Eesti-pilt Helsingin Sanomates aastatel 1999 ja 2002
Date
2005
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In this study the author wanted to find out, what was the image of Estonia like in Helsingin
Sanomat in 1999 ja 2002. To find out how the image of Estonia looked like, it was necessary
to answer to questions like: What were the main topics when writing about Estonia and
Estonians? How often did Helsingin Sanomat write about Estonia? Were there to notice any
positive/ negative attitudes towards Estonia in the articles? What kind of discourses were
hidden behind the texts? Were there any differences when comparing the year 1999 and
2002?
In this context “image” means the notion regarding a certain topic that arises in a person`s
mind when all the information that he has received on the topic has adapted itself to become
part of his general outlook of the world. An essential role in this process play the individual`s
personal fears, hopes and goals and it is naturally also influenced by the person`s whole life
history and the environment in which he lives. Apart from information, the resulting image is
also shaped by opinions as such, and are apt to simplify the reality that they reflect. It is
common for the image formed of “outsiders” to include undesirable features. Once an image
has been formed, it will take a highly significant event or a great deal of new information to
bring about any change in it. (Alenius, K. 1996:229).
The author found it quite interesting and also important to examine what and how did
Helsingin Sanomat write about Estonia and what did the image of Estonia looked like. It was
interesting to see how the image of Estonia was like in the last year of the 20. century and
then in the begin of this century. The study made it possible to compare the articles
published in these two years but also to write a summary of the image of Estonia in the
crossing of the two centurys. Helsingin Sanomat is the biggest newspaper in Finland. It is
widely read among Finns and many Estonians are aware of its writings as well. There is no
doubt that Helsingin Sanomat very much effects on people`s thinking and opinions. How
Helsingin Sanomat writes about Estonia is significant becouse of Finland`s and Estonian`s
geographical closness and also becouse of the relationship they have had for centurys.
Especially now, when Estonia have become a member of the European Union, dealings between Estonia and Finland have increased. From Helsingin Sanomat`s articles it is
possible to clonclude how things are going between Estonia and Finland but its writings can
also influence to their relationship.
Before starting to examine the articles Helsingin Sanomat (HS) had published about Estonia
and Estonian during 1999 and 2002 wel ooked back and clarified, how the image of Estonia
in the eyes of Finns was in the past. Before the middle of the 19. century the Finns knew
very little about Estonia. The image of Estonia became more accurate through the national
awakening. Little by little the Finns got more information about Estonia and especially a few
Finnish researchers of Finno-Ugric culture had bigger knowledge and interest in Estonia.
When Finland and Estonia became independent in the years 1917 and 1918 they started very
strongly develope their political, economical and cultural relations. Estonia was more
enthusiastic in dealing with these matters but the image of Estonia did not radically change
in Finland. It is possible that people started to respect Estonia a little bit more than before.
The winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union in the year 1939 had a negative effect
on Finland`s and Estonia´s relationship. As far as Finland knew, there were several Russian
air force bases in Estonia. From Estonia had the airplanes only a short way to fly to Finland.
In the year 1941 the Germans occupied Estonia. Finland decided not to interfere and
concentrated to cherish its relationship with Germany. Estonians started to escape from
Estonia becouse of the German coercions and by the year of 1994 there were 5000 Estonian
refugees in Finland. Many of them served in the Finnish army. On the basis of the truce pact
Finland surrendered Estonian refugees to the Soviet Union. This broke the relationship
between Estonia and Finland for many years.
The contacts with Estonia and Finland started to develop again in the middle of 1950 but not
only until in the year 1964 started a new period between the two countrys. Finland`s
president Urho Kekkonen visited Estonia and by his initiative a regular shipping started in
the year after from Tallinn to Helsinki. Many Finnish paid a visit to Estonia and when they
saw the poor qualitive of the products and the empty shop shelves the image of Estonia
started to become some what negative in Finland. Then in the end of the 1980:s the Soviet
Union was about to collapse and the Baltic nations started very eagerly to get rid of the old
system. Finland observerd carefully the events that took place in Estonia but did not much to help. Finlandization was the main reason for that and that is why official Finland thought that
it would be better not to irritate the Soviet Union by supporting Estonia. In 1991 Estonia got
back its independence and since then has the relationship between Estonia and Finland been
a constant topic of discussion in the Finnish and Estonian media.
There have been made several academic works done about the image of Estonia in Finland
and also about how Finns take an attitude to Estonia. A study that was made in the
University of Tartu pointed out that the Finnish media wrote about Estonia mainly positevely
in the begin of the 1990:s. Main topics at that time when writing abut Estonia were culture,
economics and politics. A few years later after that the Estonian ship “Estonia” sank and
hundreds of people got drowned. In now time after this disastrous accident began the Finnish
media indirectly and also directly blame Estonia of the catastrophe. Estonia was identyfied
with the former Soviet Union and the Estonian sailors skills were distrusted. In 2000 the
Finnish Tuglas-society examined how the image of Estonia was in the eyes of Finnish. The
society inquired 500 Finns about the Estonian society and Estonians The answers turned out
positively: in a matter of Estonia the Finnish took mainly a positive stand. Many of them
wished to get more information about Estonia in the future but yet they were quite critical
towards the information they got about Estonia from the Finnish media.
To find out how the image of Estonia was like in HS in 1999 and 2002 it was important to
use the content analysis and also the discourse analysis. The content analysis helped to find
answers to the questions settled in the begin but it was evident to take a deeper look in to the
articles and examine if there were any power relations hidden in the texts. It was found 418
articles from the year 1999 and 294 articles from 2002 from the pages of HS. It was selected
only articles with a word Viro (Estonia), Tallinna, Tartto, Narva, Pärnu, Saarenmaa and
Hiidenmaa in their heading. This was to make sure that the texts were mainly about Estonia
or Estonians. Another reason for choosing only a part of all the Estonia-articles was the
enormous amount of the texts written about Estonia that occured. The hypothesis was that
the image of Estonia on the pages of HS was influenced by the ancient relationship Estonia
and Finland had and by the social changes that were in operation in Estonia during those
years. It was also assumed that the image reflected chiefly interests that Finland had in
regard to Estonia.
The articles occurred quite regularyly during both years: in 1999 approximately 34,8 articles
a month, in 2002 approximately 24,5 articles a month. In both years the main topics when
written about Estonia were domestic politics, economy, culture and foreign politics. And
after that in 1999: transport, time, sport, social questions, education, nature, tourism, mass
media, accidents, religion, science. In 2002: sport, social questions, time, tourism, transport,
nature, religion, accidents, education, mass media, science. In 1999 the theme that was
written most was the relationship between Estonia and Finland, the next one was sports and
the third one was business. The fourth was industry and shipping, the fifth was the past.
Three years later was sports the most common theme, the second one business, the third ones
culture events, drugs and the relationship between Estonia and Finland. The fourth waw the
EU and the fifth ones were the past, smugglering and shipping.
In the year 1999 the anonyms information soucres used were most, in 2002 the main
information sources were individuals interviewed by a journalist. In both 1999 and 2002
were news the most common genre; also a number of interviews, reportaaz`s, long
information articles, leaders, reviews and feature`s were published. In 1999 the majority of
the articles were written by an anonymous autor, in 2002 was a jounalist marked as an
article`s autor most often. During both of the years were Estonian non-political
organisations, Estonian individuals and Estonian political organisations the most typical
actors in the articles.
In the articles were to identify discourses, in which (usually) Finland was in power and
Estonia was presented as a weak, unprofessional and poor country. However, one discourse
that occurred quite often put Estonia in a position that was something different- in this
discourse Estonia had a great deal of self-confidence; it was professional, determined and
strong. It is quite possible that this discourse will get into the power in no time.
The image of Estonia in HS in 1999 did not differ much from the image in 2002. As was
assumed in the beginning of this study, the changes that were going on in the Estonian
society during those years and especially in 1999 reflected to the image. Transition from
socialism to democracy does not happen at once but requires a lot of work and changes in the
country. It was also true that the old relationship between Estonia and Finland effected to the
image: the arrogant attitude that the Finnish have had towards Estonias also before reflected from some of the articles. And yes, the image was ifluenced by the interestes that Finland
had in regard to Estonia. Drugs, shipping, pollutions, prostitution were common topics. But
there were also articles about ordinary people`s life; interviews and feature`s, which let the
individuals tell themselves how their life was like; what were their future plans. There were
also published articles about Estonian senior citizens´ problems, the poor health system and
the state`s unstable economic. Sometimes Estonia was asking for help from Finland becouse
of its economical difficulties or lack of knowledge, but sometimes Estonia acted self-
assertively and it seemed like it would have prefered to take distance from Finland. It would
be recommendable if HS wrote many-sided about Estonia also in the future and incresed the
information Finnish have about their neighbour country. On the other hand, the same could
do the Estonian media: write different articles about Finnish life and Finnish people to get rid
of the old stereotypes that still exist between the two nations. It would be interesting to see
how the image of Estonia in HS looks like after ten years: are the topics and the actors the
same than in 1999 and 2002 or will there be any radical changes.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd