Eesti pere-ja koduajakirjad ning nende lugejad

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2007-03-19T09:00:21Z

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This master thesis “Estonian Family And Home Magazines And Their Readers” deals with family and home magazines and their readership, readers’ expectations to magazines and their motivation to read them. The first part of the thesis describes magazines as a medium and their functions, proceeding from the concept of uses and gratifications in more general terms. To add context to the study, the author included an overview of the general interest magazines that are published in Estonia as well as an overview of their development in 1990-2006; a possible detailed classification of magazines has been presented, too. The author also describes the situation of magazine market in Estonia and major Estonian magazine publishers. The second part of the thesis deals with the study of the content of family and home magazines published in Estonia, gives the description of family and home magazines readers in comparison with the readers of women’s magazines and presents the methods and results of the study of magazine reading motivation. The content of family and home magazines was being studied by applying the qualitative content analysis. The surveys carried out by the Department of Journalism and Communication of the University of Tartu and Research Centre Factum in 2002 and 2005 were used for analysing the demographic panel of family and home magazines readers. A comparative study of the readers of women’s magazines was also carried out. The study of the motivation of family and home magazine readers was based on the theoretical aspects of the concept of uses and gratifications. Eight in-depth interviews with readers were performed in order to study motivation. A standardized online questioning was carried out among the subscribers. The readers of women’s magazines were also included to collect comparative data. The hypotheses set in the thesis were answered as follows: 1. The study of the content of family and home magazines indicated that articles with cognitive function have more emphasis in these magazines. 2. The average reader of family and home magazines is a female in the age of 30-54 who has upper general or higher education. 3. The results of in-depth interviews and standardized questionnaires indicate that readers of family and home magazines tend to prioritise the need for information and advice, the same is true of the need for entertainment. The study also revealed the tendency that family and home magazines meet their readers’ need for personal and social integration less than women’s magazines. This outcome has also been proven by the analyses of the content of family and home magazines. 4. The satisfaction rate of family and home magazine readers with the magazine was somewhat lower than that of the readers of women’s magazines. It was assumed that reader satisfaction might increase by including more varied articles in the magazines that would meet personal and social integration needs. 5. The concept of uses and gratifications as the theoretical basis for studying the motivation of active magazine readers enabled to identify motivation to the extent which allows editorial boards to implement the results of this study in practice.

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