E-residency – the beginning of a new era or the end of citizenship as we know it?

Estonia, one of the smallest EU member states in the North-Eastern part of the Union might not attract new residents and investors with its outstanding nature, weather conditions or natural resources. Who would like to live in a country where summer means “three months of bad weather for skiing”? As one of the former Soviet satellite states it had to find another strategy to launch itself as an attractive and unique country on a global scale. Early on technology was identified as a solution to all kinds of challenges ranging from democratization to marketization and attracting global businesses

Eesti Päevalehe juhtkirjade informatsioonilis-loogiline struktuur ja arusaadavus 2006. aastal

The Bachelor’s thesis «Informative-logical structure and understandability of the editorials of Eesti Päevaleht in 2006» is a study of the editorials of the newspaper Eesti Päevaleht primarily from the structural aspect. The purpose of the study is to identify the link between the structure of the text, its perception and understanding, and the factors that affect the writing and editing of the text, on one hand, and the creation of an association between what the author conveys and what the readers perceive, on the other. Riina Kallas analysed the structure and understandability of the editorials of Eesti Päevaleht in 2001. Her study results give valuable information for comparison purposes – the changes that are notable in the process of writing and editing of editorials and in the purpose and understandability of lead story texts six years later. The first chapter provides an overview of the most important concepts pertaining to understanding a text and the factors affecting it in general, as well as the nature of opinion writings and the methods used for analysing journalistic texts. The second chapter explains how to apply the informative-logical method to the analysis of newspaper editorials. A scheme has been drawn up of 10 texts, which convey the structure of the article – purpose, main thesis/theses, antithesis/antitheses, arguments, examples, background, etc. As a result of the analysis, one well-structured and one poorly structured lead story were chosen for an understandability experiment. Ten persons participated in the experiment; they were asked to summarise the content of the two editorials, formulate the purpose of the text and assess whether the content and meaning of the text was easy to understand or not. On the basis of the average result computed from the participants’ assessments, the understandability of the two texts, one with a more logical and the other with a less logical structure, were compared. The third chapter summarises the results of the text analysis and the understanding experiment, and provides a comparison of the results of R. Kallas from 2001 and those of this study. The closing chapter discusses the prospective trends of further studies into opinion writings and the developments in the opinion editorial work of Eesti Päevaleht over the past six years, and points out the main limitations and problems that may render it difficult for journalists and editors to focus only on the publication of well-composed and understandable texts. The main results of the study are summarised below. The expression of purpose in the editorials of Eesti Päevaleht has remained relatively on the same level as in 2001. The purpose is clearly expressed in nearly a half of the cases and hidden or implied in less than a half of the texts. Unfortunately, there are still editorials that, in the opinion of the author of this study, lack any purpose. Probably, the editor or journalist has not even questioned the reason why those texts were published. The experiment confirmed the hypothesis that a logically structured text facilitates the readers’ understanding of its content and meaning. The understandability of a well-structured editorial was between adequate and fairly fully understandable according to the mathematically computed summary assessment. Less well structured texts were partly rather than fully understandable. A comparison of the understandability experiments of 2001 and 2006 revealed a slight improvement of the understandability of the content and meaning of the editorials of Eesti Päevaleht. In summary, the opinion editorial staff of Eesti Päevaleht, whose work includes writing editorials, should continuously and purposefully address the issues of the formulation techniques and structure of the texts. The more attention is paid to style, the structure of sentences and understandability, the clearer and more articulated the expression of the newspaper’s opinion

Cross-border mobility, European identity and participation among European adolescents and young adults

Cross-border mobility is one of the most important factors that are assumed to strengthen young people’s commitment as European citizens. However, the existing empirical evidence does not provide consistent support. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that cross-border mobility is associated with a stronger European identification, more positive attitudes toward the EU, and with specific visions of the EU, and that these factors, in turn, have a positive effect on engagement at EU level. Data were collected as part of the multinational research project CATCH-EyoU. Analyses were performed controlling for gender, income, country, and migrant status. Results mostly confirmed the hypotheses among both adolescents and young adults, and for both short-term and long-term mobility. EU level participation and EU voting intentions appeared to be influenced by partly different factors. The implications of the findings, both at theoretical level and for the development of international mobility programs, are discusse

Konkreetse ajalehenumbri loetavus: tähelepanu äratamise ja säilitamise võtted

This Master’s thesis Readability of a Newspaper Issue: Techniques of Getting and Keeping Attention studied how the information contained in an issue of a newspaper is noticed and read. The first part of the thesis describes the levels of the impact processes of mass media. Theory distinguishes between macro level impacts (social impacts) and micro level impacts (individual impacts). Individual impacts are the starting point for the development of social impacts. The paper mainly focuses on the process of short-term impacts on the individual level, studied via the factors that influence the reception of a message. The impacting effect of mass information directly depends on the selection of messages. An individual impact develops from an understanding and assessment of the content. Factors which determine the reception and personal impact of messages were identified in the paper as four major groups, detailed in the first part of the paper. 1) Source factors pertain to the reputation and credibility of the channel, as well as the degree to which the author or presenter is known and personally appealing. 2) Message factors pertain to the substantive and formal characteristics of the mass communication message. 3) Circumstantial factors pertain to the general situation in society and the specific situation at the time of reception of the message. 4) Recipient’s factors pertain to the recipient’s social environment, as well as socio-psychological and individual psychological aspects. These various factors come together in the context – the playing field where reception takes place. In addition to theoretical points of departure, the first part of the paper gives an overview of earlier empirical studies of the readability of newspapers and columns, which were mainly conducted at the University of Tartu. The earliest studies date back to the 1960s and 1970s; the most recent ones are from the present decade. Peeter Vihalemm started studying the reception of information communicated via means of influence at the (State)University of Tartu as early as in the second half of the 1960s. At the beginning of the 1980s, Mati Määrits studied the readability of an issue of the regional newspaper Edasi and Meelis Lokk studied the readability of specific columns. The readability of the weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress during the period 1993–1998 was analysed by Aivar Viidik; the readability of specific writings and advertisements in the newspaper Postimees and related determining factors during 1991–1997 were studied by Epp Väljaots. This paper also makes use of the results of Vihalemm’s readability survey of an issue of the Eesti Päevaleht in 1999 and 2000. The questions that this paper seeks to answer focus on the problems facing the communicator. They mainly concern getting and keeping the recipient’s attention on the message. Firstly, the factors on which getting and keeping the recipients’ attention depends are identified based on empirical information from a survey. Secondly, various techniques are presented which the editorial office or author could use to reduce the reader’s negative prejudices, so as to pave the way for a more positive reception of the message. Thirdly, the paper discusses the degree to which the noticing process reflects the reader’s social and communicative experience. The second part of the paper describes the preparation and conduct of a survey based on two issues of Eesti Päevaleht. The third part gives an overview of the parts of the issue which were studied in greater depth, as well as of the readability and noticeability of specific materials. A survey of 153 readers was conducted to study the readability of the 9 October 2008 issue of the Eesti Päevaleht. A comparison of the respondents with the general population showed that men and women were represented proportionally, while the age structure inclined toward younger people. Most of the respondents were 20–29 years old. Persons with higher education were 50% overrepresented, while persons with basic education were nearly 2/3 underrepresented. Because of the sample, the survey results cannot be transposed to the actual audience, while the information collected and its analysis point to the validity of a number of general trends in the readability of a newspaper issue. Below is a brief summary of the survey results. The most readable column in the edition was the Estonian news column, which was read by an average of 60% of the respondents. This was followed by foreign and economics news, which were read by an average of 55% of the respondents. An equivalent degree of interest (49%) was shown in the opinions column and Tallinn news, followed by the science column on the back side of the newspaper (42%). Classified ads and announcements deserved the least attention and were read by an average of 12% of the respondents. The most readable article was the one on the lower side of page 6, which was a most modestly marked news story about the quality of education provided in Estonia. Nearly 70% of the respondents noticed the story and 50% read it through. The second most readable story was a paired article about the coping of disabled persons in the Estonian news column. Although the stories described the environment in which autistic persons live in Sweden, not in Estonia, 47% of the respondents read through the main article. Differences in noticing particular materials and in the choice of articles for a more thorough reading were the most evident in a comparison of age groups. The results in the age groups under 30 and over 40 were compared; the first group tended to prefer information with a more entertaining content. The fourth and fifth parts of the thesis analyse the scope and effect of the major impact factors that determine reception and compare the identified trends with the main conclusions of earlier studies. The following generalisations can be highlighted. The psychological closeness of the topic of the message for the recipient plays a major role among the factors influencing the reception of newspaper materials. It is reflected in both the general interest for topics and in the link between the closeness of the content of the message on the one hand and the direction and intensity of attitudes on the other. The psychological closeness of a message covers a) the sphere described, b) the writer’s approach, and c) the reader’s social and communicative experience. The degree to which the phenomena reflected in the message are known and significant for the recipient is expressed in whether and how much attention the recipient pays to the message and how much the material concerns him or her personally. Noticing and selection of the message is the beginning of the communication process. The author’s or source’s influence on getting the reader’s attention is decisive mainly where the author’s person is somehow significant for the reader – whether the author is publicly or personally known. The author’s personal appeal to the recipient also counts. Depending on the message and the situation, the aspect that raises attention can be a negative attitude toward the particular author, i.e. the reader notices the story but does not wish to read it. In such case, the author’s person subdues the content of the message. As a general trend, trust in politicians is lower and trust in experts writing about their area of competence is higher. Skilful presentation of both the content and form of the message (including a compactly constructed message, apt headline, visually attractive formal elements, etc.) contribute to the material’s being noticed and read. It should be noted that illustrations (photos, informative graphics, etc.) yield the desired result especially together with the main content. Recipients attach importance to a message’s topicality, an exhaustive approach and compliance with the reader’s expectations. Although this Master’s thesis summarises a large volume of material that covers a lengthy period and concerns the readability of a newspaper, studies in this field should be continued and the results should be elaborated. All the more so because over the past decade, methods of monitoring psychophysical responses have been increasingly applied and these allow for drawing much more thorough conclusions about how materials are noticed and received.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4037297*es

Chapter Introduction

This book focuses on social transformations as one of the central topics in the social sciences. The study of European social transformations is very valuable in the context of universal discussions within social sciences: explaining invariable, universal attributes of societies and examining changing attributes. The book consists of 20 chapters on European social transformations, written from the perspectives of distinguished scholars from such disciplines as economics, political science, educational science, geography, media and communication studies, public management and administration, social psychology and sociology. The temporal and spatial range of the book is wide, including such global changes as time-space compression, focusing particularly on change processes in Europe during the last two decades. The book consists of four main parts, beginning with an overview of the theoretical and methodological approaches, and then focusing separately on post-communist transformations, institutional drivers of social transformations in the European Union, and European transformations in the context of global processes. The book presents current theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches that complement the scientific literature on social transformations. This book is both an invaluable resource for scholars and an indispensable teaching tool for use in the classroom and will be of interest to students, academics, and policy-makers studying how this diverse region has changed over recent years

Large-Scale Comparative School-Based Survey Research: Challenges and Solutions for Sampling, Fieldwork and Informed Consent

Based on our experiences with implementing the comparative school-based ySKILLS survey in six European countries, this article investigates the preparation of fieldwork in school-based surveys. This includes the sampling strategies and recruitment of schools and (secondary level) students, the continuous collaboration with schools, as well as collecting parental consent. By interviewing the national survey experts, we found that previously described challenges of school-based survey research have become specifically relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results further show that collaborating with schools is demanding and that collecting active parental consent involves problems regarding a non-response bias as well as ethical concerns about children’s rights. For future research, we have identified seven general preconditions and facilitating factors regarding the re­cruitment and collaboration with schools for a successful implementation of school-based surveys. Regarding informed consent, we provide seven ethical and practical recommenda­tions for research policy and future studies

The Role of School-Home Communication in Supporting the Development of Children’s and Adolescents’ Digital Skills, and the Changes Brought by Covid-19

School-home communication is a growing research field in social sciences, particularly in education sciences and communication studies. While previous studies have paid much attention to the importance of school-home interaction in supporting primary academic socialisation and progress of elementary school pupils, the role of teacher-parent communication and collaboration in influencing the development of children’s and adolescents’ digital skills remains an under-researched area. This paper employed thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with education experts in six European countries, providing an insight into their opinions and views on the problems in communication between homes and schools. The analysis identified main problems in and obstacles to school-home collaboration on children’s digital skills development, and the changes the COVID-19 pandemic brought along in this field of education. The paper provides five policy recommendations for enhancing school-home collaboration on digital skills development

youth Digital Skills Indicator:Estonian questionnaire

The youth Digital Skills Indicator was developed as part of the ‘Youth Skills (ySKILLS)’ project and added to the ‘From Digital Skills to Tangible Outcomes’ digital skills measurement toolkit.Please read the accompanying document on the underlying rationale for these scales and on how to create and use composite scales in the following document: Helsper, E.J., Schneider, L., van Deursen, A.J.A.M., van Laar, E. (2021). The youth Digital Skills Indicator: Report on the conceptualisation and development of the ySKILLS digital skills measure. KU Leuven, Leuven: ySKILLS. Available at: https://yskills.eu

Digital skills among youth: a dataset from a three-wave longitudinal survey in six European countries

This dataset provides longitudinal survey data from a European project, ySKILLS, which was focused on the role of digital skills in youths’ development. It contains data from 10,821 participants from Grades 6-10 (in Wave 1) in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. The data was collected between Spring 2021 and Spring 2023, the participants were recruited through schools, where the data collection also took place, except for online data collections due to restrictions caused by COVID-19. The dataset is novel in its multidimensional approach to the construct of digital literacy. It provides insight into the development of digital skills in youth and the role of digital skills and internet usage in youths’ positive and negative online experiences and wellbeing. It also contains data that allows for the analysis of the role of digital skills in class networks. The data are beneficial for researchers interested in the examination of youths’ online skills, internet usage, online experiences, and wellbeing from a longitudinal perspective

Youth news media use in Estonia

The preparation of this article was supported by the grants from the Estonian Research Council (Personal Post-doctoral Research Funding, project no. PUTJD570, and Institutional Research Funding, project no. IUT20-38). Go to the full book to find a version of this chapter tagged for accessibility