On the problem of framing the tragic event in the zone of military-political tension in the reportage discourse of ideologically alternative media

Abstract

The research – based on the material of the Russian and American daily print publications – systematically analyzed alternative forms of coverage of the incident with the MH17 airliner that crashed near Donetsk on July 17, 2014. It is revealed that in the publications under consideration, when reporting a tragic event, the same frames with conflicting conceptual content are activated. The basis of the conflict is the ideological stereotypes that the publications adhere to. The qualitative analysis has shown that in the media with different ideological attitudes, during the reconstruction of the tragedy, the frames of opponents are used in order to refute their implicit conceptual content. As a result, the Russian and American media cover the tragic eventfulness in a contrasting way. The same frames used by the alternative media reproduce the dramatic event with the Boeing MH17 in a mirror way: each of the publications blames the ideological antagonist for the incident. The watershed line between the concepts of reportage framing and propaganda is blurred. As a result, taking into account the geopolitical factor, it is possible to determine similar and differentiating features between the strategic narratives of the Russian and American media. The relevance of the research is seen in the need to determine the content of the frames identified in a discursive work about tragic events and their impact potential on the target audience. This relevance is based on the distinction between the basic and additional content of mass media frames in terms of the expression of alternative opinions on the issues under discussion. It contributes to the clarifying such concepts as «impartial coverage of current events», «language specifics of analytical discourse in the post-truth era», «deliberate restriction of the amount of information and the choice of sources for recreating the event canvas». The discussion between the Russian and American media regarding the MH17 tragedy reflects the reportage management of journalists who occupy contrasting ideological positions, and captures the logic of shaping the political agenda in a globalizing and at the same time disunited world.