You’re a murderer: Critical discourse analysis of conversations around abortions in the Russian talk show

Abstract

Today in Russia, there is a growing number of anti-abortion policies even though the birth rate is not a key factor affecting the demographic situation in the country. In this article, I investigate how the anti-abortion discourse is constructed in the media. For this purpose, I analyse a dataset of 5 hour-long episodes of the tabloid talk show Pust’ Govoriat. More specifically, the aim of this article is twofold. I seek to demonstrate to what extent the discourse displayed in the show is shaped and shapes by the Russian government’s family policies and, consequently, public opinion. On the other side, I aim to understand how speakers verbally and non-verbally negotiate morality, norms, gender roles and identities to negotiate if abortion is acceptable or not. I advocate that the tabloid talk show, like many other state-funded media products in Russia, is utilised as a government’s tool for anti-abortion propaganda and depoliticisation of social problems.