Re-presenting the Bronze Night in Tallinn A qualitative research on the news coverage in Finnish language Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and Swedish language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet during April-May 2007
Stenberg, Anna (2017-02-14)
Re-presenting the Bronze Night in Tallinn A qualitative research on the news coverage in Finnish language Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and Swedish language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet during April-May 2007
Stenberg, Anna
(14.02.2017)
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Kuvaus
Siirretty Doriasta
Tiivistelmä
The present thesis inspects how the events of the so called Bronze Night in Tallinn in April 2007 were re-presented in Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet, the two major newspapers in Finland representing two different language groups. I describe two events in Estonia from the mid-2000 that were related to differing memories and understanding of the past between two ethnic groups sharing the same homeland but a differing memory of its history. The aim was to find themes from the reporting that held some kind of judgement to the Estonian issue. What kinds of messages and symbolism could be defined in the reporting and did they differ?
I make a well-guarded attempt to draw a parallel between the Estonian language question of 2007 between Russian speaking Estonians and Estonians, and the remote Finnish language question a century before between Swedish speaking Finns and Finns. A connection to the Finnish events in the 1920’s may still be found in the formation of opinions relating to a more distanced topic, here a language question in Estonia. By inspecting the articles relating to the Estonian events in 2007 by Finnish and Swedish language newspapers, I attempt to provide a new meaning or two to the events around the Bronze Soldier. I present another perspective to the Bronze Night, bringing the subject into another cultural context, where the reporting of the Bronze Night functions as the source in finding a possible addition to the current state of national memory in Finland.
For a most authentic analysis of the texts and their meanings, the most important background knowledge of the Finnish language question is presented as well as the newspapers with political alignment, ideological stand and a historical review. The analysis was carried out with a traditional qualitative content analysis with the support of semiotic theories regarding denotation and connotation. The main finding lay in the symbolism. The Bronze Soldier statue’s greatest purpose was symbolic, and the main differences in the newspaper’s reporting in the Finnish cultural context was in fact in re-presenting its symbolic meaning. Furthermore, the Finnish and Swedish language newspapers would clearly take opposite sides in the matter.
I make a well-guarded attempt to draw a parallel between the Estonian language question of 2007 between Russian speaking Estonians and Estonians, and the remote Finnish language question a century before between Swedish speaking Finns and Finns. A connection to the Finnish events in the 1920’s may still be found in the formation of opinions relating to a more distanced topic, here a language question in Estonia. By inspecting the articles relating to the Estonian events in 2007 by Finnish and Swedish language newspapers, I attempt to provide a new meaning or two to the events around the Bronze Soldier. I present another perspective to the Bronze Night, bringing the subject into another cultural context, where the reporting of the Bronze Night functions as the source in finding a possible addition to the current state of national memory in Finland.
For a most authentic analysis of the texts and their meanings, the most important background knowledge of the Finnish language question is presented as well as the newspapers with political alignment, ideological stand and a historical review. The analysis was carried out with a traditional qualitative content analysis with the support of semiotic theories regarding denotation and connotation. The main finding lay in the symbolism. The Bronze Soldier statue’s greatest purpose was symbolic, and the main differences in the newspaper’s reporting in the Finnish cultural context was in fact in re-presenting its symbolic meaning. Furthermore, the Finnish and Swedish language newspapers would clearly take opposite sides in the matter.