Through a media lens – The Crimean Crisis : A Discourse Analysis of Media Perspectives on the New Crimean Crisis

The Aim of this essay is to study how the Crimean Crisis is being portrayed in international newspapers of Frankfurter Allgemeine, The New York Times and Pravda. The time period for the study is the 25th of February until the 30th of April in the spring of 2014. To concretize the aim 3 questions were formulated; how different discourses are formed in the material, how is Russia’s involvement in the conflict and its views portrayed in the newspapers and how does the stereotyping through metaphors, metonymies and binary oppositions help the construction of Russia as “the other” in this conflict. The Methods chosen to investigate these questions were Laclau & Mouffes Discourse Analysis combined with linguistic tools such as metaphors and binary oppositions. The Theories chosen to support the method was Laclau & Mouffes discourse theory and linguistic theory. The Results have portrayed different perspectives on the discourse of the conflict, each of which also could be representative for the different sides in the conflict. One nodal point, mainly pushed forward by Western actors and Western media, was one of Invasion. Russian actors and eastern media mainly pushed forward another nodal point, one that emphasised protection rather than invasion in the discourse of the conflict in Crimea. Western Media together with Western Actors suggested strong connections to Russia when discussing the military troops active in Crimea whereas Russia initially claimed no part in it, but later developed a nodal point of protectionism when that claim no longer could be defended. Russia has in many instances been portrayed as aggressive or bad which has continued to build upon the picture of Russia as the “bad other” - the binary opposition to the good west. Indications has also been found that conflict, besides national interests, can be based on a different view of democracy where the West implies that the development in Ukraine is a step towards a free democracy, while Russia who values constitutional order rather sees the development as a fascist coup against a legit government.