Välisilm Postimehes 2003-2004
Date
2005
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The Bachelor’s thesis „The outside world in Postimees 2003-2004“ studies stories
from the outside world published in the biggest Estonian daily newspaper Postimees,
their geographic origin, type of the event and other characteristics. The main research
questions:
1. What characterizes the international media space in Postimees in terms of
international news flow?
2. What characterizes the international political, economic and cultural spaces in
Postimees?
3. What changes have there been in the news flow with regard to Estonia’s joining
NATO and EU?
4. What is the relationship between media space and people social space?
The thesis is based on studies of international news flow, particularly those conducted
by Robert Stevenson, and studies of social space by Peeter Vihalemm. Following the
example of the latter studies media space is divided into the dimensions of political,
economic and cultural space.
The method employed in the thesis on content analysis. Altogether 622 stories were
analyzed from altogether six weeks in the second halves of the years 2003 and 2004.
The main results of the study:
1. The media space in Postimees can in general be characterized by the same
characteristics outlined by studies of international news flow. The biggest number of
stories is about neutral events, main topics of the stories are politics and to a lesser
extent the economy. About 1/3 of all the stories are based on negative events. The
most important criterion in the geographic origin of the stories is regionality, 2/3 of the stories in Postimees come from Europe. The most important countries are USA,
Russia and the EU, followed by our neighbors Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania;
Iraq and Great Britain. Coverage of the rest of the world is negligible.
2. Political space changes most in accordance with international news flow. Here our
neighbors, power centres and 1-2 international crises are consistently reported on.
In the economic space the criteria of geographic proximity and involvement of host
country are most important; here 78% of the stories are from Europe. To a lesser
extent other power centres in the world economy like Asia and the US are covered.
In cultural space international culture centres are most important; USA, Russia and
Great Britain are the most prominent countries here.
3. Joining NATO and the EU has not brought considerable changes to the media
space in Postimees. The importance of the EU has even dropped a bit after joining the
EU.
4. In general it is difficult to compare social space to media space because they are
both in a way abstract constructs. In general it can be said that in the social space of
Estonia the Nordic countries and Germany are represented more and USA and Russia
less than in media space in Postimees.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd, ajakirjandus, trükiajakirjandus, päevalehed, välisuudised, uudised, Postimees (ajaleht), Ameerika Ühendriigid, Venemaa, Euroopa Liit