The Western World’s Image in Current Affairs Programmes on Russian Television

Abstract

This article examines the foreign news coverage in Russia’s current affairs programmes. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia has weakened its position, but retained a significant place on the contemporary geopolitical map. The deterioration of relations between Russia and the West after 2014 justifies the interest in study of the Western world’s image in the Russian media field. The author investigates the evolution of foreign topic frames on Russian TV, analyzing television content in 2011, 2015 and 2019. The study confirms the hypotheses that since the crisis of 2014, the number of international news on TV has significantly increased, with the negative frame predominating. Polarized presentation is intensified by the infotainment news style, which not only attracts television viewers to the international news, but also supports the creation of mythological discourse in weekly current affairs programmes. The analysis also shows the positive attitude of Russian journalists to the Western world, and admiration and idealization of the Western world’s values throughout the study period.

Keywords

International news / foreign news coverage / current affairs programmes / Russian television / media frames / Ukraine / Western world

References

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