(Research Paper)
Introduction
Given the centrality of minority policies in the directives of the European Union, it is remarkable how relatively little attention the problem of ethnic and sexual minorities in mass media has received from researchers and scholars in Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. Most attention has been paid to the general problems of minority integration and protection of their rights and the improvement of legislation to ensure minority protection. In this respect the EU Accession Monitoring Program at the Open Society Institute has been focusing on the policy problems of minorities in the candidate countries, including Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. The 2002 report, for instance, provides a wealth of relevant information and points to the necessity for stronger policy measures to improve the situation of some minority groups, particularly of Roma people. According to the 2002 report on Latvia, the Latvian governmental policy does not pay “sufficient attention to concerns of civil society and minorities in the area of minority rights, such as the need for greater access to education and the electronic media in the mother tongue, greater promotion of minority languages, the need for dialogue between minorities and the State, and the effective participation of minorities in public life.”[1] The Lithuanian and Polish reports concentrate largely on Roma minority that experiences the most problems in their respective societies. In Lithuania, as the EU Accession Monitoring Report stated, media about Roma minority are of particular concern since crude stereotyping of Romani in the media is still prevalent and there are ”no concrete measures to promote tolerance or a more positive image of Roma in the media.”[2] The report on Poland briefly mentioned the media initiatives related to Roma people such as creating a regular television program devoted to the Roma community and a short monthly broadcast in the Romani language in local media[3]. All reports implicitly argue for both the preservation of the identity of minorities and the creation of system that would promote the integration of minorities into civil society. However, all three reports devote only a meager attention to minority problems and minority representation in the media.
Some
other works on minority issues addressed democratization and civic participation
of ethnic minorities in a post-Communist context and the impact
of the media on transformations in Eastern Europe since the fall of the
Communist rule. Scholars argued that mass media may advance participatory
democracy, intercultural communication and ethnic tolerance. Conversely,
they can also act as a vehicle for increasing ethnic, cultural and political
conflict.[4]
However,
almost no works touch upon sexual minorities and their representations
in the media. The construction and functioning of the representations of
homosexuals in the mass media have not been subjected to either intensive
academic or policy scrutiny. While growing public and scholarly interest
in ethnicity, citizenship and identity prompted a number of studies on
the adaptation, assimilation and political participation of ethnic groups,
the issue of the mass media and sexual minorities nonetheless remains at
the fringes of social and cultural studies. This is, to my mind, a serious
oversight since the invisibility and marginalization in Eastern European
societies work against numerous groups, including ethnic minorities, women,
gays and lesbians. Hence, this paper argues for the need for a wider framework
of minority politics.
Arguments
presented in this paper are based on an ongoing research project on minorities
and civil society in three countries, Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. The
article examines how the role of media and mediated-communication is intertwined
with minority politics in the region. Providing a short overview of research
on ethnic and sexual minorities in mass media and mapping some major trends
in research and policy literature on minorities in the above countries,
it argues for a better understanding of both challenges and strategies
salient for minority politics and media policy.
The
study emphasizes the interconnectedness of media, mediated-communication
and educational goals developing media literacy aimed at empowering both
various minority groups and citizens in general within the region.
It
is necessary, at the outset, to draw the general picture of media developments
in the region.Mass
media of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have undergone major changes in the
last decade. Since the collapse of the Communist regimes in 1989, the
"Soviet-Communist media system" almost completely controlled by the governments
gradually disintegrated. Media censorship came to end. As the Lithuanian
media scholar Auksë Balčytienë noted, “The role of the media has shifted
from being an organ of the state and the political elites to being an intermediary
between state and citizenry, facilitating public discourse and policy issues.”[5]
It can be argued that the mass media have been exerting an immense influence
on the defining, structuring, and delimiting of public discourse and in
forming and influencing public knowledge.
Mass
media, however, have not been a simple and direct beneficiary of a new
independence. In most cases, political elites still attempt to control
mass media, particularly the public broadcasting. Although
the media are not subject to any political censorship, they are highly
competitive and politicized. As Colin Sparks has insightfully noted, the
mass media in post-Communist Eastern Europe remains politically motivated.[6]
It is fair to argue that although the doctrine of social responsibility
assumes independent power for the mass media, the press and broadcasts
serve the interests of the powerful far more than those of the powerless.[7]Different
political parties and economic forces use mass media for their political
purposes. Political parties related to economic forces try to affect or
even manipulate the media, and journalists do not escape political engagement,
particularly during the elections.The
mass media are a battleground of powerful political and commercial interests.
Often political and commercial alliances are made to control media outlets
and intervene in the formation of public knowledge.
The lack of a strong tradition of free press and civil society is evident
in this respect.
The
process of media development in the region leads to the concentration of
media ownership - the big media companies buying the weaker titles or stations,
thereby strengthening their own position.
In recent years, media scholars have noticed the increasing media concentration,
their tablodization, sensationalism and negativism. Standards of journalistic
quality are very vague.[8]
As Jan Pieklo indicated, the
rapid growth of Polish media in the last few years has also resulted in
a decline in the quality of journalism. Lower standards go together
with a widespread demand for sensational and entertainment-style journalism.[9]
The same can be said about both the Lithuanian and Latvian media.[10]
Ethnic
minorities and Civil Society: Research and Policy Framework
During recent years, the literature devoted to the media portrayal of minorities has attempted to address the under-representation of minorities in mass media and the distorted and often stereotypical representations of minorities. Content and discourse analyses have usually been used to measure the level of stereotyping, discrimination and intolerance. Sample studies composed of the analysis of the mainstream press (largely, national dailies) of several months have dominated Eastern European research.[11] No comprehensive works, to my knowledge, have been done on prime-time television coverage.
Although
there are very few works on ethnic minorities in the mass media in the
context of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, they raise important questions
for understanding the media’s construction of different ethnic identities
and their relationship to “normative” citizenship. Let us review the most
significant research done on the discussed topic.
It is estimated that within the total population of Poland (38.418.108) ethnic minorities constitute 2-3% of the country’s population. The largest minority groups are Ukrainians (300.000 - 0,78% of entire population), Belorussians (200.000 - 0,52%), Germans (200.000 - 0,52%), Roma /Gypsies (25.000 - 0,07%), Jews (15.000 - 0,04%), Ruthenians (15.000 - 0,04%) and Lithuanians (15.000 - 0,04%). It should also be emphasized that among several million Polish Silesians in both Upper and Lower Silesia, a persistent sense of ethnic distinctiveness can be observed. 50,000 Poles possess Jewish ancestry. A significant number of refugees and immigrants mostly from the former Soviet Union, but recently also from Somalia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other countries inhabited Poland since 1990.[12]
Such
is the minority composition in Poland. What are the main issues related
to mass media and ethnic minorities in Poland?
According
to the report of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in 2002, although
tolerance and cultural pluralism is increasingly promoted in Poland, the
xenophobic and ultra-nationalistic sentiments still exist among the population.
There has been a number of verbal and physical attacks of immigrants and
members of “visible minorities” including Romani and numerous cases of
desecration of Jewish cemeteries and synagogues. Roma minority continues
to be the most frequent target of discriminatory behavior and particularly
aggressive abuse.[13]
Conservative media also contribute to the dissemination of anti-Semitic,
racist and xenophobic attitudes. For instance, the
mainstream daily Nasz Dziennik
(Our Daily)—
with an estimated circulation ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 — has a strongly
conservative orientation and often uses a nationalistic or xenophobic discourse.
Nasza Polska (Our Poland), a weekly magazine, includes overtly anti-Semitic
material. In
an interview with a member of the neo-fascist rock band “Deportacja ’68”
(published September 30, 1998), the anti-Semitic campaign of March 1968
was described as “one of the very few positive acts of Communist Poland.”
A number of other publications includingMysl
Polska:
Tygodnik poúwićcony ýyciu i kulturze Narodu
(Polish Thought:
A Weekly Dedicated to the Life and Culture of the Nation), Najjasniejszej
Rzeczypospolitej
(For Our Illustrious Republic), an aggressively anti-Semitic bi-monthly,
and others contain both overt and covert anti-Semitic rhetoric. Some conservative
radio stations, for instance, the Catholic Radio Maryja, also advocate
ultra right nationalism and xenophobia.[14]
Beata
Klimkiewicz has done
the most significant work on ethnic minorities in the Polish mass media. Her
research is widely available in print and on the Internet.[15]
In her works, Klimkiewicz examines both minority media and media representations of minorities, i. e. both minority and mainstream media in Poland. According to her, “ethnic minorities publish or cooperate in publishing or producing of 42 titles, which is only 1% of total number of newspaper titles in Poland.” In Klimkiewicz’s words, if we compare it with 2,5% of ethnic minority population (this number neither covers new ethnic groups caused by legal and illegal immigration nor regional minorities), “we can easily infer that ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the public sphere in Poland.” No means “has been applied to strengthen the advocacy domain within which they operate in the public sphere.”[16] There are very few radio and television programs for minorities (only regional broadcasts in Ukrainian, Belorussian and German on the Polish National Radio). Only the German and the Ukrainian minorities produce TV program in their own language.[17] As in many Eastern European societies, minority media are usually marginalized and inefficient. That is why the mainstream media are more important for minority politics.
Analyzing the Polish mainstream media, Beata Klimkiewicz distinguishes three cases as representative of the different types of images and narratives of ethnic minorities in the Polish mainstream media. On the basis of her discourse analysis of newspaper and TV reports, she argues that the Polish mass media on ethnic minorities can be defined by the following features: 1) essentialism 2) negativism and 3) exoticism. Her research suggests that ethnic minorities are represented in the Polish mass media in a stereotypical fashion, i.e portrayals focus usually on negative, exotic and one-dimensional sites of ethnic minority life. Emphasizing journalistic insensitivity to the complexities of minority issues, Klimkiewicz’s studies point to the necessity of reexamining the journalistic practices and drawing new strategies to enhance minority participation in the public sphere in Poland. Her policy paper “Participation of National and Ethnic Minorities in the Public Sphere: Recommendations for Poland” (1999) written for the Open Society Institute is devoted precisely to this goal. Klimkiewicz proposes a comprehensive policy scheme including the recommendations to the government and parliament, management of media organizations, journalists and NGOs. Her complex policy schemeemphasizes changes in legal regulation, media regulation system, equal opportunities policies and professional guidelines and advocates multicultural approach to journalistic ethics, monitoring of discrimination and intolerance in mass media and comprising a new media-oriented multicultural policy.[18]
In
Lithuania the situation of ethnic minorities is rather similar to that
of Poland. As Ina Nausëdienë
and Giedrius Kadziauskas have emphasized, although, according to a popular
slogan in Lithuania, Lithuania has always been a multicultural and tolerant
state, the reality of ethnic minorities in the country differs from this
declaration.[19]
As in most post-Communist countries, in Lithuania we encounter discrimination,
intolerance and hate speech directed towards some ethnic groups.
Ethnic
minorities now account for about 18,5 percent of the population of Lithuania
(around 682,000). Around 109 different nationalities and ethnicities live
in Lithuania, including Russians, Poles, Belorussians, Ukrainians, Jews,
Tatars, Latvians, Gypsies, Germans, Armenians, Uzbeks, Azerbaijanis, Georgians,
Estonians, Karaites, Greeks and Hungarians. Russians comprise the largest
group, about 8.2% (302 thousand) Poles – 6.9% (257 thousand), Belorussians
– 1.5% (54 thousand), Ukrainians – 1.0% (36 thousand), Jews – 0.1% (5 thousand).[20]
The greatest number of non-Lithuanians lives in eastern and southeastern
part of Lithuania and in the cities of Vilnius, Klaipëda and Visaginas.
The town of Visaginas built in the 80s for the workers of the Ignalina
nuclear plant has a population of more than 90 % of Russians.
National
minorities publish 41 periodical in their language – 35 newspapers and
6 magazines. 31 of them are published in Russian, 7 in Polish, 1 in Belorussian
and 2 in German. The State radio broadcasts one hour daily in Russian and
Polish. There are weekly editions in Ukrainian and Belorussian. There is
a daily news edition in Russian on the State television. Private regional
television companies broadcast news and other programmes in Russian, Polish
and Belorussian.[21]
However, as Nina Mackevič emphasized in her paper “Russian Press in the
View of Marginalization,” newspapers in Russian, for instance, are written
in bad Russian; they depend on the information from the press of Russia
and largely the reviews of this press. [22]
The same may be said about other minority press.
As
to Lithuanian media portrayals of ethnic minorities, there have been very
few studies on this topic over the last ten years in Lithuania. The Lithuanian
sociologists Vida Beresnevičiűtë and I. Nausëdienë attempted to deconstruct
the representations of ethnic groups in the discourse of the Lithuanian
mass media.[23]
These sociologists demonstrated that newspapers portray national minorities
as unintegrated into society, as criminals, and as socially insecure or
‘exotic’ groups, therefore reinforcing racial and ethnic stereotypes.[24]
As Inga Nausëdienë and Giedrius
Kadziauskas have argued, mass media not only spread but also strengthen
negative stereotypes of ethnic minorities. The analyses of the main Lithuanian
press attest to the fact that ethnic minorities are treated as a separate
part of Lithuanian society.[25]
Vida Beresnevičiűtë emphasized that Stereotypical attitudes
towards minorities threaten to develop social distances between different
ethnic groups. In her words, “These stereotypes impede the integration
of the minority communities into the Lithuanian society and reduce their
possibility to solve their problems on equal basis with other social groups.”[26]
My
study on ethnic and sexual minorities in Lithuanian mass media continues
Beresnevičiűtë and Nausëdienë’s work.[27]
Discourse analysis of the main Lithuanian dailies and a sample analysis
of prime-time TV programs demonstrated that there is a lack of in-depth
reporting on ethnic minorities in the Lithuanian mass media. Minority groups
share relative invisibility and one-sided stereotypical representations.
Close reading of the most popular daily and TV programmes reveals undercurrent
xenophobia in a large part of news reports and broadcasts. The “bad news”
focus is overwhelming: most newspaper reports and TV broadcasts focus on
some minority member who committed a crime. Much less attention is paid
to stories about minorities experiencing problems, prejudice, racism or
unemployment.
Roma
people merit the worst representations as the least socially integrated,
criminal and exotic group. The mass media frequently refer to the Roma
minority as criminal, deviant, socially insecure, inscrutable, and manipulative.
In the police reports published in newspapers, the ethnicity of Roma is
always emphasized. Paradoxically, there appeared quite recently a set of
positive stereotypes attributable to the Roma: Romani have been showned
as passionate, romantic and very musical.[28]
Russians
receive mixed coverage in the Lithuanian mass media. On the one hand, they
are shown as active participants in Lithuanian political life. On the other
hand, their political behavior is described as threatening and serving
the interests of foreign powers. As in the case of the Roma, news reports
about crimes stress the Russian nationality of criminals.
The
representations of the Polish minority focus on the extremely politicized
problem of education. From these representations, Poles emerge as a self-conscious
national minority that requires special status and rights.
Jews
receive the most multi-sided coverage in the Lithuanian press: coverage
of Jewish-related issues ranges from detailed descriptions of anti-Semitism
in Lithuanian society to news about Jewish celebrations and cultural events,
from Holocaust commemorations to the trials of war criminals.
Sampled
TV programs, unfortunately, indicate minimal presence of ethnic stories
and characters in the mainstream programming. Ethnic minorities are still
hardly ever mentioned in the major broadcast news programmes. This fact
demonstrates that television fails to mirror the ‘real’ proportion of Russians,
Poles, Roma and Jews in the population of Lithuania.
Although
continuous monitoring of Lithuanian press allows to find the evidence of
a decline of the most crude stereotyping during the last two years in Lithuanian
dailies and on TV, ethnic minorities still are more likely to be shown
as socially irresponsible and unacceptable.
In
the paper cited above and elsewhere I argued that the Lithuanian mass media
describe ethnicity as problematic and not as a positive quality of a multicultural
society. Minority members are rarely consulted on the problems concerning
them. The discussed stereotypes are insufficiently counteracted by alternative
portrayals that reflect the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society.[29]
What is the situation of ethnic minorities in Latvia? Latvia has one of the highest proportions of minorities in Eastern Europe. As of 1 July 2002, ethnic Latvians constituted 58.3 percent of the total population of 2.3 million. The rest of the population belongs to minorities. The largest minority in Latvia is Russians who comprise 29.1 percent.[30]
The
most minority debates in Latvia have been focused around the issue of citizenship.
Despite the liberalization of the Law on Citizenship in 1998, Latvia still
has about 550,000 stateless “non-citizens” (Population Register 2001)[31].
As a result, the non-citizens in comparison with the citizens of Latvia
are discriminated in many spheres, including social, economic and political.[32]
The issue of citizenship is inevitably related to the problem of language
since about 36 percent of the Latvian population does not speak Latvian
as the first language.[33]
Thus, controversies over human rights and minority rights in Latvia have been related chiefly to the issue of state language. From this perspective, the residents of Latvia fall into two categories: a majority of Latvian-speakers (around 60 percent) and a minority Russian-speakers (approximately 40 percent). According to Leonid Raichman, the specificity of the Latvian minority situation lies in the fact that minorities are defined politically on a linguistic rather than ethnic basis.[34]As the 2001 report “Monitoring the EU Accession Process: Minority Protection” suggested, “Current legislation and practice reinforce the position of the Latvian language, while placing limits the use of minority languages in education, radio and television, state employment and communications with public administrative bodies.”[35] On October 29, 1998, Latvia's Parliament adopted amendments to the law on the electronic mass media that reduced the share of broadcasting and telecasting in minority languages once again - no more than 25% of the air time can be broadcast in minority languages. Thus, minority and language politics and mass media are interrelated in contemporary Latvia.
In
2001, the Latvian government launched the national program "The Integration
of Society in Latvia.” However,according
to the researcher Svetlana Diatchkova, "The Integration Program and governmental
policy in general do not pay sufficient attention to the concerns of civil
society and minorities in the field of minority rights, such as the need
for greater access to education and electronic media in mother tongue,
greater promotion of minority languages, the need for dialogue between
minorities and the State, and the effective participation of minorities
in public life."[36]
The chapter devoted to media issues doesn’t contain any substantive and
concrete ideas on how to enhance the integrative role of the media.[37]
There
is no comprehensive study on representations of ethnic minorities in Latvian
mass media. Among related studies, it is possible to mention “Stereotypes
in the Latvian Press” by Ilze Sulmane and Sergejs Kruks and research on
the Latvian Roma “Roma in Latvia” by Sarmite Dukate. The latter does not
analyze mass media. However, from the interviews with Latvian respondents
it can be inferred that information on Roma in Latvia is insufficient.
In the Latvian press, for instance, most information about Romani appears
in criminal reports. Those reports particularly emphasize their ethnicity.
Negative stereotypes portraying Roma as criminals, dirty and dangerous
prevail in mass media. In Dukate’s study, 21 percent of Latvian respondents
agreed that information on Roma is negative, 4 percent that information
is positive, 2 percent that information is neutral and 4 percent that information
on Roma is lacking.[38]
The
study “Stereotypes in the Latvian Press” focuses on the main Latvian press
of 1999 including newspapers “Diena,” “Neatkarîgâ Rîta Avîze,” “Lauku Avîze,”
“?AC,” “Pec?????ka,” “?a?opa?a ?am???,” and magazines “Rîgas Laiks,” “Santa”
and “?????.” The study argues that the Latvian press produces existing
stereotypes rarely discussing them critically. The analyzed media contain
comparably fewer stereotypes of Russian, Roma people or Jews in Latvia.
However, ethnic minorities are more likely than national majority to be
presented in a stereotypical fashion here.[39]
As Ilga Apine noted in her article "Political Correctness", Latvia is still not a politically correct country. Police reports in the newspapers usually name ethnicity when speaking of criminal acts (Roma minority is most vulnerable in this regard). There has also been racist advertising by the Freedom Party of Latvia[40] and xenophobic (largely Russophobic) statements in Latvian newspapers.[41] To change such and similar representations, as Ilga Apine implicitly suggests in her article, it is necessary to move from ethnic democracy to the model of pluralist democracy in Latvia.[42] Nils Muiznieks, in his article "Extremism in Latvia," corroborates Apine’s findings.[43]
It
must be emphasized that the inclusion of ethnic minorities in or their
exclusion from a broadcast, newspaper or newsmagazine both demonstrate
and affect the importance attached to the needs and interests of minorities.
The scarsity of
national TV programs for and about minorities witnesses the fact that minority
issues are still at a periphery of media policy.[44]
It
can be argued that typical portrayals of ethnic minorities in the discussed
countries reflect the exotic, criminal and largely negative sides of their
life. Minorities are also more likely to be presented in non-active roles
seemingly incapable of making any decisions without the help of the majority
(the case of Russians in Latvia and the Roma minority in all three countries).
Ethnic
minorities are often stigmatized and excluded because of a narrow ethnically
monolithic definition of citizenship in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. It
is symptomatic that struggles over ethnicity and citizenship are linked
to social institutions and the most basic norms based on the rhetoric of
shared heritage and a conservative definition of the nation. That is why,
in the public rhetoric, ethnic minorities are sometimes associated with
the images of degeneration and defilement threatening the “body politic.”
A
short overview of research on ethnic minorities in mass media points to
the fact that mass media and communication technology present a complex
arena for civic participation in the region. Research and policy work must
acknowledge the complexity of the issue ofminorities
in media. The
need to promote the minority identity in its various cultural expressions,
including mass media – is acutely felt.
Sexual
Minorities and Civil Society: Representational Wars
The nexus of ethnicity, sexual orientation, representation and mass media arises in the context in which minorities figure crucially as indicators of the building of a civil society. It is therefore far from coincidental that the issue of sexual minorities increasingly becomes more debated issue in Eastern Europe.[45]
What
citizens think about minorities is influenced by the media to which they
are exposed. As Marguerite
J. Moritz writing about sexual minorities argued, “When the news media
... represent a topic with which the mass audience may have limited personal
experience, ... the message is particularly potent because many audience
members have no way of independently or critically judging the validity
of the news account and the many messages it may carry.”[46]
Homophobia
is still rampant in the societies of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The
level of intolerance in these societies is rather high. For instance, according
to the survey of the Polish Centre for Public Opinion Polls entitled “Attitudes
toward Homosexual Marriage” conducted in 2001, 88 % of Poles believe that
homosexuality is unnatural, 47 % think that this unnatural behavior should
be tolerated and 41 % think that it is unacceptable. A large part of respondents
were in favor of limiting the freedom of lesbians and gays in their private
lives. 42 % of respondents thought that homosexual people should have no
right to homosexual sex and 40 % had the opposite view.[47]
According to the “Report on Discrimination Due to Sexual Orientation” (2001)
in Poland published by the Lambda Warszawa Association, 22 % of Polish
gays and lesbians have experienced physical violence, and 51 % have faced
mental abuse, including slander, threats and blackmail.[48]
Similarly,
a substantial majority of Lithuanians hold very negative views of gays
and lesbians. An opinion poll showed that in 1999 78.2% of Lithuanians
did not tolerate homosexuality. Only 67.8 of respondents would want to
live with homosexual neighbors, while 87.5% would rather live with drug-addicts.[49]
It is one of the lowest levels of acceptance of homosexuals in Europe.
The 1998
polls in Latvia revealed that homosexuals constitute one of the largest
minority groups distrusted by the population (70 % did not trust them).
Surprisingly, the 1999 poll demonstrated that the majority of the public
accepted homosexuals and their partnerships. However, stereotypes and myths
about homosexuals still prevail in Latvia. Society does not distinguish
between homosexuality and pedophilia Homosexuality is often regarded as
a threat to the nation and national identity. Some family organizations
and political parties described the establishment of lesbian and gay organizations
as a “planned genocide against the Latvian nation” and a “gross violation
of the human rights” of the Latvian people.[50]
There is a large number of homophobic
organizations and individuals in Latvia. Their list compiled by one of
the Latvian gay websites includes religious denominations, political parties,
police departments, ministries and high officials of Latvia.[51]
In
2002 three non-governmental organizations Lithuanian Gay League, Latvian
Gay Support Group and Estonian Association for Lesbians and Bisexual Women
published a “Report on Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia.” This report points to a high level of complexity informing
detrimental and discriminatory processes that can result in intended or
unintended representations of sexual minorities.
As my research on sexual minorities in Lithuanian mass media demonstrated, gay activists and openly gay persons are often vilified in the country. Lithuania’s sexual minorities tend to be depicted in terms of a restricted repertoire of representations and within contexts characterized by controversy and deviance. Gays and lesbians are categorized negatively and often described to be morally degenerate. In many cases mass media define gay people completely by their "problem" and construct homosexuality appear morally wrong. It is therefore symptomatic that sexual minorities are often related to moral panic in the Lithuanian society.[52]
My
analysis of a sample of the primetime programmes on the Lithuanian Public
Television and three commercial networks LNK, TV 3 and TV 4
revealed that gay issues were considered neither important nor significant.
The most programs emphasized the images of gays and lesbians in terms of
controversy, violence and deviance and constructed them in the sexualized
and sexist ways. Stories of sexual minorities have usually been framed
in such a way.
Several
important trends recur through the presentations of homosexuals on the
Lithuanian television. Firstly, sexual minorities are given limited credibility
in the public arena. TV programmes concern more with the alleged threat
posed by sexual minorities through their crimes. Secondly, gay characters
are an object of ridicule and derision. Thirdly, the Lithuanian TV perpetuates
the association of gays with effeminacy and “deviance.”
According
to the report “Lesbians and Gay Men in the Baltic States,” the Latvian
media is quite neutral in presenting the topic of homosexuality and homosexuals.
However, the large part of information appearing in mass media still contains
homophobic and ignorant statements. Positive information about homosexuality
is frequently considered as the promotion of homosexuality.[53]
Two main gay and lesbian organizations in Poland, the Lesbian and Gay Association Lambda Warszawa established in 1997 and a non-government organization Campaign Against Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii [CPH]) founded in 2001, aim at forming tolerant attitudes towards people of other than heterosexual orientation and removing prejudice and stereotypes concerning them. In their report entitled “Raport o dyskryminacji mniejszoúci seksualnych w Polsce, 2002,” (Report on Discrimination of Sexual Minorities in Poland), these organizations argued that although sexual minorities have increasingly been presented in Polish mass media more objectively, most articles and broadcasts disseminate stereotypical images of gay and lesbians or present them in a sensationalist way. Sexual minorities are often presented as spectacle and exotica leaving issues of discrimination largely unexamined. The right leaning, particularly Catholic, media are particularly active in reproducing myths and stereotypes that sanction homophobia.[54] Another report “Discrimination on the Grounds of Sexual Orientation in Poland (2001)” found that the Church and mass media are the main organization in Poland fueling and strengthening negative attitudes toward homosexuals and homosexuality. Gays and lesbians are mostly mentioned in the context of AIDS, transexuality and pedophilia in press, on the radio and TV. The report quotes a Polish daily “Express Wieczorny” (Evening Express, April 17, 1998, no. 90) that published an ad “Award [goes] to HIV for its special merits in cleansing society of faggots and drug-addicts.”[55]
The development of stereotypical life situations and character traits of homosexual persons occurs for many reasons and largely results in negative portrayals. Some of these practices may be attributable to cultural stereotypes existing in the Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian societies. Stories on sexual minorities are generally produced in accordance with a shared journalistic understanding of the particular news format, audience appeals, story selection and styles of presentation. Journalists tend to maximize stories’ news value by framing it in relation to current controversies and scandals. Furthermore, sexual minority stereotyping is closely related to Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian nationalisms and the fears of “spiritual and physical contamination” of these nations.[56]
As
the above reports and research from three countries demonstrate hate
speech towards homosexuals continues to be disseminated in the regional
media. The
Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish case demonstrates that the portrayal of
sexual minorities has been changed gradually through the last decade. However,
the speed of change is not sufficient. Gays and lesbians are often subject
to direct and particularly indirect discrimination including media exclusion,
negative representations and homophobia.The
reports on discriminations of sexual minorities identify the forms of discrimination.
Yet they do not offer any conrete guidelines for combating media intolerance
and hate speech.
Conclusions:
Minorities and Minority Politics in Lithuania, Poland and Latvia
In discussing matters of representation in three societies, we cannot ignore the facts of intolerance, discursive discrimination and homophobia in the media. Minority identities, either ethnic or sexual, are frequently denied, confined and erased. They are constructed as the other in an oppositional hierarchical relation to the majority. While media coverage of ethnic and sexual minorities has been improving during the last few years, overall it leaves much to be desired. Studies cited above find that the mass media play an unintended but significant role in creating and maintaining intolerance and prejudice against various minorities.
Recent scholarship on ethnic and sexual minorities and representation suggest that the mass mediation of ethnicity, gender and sexuality has strong social consequences. The power of mass media to shape national policy, public opinion and the politics of everyday life has been emphasized by a number of media and minority scholars.[57] This overview is intended to signal the important role of the media in enhancing minority involvement in civil society and democratic participation.
Research
addressing minorities in the media also implies that the mass media are
privileged as an indicator and a site of struggle over minority politics.
A look at the mass media of the region allows to answer the question of
how reporting of minorities respond to the shifting cultural politics of
ethnic and sexual minorities in these countries. As
the examples from three countries have demonstrated, although
most legal regulations on protecting the right of various minorities are
in place,[58]
there is a lack of a comprehensive legal framework and other policy measures
for the media and minorities. State programs related to minorities insufficiently
address the issue of mass media. Furthermore, in practice legal regulations
do not often work. This statement is especially applicable to the media. As
report “Minority Protection in Latvia” has interestingly emphasized, there
exist, in Latvia, two information spaces, Latvian and Russian, with different
points of view and different interpretations.[59]
Extending this remark it is possible to argue that the mass media of all
three countries discussed have several information spaces engaged in information
and representation wars. The issue of representation, i. e. what
should or should not be portrayed or represented about ethnic and sexual
minorities and which and how many representations of these minorities should
be permitted in mass media, is involved in the struggle over the discursive
arenas of the public sphere.[60]
To understand better the complex relationships between media, minorities and civil society, it is crucial to resituate questions of ethnic and sexual minorities as central to the theoretical and political projects of mass media studies by demonstrating how minorities have been constitutive of media’s work. To achieve this, the following research questions should be posed: 1) Why and which journalistic norms and practices may foster intolerance and discursive discrimination? 2) How do we decipher more subtle forms of discrimination and intolerance of minorities existing in mass media? 3) How should scholars, media practitioners and policy makers advocate more fitting images of minorities in relation to professional, institutional, commercial, and cultural contexts; and 4) how to articulate effective strategies to create more interculturally sensitive citizens able to engage in civic discourse in the above societies?
The production of demeaning images of ethnic minorities, as research studies indicate, cannot be explained only by the mistakes and shortcomings of individual journalists. It is necessary to attend to various contexts – professional, institutional, commercial, and cultural – and how each of these contexts influences the production of representations of ethnic minorities. These contexts also point to the necessity for a complex and multi-layered strategy to affect the change.
This multi-layered strategy may include enhanced professional training, multicultural awareness and continuing on-the-job monitoring of professional practice and increasing resources for improving minority representation. A combination of factors may contribute to the more positive portrayal of ethnic and sexual minorities, including the development of newsroom awareness of multiculturalism, the pursuit of minority ethnic audiences, the promoting of collaboration between majority and minority-language media and the access of minority groups to mainstream media.
As mass media researchers in Eastern Europe have noted, most countries in the region have no clearly defined guidelines to encourage multi-sided positive depictions of minorities. No effective code of practice regarding ethnic minorities, racism, cultural diversity and related issues exists. No concrete implementation strategy and mechanisms are proposed. That is why more must be done to increase media literacy among minorities themselves offering them practical advice on sending press releases and writing to the press and TV representatives, developing relationships with media practitioners and understanding target audiences. It would be also useful to create a Media Guide to Fair Reporting on Ethnic and Other Minorities presenting a straightforward account of how to report minority issues fairly and offering some practical tips to covering the diverse communities and individuals. As a ready reference to the media legislation, guidelines and codes and a practical tool for media workers involved with the representation of minorities, this guide would help them reach higher standards of accuracy, balance, and fairness in the complex field of multicultural reporting.
This study also emphasizes the imperative for more intercultural training and media literacy for faculty and students, in particular, within academic institutions in the region. This is not to say that such training initiatives and learning experiences do not exist in the region.[61] However, it is more important to create a multi-national program raising the public awareness about misrepresentation of national minorities by the media. It is particularly significant in the view of the accession of the discussed countries to the European Union. Enhancing intercultural dialogue and cooperation between the countries, such program would provide support for media project development by NGOs, media and educational organizations. It would fund projects that, in practical and concrete ways, advance knowledge of intercultural communication, media criticism, human rights and democratic citizenship.