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Образ России в современном медийном дискурсе Соединенного Королевства Image of Russia in the modern mass media discourse of the United Kingdom
Степанова Мария Алексеевна
Магистрант 1 курса Факультета социальных наук и массовых коммуникаций Финансового университета при Правительстве Российской Федерации
Россия, г. Москва e-mail: masha.step2012@mail.ru
Stepanova Maria Alekseevna
Master Student 1 term Faculty of Social Sciences and Mass Communications Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
Russia, Moscow e-mail: masha.step2012@mail.ru
Научный руководитель Родионова Марина Евгеньевна
кандидат социологических наук, доцент Департамента политологии и массовых коммуникаций Финансового университета при Правительстве Российской Федерации
Россия, г. Москва e-mail: MERodionova@fa.ru
Scientific adviser Rodionova Marina Evgenievna
Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and Mass
Communications
Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
Russia, Moscow e-mail: MERodionova@fa.ru
Аннотация.
В статье проанализирован образ России, создаваемый в современном медийном дискурсе Соединенного Королевства в текущей политической ситуации. Автор рассматривает некоторые из уже существующих работ в области российского имиджа в СМИ Великобритании и сравнивает их результаты с результатами данного исследования. Данная работа основана на примере статей, недавно опубликованных в изданиях BBC и The Guardian. Цель исследования - определить, как специальная военная операция влияет на образ России, представленный в средствах массовой информации Великобритании.
Annotation.
This article is aimed at analyzing the image of Russia in the modern mass media discourse of the United Kingdom created in the current political situation. The author discusses some of the already existing works in the field of Russian image in the British mass media and compares their results with the results of this study. The research is based on the example of articles recently published in the BBC and The Guardian. The purpose of the work is to determine how the special military operation affects the image of Russia created in the mass media discourse of the UK.
Ключевые слова: образ, СМИ, Россия, Великобритания, газета, мнение.
Key words: image, mass media, Russia, United Kingdom, newspaper, opinion.
The image of Russia in the media is one of the essential factors in shaping the opinion of Western society about the country. Despite the fact that mass media political discourse is created by professional journalists, it also reflects the opinions and values of politicians and ordinary citizens. Thus, the image significantly affects the decision-making process of foreign states in relation to Russia.
In the modern age, under the circumstances of globalization and digitalization, an international image of a state plays a crucial role. An impressive image is an important tool for representing the interests of a country on the international
arena. The image has an influence on many spheres of cooperation. For example, it can affect an investment flow from abroad, the success of the tourism industry, country's participation in international organizations, etc.
The term "image" itself was introduced into scientific discourse by Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, this term means specially created depiction that includes certain characteristics and is designed to have an emotional and psychological impact on the target audience [3, p. 4].
That is important to define the term "image" in political science. According to Russian political scientist D.P.Gavra : "Image is a value judgment, social picture, a set of features, attributed to an object by advertising, propaganda, fashion, prejudice and tradition aimed at creating certain reactions towards this object" [2]. Hence we can conclude that the image of a country is formed not only under the influence of such factors as history and geographical position, but also due to intentional work and information-communication policy.
The definition of the "state image" given by Russian political scientist M. A. Bulgarov is also worth mentioning. According to the scientist, the image of the state is "a set of emotional and rational ideas resulting from the comparison of all the features of the country, one's own experience and rumors that influence the formation of a certain image" [1]. The formation and maintenance of an international image requires continuous work with various target audiences, as well as communication channels. A decisive part of the image of any state is its representation in the media of other countries. Images of states are prioritized in the political mass media discourse as they form a particular attitude towards other countries therefore justifying the foreign policy of their own country.
The mass media is not only the main source of information, but also the main tool in creating an image. The primary task of the media is to inform the society and to communicate at the level of "state-society". Quite often, the mass media not only transmits information and facts, but implements a strategy of targeted informing of the audience. Journalists tend to interpret and evaluate the news relying on their own life views and general political agenda of a country. Therefore, an image of a foreign country is formed to a great extent by the mass media.
A number of researches on the topic of Russia's image in the British mass media discourse have already been conducted. That is crucial to consider some of them. For example, it is interesting to take a look at the research paper "The formation of the image of Russia in the British political mass media discourse" by K.P. Posternyak and N.B. Boeva-Omelechko [9]. This research is aimed at analyzing the image of Russia in the British political mass media discourse of 2013-2017. For their work, the authors used articles from the British online newspapers, such as, the Economist, the Guardian, the Times, the Independent, the Financial Times, and a website BBC. The results of the analysis have shown that the British mass media discourse contributes a lot to the formation of the primarily unfavorable image of Russia as a hostile and aggressive country.
Another research "The evolution of the Russian Image in the English discourse" was conducted by I. Telesheva and I. Denisova [10]. The main goal of this work was to describe the formation of the state image of Russia in the English discourse with the help of different linguistic means. The authors used articles from the following sources: the Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Financial Times, the Economist, the Observer and the Sunday Times. After the analysis, the authors singled out the following typical features of Russia-related discourse: Russia is perceived as a country with bears, dirt, hateful Soviet past and Russian frosts. There are no alternative views on Russia in these newspapers.
The idea of one-sided representation of Russia expressed in the previous papers is partially denied in the research "Russia's Portrayal in the Mirror of International Mass Media: The Role of Cultural Context" by O.B. Maximova [8]. The author analyzed some Russia-related texts from the leading British and American online newspapers, such as the Independent, the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, etc. The results have shown that Russia is widely discussed on an international level and represented in a comprehensive and detailed manner. On the one hand, the examined publications contribute to a deeper and more emotional understanding of Russia-related events; on the other hand, the
authors tend to impose their own opinion about the topic which might provide readers with a stereotypical or biased image of Russia.
Taking into account the above cited research works that deal with the topic of the image of Russia in the mass media of the UK we can make certain conclusions. It is notable that Russia has been considerably represented in the media of the UK in recent years. Russia-related articles are highly topical and journalists writing them are prone to give them emotional coloring and subjective evaluation. According to the researches, even before the Ukrainian crisis of 2022, the depiction of Russia as a hostile country persisted in the mass media discourse, which made it hard to get rid of the stereotypes connected with Russia.
In this work we would like to analyze some recent Russia-related publications in the mass media of the UK in order to determine the image of Russia created by these sources in the current political situation. For the further analysis we have chosen two popular news sources, namely the BBC News and the Guardian. It is worth mentioning that according to a research conducted by the Press Gazette media trade magazine in October 2022, the BBC and the Guardian are in the top four of the most popular news brands in the UK [14]. We have decided to exclude popular tabloid editions (such as the Sun and the Daily Mirror) from our analyses due to their lack of objectivity and credibility.
Newspapers published in the same place generally give a description to the same events using different wording and emphasizing different details as they are aimed at various audiences (differentiated by political views, social and economic status, and so on). The Guardian addresses urbanized professionals in the public service, educational, creative and media sectors. These people are interested in politics, have knowledge in this field and view the political situation from a centre-left perspective [7, p. 246].
The Guardian plays the important role in forming the image of Russia in the UK. In the sections The Observer and Opinion, journalists with different political positions and British politicians express their opinion about current problems, such as those concerning Russia and its foreign policy. Thus, we would like to focus on the recently published articles from the above mentioned sections.
The first article under analysis is entitled "The Guardian view on Putin's military escalation: a failing strategy" [12]. It is worth mentioning that this article is editorial, which implies that it expresses the editor's position. It was published on the 21st of September, at the day when Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization. The publication tends to be highly critical of Putins decision. The wording used in the article is far from being polite and politically correct. Here are some of the examples used in relation to the Russian president: "to gratify Mr. Putin's territorial appetite", "a leader of questionable rationality", "a barbarous dictator". The disapproval of "Kremlin propaganda" also plays an important role in the article. The following word combinations are used in this regard: "monstrous inversion of reality", "Russian nationalist imagination", "paranoid delusion" and so on. The importance of supporting Ukraine for the rest of Europe is especially emphasized in the abstract. The editorial ends with the words: "It is a desperate strategy that relies on a demoralized, poorly coordinated and corrupt Russian army outlasting Ukraine's will to fight for its survival". Thus, we see that the author of the article does not try to stay objective, while commenting on the problem, making ironical remarks and using metaphoric language to criticize Putin, state Russian media and special military operation overall.
Another article that we would like to discuss is entitled "The Guardian view on Russia's annexations: escalation on escalation" [13]. It was published on the 29th of September, the day before the LPR and the DPR officially joined the Russian Federation. The article is concerned with this decision, referring to it as "annexing of four Ukrainian regions" performed after "sham referendums". This narrative is in line with the NATO's decision as it is stated that "Kyiv cannot and will not concede this territory, and NATO has said explicitly that Ukraine's borders are unchanged". The article also underlines that joining of the new regions might be presented as a "spurious justification" for the special military
operation. All in all, this publication tends to be less biased than the previous one. Though such terminology as "annexation" and "war" is used, the general tone of the article is less blaming and ironical.
The article "Putin dealt bitter blow as blast cripples key bridge to Crimea" [6] was published on the 8th of October, at the same day as the bridge in Crimea was damaged. The explosion on the bridge is called "a show of Russian vulnerability", and the bridge itself is referred to as "a personal prestige project for the Russian president" and "a hated symbol of Russian occupation". It is stated more than once in the article that the bridge is a "key transport link for military equipment", a "key logistics link for Russian troops in southern Ukraine" and a "supposedly untouchable 12-mile prestige structure", which makes an especial focus on the "military humiliation" of Russia. To sum up, this publication seems to be biased. It gives an unfavorable description of Russia and at the same time, does not give any evaluating comments in regard to an "artwork depicting the Kerch bridge on fire".
Another article under the title "The Guardian view on Putin's escalations: dangerous times" [11] reflects on Russia's counterattack after the explosion on the Kerch bridge, calling it a "retaliation for the blast". The author makes a focus on the fact that the conflict has reached "a more dangerous phase". As the article's headline presupposes it deals mostly with the assessment of the president's actions. For example, the columnist makes assumptions about his strategic decisions: "Will Mr. Putin now go further?". It is also noted in the article that Russia would like to freeze the conflict and is open to peace talks with Ukraine, but "Ukrainians and other observers conclude that any ceasefire would be used by Moscow as an opportunity to regroup and rearm its forces for the next phase of the war". To conclude, the author remains quite objective while describing the current state of affairs; ironical, critical and rude comments are absent in the abstract. At the same time, the columnist still shows his own attitude towards the situation, skeptically assessing the perspective of peace talks with Russia.
After we have analyzed a few articles from the Guardian, we have made some conclusions about the Russian image created in this news source. Though the narrative slightly changes from an article to an article, it mostly remains negative and condemning. The above discussed articles deal with some of the most important events of September and the beginning of October 2022 against the background of the Ukrainian crisis. The image of Russia formed by these articles is quite unfavorable and exceptionally one-sided. Russian perspective is not taken into account at all, there are no comments and even direct citations of Russian representatives in the articles, the only thing present is the assumptions about further development of a situation.
Further on, we would also like to analyze some articles published by the BBC. The BBC is a state-owned national broadcaster. The channel positions itself as an unbiased media free from political or commercial manipulation that provides a deep analysis of the events. Not only does it describe the facts, but also explains why something has happened and against which background. Some of the articles published in the BBC News are presented as educational. It can be seen even in the headlines that look like questions, which are to be answered in the articles themselves. Here are a few examples of such titles: "What Russia wants from the votes in occupied Ukraine", "Ukraine war: Who is winning?", "What is Vladimir Putin thinking and planning?", "War in Ukraine: Is Russia's stock of weapons running low?" and so on.
In this research we would like to take a look at some of those "educational" articles concerned with the topic of the Ukraine conflict.
The first article under analysis is entitled "Crimean bridge: Who - or what - caused the explosion?" [4]. According to its headline, the article deals with the problem of explosion on the Kerch bridge discussing all the peculiarities of a situation. The choice of words in the publication is quite ordinary, as it tends to be objective. Nevertheless, the author mentions that Russia "was quick to suggest" that there was a truck bomb and "the speed with which the truck bomb theory started to spread in Russian circles was suspicious". The columnist presupposes that the
explosion was due to a targeted Kyiv's attack and adds that "Kyiv is very happy to keep everyone guessing" what actually caused the explosion. It is worth mentioning that the article definitely seems to be quite objective, especially in comparison with the Guardian's publication on the same topic. The author gives a couple of critical comments towards Russia, though he seems to be neutral while describing the course of events in general.
Another chosen article is entitled "Ukraine war: US condemns 'brutal' Russian strikes on Ukraine" [5]. The peculiarity of this article is that it expresses the attitudes of many countries towards Russia's missile strikes in Ukrainian cities, except for the UK's own attitude. The BBC cites the words of the representatives of the EU, the USA, China, India and Belarus leaving the official UK comments out of the equation. At the same time, the authors transmit their own attitude to the situation by means of expertly selected citations, as if shifting the responsibility for the choice of words to those whom they quote. For instance, "Residents in the capital Kyiv said Russia appeared to be targeting civilian areas which were busy with Monday morning commuters..."; "The EU said a war crime had been committed, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia stood for "terror and brutality""; "Mr Biden said the attacks demonstrated "the utter brutality" of Putin's "illegal war"".
Having analyzed some of the articles published in the BBC News, we made a conclusion that the BBC News makes an effort to seem objective and unbiased in its approach to Russia. Though the authors' attitudes are not expressed directly, as in the articles by the Guardian, the columnists still seek methods to express their disapproval of Russia's policy by means of ironical comments and specially selected quotations.
To draw a final conclusion, we would like to note that an analysis of some articles from the Guardian and the BBC News has shown that a depiction of Russia as an aggressive and unpredictable state has deteriorated, as the articles make pessimistic predictions for the future communication with Russia describing it without certainty. In comparison with the previous researches mentioned in this work, the image of Russia in the mass media of the UK at the background of the Ukrainian crisis seems to have decisively worsened. The tone of the majority of analyzed articles is rather blaming, as the columnists tend to be more opinionated while describing the current situation in Russia and in Ukraine.
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