Eesti pilt Taani suurimas päevalehes 2004-2005

The aim of the bachelor thesis „Picture of Estonia in the biggest Danish newspaper” was to study the views that the Danish press has about Estonia. The study concentrates on two periods: the first six months of the year 2004 and 2005. There are strong historical and cultural connections between Denmark and Estonia. During the Soviet period the Danes had little idea about what was happening in Estonia, but after the independence in 1991, things began to change. Denmark has been one of the biggest supporters of Estonia joining the European Union and NATO. Other than that, Denmark is also one of the biggest foreign investors in Estonia. There were two different periods chosen for the basis of the study. The reason was to find out weather or not the attitude and views of Jyllands-Posten changed towards Estonia due to joining the European Union. The study carried out revealed that the attitude did slightly change. In the period just before and after the enlargement process there were more articles with positive tone published than in the same period a year before. Most of the articles published belong to the field of economy and politics. There were also some articles written about sport – more precisely football. It was surprising to find that there were no articles published about scandalous themes like crime and prostitution. If you look in the same newspaper in the same given time, there were more scandalous articles written about Latvia and Lithuania. In the given period there were also more articles published about Estonia than Latvia or Lithuania. The study carried out also revealed four of the most common discourses in the texts. Those are The Young Lions, The Most West like Baltic State, Lets Learn from Estonia and Estonians Are Almost like Danes. Danes have noticed the fast development of Estonia and therefore have also changed their attitude to be more positive. Instead of trying to teach Estonia, they are more willing to learn from Estonia. Estonia has become a close economical and political partner and in addition to that the two countries have long and outstanding historical and cultural connections. Since becoming an independent state in 1991, Estonia has undergone changes. The study shows that Danes and the biggest Danish newspaper have noticed those changes and reacted to them. The study also revealed that the attitude of the biggest selling newspaper in Denmark slightly changed in a positive way after the enlargement of the European Union. It would also be interesting to carry out this study in five years time and see, how Estonia look like in Jyllands-Posten then- could there be some radical changes or would the picture be more or less the same