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Media Framing of the Ukrainian Political Crisis, 2000-2001
This study examined the ways different Ukrainian media -- three television channels, one
newspaper, and one Internet site -- framed the Ukrainian political crisis of 2001. Dominant
media frames and framing devices (Gamson & Lasch, 1983) were identified by content analysis
of 829 news stories. Frames were compared across these news outlets as well as across different
time periods to analyze the role of framing in public deliberation (Simon & Xenos, 2000). The
study found that there was a strong influence of ideology on the way different Ukrainian media
framed the news, and that this influence distorted the deliberation pattern. The study found that
there were two main patterns of frames used by Ukrainian media: the overt propagandistic
pattern and a pattern of hidden attempts at manipulation. The former consisted of the
combination of two or more negative frames toward political opponents; the combination of one
or more neutral frames and one negative frame toward the opponents comprised the latter.
Metaphors and depictions were the dominant devices of framing the crisis among the Ukrainian
media. Constructing the discourse, media tried to heavily exploit cultural values shared by
Ukrainians: feelings associated with fascism, Civil War, Cold War, Stalin’s repressions, etc.
The Ukrainian political crisis of 2000-2001 started in September 2000 with the
disappearance of Georgy Gongadze, an independent journalist, who specialized on
corruption investigations within Ukrainian political elites.
The situation worsened with the discovery of a headless body – believed to be
that of Mr. Gongadze – and the release of secret recordings, in which Mr. Kuchma, the
Ukrainian president, had ordered the journalist's abduction.
As the main issue, the Gongadze murder case, including the taped revelations,
remained on Ukrainian political agenda until April 2001. The main crisis events consisted
of protests with the demand of the president’s resignation, clashes with police, arrests of
the opposition’s leaders, and the recorded tapes’ authenticity analysis.
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