As part of Work Package 5, the University of Eastern Finland research team organized a workshop on media usage in the town of Lieksa, close to the Finnish-Russian border. Lieksa is a shrinking city that has lost half of its population since the 1970s and has been facing many socio-economic challenges as a result of restructuring processes in agriculture and traditional industries.
For the local organization of the workshop, the research team received valuable support from the executive director of a local NGO called “Lieksan tukipiste (Lieksa Support Centre)”, which is housed in Lieksa’s former railway station building and provides a variety of support services to the elderly, long-term unemployed, immigrants and any other person in need; this also includes the serving of a tasty and affordable lunch and the opportunity to have chats over a cup of coffee.
The group of citizens participating in the media workshop with the research team was composed of users and volunteers of the Lieksa Support Centre. During the interesting and lively discussion, topics such as the reliability and commercialization of media and the importance of local news sources came to the fore.
Lieksan tukipitse, the premises where the workshop was held
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