Soome ja Eesti ajakirjanduse vastastikused peegeldused 1880-1883
Date
2007
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to look into how Finnish and Estonian newspapers that
were supporting the national agenda in 1880-1883 reflected respectively Estonian and Finnish
press. Besides asking the question “What was the reflection like”, author also aimed to
compile comparable statistics of the press-related reflection. Important was also to find out,
what was the purpose of covering press issues. Also, to learn about concrete and personal
linkages between the nationalist movements of Estonia and Finland in the period of fast
developing relations, one of the aims was to explore, if there were any Finns or Estonians,
who were writing letters to be published in the neighbour’s newspapers.
The method was an historical-critical analysis of six (three finnish, three estonian) important
newspapers that supported the nationalist movement. A total of 1971 issues (1477 finnish and
494 estonian) were analyzed to find news, articles, sent letters or other pieces that would
reflect the press of Finland or Estonia.
The findings showed that of the total reflection of Finnish issues by the analyzed Estonian
newspapers, press issues formed one tenth in the years 1880 and 1881, one fifth and one sixth
in 1882 and 1883, respectively. The most active year in writing about Finnish press was in
1882, when 20 articles were published. In Finnish newspapers Estonian press issues covered
one third (1880), one fourth (1881), half (1882) and one sixth (1883) of all coverage of
Estonian matters. Finnish newspapers’ coverage of Estonian issues (and issues of Estonian
press) grew constantly during the four-year period, growing from 11 articles in 1880 to 50 in
1883.
The Estonian newspapers in 1880 most often described Finnish press as a whole or a single
newspaper. Through 1881 and 1882 the estonians most often published what the Finnish press
was writing about Estonian matters. In the year 1883 Estonian press started publishing more
news about Finnish press, that being the main way of covering Finnish press. During the four-
year period, the most published subcategory for coverage of Estonian press in Finnish
newspapers were short news articles. News dominated especially in 1882 and 1883, when more than 20 short news were published in the analyzed Finnish newspapers. Finns also had a
way of coverage that was non-existant in the Estonian newspapers, that is coverage of the
political struggle of the Estonian press. It became the second most important press-related
issue in 1883.
The reflection was very similar in both countries. Nationalist newspapers got positive
coverage, while their opponents - Swedes for the Finns and Germans for the Estonians – were
critized and comparisons were made between Finnish and Estonian press as a whole. Estonian
newspapers wrote about Finnish press in an idealistic way, leaving aside conflicts inside the
Finnish nationalist movement, while conflicts in Estonian press got a lot of coverage in
Finnish newspapers. Finnish coverage of Estonian press issues was more thorough, diverse
and centered on persons acting in the press, than that of the Estonian counterpart.
For both presses, the purpose of writing about the closest neighbour was to demonstrate their
nationalist political agenda, support the other people’s nationalists and to mobilise readers to
tighten the relations between Estonia and Finland. The Estonian newspapers also to use
comparison with Finland to encourage their movement and to criticize censorship in Estonia.
The coverage of Estonian issues in Finnish press was used to prove that the Estonian
nationalist movement was being supported also further away from Estonia. Newspapers also
used the Finns’ coverage as a way to legitimize their own position.
From analyzing the pseudonyms used by several men, who sent letters from Finland to
Estonia, it was possible to find out three men: O.A.F. Lönnbohm, C.G. Swan and A.A.
Borenius-Lähteenkorva. They all sent several letters to Estonian newspapers, discussing
Finnish issues and also asking questions about Estonian people. They were all eager
supporters of tightening Finnish-Estonian relations, were interested in Estonian culture and
their work was related to Estonia (Lönnbohm and Borenius-Lähteenkorva collected Estonian
folklore). They tried to use press as a way for the two nationalist movements to communicate
with each other. No Estonians could be confirmed as senders of letters to finnish press,
although there’s reason to believe there were some.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)