Дискурс Пи (Nov 2023)
Media Support and Coverage of the Special Military Operation on the Territory of Ukraine by the Russian Political Parties
Abstract
The special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine has served as an incentive to mobilize the activities of Russian political parties, aimed at improving their own political image. The purpose of the study is to analyze the support and coverage of the SMO in the media space by the “old” and “new” political parties of Russia. The article considers the Party of Pensioners and Yabloko “old” parties, whereas the new ones are represented by New People and Green Alternative. Applying content analysis, the author identifies media technologies used by political parties to influence public opinion. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that along with the official state agenda, the parties create their own ones. While the “new” parties take into account the problems originally identified by their program documents, the “old” ones form their agenda on a foreign policy scale. The “new” parties are actively addressing the framing technology, whilst the “old” ones more often use the priming technology, develop the discourse of the politics of memory, and inscribe the special operation into the collective historical memory of Russia. Both the “old” and “new” parties, covering the events taking place during the SMO, raise the issue of the continuity of generations within the framework of historical memory. However, representatives of the “new” parties only mention this in their speeches, whereas the “old” parties hold events to strengthen historical memory and propose respective initiatives. The “old” parties are calling for rethinking the lessons of the past, while the “new” ones declare hopes for the future.
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