DIVERGENT VIEWS: UNPACKING THE REPRESENTATION OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR IN US NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS

Author(s) : Rabia Tayyab and Akifa Imtiaz

Abstract:

Newspapers are considered one of the reliable sources for disseminating information worldwide. Therefore, people tend to believe that every national and international event is depicted from an unbiased and neutral stance. However, on careful observation, one can understand that this belief is no longer true. Various political interests shape reality while writing down the news. Based on the idea that newspapers recreate reality according to their ideologies, the present study analyzes two US newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, to understand how the identities of Russia and Ukraine are constructed in the event of the Russia-Ukraine war in the news editorials. The selection of editorials was based on purposive sampling, and those editorials were selected that discussed the events of the Russia-Ukraine war. Ten news editorials from WP and ten news editorials from WSJ were selected. A mixed-method analysis was employed to achieve the desired objectives of this research. The 3-D Model of Critical Discourse Analysis by Fairclough (1995) was used as a theoretical framework. Corpus analysis and CDA of editorials show that Russia is assigned a negative image in war and is depicted as a brutal country that has destroyed various places in Ukraine and has indiscriminately killed people. On the other hand, Ukraine is presented as a naïve, victimized, and war-ridden country, and its soldiers are shown as brave and persistent in their resolutions who have forced Russian forces to move back into the war, hence presenting a positive image of Ukraine in the war. The implication of this study suggests that the perception of objectivity and neutrality traditionally associated with newspapers might be challenged. Despite being widely considered reliable sources of information, newspapers may not always present events from an unbiased standpoint.
Keywords: News Editorials, Corpus Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, Russia- Ukraine war, Identity Construction