Janne Hopsu is one of the University of Helsinki history students who worked at the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper’s archives during his studies, which is how he became a reporter at the newspaper. Hopsu started at the Helsingin Sanomat as a summer intern and continued working there on fixed-term contracts as a foreign reporter until the summer of 1994. He also contributed to the paper’s weekend insert, NYT liite, as a freelancer.

‘As a freelance journalist, I wrote about topical issues and even cultural history in Helsinki,’ says Hopsu. ‘I like the fact that I was able to combine my work and my studies at that time. For example, 1992 was the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s “discovery”, so I wrote a full-page story for the paper about that.’

After the Helsingin Sanomat, Hopsu went into television. He started work as a freelance correspondent for MTV3 News in the autumn of 1994. He was made a permanent correspondent for the channel in 2000. He has been with the foreign news desk from the beginning.

‘Before I was made full-time, I worked on articles for newspapers such as the Helsingin Sanomat’s weekend insert NYT liite, the business daily Talous Sanomat, the leftist weekly Ny Tid and the Finnish UN Association’s paper Maailmanpyörä, whose editorial board I was on,’ says Hopsu. ‘I was also the copy editor for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s journal, Kehitys-Utveckling, for four years. In recent years, I have written for the Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs.’

When Hopsu started his career, many journalists had educational background in fields such as geography, political science and law, not in journalism as a major field. These days the majority of reporters have majored in journalism or communications.

‘This is a good thing of course,’ says Hopsu. ‘Other fields may not be part of the specific knowledge needed in journalism or communications work, but they can be a reporter’s trump card. In journalism, the reporter’s basic job is to examine the sources with a critical eye, a task which is familiar to me from my history studies. An extensive knowledge and understanding of other areas of life is important for reporters, too.’

For Janne Hopsu, journalism is a calling. When he was younger, he also planned a career as a diplomat, but a suit and tie job did not feel right.

‘Even as a kid I loved to tap out stories on an old typewriter. I have always read a lot and been interested in world events. I noticed that a job in journalism could be one way to pursue my interests. And of course I have met a lot of wonderful diplomats in my career.’

Hopsu is naturally interested in learning and seeking out new information about many different subjects.

‘I’ve never really felt like dropping everything and doing something else. This is what I want to do this and this is how I want to live. I read a lot and I often write book reviews for MTV’s website. Right now on my nightstand is Johannes Remy’s Ukrainan historia (‘A history of Ukraine’).’