The Communicative Transformation of the Image of Russia in the Us Media after the Annexation of Crimea

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the communicative transformation of the image of Russia in the American media after the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation in 2014. The relevance of the study is due to the increasing role of information warfare in the context of globalization and technology development, as well as the significance of the Crimean events as a turning point in Russian-American relations. The theoretical significance of the work lies in deepening the understanding of the role of communicative processes in international relations and their influence on the formation of the image of the state. The practical significance is related to the possibility of applying the results to analyze and predict the development of relations between Russia and the United States. The novelty of the research is due to a comprehensive approach to the analysis of the transformation of the image of Russia, taking into account not only political and sociological, but also linguistic aspects. The empirical base of the study was made up of a corpus of texts from leading American print publications and transcripts of TV channels for the period from the 2000s to December 2014 with a total volume of about 200 thousand word usage. The paper uses a method of qualitative text analysis aimed at identifying the dominant narratives, metaphors, stylistic techniques and communicative strategies of the representation of Russia. The article shows that before the Ukrainian crisis, the coverage of Russia in the American media was characterized by a relative balance, including both critical and positive assessments. However, after the annexation of Crimea, there was a sharp negation of the image of Russia in the US media discourse, associated with the use of such discursive strategies as destructivization, demonization, archaization, personification of the "Russian threat" in the person of Vladimir Putin, securitization of the actions of the Russian Federation and embedding the Crimean events in the context of global ideological confrontation between Russia and the West. This transformation was carried out using a wide range of linguistic means, including negatively colored vocabulary, metaphors, allusions, and historical analogies. The result of the communicative transformation was the consolidation in the American media discourse of the stereotypical image of Russia as an authoritarian aggressor power, disregarding the norms of international law and posing a threat to the world order.