Informed by the third-level agenda setting
model, also known as the Network Agenda Setting
Model, this article contributes to our understanding
of the dynamic between meanings by the leading
national media and young opinion-influencers (media
professionals and civil society members with public
profiles) in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In focus are
their meanings of Ukraine and its relations with the
three Baltic countries and the EU. Our main findings—
bifurcated meanings building “storylines” about Ukraine
in the Baltic region—raise the possibility that as the EU
Baltic states become further embedded in the EU and
as the next generation of leaders emerges, the resulting
narratives will become more fractured and contested
