European Journal of Communication

The article presents results from a longitudinal content analysis of advertising messages in Swedish magazines during the period 1935-80. Comparisons with similar data from the US show strong similarities and several patterns emerge. One pattern of similarity is variables which remain at the same level in each of the countries. This applies to two basic characteristics of the rhetoric, namely the level of information and the presence of non-rational persuasion. Another pattern shows stable distributions across time in both societies (for instance, women appear more frequently than men in adverts). Other variables exhibit similar patterns of change taking place at the same time (for instance, a growing absence of persons in the adverts beginning in the 1950s), while others change in the same way but at different times (changes in the US taking place 20-30 years earlier than in Sweden). The various patterns are assumed to reflect similarities and differences in economic, technological and cultural conditions.

An overview of American and European research on the concept of news factors in news selection shows some theoretical and methodological problems, which can be reduced to four dimensions. First, it is discussed whether an apolitical model of news selection should be supplemented by a functional perspective. Second, the epistemological question of defining `an event' and its consequences for the concept of news factors are considered. Third, the validity of the theory is examined by a closer look at the operation of independent and dependent variables in various empirical studies. Fourth, the degree of universality of the concept of news factors is analysed.

This article deals with the possibilities of analysing the extra-musical meaning of popular music in television documentaries. After considering the structure of documentaries and the problems involved in analysing them, attention is paid to analyses of film music by musicologists. In particular, the authors focus on a recently developed approach for the analysis of musical discourse in television films. Then, a method is presented to analyse the `preferred meaning' created by the musical discourse in television documentaries. The research tool consists of several diametrically constructed judgement scales. The results of the analysis of several television documentaries, in terms of the affective meaning of the musical discourse, are presented. Finally the reliability, validity and relevance of this method of analysis are reviewed.

The aim of this study is to describe and explain with the aid of a LISREL model the process of news reconstruction by television viewers. Proceeding from theoretical considerations and empirical results of news research, eighteen hypotheses are formulated concerning the reconstruction of news by recipients who saw the main German television news programme. Using a LISREL-model, an analysis is made of the way the factors involved in news reconstruction are causally interlinked. The results show that background knowledge and understanding are essential selection criteria of news recipients.

This article examines the mass media in Estonia from their origins, with the appearance of the first newspaper to the present day growth and prospects for development. Using surveys conducted by the authors it examines changing attitudes towards press, radio and TV, and looks at the range of media available to the population. It argues that the Estonian press, never as strictly controlled as the Russian media, has played an important role in politicizing the Estonian people. Finally it examines the question of the autonomy of the Estonian media in relation to Moscow and central state controls.