ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the perspective of ‘attentionscape’ to explore news waves as resources for public debate. News waves can make events, social problems, or people significant, but are they an opportunity or a waste of public time? On the basis of a case study on a drug trafficking issue in Estonian media (over twenty years), we analysed an event that triggered the initial news wave and smaller news waves about the same topic in subsequent periods. What were the discursive consequences of such an extensive use of public attention? Our study showed how intensive media coverage of a drug smuggling case acted as a catalyst for discursive changes and the introduction of new issues in drugs representation in Estonian news media.
