Watching the Other Across the Border: Representations of Russia and Estonia on Finnish National Television

This paper draws on contemporary debates in cultural and border studies, where borders and national identities, as well as their cultural representations are understood as constructed, dynamic and diverse. A sample of films shown on Finnish television about Finland's two neighboring countries, Estonia and Russia, is analyzed in terms of their represented images of the "other" and contrasted with perceptions of Finns triggered by real-life cultural encounters such as experiences through mobilities. The study underlines that interactions between the different sources of perception, as well as between media representation and perception, are far from being straightforward. On the one hand, the media is a reflection of people's or a nation's relation to the "other;" on the other hand, media representations are themselves influential in bringing neighbors closer, or conversely, may reinforce existing boundaries or even create new mental borders. Therefore, it is important to integrate these intricate relationships into our thinking about "soft" bordering processes.