Noora Hirvonen

I am Professor in Information Studies at the Research Unit of History, Culture and Communication Studies, Faculty of Humanities where I lead the INSPIRES research community.

My research examines how young people access, evaluate, and use information in everyday life, with particular attention to the social, cultural, and technological conditions shaping these practices. A central focus of my work is how the authority of information is negotiated in everyday contexts.

I tend to approach research with a nexus analytic lens, which highlights the ways large-scale societal issues are grounded in mundane, everyday actions. This approach supports the use of multiple research methods, including qualitative analysis of interviews and observational material, and participatory research approaches.

Especially in my earlier research, my research focused on engagement with health information (see Authority and Agency in Making Informed Decisions on Immunization, Cognitive Authorities in Everyday Health Information Environments of Young People, Taking Health Information Behaviour into Account: implications of a neglected element for successful implementation of consumer health technologies on older adults) and I have been granted the title of docent in health communication at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Oulu. More recently, my research has centered on the ways emerging sociotechnical changes shape how information is acquired, evaluated, and used in everyday settings. I currently lead two research projects in this area:

• Artificial Intelligence Mediating the Everyday Information Practices of Young People (AIM), funded by Kone Foundation, employs co-research methods to examine how young people’s information practices and literacies are shaped through interactions with AI technologies
• Everyday Encounters with Propaganda, funded by Eudaimonia Institute, adopts a sociotechnical lens to explore young people’s firsthand experiences and conceptualizations of propaganda.