Maailma kaardistamine Eesti telekanalite välisuudistes
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
This study researched, what are the countries, regions and topics that the Estonian
television channels ETV, TV 3 and Kanal 2 cover the most in broadcasting their
foreign news. One of the main purposes was also to find out which are the countries
that are of primary important for the television channels and which are the differences
between these channels.
The study found that the countries that were most covered in the foreign news are
Russia, USA, Iraq, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia and some international
organisations. The prevalence of Russia and USA is considerable. The regions that are
covered the most are Europe, Asia, North-America, and Middle East. The occurrence
of South-America, Africa and Oceania is scant. It is important to pay attention to one
of the result of the study which indicates that ETV’s news with a foreign focus are not
more varied when it comes to the list of different countries and regions, when
compared to news of other television channels.
The topics that are mostly covered are politics, human interest, social topics and
conflicts. Human interest is the most covered topic in TV 3 and Kanal 2, but ETV
covers this topic also quite numerous. The author found that the topics in foreign news
do not largely differ among the three television channels.
The news about Europe and international organisations mostly cover politics related
topics; the news about Middle East are related to conflicts and disasters. In case of
North-America, South-America, Oceania and Africa we cannot talk about the most
covered topic in foreign news.
Looking into the position and length of the news it appeared that the most important
country is Russia. Events in Russia were presented most often as the first story of the
news. The second country was USA. This research also studied which are the
countries that are most often covered by a foreign correspondent. It was found that in
case of ETV these countries are Poland, USA and Latvia and the European Union.
When controlling the hypothesis it was found that all television channels prefer to
cover negative events, the main topic is politics and the most covered region is
Europe. The news about Europe are not more diverse when compared to other
regions. ETV’s foreign news are not more variegated by the list of different countries
and regions when compared to the news of other television channels.
The author concluded that the list of countries, regions and topics is not variegated in
foreign news. News with foreign focus pay attention to certain regions and topics.
The study is based on content analysis.