Latvian daily press journalists: between or together with commercialization and partisanship?

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of Latvian daily press journalists from three Latvian and three Russian language papers (during two time periods, 2006 and 2010). Data from thirty in-depth interviews with chief editors, observers, analysts and correspondents of socio-political themes during both periods, as well as observation of situations at the editorial offices and recent changes in the ownership show the different ways that news industries cope with losing the readership of daily newspapers. This data also demonstrates the impact of recent economic crisis and shows the relationship between the economic, journalistic and political fields in Latvia through the eyes of media professionals. The study confirms the tendency of commercialization being closely related with partisanship and the power holders’ use of economic problems and some professional flaws of media organizations in subjecting editorial contents to owners’ direct economical and political interests.