A corpus-assisted comparative study of the representations of the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine (2013-2014) and the Belarus protests (2020-2021) in The New York Times

Abstract

Media representation plays a crucial role in (de-)legitimizing social movements and their participants. This thesis aims to compare the representations of two consequential events in Eastern Europe—the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine (2013-2014) and the Belarus protests (2020-2021)—in The New York Times, a major global media outlet. The study specifically concentrates on the naming strategies used for the events and social actors and the attribution of responsibility for violence. To achieve this goal, a corpus-assisted approach to discourse analysis and van Leeuwen’s framework for social actors’ analysis are employed. The Sketch Engine tool is used to analyze two corpora, which together encompass 167 articles (192,111 words). The thesis consists of five sections. The introduction delves into media power and representation. The first chapter discusses the process of news construction and the role of language in it, the media coverage of social movements, the background of the analyzed events, the ethical policy of The New York Times, and previous research on the analyzed events and protests in general. The second chapter presents the methodological approaches employed (critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and van Leeuwen’s framework for analyzing social actors) and details the methodological procedure. The final chapter reports and discusses the findings of the analysis. The conclusion summarizes the main results and implications for further research.