10.1515/nor-2017-0357

Development of Media Research in

PEETER VIHALEMM

Regular empirical media research began in Estonia could not be based only on ideological mythology in 1965. The mid-1960s was the period of the birth but presumed a more or less objective picture of of empirical social sciences in general in Estonia. economic and social reality based on actual data. Although some successful and influential attempts The forceful introduction of empirical sociology in of empirical social research were made in the late 1965-1966 was closely connected with these re- 1920s and 1930s, the tradition of regular research form plans (which were never fully implemented). was not established before World War II. Fruitful development continued for several years, Until the late 1950s, empirical social sciences even in the beginning of political and ideological did not exist in the Soviet Union. Instead of re- stagnation after the crackdown on democratic de- search, society was described by using ideological velopments in Czechoslovakia. The years 1965- constructions of the Communist Party history. 1972 have been called the golden age of Soviet so- These were much more closed to religion than to ciology (Shlapentokh 1987: 33-56). science. Krushchev’s thaw brought some demo- The possibilities for empirical sociological re- cratic changes into political life and ideology but search were actively put to use in Estonia. Due to did not change the suspicious and hostile attitude close contacts with democratic-minded young soci- towards empirical social research as an “alien ologists in Leningrad and Moscow, and easier ac- bourgeois activity.” The years 1958-1964 has been cess to Western literature (especially through Finn- called the embryonic period of Soviet sociology ish contacts), students of University showed (Shlapentokh 1987: 13-32) – in 1958 the Soviet So- great interest towards the introduction of empirical ciological Association was established and in 1961- social studies. One of the first areas of the newborn 1964 the first sociological research units were es- empirical social studies was media research. A pio- tablished in Moscow, Leningrad and Novosibirsk. neer in the field of media studies was Ülo Voog- Young people who had contacts with Western soci- laid, on whose initiative the first comprehensive ologists and who had had opportunities for scholar- professional audience survey by the Tartu local ship in the West often headed the units. It was one newspaper Edasi was conducted in 1965. This was of the reasons why sociology was by that time one of the first representative surveys of a media viewed by officials with suspicion. audience in the Soviet Union. During 1966-1969, Attitudes towards sociology started to change in Edasi also carried out a large program of additional the middle of the 1960s. Empirical sociological re- empirical research, which involved polls, experi- search expanded into many areas of study and be- ments, and observations (Vooglaid 1972). gan to spread across the country. Sociology de- In 1967 Ülo Vooglaid established the Laboratory served official recognition and was very popular in of Sociology at Tartu University, which developed society; sociologists enjoyed both official and popu- within a short period into an influential centre for lar prestige. It happened in connection with Pre- regular media research across all the Soviet Union. mier Kosygin’s plans for economic reforms in the Another centre was established in Tallinn, where in USSR. Attempts at reforming the USSR’s economy 1965-1966, research groups at Estonian Radio and Estonian Television started studying the structure Department of Journalism and Communication, and interests of radio and television audiences. , Ülikooli 18, EE–Tartu 50090, Annual conferences on mass communication [email protected] theory organised by the Sociological Laboratory of

79 Tartu University at Kääriku near Tartu from 1966 which was quite similar to the “uses and grati- to 1969 bridged the gap between empirical media fications” model, Estonian media researchers car- studies, which were rapidly developing in Estonia ried out comparative analyses of audience interests as elsewhere in the Soviet Union, and the contem- with the structure of media content. The results porary theoretical paradigms of Western mass com- were used not only for practical guidance of the munication research. At these conferences, young editorial staff but by researchers as a tool of researchers from many Russian universities and measuring social distance between different audi- Tartu University discussed relations between the ence groups and communicators. In the Soviet sys- media and society, media and personality, and me- tem, media content was created, structured and fil- dia and mass culture. Unfortunately, any participa- tered strictly according to the rules established by tion by researchers from outside the Iron Curtain the Communist Party, and thus the discovered con- was impossible; nevertheless these conferences flict between audiences’ expectations and the con- were very prestigious (Shlapentokh 1987: 38). tent provided by the censored media also served as After the first three Kääriku conferences, their an indicator of the growing gap between official proceedings – detailed reports of discussions, out- ideology and people’s needs and values. lines of social gatherings during the conferences, Without any survey it was clear that what the cartoons of participants, anecdotes and doggerel – Soviet media network offered was largely in con- were published. These editions, printed in the flict with the interests and expectations of the peo- printing house of Tartu University, were practically ple; however, journalists and liberal officials uncensored and accurately conveyed the free at- needed scientific arguments to introduce major mosphere at the conferences, which was very unu- changes. As official Soviet ideology included “sci- sual in the bureaucratised and ideologised world of entific methods” as a very important concept, the Soviet social sciences. This free atmosphere was Communist Party tried to lend a “scientific charac- one reason why three mimeographed small books ter” to all its activities. on cheap paper became well known and popular This fledging branch of sociology quickly spread among media researchers across the Soviet Union. into areas monopolised by the Communist Party, Another reason was their content. The Kääriku I threatening, among other things, the bureaucracy’s proceedings were titled Methodological Problems monopoly on information channels. That is why af- of Mass Communication Research and included ter the failure of economic reform and the ruthless outlines of different sociological and social-psycho- crackdown on the Prague events in 1968, the Com- logical approaches to the media (structural func- munist Party placed a firm grip on sociology. It was tionalism, theory of cognitive dissonance, symbolic only with the permission of the special commission interactionalism) without any ideological phraseol- at the Central Committee of the Communist Party ogy, which usually characterised all Soviet publica- that a sociological research effort could be con- tions in social sciences (Kääriku I 1967). Kääriku II ducted, and even with permission, publishing the was titled Value Orientations and Mass Communi- collected data was often difficult in Estonia and cation, discussing mainly the problems of personal practically impossible abroad. and social effects of the media and mechanisms of Nevertheless, media research in Estonia soon their influence (Kääriku II 1968). Many of these produced tangible results, which led to some problems were also discussed during Kääriku III, changes in media content and journalistic forms. where the main topic was Personality and Mass Supported and encouraged by survey results, the Communication (Kääriku III 1969). Ta