Russian Humanitarian Mission in Bergamo in the Fight Against the Coronavirus Pandemic: Reflection in the Italian Media Discourse

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Dmitry P. Gavra

Doctor of Sociology, Professor, Head of the Chair of Public Relations in Business, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

e-mail: d.gavra@spbu.ru
Ksenia A. Naumenko

PhD student of the Chair of Public Relations in Business, St. Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

e-mail: ksnsun@mail.ru

Section: Modern Journalism: Subjects and Issues

The article presents the results of a study of the reflection in the Italian media discourse of the Russian humanitarian mission «From Russia with Love» in Bergamo in April 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors analyze how far the Italian media were able to move away from the paradigm of block information and psychological confrontation in the context of a joint struggle against a common epidemic threat. The basic versions of the negative interpretation of the Russian humanitarian mission are revealed. It is shown that the attitude to the mission in the national media and on social networks varies. The scientific novelty of the paper is that the authors use the example of a local episode to consider how the logic of global information confrontation is constructed. The research method involves the use of monitoring systems, automated collection and processing of relevant references and reconstruction of the media discourse profile based on this information.

Keywords: Covid-19, Italian media system, Italian media discourse, Russian humanitarian mission, image of Russia, information confrontations, monitoring systems
DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.6.2020.77107

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