Corruption as Presented in the Lithuanian Internet Media

• Author: Aleksandras Dobryninas, Mindaugas Gilaitis
• Pages: 43-53

43

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL 25/2017

Aleksandras Dobryninas Mindaugas Gilaitis

Centre for Criminology Studies Centre for Criminology Studies

Vilnius University Vilnius University

Corruption as Presented

in the Lithuanian

Internet Media*1

1. Introduction

In the modern information age, citizens’ perceptions and evaluation of corruption, as well as of many other

social problems, are based not only on personal experience but also on the subject’s presentation in the

mass media. Media have become a natural actor taking part in constructing the public discourse on cor-

ruption, shaping attitudes towards corrupt persons, and illuminating and promoting possible measures for

tackling and preventing the spread of corruption through society. Although Lithuania belongs to the group

of countries in which the level of perceived corruption is assessed as rather positive*2, themes related to

corruption are very popular in the Lithuanian mass media. Early on, the f‌i rst diagnostic survey in the ‘Map

of Corruption in Lithuania’ series, conducted regularly since 2001, demonstrated that more than half of the

Lithuanian population considered the media to be the source of information that allows forming ‘the most

reliable opinion about the scale of corruption in Lithuania’. Television was cited as the most reliable source

among media-centred means.*3

However, the situation has changed radically since then. While in 2001–2003 the second and third

most reliable sources of information were considered to be ‘personal experience’ and reports from ‘friends,

acquaintances’, the second-place spot behind television in 2016 was occupied by the Internet, which had

been statistically ‘invisible’ in previous years. Personal experience or the experiences of relatives and peers

today is considered to be less important than, and not as reliable as, the information obtained via other

means, stemming from media sources*4. These changes provide empirical support to the idea that the

majority of Lithuanian society follows the general trends of the information society.

The ‘informational’ character of Lithuanian society can be illustrated well by the results of the Annual

Review of Media Surveys. According to the 2015 survey in this series, in the period 2014–2015, the overall

percentage of citizens of Lithuania using the Internet underwent no changes, remaining at 75%. Meanwhile,

 The article has been prepared within the framework of a project titled ‘Social Context of Corruption: An Analysis of Macro,

Meso and Micro Level Factors’, which is funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (MIP-/).

 For example, the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for Lithuania over the last few years has

been around  on a scale of  (‘highly corrupt’) to  (‘very clean’); see Transparency International. Corruption Percep-

tions Index. Available at http://www.transparency.org/research/cpi/ (most recently accessed on ..).

 Lithuanian Map of Corruption –. Vilnius: Eugrimas , pp. , .

 Lietuvos korupcijos žemėlapis  [‘Lithuanian Map of Corruption ’]. Available at http://www.stt.lt/documents/

soc_tyrimai/_Korupcijos_zemelapis_ataskaita.ppt (most recently accessed on ..) (in Lithuanian).

https://doi.org/10.12697/JI.2017.25.05