Nõukogude aja representatsioon arvamuslugudes 2007. - 2010. aastani ajalehes Postimees
Date
2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The subject of the present Bachelor thesis is “Representation of Soviet era in opinion stories
in the newspaper Postimees 2007.-2010”. The aim of the paper is to explore how Soviet era was
representated in opinion stories, also what phenomena or problems occurred in the context of
references to the Soviet era.
This topic is relevant for several reasons. Firstly, Soviet era is studied sociologically and
ethnologically but there are few researches that have studied Soviet era representation in media.
Secondly, Estonia as a society is currently in a transfer stadium, coming from Soviet regime and
becoming a capitalistic country. So it is interesting to study if and how Estonia is, compared with
Soviet era, the present day.
The first chapter sets a theoretical framework for the analyses. The main topics discussed
were how the press presents and reproduces collective memories, ideology, discourse and the
concept of representation.
The first chapter also includes previous empirical studies like conducted by University of
Tartu Institute of Journalism and Communication called Mina.Maailm.Meedia. The study results
show estonians assessments of the life during Soviet era. The study involved 1,044 Estonians aged
15-74, the survey was conducted in November and October 2011.
The second chapter describes the research questions and methods of analysis as well the
selection for analyses. The present Bachelor thesis is based on the qualitative and quantitative
analysis of articles.
Third chapter describes qualitative and quantitative results in the study. Also in this chapter,
there is description of discourses appeared in articles.
Fourth chapter includes conclusions and discussion. Main conclusions of this Bachelor thesis was
that Soviet era representation in articles was mainly neutral or negative. Most often the articles
including references to the Soviet era talked about: politics/power/ideology. Most negative topic
was healthcare and most positive topic was sport. Most positive group of authors were commoners
(letter from a reader) and most negative group of authors were opinion leader/columnist.
In discussion the author compared study results of Mina.Maailm.Meedia and results of this
Bachelor thesis. Also tried to find current ideological trends.
The Bachelor thesis ends with a summary, both in Estonian and in English, followed by
references and appendix.