This report studies representation of drug issue in Estonian newspapers in 2002. The basis of the theory is agenda setting theory. The study includes two biggest Estonian daily newspapers “Postimees” and “Eesti Päevaleht” and one weekly newspaper “Eesti Ekspress”. Two textual analysis methods were used in study. First was content analysis e. formalized content analysis and second was deeper analysis of articles e. unformalized content analysis goaled to illustrate tendencies appeared in qualitative analysis and in deeper analysis.
The results of the study show that in 2002 the most topical themes in media were drug trafficking, drug related crimes, drug use of youth, infection diseases and drug policy. Most typical style of article was form of news, deliberative articles were less represented. Comparison between the statistics of media representation related with drugs, opinion questionnaires and other situation representations showed that according to themes and frequency the representations in media were similar. Regarding to that we can conditionally say that media does not construct its own drug world but tries to put on the agenda themes according to social statistics, expert opinion and other resources. Hereby regarding the drug issue media realizes its role as a public informer well and keeps the drug issue steadily in agenda. Daily newspapers role as a promoter of discussion is modest.