A Content Analysis Report
The Russian Federation has played a decisive role in the Syrian conflict, as its diplomatic maneuvers have helped to keep the Assad regime in power after three years of continuous armed conflict. Russia’s strategic status as an actor in the Syrian conflict - as well as its larger geopolitical significance - necessitates a better understanding in the West of how global conflicts are addressed in the diverse public sphere of Russian news media.
To this end, this report presents an analysis of Russian news media coverage of the Syrian conflict between the beginning of October 2013 through the end of March 2014. Qualitative and quantitative methods are utilized to identify patterns in themes of interest and sentiment, as well as the ways in which these sentiments are communicated. These patterns are analyzed in a framework of a careful context analysis of news media in post- Soviet Russia, and the sociopolitical dynamics that impact - and are impacted - by the press.
