Russian disinformation in Eastern Europe. Vaccination media frames in ro.sputnik.md

Mogoș, Andreea-Alina, Grapă, Teodora-Elena and Șandru, Teodora-Felicia Russian disinformation in Eastern Europe. Vaccination media frames in ro.sputnik.md. Comunicar, 2022, vol. 30, n. 72, pp. 33-46. [Journal article (Paginated)]

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English abstract

The news site ro.sputnik.md is the Romanian language version of the Sputnik news website platform, owned by the Russian government, one of the main channels used by the Kremlin to disseminate mis- and disinformation across Russian borders. The current research aims to identify the frames associated with anti-COVID-19 vaccines, and the news values employed in constructing news discourse on vaccination in ro.sputnik.md media texts. To map the media frames and the lexical and discursive constructions, the research proposes a mixed methods content-based approach, where automated text analysis (frequency, co-occurrence, n-grams) is combined with thematic and discourse analysis. Six emphasis frames are identified in the corpus (N=1,165): Superiority of the Russian Sputnik V Vaccine, Fatal/Side Effects of EU Authorized Vaccines, Limitations of Individual Rights and Freedoms, EU and/or Romanian Authorities’ Struggle, Children and Teenagers’ Protection, and Big Pharma Conspiracy. The findings show that specific discursive patterns are associated with the negative news value: death, side effects (blood clot, thrombosis, coagulation), restrictions, and interdictions or warnings (serious, risk, negative, panic, etc.), while the conflict news value is associated with warfare vocabulary (defense, threat, battle, fire, gunpowder, etc.); and eliteness, with well-known actors (state leaders, European leaders, famous 'conspirators'') and countries (powerful international actors, meaningful neighbours).

Spanish abstract

El sitio de noticias ro.sputnik.md es la versión en lengua rumana de la plataforma web de noticias Sputnik, propiedad del gobierno ruso, uno de los principales canales utilizados por el Kremlin para difundir información errónea y desinformación a través de las fronteras rusas. La presente investigación pretende identificar en los textos mediáticos de ro.sputnik.md los marcos asociados a las vacunas anti-COVID-19 y los valores noticiosos utilizados para construir el discurso informativo sobre la vacunación. Para mapear los marcos mediáticos y las construcciones léxicas y discursivas, la investigación propone un enfoque mixto basado en el contenido, en el que el análisis automatizado del texto (frecuencia, co-ocurrencia, n-gramas) se combina con el análisis temático y del discurso. En el corpus se identifican seis marcos de énfasis (N=1.165): Superioridad de la vacuna rusa Sputnik V, efectos fatales/secundarios de las vacunas autorizadas por la UE, limitaciones de los derechos y libertades individuales, lucha de las autoridades de la ue y/o rumanía, protección de los niños/adolescentes y conspiración de las grandes farmacéuticas. Los resultados muestran que al valor noticioso de negatividad se asocian fórmulas discursivas específicas: muerte, efectos secundarios (coágulos de sangre, trombosis, coagulación), restricciones e interdicciones o advertencias (grave, riesgo, pánico), mientras que al valor noticioso de conflicto se asocian el vocabulario bélico (defensa, batalla, pólvora) y al elitismo, actores conocidos (líderes estatales, «conspiradores» famosos) y países (actores internacionales poderosos, vecinos significativos).

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Media framing; news values; content analysis; textual analysis; COVID-19 vaccine; Sputnik News; Marcos mediáticos; valores noticiosos; análisis de contenido; análisis textual; vacuna COVID-19; Sputnik News
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication
G. Industry, profession and education.
G. Industry, profession and education. > GH. Education.
Depositing user: Alex Ruiz
Date deposited: 28 Jul 2022 14:42
Last modified: 28 Jul 2022 14:42
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/43427

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