Duality of Estonian Public Service Media in reflection of the world and in positioning society
Maarja Lõhmus, Helle Tiikmaa and Andres Jõesaar
(University of Tartu, Estonia)
ABSTRACT: This article focuses on changes in the public service broadcasting system of Estonia in the 1990s and 2000s. We present our vision of the paradigms changed and of principles in the structure of Public Sphere. We determined four periods of paradigm change: 1991–1994 the period of anew defining Public Service; 1994–1999 the period of enlargement and aggressive structuring of Broadcasting Field; 2000–2007 the period of stabilisation and from 2007 the period of restructuring Public Service Broadcasting. We present our arguments in support of these periods. We offer the study of Estonian Public Service Broadcaster as a model case, one option of development of PSB in the 1990s and 2000s. The empirical basis of the article relies on the results of analyses of radio and TV programmes and audiences carried out by the researchers of University of Tartu.