Journalism

Journalism http://jou.sagepub.com/

Media generated news waves - catalysts for discursive change: The case study on drug issues in Estonian print media Marianne Paimre and Halliki Harro-Loit Journalism 2011 12: 433 DOI: 10.1177/1464884910388226 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jou.sagepub.com/content/12/4/433

Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com

Additional services and information for Journalism can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jou.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jou.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://jou.sagepub.com/content/12/4/433.refs.html

>> Version of Record - May 10, 2011 What is This?

Downloaded from jou.sagepub.com at Tartu University Library on June 21, 2012

Article

Media generated news waves – catalysts for discursive change: The case study on drug issues in Estonian print media

Journalism 12(4) 433–448 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub. co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1464884910388226 jou.sagepub.com

Marianne Paimre

University of Tartu, Estonia; University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Halliki Harro-Loit University of Tartu, Estonia

Abstract Journalistic discourse influences the public agenda and shapes the discourse as well as social and political lives. Journalism studies distinguish between mediated scandal, media hype, news waves and media events – approaches that help to understand why the phenomena of media gives extraordinary space, time and attention to certain events or topics. The steady flow of everyday news does not generally allow for the introduction of issues that are unknown to the public or require either a specific vocabulary or prior knowledge. Intensive media coverage can however act as a catalyst by directing the public attention to new social issues. This article examines how the press intensively reported the high profile arrest of Estonian drug traffickers in Thailand, initially emotively and subjectively, but in doing so raised public awareness and shaped the social drug discourse in Estonia. Keywords catalyst, change of discourse, drugs, hype, mediated scandal, news waves, reality construction, transition

Corresponding author: Marianne Paimre, Faculty of Law, University of Tartu, Kaarli Street 3, 10119 Tallinn, Estonia. Email: [email protected]


434

Journalism 12(4)

In the course of news processing (selection, framing, focusing), journalistic discourse constructs its specific reality. A lot of news acts as wallpaper to everyday life, attended to inadvertently (Martin, 2008). Nevertheless, different types of intensive media coverage could be powerful tools that influence public politics or change existing discourses. Some events have great social impact independently of the media coverage (such as natural disasters, wars, riots and anniversaries of national importance) whereas other events, social problems, people or facts become significant only as a result of intensive media coverage. Media constantly creates news waves of different sizes, which vary greatly with regard to type, construction and impact. The aim of the study is to reveal the impact of intensive media coverage on the journalistic discourse of drugs during the transition period of the 1990s in Estonia. In the present study we shall concentrate on if and how a journalistic news wave facilitates the mediation of those issues that have, hitherto, been seldom discussed in public. The aim of current textual analysis was not to propose answers to why the discursive change took place as this needs more complex methodology (e.g. interviews with journalists and sources and the ethnographic observations at the media organizations). The drug issue was a new discourse during the transition period. Content analysis of drug issues of the period revealed that since 1995 the print media’s representation of drug issues shifted towards a crime discourse and new issues like the trading in drugs and the activities of the anti-drug police were introduced. When we tried to specify the moment the discursive turn occurred we discovered the existence of the 1995 ‘Thai arrest case’: four Estonian citizens were arrested at Thailand’s international airport for drug smuggling and the Estonian media was alarmed at the possibility that these four would be sentenced to death.

Conceptual framework of media-generated high news waves In the information era the biggest factors encompassing media competition are the (available) free time and the attention span of the public, consumers or citizens. The present media market is increasingly being restructured into smaller segments and consequently citizens get less exposed to competing views and low profile problems (Karppinen, 2007). Through the means of intensive and extensive media coverage, citizens, spokespersons and journalists are increasingly exposed to materials and information that they would not have chosen in advance. Journalism studies provide more or less elaborated concepts for different types of intensive coverage where the media plays a significant role in framing and social amplification of a certain event or topic: media events that have most often been characterized by live television broadcasting (Dayan and Katz, 1992; Pantti and Sumiala, 2009); mediated scandal (Ekström and Johansson, 2008; Lull and Hinerman, 1997; Thompson, 1997, 2000; Tumber and Waisbord 2004); media hype (Vasterman, 2005; Vasterman et al., 2005), key events that trigger waves of news (Kepplinger and Habermeier, 1995). Of all these the concept of mediated scandal is the most elaborated; political scandal, for instance, has several subtypes such as sexual, financial and power (Thompson, 2000) or talk scandals (Ekström and Johansson, 2008). Researchers have also distinguished mediated sports scandals (Rowe, 1997) and types of scandals according to the control the


Paimre and Harro-Loit

435

sources have about the information, for example a scandal that emerges from interviewees on live talk shows (Liebes and Blum-Kulka, 2004). The typology provided by Lull and Hinerman (1997) partitions scandals as institutional, star or psychodrama in type. This comprehensive conceptual framework affords a wide ranging analytical toolkit for intensive coverage of an event that does not meet all the indicators of mediated scandal. One of these tools is the elaborated schema of the four phases of the scandal (Thompson, 2000): (i) break of the scandal, (ii) strategic confrontation, (iii) culmination and (iv) aftermath. Elmelund-Præstekær and Wien (2008) claim that media hype and media scandal are related concepts although media hype is broader as it also includes a very steep news wave and not just stories on corrupted elites, inappropriate sexual behaviour or economic failures. Comparison of the concepts reveals that although they partly overlap, there are still important differences between media hype and mediated scandal that should not be ignored. Media hype could create the impression that a situation has suddenly deteriorated into a real crisis (for example, a large number of crime-related news stories can leave the impression that crime is on the rise). The event is not covered but rather created (Vasterman, 2005). A characteristic feature of a mediated scandal is that the event impelling the coverage must contain a moral dilemma and it must be ‘effectively narrativized into a story’ (Lull and Hinerman, 1997: 13). Political scandals also have serious consequences for the careers and reputations of the individuals involved (Thompson, 1997). In addition to the mediated scandal and media hype, a ‘recycling effect’ of a certain topic could produce news waves of smaller amplitude on a daily basis. The nature of such pack journalism comes from economic logistics of journalism: it is cheaper and easier to refresh an existing story than to start from the stage where you need to find and attach value to certain news (Lund, 2002). The self-referential nature of journalistic performance is an inductive factor for any type of news wave. In summary, besides mediated scandals and media hype, the media produce ‘news waves’ that do not represent explicitly a moral conflict, nor do the media create the impression that a situation has deteriorated into a real crisis. Therefore we suggest using the expression ‘news (or media) waves’ (not referring to the news genre only) that signifies a mixed type of intensive coverage of an issue or event. Intensive news coverage and news waves are not synonyms but rather complementary approaches. Intensive news coverage is a process – journalists cover the item, take interviews, etc. The concept of a news wave is the result, the body of texts that are published. The abovementioned concepts (mediated scandal, media hype, etc.) provide comprehensive analytical tools that could be applied to analysing the mixed type of news waves. A key issue in this argument is the level of coverage frequency, which defines ‘intensive’. The term ‘intensive’ is always relative (Elmelund-Præstekær and Wien, 2008), as the waves are different in size. We claim that frequency depends a great deal on the size of the media market. For example, in Estonia (with an audience of less than 1 million) there were five Estonian language national dailies in 1995, and four in 2005. We considered coverage to be intensive when the event or topic is under journalistic scrutiny by at least three media channels on a once a week basis.


436

Journalism 12(4)

Impact of intensive media coverage A number of studies focus on the type, structure and dynamics of journalistic mega stories and on the role media plays in the process of framing the covered event or topic. Research questions concerning the impact and the consequences of high news waves are a by product of different case studies rather than the main research focus (ElmelundPræstekær and Wien, 2008; Lull and Hinerman, 1997; Thompson, 1997, 2000; Vasterman, 2005). The studies also take into consideration different aspects and objects of impact. Therefore we propose to distinguish: • the real consequences (social reform, the dismissal of a politician, loss of trust, etc.); • the consequences for journalistic performance (ethical debates concerning the coverage, changes in journalistic conventions, information processing routines or formats); • the discursive impact (e.g. intensive media coverage brings different perspectives, voices and use of vocabulary concerning certain topics to the fore). Elmelund-Præstekær and Wien (2008), focusing on real consequences, state that it is important to clarify whether local, national or global consequences occur. The impact might be immediate and long term. They reveal that media hypes have (immediate) political consequences on the local rather than national level and conclude that it is more problematic to analyze any possible long and indirect effects. Vasterman (2005) contends that intensive media attention can also bring to the fore different perspectives on the problem at hand. Lull and Hinerman (1997: 29) claim that ‘the discursive implications of media scandals are paramount … They encourage public discussions of sensitive, controversial issues’ (italics added by author). Proceeding from the analysis of different types of political scandals, Thompson provides more elaborated ideas about different impact possibilities of a mediated scandal. Although he admits that there is not an elaborate body of literature on the consequences of mediated scandal (Thompson, 2000), he outlines four theories on the consequences of mediated scandal that could be applied both to the real and to discursive consequences. Thompson contends that all four theories are partially implausible: • ‘no-consequence theory’ says that beyond the entertainment value and temporary inconvenience, scandals have no lasting significance and tell us nothing of any enduring value about social and political life (p. 234); • ‘functionalist theory of scandal’ claims that consequences are essentially conservative and serve to reinforce the norms and conventions which were transgressed by the activities in question (p. 235); • ‘trivialization theory’ says that media’s preoccupation with scandal tends to undermine the quality of public discourse and debate, focusing people’s attention on relatively trivial matters while the important issues are pushed to the margins of the public sphere (p. 238); • ‘subversion theory of scandal’ turns the trivialization theory on its head. This approach argues that scandal enriches the public debate by calling into question



437

the dominant norms of journalism. Here journalistic texts are seen as cultural forms involving their own distinctive kinds of symbolic richness (pp. 241–45). The no-consequence approach is relevant if the focus is only on real political or social acts. We argue that a news wave certainly reveals aspects about the values in society especially if discourse analysis is applied. A news wave usually provides publicity for different voices of target groups, and the journalists are also forced to learn about different perspectives concerning the reported topic area. The functionalist approach applied to a big news wave (not only to the scandal, which focuses on moral norms) enables the formulation of the question as to what extent the news wave functions as a reinforcement of existing social norms (conservative function) and as a catalyst for discursive transformation that further changes the attitudes and norms (innovative function). The steady flow of everyday news is not suitable for introducing issues to the public that require either a specific vocabulary or some prior knowledge. First, issues are less newsworthy than events (Shoemaker and Reese 1991) and secondly, the news content should be brought to the ‘maps of meaning’ which already form the basis of existing cultural knowledge (Hall et al., 1999). A big news wave has that capacity but the innovative function of discourse depends on how the issue is framed in the media: the story angle (that could change over time during the phases of coverage), journalistic resources, information sources and spokespeople. Framing concentrates not on which topics or issues are selected for coverage by the news media, but the particular ways those issues are presented and on the ways public problems are formulated (McCombs et al., 1997). Hence the functionalist approach works better if journalistic framing (selection, emphasis, exclusion and elaboration, and wording) is taken into consideration. Trivialization and subversion theory mainly explain the performance of journalistic culture and are not therefore relevant in the context of the present study.

Key event as a trigger of a news wave A news wave is usually triggered by a key event (genuine event, interview speech, official warning, shock disclosure) that receives more attention than usual (Vasterman, 2005). For whatever reason, the key event not only makes the public aware of the issue, but because of the more extensive use of journalistic time (airtime) and space it enables the exploration of different aspects in greater detail (Vasterman, 2005). The concept of the key event used by Kepplinger and Habermeier is more focused on the further consequences of the key event on agenda setting. They contend that a key event allows for similar subjects and events to cross the media threshold with relative ease and speed in the future (Kepplinger and Habermeier, 1995). As this study does not focus on agenda setting we use Vasterman’s (2005) concept of a key event: this event is capable of condensing a complex problem into one striking image. Shehata (2007), focusing on event-driven news, claims that dramatic events triggering significant media coverage actually increase the opportunities for marginalized groups to voice their concerns. In the context of the present study it is important to ask whether and how event-driven news (in contrast to routine news) increases the possibility for marginalized discourses and sub-discourses to be taken under public scrutiny.


438

Journalism 12(4)

Method and sample A combined method as demonstrated by Harro (2000) of content analysis (Berger, 1998; Riffe et al., 1998) and discourse analysis of media texts (Bell, 1998; van Dijk, 1988a,b, 1993; Fairclough, 1992, 1995) has been used in this study. Discourse analysis of a news wave is viable because there is a sufficient quantity of text available to study certain attitudes accompanying the issue and to monitor the transformation that takes place in the course of the public debate. Initially we examined how the drugs discourse was constructed in the Estonian press and when the discursive turn(s) occurred. The aim was to identify both the major and concurrent topics, as well as identifying those occasions when the media coverage consisted of more than five articles and lasted more than a week. On a macro level, the analysis of intensively covered events or issues concerning drugs enables the examination of which news waves construct one or another sub-discourse, and helps to predict which ones might be the next key events, i.e. the ones that will be referred back to when a similar event occurs in the future. The discursive turn was most significant in 1995. For the present study we use the results of content analysis of 25 newspapers and magazines published between 1993 and1995 that allowed us to formulate a database of 328 articles concerning drug issues. As a result of this content analysis, the Thai case as a key event was selected for further analysis. The Thailand case was also the most intensively covered event in the 1990s. The second stage of research was dedicated to locating all the articles about the Thai case published in the Estonian papers of nationwide circulation in 1995–2005. The quantitative analysis of the case embraces 161 articles in the main newspapers and magazines in Estonia. We analyzed articles that were news, opinions, editorials, interviews, readers’ letters and feature stories. Initially 51 articles in newspapers and journals were published in 1995; a further 56 appeared while the four Estonians were in the Bangkok prison between 1996 and 2002; their return from Thailand to prison in Estonia in 2003 generated a further 35 articles in the main dailies; and their freedom (release from the Estonian prison) provoked the last 19 articles between 2004 and 2005. All the articles were encoded and thereafter analyzed. We were concerned with such features as the subject matter, the angle of approach and vocabulary used to represent the topic, the identity of the dominant spokespeople, the roles and labels attributed to the parties involved, who covered the topic, whose comments were solicited by the journalists and attitudes towards particular events.

Representation of drug issues in the early 1990s in Estonian media In the 1990s Estonian society went through a transition period. Society changed quickly while the public dissemination of some new discourses lagged behind (e.g. drugs, HIV, sub-discourses of financing, etc.). Addiction to illegal drugs was regarded as a problem, although a marginal one, in Soviet Estonia (Liiv, 1993). Drug use did exist (but only among specific groups with easy access to them), but was not broadcast to public awareness. Generally drugs were considered a vice of capitalist ideology and were perceived



439

as a sign of the decline of capitalism (Liiv, 1993). While the mass media was not allowed to address the issue of addiction in the Soviet Union, drugs were nevertheless occasionally mentioned in the press, but then specifically in a Western context, as a symbol of capitalist society (e.g. Liiv, 1984). Public awareness of the drug issue was limited to hearsay and also to those who had visited the southern republics of the USSR and to northern Estonian inhabitants who could get information from other sources like western films shown on Finnish TV channels. By and large the Estonian public knew little about any drug issues. In response to changes in the prevailing political environment at the end of the 1980s, the mass media started to speak more about illegal substances. Nevertheless, even after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the readiness to fully comprehend various drugrelated risks remained modest. In 1993, a population survey Eesti 93 (Estonia 93) ranked drug abuse as 11th among 14 potential problems (Narusk, 1999). In reality, an alarming upward trend in the number of drug users could already be detected: in 1980 there were 7.7 registered addicts per 100,000 inhabitants, 15 in 1992 and 25 in 1995 (Lagerspetz and Moskalewicz , 2002). At the beginning of the 1990s, the emergent tabloid press dominated the topic of drugs. As this new media promoted a hedonistic lifestyle and represented this with stories of movie stars and musicians of international fame, drug use by celebrities appeared frequently. For instance, 146 stories out of 304 (48%) published in the tabloid papers in 1994 contained the word narkootikum (drug)1 or named some of the narcotic substances involved in the entertainment industry (Harro-Loit and Paimre, 2008; Paimre, 2006). A critique of this period in the first half of the 1990s is that media portrayed ‘drug abuse’ as an element of a hedonistic lifestyle without any references to illegal activities. Furthermore, only 33 out of a total of 103 drug-related articles (32%) published in 1994 in the Estonian media were actually connected to life and people in Estonia. Today the issue of drugs in Estonia is mainly associated with the crime and police discourse, but until the second half of the 1990s there was little media talk about drug dealing or drug offences. In 1993–94 there were, for example, only five stories published in the national daily Eesti Päevaleht and three in the national daily Postimees that featured ‘drug-related crime in Estonia’ as their main focus. These figures confirm that drug trafficking and the crime discourse did not yet exist in the media. Several arrests of Estonian drug traffickers failed to cause much of a scandal e.g. even the involvement of a high civil servant in the drug business made it to the news only once (Piirsalu, 1994). Content analysis revealed that the intensity of reporting on the topic increased considerably from 1995. Whereas in 1993 there were only 54 drug-related articles published in the Estonian media and 103 in 1994, the aggregate number of articles in 1995 rose to 171. Judging by the frequency and intensity of the coverage there were two events which merit the label of ‘key events’ in 1995: the Thailand drug trafficking case (51 articles in the Estonian language printed media) and the so called ‘poppy war’ (45 articles). In the course of the next 10 years an additional 110 articles were published concerning the Thailand case. Further analysis of such news waves indicated that the Thai scandal, which broke out in July 1995, became the key event that exerted considerable influence on the future drug discourse.


440

Journalism 12(4)

The Thai case creates intensive media coverage On 21 June 1995, Thai authorities at Bangkok airport apprehended four Estonians and a Czech attempting to smuggle 5.8 kg of heroin out of the country. According to Thai laws the accused faced either a life sentence or the death penalty. In December 1995 the Thai court sentenced the four Estonians to jail terms, one to 40 years, one to 50 years and two to life imprisonment. Later the court reduced the sentences imposed on all four Estonians. The first news about the situation of these four Estonians in Thailand reached Estonia almost a month after their arrest, when the Estonian national daily Eesti Päevaleht published the news on 27 July 1995. The further coverage of the Thai arrest case partly meets the criteria of media scandal although we cannot define it as a proper scandal. The arrest as a triggering event has a moral conflict concerning the justice misdemeanours and crimes and has a strong human drama aspect. The coverage of the event partly goes through the phases Thompson (2000) defines. The coverage begins with the public disclosure, then moves towards the culmination and the aftermath (Thompson, 2000). On the other hand, the issue was not scandal sensitive (the power elite were not involved nor were dark secrets disclosed). It is not correct to define this coverage as media hype because contrary to the media hype that gives ‘artificial’ magnitude to an event or issue, the Thai arrest helped to promote a social problem and the discourse of drugs in society that had been artificially marginalized in journalistic discourse. In the course of the Thai case, media coverage of drug issues changed. On one hand drug trafficking as a crime was introduced while on the other, the media portrayed the Estonian traffickers as victims of an Eastern legal system. The juxtaposition of the Thai court’s options for imposing either the death penalty or life imprisonment and the media’s initial construction of the crime as a misfortune were the key factors behind the strong media presence. The event bore the hallmarks of being a potential news wave scandal. The dramatic situation of capital punishment or life imprisonment for a crime of misfortune was the main factor behind the strong media appearance and bringing about a news wave which had all the makings of a good scandal. This event reveals the negative side effects of media hype that occur when the focus of attention is to emphasize the dramatic features of a story rather than providing a platform for public discourse. In the Thai case, the presentation of ‘naivety’ versus ‘criminal intent’, the injustice of a foreign culture and the death penalty option available to the legal system were the media’s core tools in changing the public discourse of drug related crimes. Only four of the initial 51 articles (8%) actually mentioned the astronomical sums involved in the international heroin trade (Liiv, 1995; Postimees, 1995; Väljaots, 1995; Veldre, 1995). In order to create a news wave, especially in the instance of a scandal, the media requires a moral or identity conflict, which is of concern to both individuals and the public and therefore inspires widespread interest. This case, occurring abroad, allowed the use of the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ (nationality) discourses. Being Estonian was portrayed as opposed to crime but simultaneously naively innocent of the elements of the crime, and consequently understating and ignoring the severity. The application of Thai laws to ‘Us’ seemed disproportionately harsh and in the early stages of the case the media even petitioned the President of the Estonian Republic to intervene if necessary. This intervention



441

at the highest national level was emphasized many times over the summer by several publications: ‘High hopes for the pardon requested by our President’ (Saar, 1995). Daily Postimees asked from President Lennart Meri yesterday that in case Estonian citizens are sentenced to death will he appeal to the Thai authorities and seek pardon … I am certain that if possible, I shall most certainly address a petition to the Thai government. (Postimees, 1995) President Meri wishes to seek pardon on behalf of Estonians [headline] ... President Lennart Meri assured that in case Thai authorities sentence four Estonian drug traffickers to death according to local laws, then, if possible, he will submit a request for pardon [editorial]’. (Karpa, 1995a)

Parallel to the discourses of ‘Us’ and ‘naivety’, the discourse of ‘Them’ could be detected in a distant, southern hemisphere country in a strange culture with different rules. Thailand as a country was occasionally portrayed as negative and barbaric (see italicized phrases below): People from all over Thailand had gathered near the prison walls. There were only a couple of properly dressed people among the crowd of thousands. No wonder that the main source of income for these people is exactly the thing their relatives have been put in jail for. (Vahe, 1999, italics not in original) After having spent some time here we have become convinced that many are involved in the recreational services and drug peddling. They seem to be selling only icecream and lottery tickets in the prison courtyard, but you never know. (Hansen, 1999, italics not in original) I [President L Meri] would like to say as well, that countries where drugs are manufactured have been fighting against drugs with very harsh means; even capital punishment is being imposed, especially in Southern countries, in South Asia and South America. (Postimees, 1995)

Analysis of the ‘voices’ (journalists as authors plus politicians, experts, police, organizations and involved people who are quoted or referred to) revealed that during the opening phase of the coverage, journalists introduced high level authority figures as speakers, which lent the event a certain ‘Us versus Them’ political hue. At the beginning of the news wave the journalists constructed the ‘our guys in distress abroad’ discourse. Over time, as the vocabulary changed, so too did the people whom the media asked for ‘authoritative’ help, opinions and comments. Initially the media could and did ask the President of Estonia, but as the news wave continued into the middle phases, other politicians, such as officials from the Foreign Ministry, were approached. In the final phases, the media asked for comments from prison officers and representatives of the Ministry of Justice (Eesti Päevaleht, 2003, 2005; Postimees, 2003, 2005; Randla, 2005; etc). During the coverage, the diversity of spokespeople grew as well as the diversity of opinions. The first ‘breaking news story’ on 27 July includes the only quotations of the leading inspector of Estonia’s Department of Interpol and the Commissar of the Drug Department of the Central Crime Police. In August 1995 newspapers published the opinions of readers, officials of the Foreign Ministry, lawyers and a doctor. Most


442

Journalism 12(4)

importantly, the views among journalists about the ‘victims’ started to vary. Some journalists explicitly started to speak about crime and the ‘drug mafia’ (e.g. Erilaid, 1995; Veldre, 1995). The latter wrote: As the arrested ones have not denied their participation in smuggling, whatever contraband, then for the public they are criminals … Why did the Estonian state take that additional obligation to arrange better defences for the criminals? How does this effect the image of the Estonian state when it arranges the defence for the ‘drugs mafia’? … Nevertheless journalism, not speaking about the power institution, has not succeeded in proving that the drug couriers have been linked to any other potentates than the drug mafia. (Veldre, 1995)

At the same time some journalists still focused on the ‘victims’ aspect: for example, one journalist asked the consular department of the Foreign Ministry the following questions (Alatalu, 1995): What has the Foreign Ministry done in order to mitigate the punishment of the arrested? … Would the state pay for the defence of the arrested if their parents do not have money? … The opinion that narco-couriers should suffer is inconsistent with another opinion that they spoiled the image of Estonia. The image of Estonia would be very weak if two or three girls could spoil it.

The initial intensive media coverage also indicates that the newspapers attached a lot of importance even to the most minute of details and were consequently awash with unreliable information. Comments from respected authorities appeared next to the opinions of anonymous commentators. Throughout all the phases of coverage, the role of law enforcement officials, (Interpol, Central Criminal Police) was relatively more important than the experts of social authorities (drug abuse preventers, the Social Ministry, Health Ministry, etc.).

Timeline of news waves:The aftermath Media scandals pass through a sequence of phases: Phase 1 – breaking news; Phase II – sustained public interest; Phase III – climax; Phase IV – fade away; Phase V – delayed aftermath. Media scandals, both those that do not leave a significant social imprint and those that act as a catalyst for discourse change, but especially the latter, tend to result in a delayed aftermath. This happened with the Thai event. In September 2001, the Estonian Parliament ratified the Estonian–Thai agreement on exchange of prisoners and in September the following year a request for the surrender of its citizens was submitted to the Thai authorities. In 2003, the four prisoners returned to serve the rest of their sentence in Estonia. All four have since been released. Fifty-six articles (an average rate of eight per year) were published during the seven years of their imprisonment between 1996 and 2002. By contrast their homecoming generated a further 35 in 2003, and finally their spaced release between the autumns of 2004 and 2005 generated a final wave of 19 articles. Throughout the Estonians jail terms in Thailand the press never enquired about either their daily routines or thoughts about returning to Estonia. Media interest was maintained via the occasional interview



443

of parents of the prisoners (Kärmas, 1999; Kilumets, 1999) or as a result of a visit by an Estonian to the Thai prison (Jakobson, 1999). The delayed aftermath occurred after seven years. The media greeted, even celebrated, their return from Thailand to Estonia at Tallinn international airport with reporters, cameras and microphones.

Did the Thai event become a key event in the mediated drug discourse? One notable aspect of a key event is that it permits backward referencing when a similar event occurs in the future. We consider that the more important aspect is the ability of media representations of the key event to influence the ongoing journalistic discourse of the events’ social discourse and the coverage of related topics in the future. First, the timeline of the Thai case coverage is very long in comparison to the significance of the event. Secondly, after the Thai case the presentation of drug-related issues in the media increased considerably. So the ‘scandal’, the big news wave of the arrest of Estonian traffickers in Thailand, can be regarded as the key event for the drug discourse. Despite the intense publicity surrounding the case, the discourse of ’Estonian villains abroad’ remains virtually untouched. The catalyst function can be detected and coverage of the case did change the discourse (i.e. a new criminal dimension was introduced). In the course of such intense media coverage the vocabulary was transformed and the drug trafficking discourse started to converge with the crime discourse. The attitude towards the degree of punishment also underwent a change. The first news reports (Karpa, 1995a,b; Postimees, 1995) advocated the reduction of the punishment, going so far as advocating granting a presidential pardon, but as the story progressed the focus started to shift more towards prison conditions. Strangely enough the portrayal of the traffickers, initially depicted as victims deserving sympathy, continued unabated, enforcing the stereotype even more. Even after the Thai case there was no consensus among Estonians about the disapproval of drug use. Should drug abuse be regarded as a person’s private affair (Kons, 1996; Laanepere, 1996; Liiv, 1996) or do public officials have the right to interfere by banning both the cultivation and use (Kivimaa, 1996; Sobolev, 1996)? In addition to the Thai case, other news waves on criminal activity including drugrelated crime discourse have emerged on the media landscape in Estonia. In 2000–07 the national papers and the weekly Eesti Ekspress covered a large scale cocaine smuggling scheme (approximately 70 articles appeared). The case received a great deal of media attention due to the fact that the story involved the scandalous involvement of more or less well known public figures, as well as an Estonian businessman, and incorporated an ‘Us and Them’ element as the smuggling ring was orchestrated by local entertainers of African descent. In contrast to and due to the Thai case, the scale and sums involved in the smuggling scheme were important themes (Filippov and Vahter, 2004; Jakobson, 2004). Towards the end of summer of 2007, the press published 12 stories about Estonian drug traffickers getting caught in Latin America in 2006–07. On 14 August 2007 the national daily Postimees wrote that since the autumn of 2006, the number of Estonian drug smugglers apprehended in Latin America had surged. In 2007 alone, 12 Estonian


444

Journalism 12(4)

drug couriers were arrested in that part of the world. Altogether, some 22 young Estonians, between the ages of 18 to 36 years, are allegedly waiting for sentencing or are already serving time in Latin American prisons (Rudi, 2007). However, getting caught did not entail much media coverage; only nine articles were published in the two biggest Estonian national dailies – Eesti Päevaleht and Postimees. This is a small number compared to the Thai case which was reported by the same two national dailies on 39 occasions in 1995. The human aspect and sympathy for countrymen outweighed the crime even in the Thai news. On the other hand, an article in Eesti Päevaleht (Anvelt, 2008) which begins with statistics collected by the Foreign Ministry on how many Estonian ‘drug mules’ are caught and serve sentences abroad, reflects a major change in the drug (trafficking) discourse (i.e. why people become couriers, how smuggling works, etc.) If the current discourse is compared to the beginning and middle of 1990s, the change is also indicated by the fact that today an article on drug-related issues is published on an almost daily basis. Even if the common features of these items are brevity, individuals getting caught or being imprisoned and mostly Estonian internal cases, the drug discourse is being maintained in the public arena. In 2005, analysis of Eesti Päevaleht and Postimees revealed that altogether 377 drug-related articles were published that year, 122 (32.4%) were police news and 70 (18.6%) were court news. Drug crimes have become so common that even if an Estonian is arrested abroad the incident does not often make it to the news. One of the analyzed articles in 2007 featured a story about an Estonian woman who had been arrested six years ago in Venezuela, who had by then served half of her sentence and had been transferred to open prison (Kaldoja, 2007). So, a young woman from Estonia caught in a distant country did not make it to the Estonian news at all. No longer, as in the Thai case of 1995, is the subject matter painted in a heroic light. A new key event could change the existing discourses from crime-traffic and punishment focuses towards social or economic or policy analysis. All three discourses are underrepresented in the current Estonian news discourse.

Conclusions Concerning the public interest, it is essential to ask what kind of reflection, problem definition, redefinition and action is journalism a catalyst for (Heikkilä and Kunelius, 1997). News waves could be helpful in promoting new knowledge and topics (problems) into the public agenda, although there are side effects (e.g. the event is rather created than covered) and the risk that people’s attention is focused on relatively trivial matters. These side effects are linked to the different nature of different news waves (scandals, hype, media event etc.) Our analysis refers to the double effect of the Thai case: on one hand discourse of the drug traffickers as victims of the harsh Thai judicial system was dominant, and on the other hand coverage of the Thai case diversified the Estonian mediated drug discourse and a new sub-discourse – drug trafficking as a crime – appeared. When the media introduces a new topic to the public agenda or redefines it, legitimization and reinforcement of attitudes take places simultaneously. In our example the heroes-sufferers narrative illustrates the trivialization of power of journalistic coverage



445

while the emergence of the drug smuggling discourse is explicable via the functionalist approach to the consequences of news waves. The discourse of ‘poor victims’ did not vanish because of the trivialization effect of journalistic scandals (journalists followed the ‘story’); the discourse of drug smuggling as a crime fulfilled the innovative function of a news wave. A news wave also provides an opportunity to bring more voices to the public debate, but it also enables the media to use time in an extraordinary way: to change and correct not only the argumentation but also the facts. Therefore we argue that critical analysis of news waves is methodologically important as this enables the critical analysis of local journalistic culture. It also shows to what extent intensive coverage of a topic brings new discourses to the public agenda, or reinforces the shift in existing discourses. If a general news wave is viewed as a reflected image of everyday life, intensive media coverage places a powerful microscope at the disposal of stakeholders, as well as the media, with the power to influence public debate. Note 1 All translations of Estonian language media texts into English synonymous of content and meaning are the responsibilities of the authors.

Acknowledgements This research was supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Center of Excellence CECT) and by the Estonian Science Foundation grant SF0180002s07.

References Alatalu E (1995 ) Heroiinivedajad on kohtu all (Heroin smugglers are on trial). Postimees, 26 Oct. Anvelt K (2008) Narkomuulad jäävad vahele varem või hiljem (Drug mules will be arrested sooner ol later). Eesti Päevaleht, 6 July. Available at: http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/434633 Bell A (1998) The discourse structure of news stories. In: Bell A and Garrett P (eds) Approaches to Media Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell, 64–104. Berger A (1998) Media Analysis Techniques. California: Sage. Dayan D and Katz E (1992) Media Events. The Live Broadcasting of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Eesti Päevaleht (2003) Tai vangidel on võimalus kiirelt vabadusse pääseda (The Thai prisoners have a chance to quickly escape to freedom). 19 May. Eesti Päevaleht (2005) Tai narkokullerid esitasid vabastamistaotluse (Thai Drug couriers submitted the application for release). 20 June. Available at: http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/294841 Ekström M and Johansson B (2008) Talk scandals. Media Culture Society 30: 61–79. Elmelund-Præstekær C and Wien C (2008) What’s the fuss about? The interplay of media hypes and politics. International Journal of Press/Politics 13(3): 247–66. Erilaid T (1995) Juhtkirja asemel (In place of the editorial). Õhtuleht, 5 Aug. Fairclough N (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Fairclough N (1995) Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold. Filippov J and Vahter T (2004) Must mees, tüdrukutebänd ja Tartu narkoparun (A black man, the girls’ band and a drug baron in Tartu). Eesti Ekspress, 14 January. Hall S, Critcher C, Jefferson T, Clarke J and Roberts B (1999) Policing the crisis. In: Tumber H (ed.) News: A Reader. Oxford University Press, 249–56.


446

Journalism 12(4)

Hansen R (1999) Eestlaste elu Tai narkovanglas (Estonian’s life in a Thailand drug jail). Õhtuleht, 22 May. Harro H (2000) Changing Journalist Conventions in the Press. Empirical Studies on Daily Newspapers under Different Political Conditions in 20th Century Estonia. Oslo: University of Oslo. Harro-Loit H and Paimre M (2008) Ajakirjanduslikud teemalained – kas ka muutuste katalüsaatorid (News waves – Catalyst for changes). Akadeemia 1: 82–94. Heikkilä H and Kunelius R (1997) Access, dialogue, deliberation – Experimenting with three concepts of journalism criticism. Nordicom Review 19(1): 71–84. Jakobson K (1999) Pigem surm kui elu Tai vanglas (Prefer death instead of life in a Thai jail). Sõnumileht, 2 November. Jakobson K (2004) Poplaulja Emelai ajab narkoäri korraldamise mänedžeri kaela (Pop singer Emalai accuses his manager of being in the drugs business). Õhtuleht, 4 March. Kaldoja K (ed.) (2007) Eesti narkovedajad näevad Venezuela vanglas näguripäevi (Life of Estonian drug couriers is hard in Venezuela). Eesti Päevaleht, 16 August. Available at: http://www.epl. ee/artikkel/396404 Kärmas M (1999) ‘Ema, tõde on valus’ (‘Mum, the truth hurts’). Eesti Ekspress, 25 March. Karpa K (1995a) President Meri soovib eestlastele armu paluda (President Meri wishes to seek pardon on behalf of Estonians). Eesti Päevaleht, 28 July. Karpa K (1995b) Nelja eestlast ähvardab Tais surmanuhtlust (Four Estonians face the death penalty in Thailand). Eesti Päevaleht, 27 July. Karppinen K (2007) Making a difference to media pluralism: A critique of the pluralistic consensus in European media policy. In: Cammaerts B and Carpentier N (eds) Reclaiming the Media: Communication Rights and Democratic Media Roles. Bristol: Intellect, 9–30. Kepplinger HM and Habermeier J (1995) The impact of key events on the presentation of reality. European Journal of Communication 3: 371–90. Kilumets M (1999) Kirjad Ngarm Wong Wani vanglast (Letters from Ngarm Wong Wan jail). Eesti Naine, 6 Nov. Kivimaa K, Tralla M, Soans H et al. (1996) Uimastid - kas paheline moeveidrus? (Drugs - wicked fashion fad?). Eesti Ekspress, 15 March. Kons T (1996) Uimastipoliitika pole ametnike eralõbu (Drug policy is not a private affair of officials). Eesti Päevaleht, 4 June. Laanepere E (1996) Narkoseaduse eelnõu keelab nõrgad uimastid (The bill of drug law prohibits soft drugs). Eesti Päevaleht, 19 November. Lagerspetz M and Moskalewicz J (2002) Drugs in the post-socialist transitions of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. European Addiction Research 8: 177–83. Liebes T and Blum-Kulka S (2004) It takes two to blow the whistle. Do journalists control the outbreak of scandal? American Behavioral Scientist 47(9): 1153–1170. Liiv A (1984) Mis on narkomaania? (What is drug addiction?). Noorus 10: 39. Liiv A (1993) Eesti uimastipoliitika (sotsiaalpoliitika osana) XX sajandi lõpus. Tallinn: TPÜ magistritöö (Estonian drug policy (as a part of social policy) at the end of XX century). Tallinn University: Unpublished MA thesis. Liiv A (1995) Eesti narkokullerid? (Estonian drug couriers?). Õhtuleht, 15 August. Liiv A (1996) Uimastitesse suhtumisi oli seinast seina (There were different attitudes towards drugs). Eesti Päevaleht, 14 May. Lull J and Hinerman S (1997) The search for scandal. In: Lull J and Hinerman S (eds) Media Scandals. Morality and Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace. Cambridge: Polity Press. Lund AB (2002) News ecology and media society: Formative views on the production of news. In: Hurd M, Olsson T and Åker P (eds) Storylines: Media Power and Identity in Modern Europe. Stockholm: Hjalmarson and Högberg Bokförlag, 83–87.



447

Martin VB (2008) Attening the news. A grounded theory about a daily regimen. Journalism 1: 76–94. McCombs M, Shaw DL and Weaver D (1997) Communication and Democracy. Exploring the Intellectual Frontiers in Agenda – Setting Theory. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Narusk A (1999) Argielu Eestis 1990ndatel aastatel. Elanikkonnaküsitlustel ‘Eesti 93’ ja ‘Eesti 98’ põhinev sotsioloogiline ülevaade (Everyday life in Estonia in 1990s: A social overview on data of public surveys ‘Estonia 93’ and ‘Estonia 98’). Tallinn: TPÜ Rahvusvaheliste ja Sotsiaaluuringute Instituut. Paimre M (2006) Changes in presenting drug addiction themes in Estonian media. In: Paimre M (ed.) Drug Prevention, Treatment and the Media: Collection of Essays on Selected Issues. [Project ‘Elaboration of Drug Information, Prevention and Treatment Networking 2000– 2005’]. Tallinn: Estonian Foundation for Prevention of Drug Addiction, the Nordic Council of Ministers, 5–12. Pantti M and Sumiala J (2009) Till death do us join: Media, mourning rituals and the sacred centre of the society. Media, Culture and Society 31: 119–35. Piirsalu J (1994) Endine siseministeeriumi ametnik kaubitseb amfetamiiniga. (A former official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs makes trades using amphetamines). Post, 5 Jan. Postimees (1995) Neli eestlast ja tšehh jäid Bangkokis kümne kilo heroiini väljaveol vahele: Kinnipeetuid võib ähvardada surmanuhtlus (Four Estonians and one Czech were caught in Bangkok trying to leave with 10 kilos of heroin. Those who were caught face the death penalty). 28 July. Postimees (2003) Taist Eestisse toodud vangid pannakse karantiini (Prisoners are placed in quarantine in Estonia). 16 December. Available at: http://www.postimees.ee/161203/online_uudised/ 121934.php Postimees (2005) Vanglajuht kiitis Tai narkokullerite vabastamistaotluse heaks (Head of the prison approved the application for the release of the Thai drug couriers). 25 June. Püüa M (2003) Narkokullereid ootab veel seitse vangiaastat (They are still waiting for seven years in jail). Postimees, 17 December. Available at: http://www.postimees.ee/171203/esileht/ siseuudised/122022.php Randla S (2005) Narkokullerid pääsevad vabadusse (Drug couriers escape to freedom). SL Õhtuleht, 25 June. Available at: http://www.ohtuleht.ee/index.aspx?id=176409 Riffe D, Lacy S and Fico FG (1998) Analysing Media Messages: Using Quantitative Analysis in Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Rowe D (1997) Apollo undone. The sports scandal. In: Lull J and Hinerman S (eds) Media Scandals. Morality and Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace. Cambridge: Polity Press, 203–21. Rudi H (2007) Eestimaalastest narkokullerite arv kasvas plahvatuslikult (The number of Estonian drug couriers has grown exponentially). Postimees, 14 August. Available at: http://www. postimees.ee/140807/esileht/siseuudised/277087.php Saar V (1995) Seal, kus liikus Andres Raid (There, where Andres Raid moved around). Elu Pilt 9/10: 9–11. Shehata A (2007) Facing the Muhammad cartoons: Official dominance and event-driven news in Swedish and American elite press. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 4: 131–53. Shoemaker PJ and RD Reese (1991) Mediating the Message. Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content. New York: Longman. Sobolev M (1996 ) Kas loovinimesele on uimastid lubatud? (Should drugs be allowed for creative people?). Sõnumileht, 15 May.


448

Journalism 12(4)

Thompson JB (1997) Scandal and Social Theory. In: Lull J and Hinerman S (eds) Media Scandals. Morality and Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace. Cambridge: Polity Press, 34–64. Thompson JB (2000) Political Scandal. Power and Visibility in the Media Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. Tumber H and SR Waisbord (2004) Introduction: Political scandals and media across democracies. Volume I. American Behavioral Scientist 8: 1031–39. Vahe U (1999) Lõputu unenägu müüride taga (Never-ending nightmare behind bars). Postmees Arter, 18 December. Väljaots J (1995) Pättide solidaarsus rahvuslikul tasandil (Solidarity of low-lifes at a national level). Postimees, 26 October. van Dijk TA (1988a) News Analysis. Case Studies of International and National News in the Press. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. van Dijk TA (1988b) News as Discourse. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. van Dijk TA (1993) Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse and Society 4(2): 249–83. Vasterman P (2005) Media-Hype. Self-reinforcing news waves, journalistic standards and the construction of social problems. European Journal of Communication 4: 508–30. Vasterman P, Yzermans CJ and Dirkzwager AJE (2005) The role of the media hypes in the aftermath of disasters. Epidemiological Reviews 1: 107–14. Veldre Ü (1995) Eesti kaitseb organiseeritud kuritegevust (Estonia is protecting organized crime). Postimees, 29 August.

Biographical notes Marianne Paimre graduated from the Tallinn Pedagogical University Department of Information Studies (cum laude). She has worked as the Head of the Information Centre of the Estonian Foundation for Prevention of Drug Addiction and currently she is working as a specialist at the Institute of Public Law, University of Tartu and holds lectures in mass media and crime. Halliki Harro-Loit graduated from the Department of Journalism at the University of Tartu. She was awarded her PhD in Political Science by the University of Oslo. Since 2003 she has been a Docent of Journalism at the University of Tartu, Head of the Institute of Journalism and Communication (as of 2000 Head of the same Department).
