The Journalist's Constellation Map

Oskari Onninen, you have written as a freelance journalist for various media outlets on culture, media, and science. Your articles have been published in Image, Suomen Kuvalehti, and Iltalehti, among others. At the beginning of the year, you joined Uusi Juttu. Where do your ideas come from, and how do you develop them?

Oskari Onninen: A central part of my work is reading newspapers practically from morning to night. I read The New Yorker, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, Dagens Nyheter, The New York Times, and its sub-publication The Athletic. Naturally, I also follow domestic news. I’ve subscribed to most of these publications myself.

I have clear reading routines. I know what to follow and where to look for specific topics. From The New Yorker, I primarily read reviews and music articles. Amanda Petrusich writes about music with elegant precision. Financial Times’ Janan Ganesh writes incredibly intellectual columns and I systematically read his weekend columns envying his thought process. The Economist serves as my general news source; it respects its readers by cramming a maximum amount of fascinating information into a compact package. I’m currently switching my main domestic news source from Helsingin Sanomat to Yle because HS has too many trivial news stories.

Certain things stick in my mind from the articles I read, eventually layering into a story idea. It might take two months, and then something topical happens that connects with the idea or information I’ve been pondering. For instance, in August 2023, Suomen Kuvalehti published my article about the Finnish crossword-solving championship. The idea came when I realized that Finnish crosswords represent an old, unified cultural phenomenon. I had been solving The New Yorker’s crosswords for fun, and their style is much more modern and quiz-like. It struck me that crossword cultures differ from country to country. I even participated in the Finnish championship myself. The story idea solidified and materialized almost as it had originally formed. The whole experience left me with a good feeling.

You are often described as a critical writer with a distinctive take on mainstream topics. Last autumn, you wrote a controversial column in Iltalehti, advising hockey legend Teemu Selänne’s wife, Sirpa Selänne, to move to Sweden after her comments in Helsingin Sanomat’s monthly supplement. How did that column come about?

Oskari: That’s a great example, because I can clearly pinpoint when different types of information stuck in my mind. That column involved both Sirpa Selänne and inheritance tax. In spring 2024, I noticed in a publisher’s catalogue that a book titled Greedy Sweden would be released in Finnish. I read it immediately and was impressed by the amount of information it provided. I had long been puzzled by people’s anxiety over inheritance tax. Then, I came across articles about social welfare rules, and Sirpa Selänne’s comments ultimately escalated the conversation. I already had the substance prepared, and when the right moment came, I could present my thoughts to Finnish tabloid readers.

I had a clear topic in mind—the peculiar Finnish attitude toward inheritance tax—but I needed to figure out how to give it a current and crooked twist.

You have written many investigative articles as a freelance journalist. How do you carry out these extensive stories on your own?

Oskari: Investigative journalism is often quite straightforward. It’s like navigating a tunnel that may branch off at certain points. The journalist must find a way to the final door and uncover a clue that resolves the story. This requires mechanical, laborious data collection.

In my columns and feature stories, I prefer a constellation map approach instead of the tunnel method. I can draw connections between different points and create contextual links. I’m not confined to a predetermined path that I must follow to the end.

One example of this freedom was a feature story commissioned by Image about advanced mathematics in Finnish high schools. The assignment was very loose, allowing me to decide what kind of story I wanted to write. The article was published in March 2023. I was fascinated by the random details I found on the topic. A particularly exciting moment was reading Korean newspapers through Google Translate and discovering how Koreans approach math anxiety. That added a quirky twist to the story.

I love that journalism involves invention. All perspectives and contexts are, first and foremost, about inventing. At the same time, I can’t create stories out of thin air. The freedom to connect various ideas feels very natural to me. It’s different from producing purely investigative journalism.

What kind of support do you get from your colleagues, and what feedback do you receive from your audience?

Oskari: When I’m working on major articles, I mainly gather information independently until I have a first draft. If I start doubting something or need clarification, I can always discuss it with the editorial team. For example, if I can’t locate a legal document, I ask where to find it.

I feel more secure in my writing when I know certain publications thoroughly review their articles. Not all do, which highlights the value of proper editing, especially from a freelancer’s perspective.

I receive surprisingly little feedback. When I started writing columns for Iltalehti, I was told to expect a significant amount of feedback. However, I don’t count the noise on platform X (formerly Twitter) as genuine feedback. I receive very few emails or phone calls, and over 90% of all contacts are expressing thanks.

About 15 minutes on Yle’s Morning TV once a month generates almost 80% of all public feedback. Grannies often approach me to thank me for my TV appearances.

The core of my work is that I get to explore new topics, talk to people smarter than me, produce a written result, and get paid for it.

Text: Helen Partti (translated from Finnish original)
Photo: Usva Torkki