Cjss second Issue: cjss second Issue qxd

As it is seen from descriptive statistics, the maintenance of the ideolog-
ical domination is affirmed by the respondents by the following reasons: a)
according to their opinion, the professional education principles of the Soviet
journalists were based on the ideological domination; b) the political moment
of transitional period required journalism to be a kind of ideological labor; c)
presence of ideological domination in the media was considered as the only
possibility for impact on the society. As we discussed in the introduction of
the article, the leading ideological discourse as in the society so in the media
was the nationalist discourse. So, the respondents posited that only ideolog-
ically affirming journalism could be effective in that political moment. More
than 66% of the respondents pointed out that this ideological labor was done
‘conceptually conceived’ by the media leaders.
Upon completing descriptive analysis the respondents were asked to
classify by nominal level of measurement the new roles and functions of the
Georgian media in 1990-1991 according to the criterion of presence in their
responses ideologically dominative meanings (clear and hidden).
Table 1. Clear and hidden ideological domination in the structure of the
new media roles and functions. 
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Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences
Clear ideological dominative roles and functions
In per cent
Destroying of the principles of Communist Press
8,7%
Coverage of National Liberation Movement
4.3%
Full commitment in practical policy
4.3%
Supporting the construction of the new state ideology
4.3%
Comprehension of national identity
4.3%
Social-political movement
4.3%
Stage for the political struggle
8.7%
Hidden  ideological roles and functions
In per cent
Pluralism, objectivity
21,7%
Reinforcing of public opinion
8,7%
Spreading of knowledge and education
4,3%

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Table 2. 
The presence /absence of ideology domination in the new media roles
and functions
If clear signs of the ideological domination are beyond of explanation,
the roles and functions recognized as hidden attribution to the ideological
domination in the media need some more comments. The comments of the
respondents can be generalized as follow: a) the terms “pluralism’ and ‘objec-
tivity’ were the ideology- carrier terms brought by glasnost ideology and di-
rected to  mask quasi-democratic processes in the late Soviet media; b)
spreading of knowledge and education by the media was also the specific
glasnost and post-glasnost project, when the learning from the newspapers
concerned the knowledge with the widest sense of the term: signification and
explanation of the social, political and historical phenomena, inter-replace-
ment of the false (official, Soviet, Stalinist) history with the its ‘true’ (unoffi-
cial) versions; creation of definitions if ‘nation’ and “nationality’, ‘homeland’
and ‘state’, ‘democracy’ and ‘independence’, etc.; c) knowledge was an crucial
factor that provided re-enforcing the public opinion. 
Calculating chi-square and probability coefficient proves that hypothesis
1 is accepted.
As for hypothesis 2, the descriptive analysis doesn’t affirm the assump-
tion about media-centric nature of the Georgian media in 1990-1991. Saying
more exactly, the descriptive analysis doesn’t accept the causal and determi-
native links between ideological domination and media-centrism. In descrip-
tive statistics only five respondents from 18 appreciated the nature of
relations between media and society in the plane of coverage limitation as
media-centric, 13 respondents considered it as society-centric. But while tak-
ing into account that presence of any form of ideological domination, as a rule,
created media-centric, or quasi-society-centric perspective in relations be-
tween media and society, in the case of each respondent was hypothetically
assumed a probability of deviation between the spontaneous choice for
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Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences
Ideology-affirming (clear/ hid-
den) roles and functions
73.6%(38.9%/34.7%)
n=13(7/6)
Roles and functions free from
ideological domination
17,2%
n=3
Unclear and indefinite
8,7%
n=2
X2 =1.9, df=1, p<0.01

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media-centric or society-centric perspectives (Q.2) and comprehensively de-
termined roles and functions of the new Georgian media (Q.3). This hypo-
thetical deviation was conditioned by the assumed conflict between the
respondents’ Soviet experience and their glasnost and post-glasnost media
practices. This deviation would be examined by factor analysis for testing hy-
pothesis 2 and its statistical significance.
A standardized questionnaire was formed, in which the respondents had
to evaluate on 7-pointed scale new media roles and functions identified by
themselves in the previous questionnaire. Point 1 was considered as the low-
est, point 7 as the highest. The questionnaire included 18 categories for eval-
uation.
The media’s function and role in:
1. Political struggle (F1);
2. Strengthening new societal thinking (F2);
3. Establishing free society (F3);
4. Distributing education and knowledge (F4);
5. Creating and maintaining national identity (F5);
6. Establishing pluralism (F6);
7. Establishing liberal principles and values (F7);
8. Creating a press antagonistic to the Communist press (F8);
9. Reflecting social changes (F9);
10. Calling for social changes (F10);
11. Reminding about national identity (F11);
12. Restricting writing with exaggerated nationalistic pathos (F12);
13. Writing about society without compromise (F13);
14. Reflecting ideas and messages of National Liberation Movement 
(F14);
15. Writing the ‘true’ history (F15);
16. Mobilizing and unifying society (F16);
17. Reinforcing public opinion (F17);
18. Creating ‘the hero of new times’ (F18).
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Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences

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