Unfolding the coverage of illicit drugs in Estonian print press

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to analyze the changes in the coverage of illicit drugs by the Estonian press in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restitution of Estonia’s independence. The article adapts Anthony Downs’ ‘issue-attention cycle,’ in which he proposes that public concern about certain issues follows a particular five-phase model. The author of this paper conducted a content analysis of 1523 press articles from 1993 to 2009. The analysis indicates that coverage of drug issues follows four of the five phases of Downs’ model, the exception being the fifth ‘post-problem’ phase.

KEYWORDS:

• Illicit drugs
• press coverage
• issue-attention cycle
• political transition
• Estonia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All the underlined material in this article is the author’s emphasis.

2. All translations of Estonian language media texts into English in terms of content and meaning are attributable to the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marianne Paimre

Marianne Paimre received her PhD in journalism from the University of Jyväskylä (in Finland) in 2013. Her doctoral dissertation examined representations of illicit drug issues in the Estonian press. She has worked as the Head of Information Centre of the Estonian Foundation for Prevention of Drug Addiction. Currently she is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Tartu, Estonia. Her research and teaching activities focus on representations of crime and drug issues in the media.