Hybrid Threats against the Finnish Society: Reported by YLE News

Abstract

Hybrid operations aim at malicious political outcomes in targeted states and societies with strategic deception and shaping civic opinion. Some common hybrid threats are cyber-attacks on critical systems and disruptions of critical services, e.g. healthcare or rescue services. This study looks at how hybrid threats are communicated in mainstream Finnish media. The Finnish public broadcasting company YLE was chosen as the data source because it has a legal obligation to communicate issues without prejudice. Also, this makes it possible to conduct a future comparative study by selecting similarly relevant national news feeds from other countries. The sample, 57 news articles from the YLE English language news feed from between 2022 and 2025, discus hybrid threats. These articles in English were chosen for text analysis with Modeller 18.5 software which does not understand Finnish. Results identify "hybrid impact" as the most used term, with 27 articles mentioning it, while 15 articles mention "hybrid threats" and "hybrid warfare". Analysis of co-occurrences reveals substantial links between government actions, security institutions, and Russia as a major geopolitical actor. The findings indicate that hybrid threats are multifaceted challenges that require coordinated national and international responses. The study helps comprehend how media portrays hybrid threats and suggests the need for more research using native language analysis and broader media sources. The study identifies the frequency and boundaries of key terms related to hybrid threats, in particular hybrid impact, hybrid threats, and hybrid warfare, in YLE news coverage. The analysis of co-occurrence patterns and conceptual connections in the sample texts reveal how hybrid threats are related to actors, institutions, and geopolitical contexts. This scientific contribution of this study is deeper understanding how media contribute to and shape public awareness and understanding of hybrid threats and national responses in Finland; and the practical contribution of the study are its insights into hybrid threats and suggestions on response and future research directions.