Drawing on the conceptual work of externalisation in comparative education and multi-accentual signs in cultural studies, this article examines how the print news media accentuate "Finnish education" in the process of inserting this external reference into the domestic political discourses around education reform in Australia, Germany and South Korea. The study identifies all articles referencing "Finnish education" that were published from 2000 to 2011 in two widely circulated newspapers with different political orientations in each country. Discourse analysis of the articles shows various ways in which "Finnish education" is accentuated by the newspapers, serving to legitimise different political agendas in education policy debates. It is argued that "Finnish education" has become a "projection screen" for competing conceptions of "good education" and the associated visions of "good society". The authors situate the findings within the ongoing discussion of externalisation, calling for a careful conceptualisation of the role of the media in this line of comparative education scholarship.