, Swede, Norman or a Slav? The origin of Russian founder Rurik in Finnish and Russian online discussions of the twenty-first century), explores the meanings given to the origins of the early medieval semi-legendary ruler Rurik in the twenty-first-century Finnish and Russian online discussions. We examine from what sources the information is drawn and what are the differences and similarities between the discussions. An important part of the discussions are interpretations of Rurik's origins: whether he was a Slav, a Norman, a Finn or a Swede. In addition, we show how the circulation of information on the Internet and the DNA testing made available to the public has brought new layers of meanings to the debate, which, however, often culminates in an age-old contemplation of one’s own and one’s “nation’s” identity. The novelty of the research is that we look at the cross-linguistic and cultural online discussions related to a medieval character and how the online users capitalize on the character’s perceived ethnic background to build on their own identity, often linked to nationality. The research material of the article is based on materials extracted between 2019 and 2020 from Finnish and Russian websites, forum discussions and blog posts, as well as individually selected materials. We have used a combination of critical content analysis and computer-aided methods as research methods.
Audiovisual news is a critical cultural phenomenon that has been influencing audience worldviews ... more Audiovisual news is a critical cultural phenomenon that has been influencing audience worldviews for more than a hundred years. To understand historical trends in multimodal audiovisual news, we need to explore them longitudinally using large sets of data. Despite promising developments in film history, computational video analysis, and other relevant fields, current research streams have limitations related to the scope of data used, the systematism of analysis, and the modalities and elements to be studied in audiovisual material and its metadata. Simultaneously, each disciplinary approach contributes significant input to research reducing these limitations. We therefore advocate for combining the strengths of several disciplines. Here we propose a multidisciplinary framework for systematically studying large collections of historical audiovisual news to gain a coherent picture of their temporal dynamics, cultural diversity, and potential societal effects across several quantitati...
It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural... more It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural broker Sergei Obraztsov during the latter’s visit to Paris in 1954. From that encounter to the departure of Montand and his wife Simone Signoret for the Soviet Union, preparations for the event were subject to hesitations and tergiversations against the dynamic backdrop of international events throughout 1956. Together with Georges Soria, acting on behalf of the French L’Agence Littereraire et Artistique and the Soviet tour office Gastrolbureau, Obraztsov played a major role in the preparations for the tour, with the latter also active in raising Montand’s profile in the Soviet Union. A contract was signed in early 1956, but over that year the events in Poland and Hungary led to Montand’s plans becoming the subject of bitter controversies in France. Montand himself expressed anger at the Soviet actions, and in November he announced he was postponing the tour. Sartre advised the singer that whichever decision he made, he would be condemned by one side or another, and so it transpired. Notwithstanding the postponement, Montand continued to be attacked and threatened, and finally, defiant, he rescheduled and departed for the Soviet Union on 16 December.
Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth c... more Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth century. It extends from the aftermath of World War I to the dawn of the post-Cold War era. Chapter 4 briefly outlines his life prior to his arrival in Moscow in 1955. He was born on 13 October 1921 in the province of Tuscany in Italy, in the small village of Monsummano Alto, and died on 9 November 1991 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. Montand’s real surname was Livi, and his first name was Ivo, later gallicised as Yves. By the end of 1923, the Livi family escaped the rising fascism in Italy and moved to southern France, and Yves Montand spent his early life in the suburbs of Marseilles. He became known as a singer from the late 1930s and as an actor after World War II. He became a transnational star whose activities were carefully followed. In 1951 he married Simone Signoret, and Montand/Signoret became one of the most famous intellectual couples in France at the time, known for their sympathies for the left and for the growing peace movement.
The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances i... more The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances in Paris, already familiar to Soviet audiences through recordings and radio. Part of the pleasure they derived from his concerts therefore included that of hearing material they already knew, delivered in person by the artist himself, who enjoyed cult status. The presentation of the songs included in the documentary Yves Montand Sings, and the audience reception as portrayed in the film, along with the voice-over Russian commentary, present a narrative of perfect harmony between Montand and the Soviet audiences. This is underlined by scenes of interaction between him, Signoret, and members of the public. But the synergy presented in the film is in many ways misleading, as we know from such sources as published memoirs and unpublished primary documents. A careful examination of the music itself reveals that something is ‘lost in translation’, and there are disparities between the message sent by Montand’s music, and what is received by the audiences. There are odd dissonances between the content of the music and the way it appears as being interpreted by Soviet audiences, particular in the matter of attitudes to jazz.
Montand’s Soviet tour occurred during the Thaw era, an unusual period in Soviet history. Beginnin... more Montand’s Soviet tour occurred during the Thaw era, an unusual period in Soviet history. Beginning gradually after Stalin’s death in 1953, the Thaw era’s relaxation of political repression and the opening of the Soviet Union to the outside world made Montand’s Soviet tour possible. Montand became an emblem of the Thaw within the Soviet Union, when cultural and intellectual processes began to develop parallels with Western Europe to an unprecedented degree. Nikita Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful coexistence resulted in a significant expansion of possibilities for interaction with foreign citizens and cultures. The policy of peaceful coexistence and opening up to the world outside the Soviet bloc was manifested in increasing activities related to cultural diplomacy, such as cultural exchange agreements with foreign countries. Agreements with Western countries were a practical implementation of the objective of improving the cultural image of the Soviet Union in the international arena.
The preparations for Montand’s tour, and the tour itself, took place in the context of extreme in... more The preparations for Montand’s tour, and the tour itself, took place in the context of extreme international turbulence both in the West and within the Soviet bloc. Khrushchev sought to defuse the situation through the ‘Thaw’ and the policy of peaceful coexistence, but an unforeseen consequence was the manifestation of more public signs of dissent, which in turn led to reassertion of central control. Two outcomes in particular in 1956 formed the backdrop to the preparations for Montand’s tour: massive strikes in Poland and the uprising in Hungary, both of which were suppressed by armed force. At the same time, the Suez crisis also destabilised the international balance of power, with ripples also affecting Soviet interests. Through 1956, in particular, there were therefore increasing, and often violent, international movements against ‘colonialist’ enterprises in which France, Britain and the USSR were targets and in which the US was implicated. Thus, in the same period in which both the US and the USSR were at one level trying to develop the policy of cultural diplomacy and peaceful coexistence—the Thaw—and at another level very serious and complex tensions were bursting to the surface.
The scale of newspaper digitization and emergence of computational research methods has opened ne... more The scale of newspaper digitization and emergence of computational research methods has opened new opportunities for scholarship on the history of the press-as well as a new set of problems. Those problems compound for research that spans national as well as linguistic contexts. This article offers a novel methodological approach for confronting these challenges by synthesizing computational with conventional methods and working across a collaborative multilingual team. We present a case study studying the transnational and multilingual news event of Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth's journey to the United States in 1851-52. Our approach helps to demonstrate some of the characteristic patterns and complexities in transatlantic news circulation, including the pathways, reach, temporality, vagaries, and silences of this system. These patterns, in turn, offer some insights into how we understand the significance of this era for histories of the press.
The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances i... more The repertoire that Montand delivered on his tour programme was unchanged from his performances in Paris, already familiar to Soviet audiences through recordings and radio. Part of the pleasure they derived from his concerts therefore included that of hearing material they already knew, delivered in person by the artist himself, who enjoyed cult status. The presentation of the songs included in the documentary Yves Montand Sings, and the audience reception as portrayed in the film, along with the voice-over Russian commentary, present a narrative of perfect harmony between Montand and the Soviet audiences. This is underlined by scenes of interaction between him, Signoret, and members of the public. But the synergy presented in the film is in many ways misleading, as we know from such sources as published memoirs and unpublished primary documents. A careful examination of the music itself reveals that something is ‘lost in translation’, and there are disparities between the message sent by Montand’s music, and what is received by the audiences. There are odd dissonances between the content of the music and the way it appears as being interpreted by Soviet audiences, particular in the matter of attitudes to jazz.
of paper 0234 presented at the Digital Humanities Conference 2019 (DH2019), Utrecht , the Netherl... more of paper 0234 presented at the Digital Humanities Conference 2019 (DH2019), Utrecht , the Netherlands 9-12 July, 2019.
Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth c... more Yves Montand’s life is intertwined with the passions and aspirations of Europe in the twentieth century. It extends from the aftermath of World War I to the dawn of the post-Cold War era. Chapter 4 briefly outlines his life prior to his arrival in Moscow in 1955. He was born on 13 October 1921 in the province of Tuscany in Italy, in the small village of Monsummano Alto, and died on 9 November 1991 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. Montand’s real surname was Livi, and his first name was Ivo, later gallicised as Yves. By the end of 1923, the Livi family escaped the rising fascism in Italy and moved to southern France, and Yves Montand spent his early life in the suburbs of Marseilles. He became known as a singer from the late 1930s and as an actor after World War II. He became a transnational star whose activities were carefully followed. In 1951 he married Simone Signoret, and Montand/Signoret became one of the most famous intellectual couples in France at the time, known for their s...
It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural... more It appears that the idea of Montand’s possible Soviet tour was first raised with Russian cultural broker Sergei Obraztsov during the latter’s visit to Paris in 1954. From that encounter to the departure of Montand and his wife Simone Signoret for the Soviet Union, preparations for the event were subject to hesitations and tergiversations against the dynamic backdrop of international events throughout 1956. Together with Georges Soria, acting on behalf of the French L’Agence Littereraire et Artistique and the Soviet tour office Gastrolbureau, Obraztsov played a major role in the preparations for the tour, with the latter also active in raising Montand’s profile in the Soviet Union. A contract was signed in early 1956, but over that year the events in Poland and Hungary led to Montand’s plans becoming the subject of bitter controversies in France. Montand himself expressed anger at the Soviet actions, and in November he announced he was postponing the tour. Sartre advised the singer t...
Tämä teos on onnittelukirja Hannu Salmelle hänen täyttäessään 60 vuotta. Hannu on kulttuurihistor... more Tämä teos on onnittelukirja Hannu Salmelle hänen täyttäessään 60 vuotta. Hannu on kulttuurihistorian professori Turun yliopistossa ja akatemiaprofessori vuosina 2017–2021. Kirja on lahja Hannun oppilailta ja siihen on kirjoittanut joukko hänen entisiä väitöskirjaohjattaviaan. Teoksen esseet käsittelevät historian eri ilmiöitä hannumaisen laajalla skaalalla. ”Turun romantikon” jalanjäljissä niissä perehdytään niin kirja- ja musiikkihistoriaan, elokuvien, tähteyden ja tekniikan kuin lintujen historiantutkimukseen sekä muistamisen haasteisiin ja iloihin. Kirjan ovat toimittaneet Juhana Saarelainen, Heli Rantala, Petri Paju ja Mila Oiva.
This volume is the first book-length account of Yves Montand’s controversial tour of the Soviet U... more This volume is the first book-length account of Yves Montand’s controversial tour of the Soviet Union at the turn of the years 1956/57. It traces the mixed messages of this internationally visible act of cultural diplomacy in the middle of the turbulent Cold War. It also provides an account of the celebrated French singer-actor’s controversial career, his dedication to music and to peace activism, as well as his widespread fandom in the USSR. The book describes the political background for the events of the year 1956, including the changing Soviet atmosphere after Stalin’s death, portrays the rising transnational stardom of Montand in the 1940s and 1950s, and explores the controversies aroused by his plan to visit Moscow after the Hungarian Uprising. The book pays particular attention to Montand’s reception in the USSR and his concert performances, drawing on unique archival material and oral history interviews, and analyses the documentary Yves Montand Sings (1957) released immediately after his visit.
Historical scholarship is currently undergoing a digital turn. All historians have experienced th... more Historical scholarship is currently undergoing a digital turn. All historians have experienced this change in one way or another, by writing on word processors, applying quantitative methods on digitalized source materials, or using internet resources and digital tools. Digital Histories showcases this emerging wave of digital history research. It presents work by historians who – on their own or through collaborations with e.g. information technology specialists – have uncovered new, empirical historical knowledge through digital and computational methods. The topics of the volume range from the medieval period to the present day, including various parts of Europe. The chapters apply an exemplary array of methods, such as digital metadata analysis, machine learning, network analysis, topic modelling, named entity recognition, collocation analysis, critical search, and text and data mining. The volume argues that digital history is entering a mature phase, digital history ‘in action’, where its focus is shifting from the building of resources towards the making of new historical knowledge. This also involves novel challenges that digital methods pose to historical research, including awareness of the pitfalls and limitations of the digital tools and the necessity of new forms of digital source criticisms. Through its combination of empirical, conceptual and contextual studies, Digital Histories is a timely and pioneering contribution taking stock of how digital research currently advances historical scholarship.
Newsreels, short documentary news films, were an influential channel of mass communication and pr... more Newsreels, short documentary news films, were an influential channel of mass communication and propaganda in the Soviet Union. They served as an important means of visualizing the world for audiences in the way the Soviet authorities wanted it to be depicted. Studies in Soviet visual culture have recognized both continuities of repeating patterns and changes in the post-World War II period. This understanding is based primarily on temporally limited source selections, while a more systematic study of the developments in Soviet visual culture over a longer period is pending. In this article, we reveal long-term continuities, subtle changes, and sudden shifts in the official visual discourse in the Soviet newsreel series 'Novosti dnia' (News of the Day) 1945 to 1992. We study visual patterns in approximately 1,700 digitized newsreel issues, each about ten minutes long, using multidimensional vector embeddings. These embeddings, produced from the central frames of 205,678 shots, help visually evaluate the footage and assess visual similarities based on ResNet50 feature vectors. For this, we use the Collection Space Navigator tool. The article demonstrates how multidimensional vector embeddings can be used to study the internal time of the films, and the external time of the years running by.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2024
Audiovisual news is a critical cultural phenomenon that has been influencing audience worldviews ... more Audiovisual news is a critical cultural phenomenon that has been influencing audience worldviews for more than a hundred years. To understand historical trends in multimodal audiovisual news, we need to explore them longitudinally using large sets of data. Despite promising developments in film history, computational video analysis, and other relevant fields, current research streams have limitations related to the scope of data used, the systematism of analysis, and the modalities and elements to be studied in audiovisual material and its metadata. Simultaneously, each disciplinary approach contributes significant input to research reducing these limitations. We therefore advocate for combining the strengths of several disciplines. Here we propose a multidisciplinary framework for systematically studying large collections of historical audiovisual news to gain a coherent picture of their temporal dynamics, cultural diversity, and potential societal effects across several quantitative and qualitative dimensions of analysis. By using newsreels as an example of such complex historically formed data, we combine the context crucial to qualitative approaches with the systematicity and ability to cover large amounts of data from quantitative methods. The framework template for historical newsreels is exemplified by a case study of the “News of the Day” newsreel series produced in the Soviet Union during 1944–1992. The proposed framework enables a more nuanced analysis of longitudinal collections of audiovisual news, expanding our understanding of the dynamics of global knowledge cultures.
The scale of newspaper digitization and emergence of computational research methods has opened ne... more The scale of newspaper digitization and emergence of computational research methods has opened new opportunities for scholarship on the history of the press-as well as a new set of problems. Those problems compound for research that spans national as well as linguistic contexts. This article offers a novel methodological approach for confronting these challenges by synthesizing computational with conventional methods and working across a collaborative multilingual team. We present a case study studying the transnational and multilingual news event of Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth's journey to the United States in 1851-52. Our approach helps to demonstrate some of the characteristic patterns and complexities in transatlantic news circulation, including the pathways, reach, temporality, vagaries, and silences of this system. These patterns, in turn, offer some insights into how we understand the significance of this era for histories of the press.
Medievalism in Finland and Russia. Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Aspects, 2022
False information on history, spreading widely in the internet, is a global phenomenon, which can... more False information on history, spreading widely in the internet, is a global phenomenon, which can potentially be used for forming the basis for distorted worldviews and strengthen social and political juxtapositions. Seeking to understand the phenomenon of pseudohistorical medievalism in the Russian language internet, this essay explores the position and contexts of pseudohistorical web pages in the medievalist discussions. The study analyses a selected sample of webpages within a hyperlink network to assess their potential influence and worldview of Russian language medievalist pseudohistory. The analysis reveals that the hyperlinked position of the webpages in the medievalist internet discussion is marginal and fragmented into separated knowledge communities. Despite their radical approaches to history, they share common features with the contemporary cultural and political discussions and historical schemas explaining the history and identity.
Digitaalisuus on hiipinyt koskemaan lähes kaikkia elämän aloja,
ja se vaikuttaa myös historiantu... more Digitaalisuus on hiipinyt koskemaan lähes kaikkia elämän aloja, ja se vaikuttaa myös historiantutkimukseen. Digitaalinen murros asettaa uusia kysymyksiä menneisyydestä kiinnos- tuneille: mitä ovat digitaaliset lähteet, ja miten digitaalisuus vaikuttaa siihen, millaisena näemme ja esitämme menneisyyden? Yksi digitaa- lisen historiantutkimuksen keskeisistä kysymyksistä on, kuinka tie- tokoneavusteisia menetelmiä voi hyödyntää historiantutkimukselle tärkeiden kysymysten ratkaisussa. Tämän luvun tarkoituksena on esitellä yleisesti historian digitaa- lista tutkimustapaa. Digitaalinen historiantutkimuksen menetelmä edellyttää perehtymistä digitaalisen aineistoon ja sitä prosessoivien tietokoneavusteisen työkalujen ymmärtämistä sekä historiallisen tut- kimuskysymyksen sovittamista näihin. Olennaista on ymmärtää digi- taalisten aineistojen luonnetta sekä menetelmien toimintaperiaatteita, jotta saa selville, millaisiin tutkimuskysymyksiin voidaan etsiä vastauk- sia ja kuinka aineistoa on käsitelty tuloksen saamiseksi.
Kysymykset kansakunnan alkuperästä ja roolista historiassa pohjautuvat 1800-luvun nationalistisii... more Kysymykset kansakunnan alkuperästä ja roolista historiassa pohjautuvat 1800-luvun nationalistisiin historiantulkintoihin, ja ne elävät edelleen populaarissa historiakulttuurissa. Tämä näkyy artikkelissamme, jossa tarkastelemme millaisia merkityksiä Rurikin alkuperälle annetaan suomen- ja venäjänkielisissä 2000-luvun verkkokeskusteluissa. Tutkimme mistä lähteistä tietoa ammennetaan ja millaisia ovat keskustelujen erot ja yhtäläisyydet. Tulkinnat Rurikin taustasta ovat keskeisessä roolissa keskusteluissa joissa pohditaan oliko hän slaavi, normanni, suomalainen vai ruotsalainen. Lisäksi osoitamme, kuinka tiedon leviäminen internetissä ja kansalaisten saataville tulleet kaupalliset geenitestit ovat tuoneet uusia kerroksia keskusteluun, joka kilpistyy ikiaikaiseen oman ja oman “kansan” identiteetin pohtimiseen. Uutta tutkimuksessamme on, että tarkastelemme keskiaikaiseen henkilöhahmoon liittyvää kieli- ja kulttuurirajat ylittävää verkkokeskustelua ja miten keskusteluissa rakennetaan omaa usein kansallisuuteen kytkeytyvää identiteettiä. Artikkelin tutkimusaineisto pohjautuu suomen- ja venäjänkielisistä verkkosivuista, foorumkeskusteluista ja blogiteksteistä 2019-2020 louhittuihin aineistoihin sekä yksittäisiin, kohdistaen haettuihin aineistoihin. Artikkelin tutkimusmenetelmänä olemme käyttäneet kriittisen sisältöanalyysin ja tietokoneavusteisten menetelmien yhdistelmää.
In English: The nineteenth-century nationalistic reading of history still persists in the popular ways of writing about history and in reflections about nations’ origins and political influence. Our article (in English A Finn, Swede, Norman or a Slav? The origin of Russian founder Rurik in Finnish and Russian online discussions of the twenty-first century), explores the meanings given to the origins of the early medieval semi-legendary ruler Rurik in the twenty-first-century Finnish and Russian online discussions. We examine from what sources the information is drawn and what are the differences and similarities between the discussions. An important part of the discussions are interpretations of Rurik's origins: whether he was a Slav, a Norman, a Finn or a Swede. In addition, we show how the circulation of information on the Internet and the DNA testing made available to the public has brought new layers of meanings to the debate, which, however, often culminates in an age-old contemplation of one’s own and one’s “nation’s” identity. The novelty of the research is that we look at the cross-linguistic and cultural online discussions related to a medieval character and how the online users capitalize on the character’s perceived ethnic background to build on their own identity, often linked to nationality. The research material of the article is based on materials extracted between 2019 and 2020 from Finnish and Russian websites, forum discussions and blog posts, as well as individually selected materials. We have used a combination of critical content analysis and computer-aided methods as research methods.
Digital Histories: Emergent Approaches within the New Digital History, eds. Mats Fridlund, Mila Oiva, & Petri Paju (Helsinki: Helsinki University Press), 2020
Book review on Ian Milligan, History in the Era of Abundance? How the Web is Transforming Histori... more Book review on Ian Milligan, History in the Era of Abundance? How the Web is Transforming Historical Research. McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2019.
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Papers by Mila Oiva
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-29-8427-5
Digital Histories showcases this emerging wave of digital history research. It presents work by historians who – on their own or through collaborations with e.g. information technology specialists – have uncovered new, empirical historical knowledge through digital and computational methods. The topics of the volume range from the medieval period to the present day, including various parts of Europe. The chapters apply an exemplary array of methods, such as digital metadata analysis, machine learning, network analysis, topic modelling, named entity recognition, collocation analysis, critical search, and text and data mining.
The volume argues that digital history is entering a mature phase, digital history ‘in action’, where its focus is shifting from the building of resources towards the making of new historical knowledge. This also involves novel challenges that digital methods pose to historical research, including awareness of the pitfalls and limitations of the digital tools and the necessity of new forms of digital source criticisms.
Through its combination of empirical, conceptual and contextual studies, Digital Histories is a timely and pioneering contribution taking stock of how digital research currently advances historical scholarship.
ja se vaikuttaa myös historiantutkimukseen. Digitaalinen
murros asettaa uusia kysymyksiä menneisyydestä kiinnos-
tuneille: mitä ovat digitaaliset lähteet, ja miten digitaalisuus vaikuttaa
siihen, millaisena näemme ja esitämme menneisyyden? Yksi digitaa-
lisen historiantutkimuksen keskeisistä kysymyksistä on, kuinka tie-
tokoneavusteisia menetelmiä voi hyödyntää historiantutkimukselle
tärkeiden kysymysten ratkaisussa.
Tämän luvun tarkoituksena on esitellä yleisesti historian digitaa-
lista tutkimustapaa. Digitaalinen historiantutkimuksen menetelmä
edellyttää perehtymistä digitaalisen aineistoon ja sitä prosessoivien
tietokoneavusteisen työkalujen ymmärtämistä sekä historiallisen tut-
kimuskysymyksen sovittamista näihin. Olennaista on ymmärtää digi-
taalisten aineistojen luonnetta sekä menetelmien toimintaperiaatteita,
jotta saa selville, millaisiin tutkimuskysymyksiin voidaan etsiä vastauk-
sia ja kuinka aineistoa on käsitelty tuloksen saamiseksi.
In English: The nineteenth-century nationalistic reading of history still persists in the popular ways of writing about history and in reflections about nations’ origins and political influence. Our article (in English A Finn, Swede, Norman or a Slav? The origin of Russian founder Rurik in Finnish and Russian online discussions of the twenty-first century), explores the meanings given to the origins of the early medieval semi-legendary ruler Rurik in the twenty-first-century Finnish and Russian online discussions. We examine from what sources the information is drawn and what are the differences and similarities between the discussions. An important part of the discussions are interpretations of Rurik's origins: whether he was a Slav, a Norman, a Finn or a Swede. In addition, we show how the circulation of information on the Internet and the DNA testing made available to the public has brought new layers of meanings to the debate, which, however, often culminates in an age-old contemplation of one’s own and one’s “nation’s” identity. The novelty of the research is that we look at the cross-linguistic and cultural online discussions related to a medieval character and how the online users capitalize on the character’s perceived ethnic background to build on their own identity, often linked to nationality. The research material of the article is based on materials extracted between 2019 and 2020 from Finnish and Russian websites, forum discussions and blog posts, as well as individually selected materials. We have used a combination of critical content analysis and computer-aided methods as research methods.