Meedia raamid keeruliste ühiskondlike nähtuste kajastamisel päevalehtedes: ühiskondliku kokkuleppe käsitlemine ajalehtedes Eesti Päevaleht ja Postimees
Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
There are several essential tasks to implement social functions in addition to the
informative function of mass media; for example creating publicity, framing social
activity or intellectual environment of society or offering ground to criticise
independently and profoundly society or the government. On the other hand, society
itself limits media through its values and beliefs by reflecting the attitudes transmitted
to the auditorium as a result of media framing.
A process of recurrent representation forms frames with same themes, aspects and
sources being highlighted more than the others, resulting in construction a one-sided,
even simplified vision.
Therefore, the treatment of such complicated social phenomena like social/public
agreement, which concerns different subjects on different stages, consists of main and
subdocuments as well as includes different social groups, in mass media may result in
suppressing public debate between concerned parties due to simplified frames of
media.
The purpose of current research is to examine how the nation-wide Estonian daily
newspapers – Eesti Päevaleht and Postimees framed social/public agreement during the
period of 2001 to 2004.
The author aims to find an answer to the question of how the daily newspapers
presented the phenomenon of social/public agreement as a talking-point; how the daily
newspapers contextualised the agreement and what subject matters were made news-
worthy in the process of representation.
The author chose integrated textual analysis to conduct the research. The sample
consists of 147 articles concerning social/public agreement published in Eesti
Päevaleht and Postimees during the period of 23.02.2001 – 22.11.2004.
Empiric analysis showed that major nation-wide Estonian daily newspapers presented
the subject matter of social/public agreement as a talking-point mainly in year 2003,
emphasizing the importance of the subject matter especially during that year by
preoccupying the public attention through measures such as reference on the front
page, recurrent presentation of key-words in essential parts of the article, placement
within the issue etc. The subject matter was mainly expressed in feature articles, less in
special topic news stories. The authors of feature articles were mainly journalists and
politicians, whereby several politicians were introduced rather as opinion leaders than
politicians. Different politicians were most frequently quoted and paraphrased as
spokespersons.
The analysis of photographs presented along with the piece of writing, showed that
while in Eesti Päevaleht entrepreneurs were most frequently imaged in connection with
the subject matter of social/public agreement, in Postimees the photos of coalition
politicians were most frequently used.
One of the conclusion of current research is that the major Estonian daily newspapers
presented the subject matter of social/public agreement as a talking-point mainly in
year 2003 by contextualizing politicians (several of which were presented as opinion
leaders) and experts as important parties of the agreement.
The analysis identified two differences while forming the topic: while Eesti Päevaleht
positioned the subject matter of social/public agreement as primary or secondary,
Postimees positioned the subject matter mainly as secondary or insignificant. The
second difference applied to the selection of photo materials used to illustrate the
subject matter: while in Eesti Päevaleht photographs of entrepreneurs were dominant,
in Postimees the photos of politicians were most frequently used.
Several additional subject matters and various concerned parties emerged in connection
with the representation of social/public agreement. While in 2001 the economic growth was raised as the main goal of social/public agreement, in 2002 economic aspects were
receded into background and a need for public and social discussion emerged in turn.
Politicians and citizens were represented as concerned parties.
In 2003, four issues emerged in the process of representation, the central issue being
the content and text related matters of social/public agreement. Politicians were
presented as concerned parties and journalists, politicians and persons connected with
the development of the agreement were presented as spokespersons.
The second important issue appeared to be the treatment of social/public agreement as
a mechanism guaranteeing the continuance of the Estonian state and government.
Politicians and citizens were presented as concerned parties, experts were presented as
spokespersons.
The third issue dealt with contradictions between the authors of social/public
agreement and the critics. Politicians, among them Estonian President Rüütel, were
presented as concerned parties; journalists, politicians and initiators of the agreement
were presented as spokespersons.
The fourth issue was the deadline of social/public agreement. Journalists, politicians
and authors of the agreement were presented as spokespersons. In all the articles
concerning the deadline of the agreement president Rüütel was presented as the
concerned party.
The main statement in 2004 was that of Estonia should change course towards
becoming a knowledge based society for it is possible to reduce social inequality only
through high quality education. Citizens and the government were represented as
concerned parties.The largest number of articles with negatively toned headings was published in 2003. It
also became obvious that the authors’ attitude towards the agreement changed in 2003,
becoming more critical than it had been in the years of 2001 and 2002.
The second conclusion of current research is that the noticeable accentuation of the
phenomenon of social/public agreement in 2003 lead to changes in subject matters
connected to the agreement. Instead of continuing the analytical discussion that began
in 2002, it appeared that the spokespersons concentrated mainly on defining single
aspects of the agreement. The analytical discussion was suddenly left out of the debate
of public sphere. The analysis also showed that with every covered issue, politicians
were always presented as concerned parties, being at the same time one of the most
prominent group of spokespersons.
Proceeding form the above mentioned the general conclusion of current Bachelor’s
thesis is that Estonian nation-wide daily newspapers attached value and
newsworthiness in representing the social/public agreement to single aspects of the
agreement, and receded the analytical discussion to the background, by framing the
subject matters of the agreement through the point of view and purposes (approaching
elections, Euro referendum etc) of political elite. Since only one group’s – politicians –
reality was constructed, it is possible to conclude that we are dealing with “public
sphere constructed by media (Schultz 1997).
The author concludes by stating that Estonian daily newspapers did not implement the
functions of public forum (Bourdieu 2003), because instead of including as many
groups as possible into the discussion, single concerned groups competed in defining
their messages.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd, meedia, trükiajakirjandus, ajalehed, päevalehed, ühiskondlik leping