The Role of Professional Journalism in the ‘Small’ Estonian Democracy

Abstract

In the era of networked communications, the information overload makes it increasingly difficult for news consumers to find complete, relevant and trustworthy information. At the same time, the collapse of the business model of journalism has nourished heated discussions on whether professional journalism has abilities (i.e. autonomy and resources) to provide trustworthy information to citizens. Using Estonia as a case study, the main aim of this chapter is to examine the ways in which different actors influence the level of autonomy afforded to journalists and their institutions. Journalistic professionalism has been strongly rooted in the Estonian culture and political parallelism is observable only to some extent concerning the local media. The Estonian media system is for the most part influenced by economic factors of the media market. The state’s role in media regulation is rather limited; a liberal approach has dominated media policy since 1990s.