Impact of Media Propaganda on the Content of Internet Discussions about Crimea’s Incorporation

Abstract

The aim of the research is to explore the impact of media discourse on the agenda of blogs run by authors holding differing political views. For this purpose we analyzed the frequency of the usage of certain political terms in anti-government and pro-government newspapers for comparing it with the frequency of the usage of these terms in politically neutral, liberal and patriotic blogs. Carrying out content analysis we distinguished sematic fields employed by the media in describing patriots and liberals. The comparison of the sematic fields in blogs and newspapers illustrates the extent to which bloggers are prone to stereotypes imposed on them by the media.