Mass media narcotism discource

Abstract

The paper highlights the importance of discourse of social problems (in particular, drug abuse problem) in mass media. Based on agenda-setting theory and a case study describing the coverage of the narcotism issue in American media, the author makes a conclusion about a possibility of formation of the public attitudes towards this problem. The paper provides the content analysis of mass media reporting on narcotism. Federal level (Izvestiya) and regional level (Region-64) publications were analyzed. The sample involved 283 articles selected through key words such as «narcotism», drug addiction», «drugs». Five types of articles were singled out as part of qualitative study: problem-oriented, information, preventive, result-oriented and biographical articles. According to the author, it is national newspaper that is most engaged in the problem discourse. It provides readers with a feeling of increased danger coming from drug abuse, promotes measures to tackle the problem, and describes the effects of measures reducing the drug use. The discourse is poor in the regional media; it is limited to information agenda and partly to measures taken by authorities.