Mediatization of Environmental Policy and Information Competition: the Russian and US Media Strategy for Substantiating the International Commitments to the Protection of the Atmosphere and Climate

Section: Modern Journalism: Subjects and Issues

For the analysis of the discourse of environmental policy in Russian and US media, this study refers to the Rogers and Dearing competing agendas model and to the understanding of propaganda according to Ellul. Based on the idea of media discourse as dependent on the political one, the study examines the propaganda models of Russian and American media, opponents in the information competition. The purpose of the article is to characterize the tools for political agenda-setting (global ecology problems) in the media field, identifying which media use effective propaganda tools. The study uses the quantitative intent analysis method. The empirical materials include texts of Russian and US national-level media from 01/01/2012 to 01/01/2017 (104 articles). It is concluded that the media in the United States highlight the commitments to the protection of the atmosphere and climate more often than those in Russia, and they significantly more often write about the United States and use the ‘analysis’ intention. The Russian media publish significantly more works about their opponents and more often use the ‘information’ intention. The authors of the study consider the Russian media propaganda model in the sphere of global ecological politics to be oppositional and less effective.

DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.3.2019.120140

References:

Ageeva G. M. (2012) Mediatizaciya pamyati: memuarny’e svidetel’stva v blogah i social’ny’h setyah [Mediatization of Memory: Memoirs on Blogs and Social Networks]. Vestn. Tomsk. gos. un-ta 363: 68–74. (In Russian)

Bernays E. (2015) Propaganda [Propaganda]. Moscow: Kar’era Press. (In Russian)

Besemer Kh. (2004) Mediatsiya. Posrednichestvo v konfliktakh [Mediation. Mediation in Conflicts]. Kaluga: Dukhovnoye poznaniye. (In Russian)

Ciaglia A. (2013) Politics in the Media and the Media in Politics: a Comparative Study of the Relationship Between the Media and Political Systems in Three European Countries. European Journal of Communication 5 (28): 541–555.

Couldry N., Hepp A. (2016) The Mediated Construction of Reality. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dispensa J. M., Brulle R. J. (1981) Media’s Social Construction of Environmental Issues: Focus on Global Warming - a Comparative Study. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 10 (23): 74–105.

Feldman L., Maibach E., Roser-Renouf C., Leiserowitz A. (2012) Climate on Cable: The Nature and Impact of Global Warming Coverage on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The International Journal of Press / Politics 17 (1): 3–31.

Fokina V. V. (2013) SMI kak aktory mirovoy politiki [The Media as Actors of World Politics] Vestnik MGIMO Universiteta 1 (28): 61–65. (In Russian)

Gribovod E. G. (2017) Mediatizaciya politiki kak institucional’no-kommunikativnyj process i informacionno-strategicheskij resurs: dis. ... kand. polit. nauk. [Mediatization of Politics as an Institutional and Communicative Process and an Information and Strategic Resource: PhD polit. sci. diss.] Ekaterinburg. (In Russian) 

Gureeva A. N. (2016) Teoreticheskoe ponimanie mediatizacii v usloviyax cifrovoj sredy [Theoretical Understanding of Mediaization in the Digital Environment]. Vestn. Mosk. un-ta. Ser. 10: Zhurnalistika 6: 192–208. (In Russian)

Hovi J., Sprinz D. F., Bang G. (2012) Why the United States Did Not Become a Party to the Kyoto Protocol: German, Norwegian and US. European Journal of International Relations 1 (18): 129–150.

Kirillova N. B. (2006) Mediakul’tura: ot moderna kpostmodernu [Media Culture: from Modernism to Postmodernism]. Moscow: Akademicheskij Proekt. (In Russian)

Labush N. S. (2017) Ekstremal’nyj politicheskij process: osobennosti form i mediatizaciya [Extreme Political Process: Characteristics of Forms and Mediatization]. Saint Petersburg: Vysshaya shkola zhurnalistiki i massovoj kommunikacii SPbGU. (In Russian)

Matveyeva Ye. V. (2010) Ekologicheskaya politika mirovogo soobshchestva vo vtoroy polovine XX — nachale XXI veka [Ecological Policy of the World Community in the Second Half of the 20th — Early 21st Century]. Vestn. Povolzhk. akademii gos. sluzhby imeni P. A. Stolypina 1: 151–157. (In Russian) 

McComas K., Shanahan J. (1999) Telling Stories about Global Climate Change Measuring the Impact of Narratives on Issue Cycles. Communication Research 26 (1): 30-57.

McCombs M., Shaw D. (1972) The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media. Public opinion quarterly 3 (36): 176–187.

Olausson U. (2009) Global Warming - Global Responsibility? Media Frames of Collective Action and Scientific Certainty. Public Understanding of Science 4 (18): 421–436.

Page E. (2007) Equity and the Kyoto Protocol. Politics 27 (1): 8–15.

Poberezhskaya M. (2014) Media Coverage of Climate Change in Russia: Governmental Bias and Climate Silence. Public Understanding of Science 24 (1): 96–111.

Radina N. K. (2016) Intent-analiz onlajn-diskussij (na primere kommentirovaniya materialov internet-portala InoSMI.ru) [Intent-Analysis of Online Discussions (on the Example of Commenting on Materials from the Internet Portal InoSMI.ru)]. Mediaskop 4. (In Russian). Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2238 (accessed: 25.01.19).

Robinson P. (2001) Theorizing the Influence of Media on World Politics. Models of Media Influence on Foreign Policy. European Journal of Communication 4 (16): 523–544.

Rogers E. M., Dearing J. W. (1988) Agenda-Setting Research: Where Has It Been? Where Is It Going? In J. A. Anderson (ed.) Communication Yearbook 11. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pp. 555–594.

Rovinskaya T. L. (2001) Rol sredstv massovoy informatsii v razrabotke i osushchestvlenii ekologicheskoy politiki (iz opyta SShA i FRG): dis. ... kand. polit. nauk. [The Role of the Media in the Development and Implementation of Environmental Policy (from the Experience of the USA and Germany): PhD polit. sci. diss.] Moscow. (In. Russian)

Rusakova Yu. A. (2015) Klimaticheskaya politika Rossyskoy federatsii i resheniye problem izmeneniya globalnogo klimata [Climate Policy of the Russian Federation and Addressing the Challenges of Changing the Global Climate]. Vestnik MGIMO Universiteta 1 (40): 66–72. (In Russian)

Takahashi B., Meisner M. (2012) Climate Change in Peruvian Newspapers: the Role of Foreign Voices in a Context of Vulnerability. Public Understanding of Science 22 (4): 427–442.

Terenty L. M. (2011) Intentsionalnaya struktura diplomaticheskogo diskursa: besedy mezhdu L.I. Brezhnevym i R. Niksonom [The Intentional Structure of Diplomatic Discourse: Conversations Between L.I. Brezhnev and R. Nixon]. Vestn. MGPU 2 (8): 47–56. (In Russian)

Tsykunov I. V., Danilova Ye. V. (2003) Intent-analiz tolerantnosti v federalnykh i regionalnykh pechatnykh izdaniyakh [Intent Analysis of Tolerance in Federal and Regional Print Media]. Pravo znat: istoriya, teoriya, praktika 1-2 (73-74). (In Russian). Available at: http://www.dzyalosh.ru/02-dostup/pravo/2003_73_74(1_2)/cikunov_1_2.html (accessed: 25.01.2019).

Ushakova T. N., Pavlova N. D. (eds.) (2000) Slovo v deystvii. Intent-analiz politicheskogo diskursa [A Word in Action. Intent Analysis of Political Discourse]. Saint Petersburg: Aleteyya. (In Russian)

Vlachou A., Konstantinidis Ch. (2010) Climate Change: The Political Economy of Kyoto Flexible Mechanisms. Review of Radical Political Economics 42 (1): 32–49.

Voinova Ye. A. (2006) Mediatizatsiya politiki kak fenomen novoy informatsionnoy kultury: dis. ... kand. filol. nauk. [Mediatization of Politics as a Phenomenon of New Information Culture: PhD philol. sci.diss.] Moscow. (In Russian)

Voroshilov V. V. (2014) Teoriya i praktika massovoy informatsii [Theory and Practice of Mass Information]. Moscow: KNORUS. (In Russian)

Xu J. (2016) Environmental Discourses in China’s Urban Planning System: a Scaled Discourse-Analytical Perspective. Urban Studies 53 (5): 978–999.

Zhao X., Rolfe-Redding J., Kotcher J. (2014) Partisan Differences in the Relationship Between Newspaper Coverage and Concern over Global Warming. Public Understanding of Science 25 (5): 543–559.