ABSTRACT
In the context of the political and media system in the Scandinavian region, Finland has an exceptional history of audiovisual electoral broadcasts and spots produced for television by parties, candidates or non-affiliated groups. While broadly situated within the “Democratic-Corporatist Model” that according to D. C. Hallin and P. Mancini developed in Northern and Central Europe, and often compared to its Scandinavian neighbors, Finland is a special case. Audiovisual political advertising in Finland has attracted research from its beginning. Election campaigns have been covered in close connection to national election studies. Some separate studies have been published on entertainmentalization of political television and the style, content and gender issues related to campaign material on television and the Internet. Finland is a parliamentary democracy with a multi-party political system and a president as the head of state. The Finnish election system deviates from the election systems in many other European states particularly due to the individualized character of the voting system.
