Inimesekäsitlus Sakalas ja Pärnu Postimehes 1999-2002

Date

2005

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Abstract

Description

The transition period and changes of wide scope in the 1990s, that began after the collapse of the Soviet Union, gave rise to extensive social stratification and mobility in the post-Soviet Estonian society – a part of the population could took advantage of the state of obscurity, but some failed. That is why the terms winner and loser were favourably taken into common use as indicators of welfare of individuals on the threshold of the subsequent millennium – the former one to refer to improvement (of moving upward) or success and the second one in the meaning of downward mobility (moving to a lower status). In common usage, the two terms refered to success or unsuccess in the sense of incomes and indicators that can be written in figures. There and then has been said that the rank position cannot raly only on material indicators, but also on subjective complacency (quality of life in broader sense – for example, social relations, status, way of life etc) has its important role at the state of welfare of individuals. Mainstream newspapers (leadning national dailies) went by dominant ideology (influenced by extreme liberalism in economy) in their representation of man and society and the ideology made self-evident the point of view that an individual’s rank position in the society is determined by criteria of pecuniary achievements and competitive ability. The aim of this research is to explore what is the conception of success and representation of man and society in the local newspapers of Estonia during 1999-2002, when the transformation period from centrally planned to market economy was about to end and when the changes grew weaker. The approach of the research is following the idea that media constructs meanings and identities and has got the power to name and categorize objects. The theoretical basis rely on researches carried out to analize social and media changes in the post-Soviet Estonian society. The empirical basis are texts from the local dailies Sakala (county of Viljandi) and Pärnu Postimees (county of Pärnu) and the research involved texts of all jornalistic genres (news, features, interviews, reportages etc) where individuals were represented. The texts in the sample were published in March 1999, September 2000, March 2001 and September 2002 and the amount of them is 305. The method of the research is content analysis plus qualitative analysis of more detailed features by profile approach. The texts are grouped into three by the type of representation of man. The texts that does not allow of defining people to winners and losers are classified into the first group – the group of positive, negative, controversial and neutral individuals and subjects; the texts that represent winners and losers sligtly with no backround information make up the second group; and the third group of texts consists of features by profile approach that could be studied by following the criteria of formal sceme of content analysis. The results of the research are compeared with the gists of the similar study of national daily Postimees, recorded by Mele Pesti and the author of the present study. Generally, Sakala and Pärnu Postimees during 1999-2002 can be caracterized as positive, benevolent, rather optimistic and winner afectionate in subject matter and representation of people. Almost half of the texts of the first and second group are positive and less than third negative in subject. Thereby Sakala is more positive in its content and Pärnu Postimees more balanced. Even greater predominance of becomes evident in representation of individuals in the texts of the first group. In the second group, the relative importance of winners becomes evident in more than half of the texts and losers around third, thereby the relative importance of winners is greater in Pärnu Postimees. The most widespread domains of activity in the positive texts of the first group are releated to culture, environment, social sphere and pedagogy. Negative texts are mostly connected to economy and enterpreneurship (malpractices, embezzlements etc). Also the slightly represented winners (in the second group) are active mostly in the sphere of culture, also in sports, less business and political affair. Losers represent poor economic conditions, poverty, disability and disadvantages of rural life. The texts of the third group (features by profile approach) can be considered as representations of winners or carefully selected individuals – this becomses evident in the small percentage of the texts (25 out of 305) as well as in the fact that none of them represented losers or individuals failed in transformation of the society. Thereby 20 of them are less than 30 or more than 60 years old. It is remarkable that being a winner appears not in making use of the new prospects that opened in the transformation period, but in capability, purposefulness, tenacity, prolific life, complacency and contentment to social relations and environment, also in positive attitudes. Therefore, the social not pecuniarial criteria of success and improvement predominate in the texts of features by profile approach and on the basis of the criteria was the basis of posisioning the represented individuals on the winner-loser scale. Contrarily to pecuniarial improvement and success, the centre of the representation of man lies on everyday work and duties, thereupon reputation, fame, status, achievements and conception of the world. The other indicator of complancency and welfare appears to be bound to family and home. National daily Postimees pays remarkable attention to success and failures of inhabitants during the transformation time, emphasizing the importance of tangible suceess and comparing the achievements to the much sordid life of 10 years before. Beside the stories of achievements and success, the other type of features represent losers (old-age pensioners, unemployed). Regardless of different criteria of success and welfare compared to Postimees stereotypes play a great role in the writings of local newspapers. Those which issue from their (social) criteria of success and the (traditional, conservative) values that predominate in the regions (rural to a great extent).

Keywords

H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd

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