Public relations in Estonia nowadays
by Tuomas Muhonen

In this blog post I try to answer to next question: Are there any signs of two-way symmetrical communication in Estonian organisations? Firstly I have to remind that there are not studies of the overall situation nowadays. Anyway I found some material related to the subject.

Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (Vastutustundliku Ettevõtluse Foorum) has studied practices related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in small and medium enterprises (SME) in Estonia. CSR can be seen as a sign of open organization and two-way symmetrical communication because its purpose is somehow dialogic and mutual understanding. According to Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (2007: 29) about 35 % of respondents claim they have been implementing some CSR activity. The most important interest groups for SMEs were shareholders and clients. Here is the short summary of CSR in Estonian Companies.

Subsequently, I tried to find out in which level PR-practioners work in organisations. Managers see public relations mainly as a technical function (Jänes 2005: 122). Main service area is media relations while other areas are quite small (Soone 2007: 2).

The biggest trend in governmental level are online information services. Use of information technology is also a very developed field in Estonia. Anyway, problem is how to use this new technology progressively. (Anton & Rannu 2005: 100.) Use of information technology has a lot of possibilities on the way to open society and organizations.

According to the source material, Estonia has not reached the stage of open society. Organizations have not really understood how they could use public relations to build mutual understanding with stakeholders. However, there are small signs of dialog in Estonian organizations.

USED SOURCES:

Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (2007). CSR in Estonian SMEs.

Anton, R & Rannu, R (2005). Eesti Vabariigi valitsuse suhtekorralduse areng taasiseseisvumise järel. In Praktiline suhtekorraldus: Eesti kogemus. Tartu Ûlikooli Kirjastus.

Jänes, K (2005). Juhtide arvamus suhtekorraldusest: Juht hindab suhtekorraldust, kuid mitte suhtekorraldajat. In Praktiline suhtekorraldus: Eesti kogemus. Tartu Ûlikooli Kirjastus.

Soone, I (2007). Estonian PR Market Overview.

Public relations in the transition society – Estonia
by Tuomas Muhonen

The process of change in Soviet Estonia began during the Singing revolution in 1988 and 1989. Estonia became independent again on the 20th of august in 1991. The Soviet occupation had lasted for 48 years. The time of totalitarian Soviet communism affected very deeply to Estonia's society and culture. Therefore, also public relations in Estonia have changed fundamentally during 20 years after singing revolution.

According to Tampere (2003: 132; 2005: 21), there are five types of stages of change in a totalitarian society and organisations. At the first stage of change, a society or organisation is closed and secret. The public communication of an organisation is asymmetrical and usually propagandistic. These organisations view their environment as irrelevant and even disturbing. At the second stage, organisations face up the new ways and code of a society. At the middle stage, organisations come face to face with financial conflicts and new interest groups. At the fourth stage, organisations start a real change. They start to plan strategically and analyse interest groups. The final stage would be an open society and organisation, which is still coming. (Tampere 2003: 132; 2005: 20–21.)

A Communist propaganda made people passive and unresponsive. People had some kind of immunity to information. Organisations send messages to interest groups but they don't receive the messages and vice versa. (Tampere 2005: 25.) This kind of attitude can affect unconsciously even nowadays.


USED SOURCES:

Tampere, K (2003). Public Relations in a Transition Society 1989-2002: Using a Stakeholder Approach in Organisational Communication and Relations Analyses, Doctoral Theses, Jyväskylä University Press (Finland)

Tampere, K (2005). Väike teoreetiline sissejuhatus Eesti praktilisse suhtekorraldusse. In Praktiline suhtekorraldus: Eesti kogemus. Tartu Ûlikooli Kirjastus.

The Development of Public Relations in Estonia

by Tuomas Muhonen


Introduction
Estonia under totalitarian rule

In this article (with links) I will give a short introduction to the background of public relations in Estonia. According to Kaja Tampere (2003: 6) the main aim of the communist ideology was to keep people uninformed. Almost all were controlled in a totalitarian system. Especially media was controlled very strictly. The official ideology was that people were happy in the Soviet family (Tampere 2003: 6).

Next article in the Estonian newspaper Postimees will give a good perspective to public relations and journalism under Soviet rule in Estonia. The article tells about the fire of University of Tartu in 1965. The original article is in Estonian, but I have translated it in English (with a help of compiler). Here is the link to the original article: Oled kuulnud, et ülikool põles? and here is the translation of the article: Have you heard that the university burnt?

Public relations must be understood as a continuous process. Because of that the history of public relations affects to situation nowadays. As Kaja Tampere (2003: 10) has stated "The term public relations was unknown in the Soviet Union. But communication, communication management and propaganda existed."

USED SOURCES:

Tampere, K (2003) Public Relations in a Transition Society 1989-2002: Using a Stakeholder Approach in Organisational Communication and Relations Analyses, Doctoral Theses, Jyväskylä University Press (Finland)

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I would like to continue with the theme of communist ideology. According to Maarja Lõhmus (2002: 145–164) there were 8 kinds of myths of communist ideology in the public texts. Those myths were:

1. The myth of the creator Lenin and the Party and Marx and Engels as their predecessors
2. The myth of victory of the Great Soviet Socialist Revolution (Russian Revolution) and of a new era
3. The myth of the Great Patriotic War and the invincibility of the Soviet Union with many enemies ‘out there’
4. The myth of historical progression of socialism, communist world revolution and communist future
5. The myth of the Soviet republics as a united family
6. The myth of labour and constant improvement of the Soviet economy
7. The myth of the working class as ‘the leading power’
8. The myth of free and happy Soviet people and the new type of human

USED SOURCES:

Lõhmus, Maarja (2002) Transformation of Public Text in Totalitarian System. A Socio-semiotic Study of Soviet Censorship Practices in Estonian Radio in the 1980s. Doctoral Theses, Turku University Press (Finland)