Välisilm Postimehes 2003-2004

Date

2005

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

Citation