Media construction of Russia's international relations: specifics of representations

Critical Discourse Studies. 2017. Vol. 14. No. 1. P. 90–107.

Dubrovskaya T., Kozhemyakin E.

This paper discusses the mechanisms of discursive construction of Russia’s

international relations and intendes to disclose such mechanisms in the media. Using the

framework by social constructionism and Critical Discourse Analysis, the authors view

international relations as a discursive phenomenon, which is constructed through a specific

repertoire of pragmalinguistic means. Drawing on the data from the Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s

speech and Russian newspapers representations of it, the authors conduct a case study analysis

and reveal that the representations of international relations undergo recontexualisation in the

media as compared to proper diplomatic discourse. The newspapers offer avenues for

ideologically charged interpretations through chronotope representations and the strategy of

emotionalisation. The media also widen discursive context of international relations by the

inclusion of heterogeneous social actors, which are grouped in the way that discloses conflict

potential in their relations.

Keywords: construction, International Relations, media, critical discourse analysis