Media Interpretation of the New Hanse: European Context

Abstract

The article shows the interpretation of the role of the Hanseatic League of the New Age by the media. The theme of the New Hanse has become relevant in the recent years due to the growing importance of public diplomacy. Commentariat has its own function in exercising this diplomacy, as well as in PR-stunts for tourist brands. It was journalists who gave an impetus to the extensive promotion of tourism potential of The Golden Ring of Russia. The author states that the New Hanse, which includes 192 cities of 16 European countries, not only has a great tourism potential, but also provides an international political and communication resource in the contexts of the EU integrity crisis and global sanctions. Besides playing its communicative role in the cultural exchange, this potential is linked to politics of memory: for many European and Russian cities that have faded in importance it is a significant symbolic resource. The symbolic resource of the New Hanse is determined by positive moments in the history, by successful trade and prosperity of medieval cities, and does not have any separatist or conflict implication, unlike commemoration of the Victory and WWII. The author analyses interpretations of the New Hanse by both Russian and European media, and highlights components of Hanseatic media discourse, such as news hook, genre, content visualization, and newsmakers. The total number of media texts analyzed, which include texts in Russian and German published in the recent decade, is over 300. The sources of the Russian media texts are the Integrum archive and the archive of the International Journalist Contest Hanse as Continuity. The texts in German were found in the Internet by continuous sampling based on key words Die Hanse, Hansestädte, Hansebund. The author used the method of content-analysis to do the research. In addition, the author interviewed activists of the New Hanse from Pskov and Veliky Novgorod and monitored tourism industry in North-West Russia. The article describes some successful cases of project development of the Hanse theme in media space, and proposes variants of media interperetation of the the Hanses role.