Finnish Technical Communication: You- and We-attitudes as Domestication Strategies in User Instructions for Household Appliances from 1945–1995

Abstract

User instructions are everyday texts that give information about technical devices and systems and help people use them. This dissertation examines the ways Finnish household appliance manufacturers domesticated their products through the use of domestication strategies in the user instructions in the period 1945–1995 (Suojanen 2018). “Domestication” refers to the ways people start using new technologies and eventually integrate them into their everyday lives (e. g. Suominen 2003: 9 f., Lie/Sørensen 1996: 17 f.). Particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, many new household appliances entered the Finnish market (Huokuna 2010), and these required a variety of domestication strategies to help users “tame” technology (Pantzar 1996) and integrate it into their daily routines. The first domestication strategy examined in the dissertation is called the you-attitude, which refers to strategies used to persuade users and prioritize their needs in the user instructions (e. g. Jameson 2004, Rodman 2001). The second strategy that is studied contains elements that are used to build a relationship between the writer, the company and the user. For this purpose, the concept of the we-attitude is created as part of the study. Thus, domestication is used as an overarching concept, incorporating elements of the youand we-attitudes. In addition, the dissertation explores changes that have occurred in the domestication strategies and their connection with the development of Finnish society and technical communication. The research material analyzed in the dissertation consists of 132 Finnish user instructions for household appliances produced by different companies. Furthermore, user instructions created by two well-known Finnish companies, Helkama and Upo, are compared. The material is analyzed by adopting a mixed methods research design with an emphasis on qualitative research. This is the first Finnish-language dissertation in the field of technical communication. It adds to our understanding of Finnish technical communication and its history, as well as to the role of user instructions in Finnish society. The dissertation also opens up new viewpoints for technical communication professionals, teachers and researchers as well as ideas for the translation processes of user instructions and user-centered translation, UCT (Suojanen/Koskinen/ Tuominen 2015).