Mass Media in Latvia: The Two Parallel Worlds…

Discussing with my students the role of the mass media in the political and social situation in Latvia, we have already got used to make one and the same conclusion for the period of time… - the last ten years: if we compare the way, how one and the same initially sensitive issue – both for the Russian- and the Latvian-speaking communities in Latvia – is being commented in the Latvian and the Russian mass media; we have got the feeling, that the speech is about the situation/events/activities, etc. in the two different countries…
For example, if the speech is about the Reform of the Secondary Education in the Schools for the National Minorities, we have got the following acknowledgements:
- the Russian media (the broadsheet daily newspapers: Cas and Vesti Segodna) have been constantly moaning all the time since the year 2004, that the Reform will turn out the Russian children into… “the completely illiterate idiots”, who have forgotten their mother tongue – the Russian language;
- the Latvian media, on the contrary, - have constantly tried to emphasize the idea, that the Russian children, who have properly studied the Latvian language, will have more chances and the wider perspectives on the job market in Latvia, becoming more competitive.
Unfortunately, the overseas readers, who naturally accept that the Russian mass media offer the clear and the authentic picture of the contemporary situation in Latvia, - have been constantly making this genuine mistake, relaying on the information published in Cas and Vesti Segodna… As a result, they will never get the idea about the vast spectrum of the viewpoints of the representatives of the national minorities in Latvia…