Representation of social actors in Finnish, Estonian, and Russian dailies, 1905–2005

Abstract

Social actors is the central category in the constructions of social reality—representation of actors is related to values, can offer behavior models and identification basis for recipients of the mass media messages. Representation of social actors definitely has changed over time and differs in cultures. In representation of social actors not only qualitative aspects of actors are important, rather their visibility in quantitative terms as well. According to the social constructionist approach, those who are more visible in the media content are visible in society as well. In the present study, the composition of social actors in Finnish, Estonian, and Russian dailies during 20th century will be analyzed. We hypothesize that transformations in those societies were accompanied by a growing plurality of social positions, more balanced gender relations, and higher visibility of minorities. We suppose that between analyzed countries we will find significant similarities and differences as well, some of them explained through common and/or individual histories of the countries, some of them are rather co-products of modernization processes reflected in analyzed countries’ mass media discourses.