Diaspora discourses in contemporary Russian Federal press

Abstract

The article examines the characteristics of the discourse on di- asporas in the Russian federal press in 2010 — the first half of 2015. Based on the critical discourse analysis, the article explores relevant events, main themes and contexts in which the diasporas are represented as actors, as well as speech and cognitive techniques used to cover the diaspora topics. Two main major media discourses on diasporas are singled out. The first media discourse, «foreign diaspora», considers the diaspora as a community of representatives of an ethnic group living outside of their home country. The second one is typical for diasporas in Russia; it is ambiguous in the topics and speech and cognitive strategies. In this discourse the term «diaspora» is used to describe an ethnically consolidated community regardless of its geographical origin. Thus, the Russian media labels as ‘diaspora’ representatives of ethnic groups from Central Asia and the Caucasus (including the North Caucasus); their presentation most often occurs in the context of inter-ethnic conflicts, migration and national policy of the Russian state.