Ajakirjanike roll valimiste eelses poliitilises kommunikatsioonis kohalikus meedias Pärnu Postimehe ja 2007. aasta Riigikogu valimiste näitel
Date
2008
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The aim of the Bachelor thesis “The role of the journalists in local media in a pre-election
period. Based on the example of Riigikogu elections 2007 and the newspaper Pärnu
Postimees” is to study the role of the journalists in local media, the newspaper in Pärnu,
Pärnu Postimees. I have taken the 2007 Riigikogu elections as an example in order to
narrow the problem nad to simplify the study. The goal is not to describe the situation
before the elections, but to find out how the journalists act during that period.
As communication is many-sided, I have used several methods to study the topic. I have
conducted interviews with both journalists and candidates to the Riigikogu. I have also
carried out content analysis with newspapers from january and february 2007.
There are many ways to phrase the roles of journalists: a teacher, a participant in the
politics, a reporter, a anlysist, an advocate, an intermediary, an infuelcer etc. In this
Bachelor thesis, I have based the study mainly on Thomas E. Pattersons approach. He came
up with a two-dimensional scale, a passive-active dimension and an advocate-neutral
dimension. The approach includes the way a journalist infuelces the audience and also the
way the news agenda is set.
Some researches conducted in England have shown different results about setting the news
agenda: some think that the local newspaper influences elections and the choice of topics,
others believe that politicians use journalists’ lack og resources and set the agenda
themselves. Estonian journalism theoricians have said that our journalists are most of all
influential.
The empirical part of the study showed that the journalists consider themselves to be
neutral mediators, on the other hand, interviews with the candidates and content analysis
showed the opposite. I would still agree with earlier studies and claim that the newspaper is
rather advocate. It does not have to be intentional, but may also be caused by the canidates’
background, one of the factors is of course connections to the town or state power.
Surprisingly, the final result of the elections did not match with Pärnu Postimees’ reflection at all.
On the active-passive scale, the journalists in Pärnu Postimees position more on the passive
side. To be more exact, the journalists act like goalkeepers, who have a bunch of topics to
choose from, there is not much independent “nosing around”. The candidates agree to that.
One of the reasons is the convenience and the so called frogpond effect caused by the
smallness of the community, but also lack of resources.
As the study comfirmed, an important addition to the study is the locality factor, which
changes some things when looking at the role of journalists. In a smaller society, where
everyone knows everyone, the journalists have different attitudes towards their sources,
there is a smaller chance to come up with something new and people might easily be
influenced by something without knowing it themselves. One of the advantages is that the
journalists know the environment much better and can evaluate the value of news. One
important key word is monopoly, which means a bigger influence for Pärnu Postimees in
Pärnu County.
Keywords
bakalaureusetööd, poliitika, valimised, parlamendivalimised, poliitiline kommunikatsioon, meedia, maakonnalehed, ajakirjanikud, elukutsed, Pärnu Postimees (ajaleht)