Crime, Mass Media and the General Public in Lithuania

The project investigated the presentation of crime in the Lithuanian media and its possible impact on the general public's understanding of crime-related problems in society. Dobryninas concentrated on three main aspects of this problem: the development of the image of crime in the Lithuanian press and television, journalists' principles in presenting crime-related information, and the public attitude to the presentation of crime in the media. A content analysis of national newspapers from the period of 1992-1997 showed not only increasing interest in crime problems, but also the distorted nature of the image of crime in the media. In-depth interviews with Lithuanian journalists demonstrated that they understood their role in presenting crime-related information firstly as providing information oriented to high public demand, although at the same time they did not deny the commercial and entertainment aspects of crime reporting. Readership and audience research illustrated the clear influence of the media on the public understanding of crime problems in society. However, the virtual image of crime did not greatly affect the system of values and beliefs of Lithuanians, nor did it challenge their insistence that problems of crime could and should be managed within the framework of a civil and open society.

The Ideology, Politics and Autonomous Art of Richard Weiner: (An Event in Discourse)"

The first aim of the project was to compile documentation on the life and work of Richard Weiner, a Czech journalist, writer and poet who spent the best part of his life as Paris correspondent for Lidove noviny. Langerova looked at the contexts and the growing independence of certain parts of his work, the distribution of thematic compositional elements into different parts of discourse and their position in the autonomous space of a work of art. Looking at the features of minority literature and the contemporary contexts of Weiner's life and work Langerova focuses on the situation of the Jewish community (Wiener came from an assimilated Jewish family). For this minorities, the function of language as a medium of communication which is able to create an autonomous world became increasingly important. Literature, which is based on this function of language, is a political matter par excellence before it begins forming as an autonomous, independent and divergent place. This means that everything private and intimate is closely connected to political and social responsibility, while supposedly objective genres contain subjective features. Another important characteristic is "nomadism", which asks the question of "Where do I belong". This was very important in Czechoslovakia after World War I , as in the issue of Zionism. Although Weiner rejected Zionism, he asks this question in his writing and it is reflected at a symbolic level in his work, which shows a fundamental thematic and compositional plan of a journey, cross-roads and wandering. These theses were reflected in Weiner's life, which was a series of continuous transfers and unplanned moves, often when he thought he had found his place. As well as tracing the course of his life, and his relations with and views of other writers, Langerova looks at his writings in various areas. Her major focus is the divergence of trivial and great events into different types of discourse in Richard Weiner's work, their transfer (small into great, trivial into mythical) and their historical context.