Teaduse kujutamine postimees.ee ja elu24.ee veebiportaalides
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The representation of science in postimees.ee and elu24.ee.
This bachelor thesis focuses on the representation of science in two webportals – postimees.ee and elu24.ee. Postimees.ee is a general-interest webpage that provides everyday news for a wide interest reader. By contrast, elu24.ee is a webpage that focuses on providing entertainment news.
The theoretical part of the thesis gives an overview of the position of science in the society. It also describes the journalistic approach in reporting on science. It is concluded that science is seen as a great value, but for most people it is distant and incomprehensible. Media is the main source through which people learn about science. Therefore, the way science is represented in the media may shape the general attitude towards science and understanding of it among the public. Thus, I also draw on Hall`s representation theory.
In this thesis I used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative analysis was conducted based on 125 postimees.ee articles and 103 elu24.ee articles. The main aim of the quantitative analysis was to get an overview of the usage of sources and general content aspects in the articles. Critical discourse analysis was used to investigate the articles in more depth and to describe the content aspects that can be difficult to analyse using quantitative methods. This method was used to analyse 20 articles from postimees.ee and 20 from elu24.ee. The main purpose of the discourse analysis was to interpret how science was depicted in the articles and in which ways the news values of the topic were emphasized. Another aim was to describe how thoroughly scientific topics were explained – whether the process of science was described and which words were used in an effort to make the topic more understandable. The results of the discourse analysis were illustrated by excerpts from the analysed texts.
Based on the quantitative analysis it can be concluded that on elu24.ee website the articles follow a very similar pattern, all the scientific topics appear in the section „Kurioosum“ which can be translated as something extraordinary or unusual. The articles are adapted from foreign webpages and focus on foreign topics. In postimees.ee the articles about science are much more versatile. The main difference was that most of the articles were texts written by local authors, not adapted from other sources. The focus was on local science topics rather than foreign.
Based on the results of the discourse analysis it can be concluded that the science topics in postimees.ee were discussed in a way probably more understandable for the common reader, the process of science was and scientific terms were both explained. In elu24.ee the articles were rather short conclusions of the topic and did not give further explanations of the process of science. In postimees.ee the articles emphasized how complicated science is, however, they accentuated the practical value of it. Writing about individual research results and scientific experiments dominated in elu24.ee and science was mostly depicted as the resolver of mysteries rather than as something of a pracitcal value. In elu24.ee, articles with unidentified sources and approaches that might undermine the reliability and credibility of the topics prevailed.
On the whole, the analysed articles corresponded to the aspects that were described in the theoretical bases, for example the same news values and dominating subjects described by theorists were common in the researched articles. However, the overemphasizing of science in journalism described by many authors was not apparent. Although, hyperbolic words were used, in postimees.ee the science topics were described in a rather calculated style. In elu24.ee the style was not as careful and calculated, but the emphasis was on entertainment and overall the credibility of the topics was diminished. However, the analysis was conducted on a quite small number of articles. Therefore, the results might not be representative enough to draw conclusions about the whole science news coverage of these two web pages. Further research should be carried out using a larger number of articles.