Time frame: February-March 2019
Media content analysis in E-YOUTH is a key element in the analysis of reception narrative. Media findings inform design of the youth opinion analysis elements (face-to-face semi-qualitative survey questionnaires, Q Sort instruments and group interview questionnaires)
Communication scholars who debate the influence the media have on public opinion, agree that the media has a stronger impact in setting the public agenda and disseminating frames in the area of foreign policy. In the political arena of foreign policy people have less first hand experiences with foreign policy issues than with domestic ones. Moreover, foreign issues tend to be less engaging and more complex to enter everyday communication between family, friends, neighbours, and co-workers. In this perspective, people are dependent upon the news media for information, and media representations of a foreign actor are viewed as a significant contribution into informing and educating the citizenship in order to participate in the domestic debate on foreign policy. In recent years, observers have also begun to attribute to the news media new and autonomous capacity to influence the formulation and conduct of foreign policy. According to Peña [4], it is likely that the media have the potential to lead towards the modification of the policies being conducted regarding the events covered.
E-YOUTH observes one month of coverage of EU-Ukraine and Ukraine-Baltics interactions (10 February – 11 March 2019) on three e-news portals popular with youth in each country (12 e-news platforms in total).
E-YOUTH research team undertook media analysis pilot (4-10 February, 2019) testing the content analysis protocols and fine-tuning analytical tools across four locations.
[table id=1 /]Media analysis aims to extract leading frames and narratives circulated in a given society (using the internationally proven protocols of media content analysis developed by the PI in the course of the project ”EU Global Perceptions” run at the NCRE since 2002, see also C3EU JM Network).
Considering the focus of E-YOUTH, nine thematic frames made the focus of media analysis :
- Politics
- Economy
- Energy
- Social and Cultural Affairs
- Environment
- Development
- Research, Science and Technology (RS&T)
- Normative
Analysis also identifies what images of the EU, three EU Baltic states, Ukraine, and EU-Ukraine and Ukraine-Baltics relations are:
- Visible (repetition and magnitude)
- Resonate culturally (cognitive clarity, resonance with local categorisations)
- Emotively charged
For the main results of this research task, see the two Special Issues published by the E-YOUTH team:
Chaban, P. Heinrichs, A. Miskimmon, B. O’Loughlin (eds.) (2021) Special Issue ‘Reimagining Europe: Youth narratives and perceptions. in Ukraine and the Baltic States”: Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post–Soviet Democratization, 29(4).
Chaban, H. Mondry, E. Pavlov (eds.) (2019-2020) Special Issue “The EU Baltic States, Russia and Ukraine: Mutual narratives and perceptions”, New Zealand Slavonic Journal, 53-54. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/arts/schools-and-departments/russian/nz-slavonic-journal/accordion/latest-issue/nzsj53-54.pdf