Women's media representation in the context of Estonian journalism culture and society

This doctoral thesis is positioned on the border between media studies and gender studies and examines gender in the context of media content and media organization. The thesis is mapping regularities in women’s media representation in the Estonian mainstream press (chiefly in the weekly Eesti Ekspress) and public television (Estonian Television) and analyzing the connections between women’s media representation, journalism culture and the broader social-cultural context of Estonia’s transition society.

Key information on trends and challenges on women and the media:

Women’s media representation reinforces the patriarchal supremacy in the Estonian society by discursive order, which excludes women from certain parts of the discourse and favors participation in other parts of the discourse. In media content the reinforcement of the discursive order is being carried out in the textual descriptions. Market demand clearly coincides in this process with the dominant patriarchal ideology behind widely spread women´s representations. As concerns gender equality policies, the Estonian journalism culture is very different from Western journalism cultures and similar to gender-blind journalism cultures of other countries in Eastern and Central Europe.

Key stakeholders mentioned:

Estonian Television; journal Eesti Ekspress