Following the constructionist approach to family studies, the authors argue that Lithuanian society is shaped by meaning-making institutions producing knowledge about emigration and families affected by emigration. The social reception of living realities of families is mediated by symbolic and visual representations of ideologically based directions in the regulation of migration, family ideology and “truthful” images of emigrant families in the Lithuanian TV. The brief overview of normative prescriptions included in different official documents concerning family aims to disclose how the socially accepted family values used in Lithuania change with time and how the established parameters of family values might affect the social reception of family-making practice. The qualitative research aims to analyse TV broadcasts as value-making institutions and to show that the representation of families affected by emigration is shaped by the knowledge of program-makers, the internal ideology of a TV channel and the technologies that produce “truthful” statements about the phenomena.

Keywords: emigration, families, legislation, mass media, social construction