The article presents data from the study Baltic sociolinguistics (BALSOC): language awareness and orientation in Lithuania and Latvia which was carried out to investigate views of TV and radio journalists on public language use and language policy, including self-assessment of linguistic competence and, more specifically, the impact of the field and addressees on the way the journalists speak. The analysis of the data shows that the majority of typical TV and radio journalists deliberately and owing to various reasons violate the norms of standard language and switch to the nonstandard language use. This practice is related to the fact that the use of nonstandard but stylistically expressive elements allows the speakers to expand their repertoire of lexical expression. Hence, violating the norm has become a way of enriching one's speech. The whole process can be seen as an intellectual and challenging interplay between the journalist, or show presenter, and the addressee rather than a simple transfer of the private register to a public context; it helps to create a more expressive background of the current media, contributes to an informal atmosphere of certain shows, reveals the participants' characters and is a time-saving strategy. The choice of nonstandard forms of expression is usually governed by the type of show and its addressees as well as by the professional maturity of the journalists: presenters of shows for the younger audiences resort to informal register more often than hosts of analytical programs targeted at more mature viewers