„From the escape of Viktor Yanukovych to

the annexation of the Crimea by the

Russian Federation.

Events in the Crimea in the Polish national newspapers and

periodicals in February and March 2014.

Contexts, metaphors and meanings“

Dr Karolina Brylska

Dr Tomasz Gackowski

Dr Łukasz Szurmiński

Introduction

Why we decided to analyze this topic?

the issue is heavily exposed in the Polish

media discourse

the issue is important from the perspective

of Poland and its closest neighbors

the issue is complex, complicated, and

need to be profoundly explained to the

audience

Introduction

Purpose of the research was to check:

to what extent the sociopolitical

journalism can be predicative

to what extent press journalists can

explain the complex reality to their

readers

Data & Methodology

• articles (editorials: feuilletons, analysis, comments, etc.) containing the word „Crimea”

• published in Polish newspapers (dailies, weeklies)

• time scale: from the escape of V. Yanukovych to the annexation of the Crimea by the RF (February – April 2014)

317 articles met the criteria

Data & Methodology

• method: qualitative and quantitative content analysis, narrative analysis (frames), quantitative language analysis

• only text (language) examined (without graphics, photos, diagrams, etc.)

• Extended code key (with multiple categories – almost fifty categories – defined as precisely as possible - dozens of operational definitions (on the basis of pilot research)

Temporal distribution of texts

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

nu

mb

er

of

pu

blic

atio

ns

date

Text genre

126; 40%

59; 18%

48; 15%

44; 14%

40; 13%

comment

interview

analysis

reportage

feuilleton

Number of publications by

newspapers and magazines

108

64

23 16 15 12 10 10 10 8 8 7 5 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Number of publications by

newspapers and magazines

221; 70%

96; 30%

Daily newspaper

Weekly magazines

Number of publications by

theme sections in press

113; 36%

76; 24%

66; 21%

24; 7%

18; 6%

14; 4%

3; 1%

3; 1%

Comments/reportages

News

Foreign affairs

Special issue (Crimea)

Economy

Topic of the week

First page

Others

Nationality of authors

257; 81%

19; 6%

10; 3%

10; 3%

6; 2%

4; 1% 2; 1% 2; 1%

1; 1% 1; 1%

1; 0% 1; 0% 1; 0% 1; 0% 1; 0%

31; 10%

Polish

Ukrainian

American

Russian

English

Belarussian

Turkish/Tartar

Polish/Ukrainian

Bulgarian

German

Estonian

French

Polish/Belarussian

Polish/German

Polish/American

Professions of authors

220; 69%

39; 12%

33; 11%

7; 2% 3; 1%

2; 1%

2; 1% 2; 1%

2; 1%

2; 1%

1; 0% 1; 0% 1; 0%

1; 0%

1; 0% 15; 5%

journalist expert politican social activist lawyer musican philosopher historian writer/poet political commentator actress soldier sportsmen priest translator

Point of view presented in

articles

129

85

43 22 11 3 2 2 1 1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Leading thread

220; 69%

54; 17%

27; 9%

12; 4%

4; 1%

political

socio-cultural

economical

military

legal

Secondary thread

75; 24%

74; 23%

71; 22%

68; 22%

23; 7%

6; 2%

socio-cultural

none

political

economical

military

legal

Historical context

189; 60%

128; 40% Yes No

Most frequent historical

contexts

detachment of South Ossetia and Abkhazia

from Georgia in 2008

the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008

Crimea transfer from the Russian SFSR to

the Ukrainian SSR in 1954, at the 300th

anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1659)

Treaty of Pereyaslav (1659)

uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi

Definition of situation

Russia's military aggression in the

Crimea may turn into war

Russia's military aggression is a violation

of international law

sanctions against Russia may help to

stop V. Putin from escalation of the

conflict

The object and the axis of

dispute

conflict about the power in Ukraine

conflict about the control of the Crimea

social and political position of the Crimean Tatars

conflict about the truth

conflict between Western and Russian perspective

internal Polish conflict about attitude towards events of the Crimea

The most frequent nouns in

the titles

Crimea; 100

Ukraina; 66

Russia; 50

Wladimir Putin; 38

West; 28

War; 22

Poland; 22

Wiktor Janukowycz; 16

Moscow; 16

Kreml; 16 EU; 12

Sanctions; 10 Kiev; 8

Annexation; 8

Revolution; 8

Army; 8

America/U.S; 6

Fear; 4

Separatism; 4

Maidan; 4

Contrrevolution; 2

Crimea

Ukraina

Russia

Wladimir Putin

West

War

Poland

Wiktor Janukowycz

Moscow

Kreml

EU

Sanctions

Kiev

Annexation

Revolution

Army

America/U.S

Fear

Separatism

Maidan

Contrrevolution

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Russia: 136 Western World: 80

Scenarios in texts

106; 33%

211; 67% No Yes

Possible scenarios

44

36

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

scenarios in favour of Russia scenarios in favour of Western world

Probability of military conflict

20

41

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

conflict not expected conflict expected

Scenario considered as the

most possible

long-term, international political tension

further expansion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine (and even Moldova)

BUT: lack of specified scenario in 106 of 317 analyzed articles

Subject of metaphor

• Russia (inc. V. Putin)

• Western world (USA, inc. B. Obama; Europe)

• Poland

• Ukraine (inc. Crimea)

• International relations (Ukrainian-Russian; Russian-Western; Polish-Ukrainian; Polish-Russian; Polish-Western)

Metaphors – traditional

metaphors of politics…

• Game (chess, cards) (eg. Calculation of

"geopolitical" is always the same, it consist of the

leading the little tin soldiers on a well-worn

chessboards of paper)

Metaphors – traditional

metaphors of politics…

• War (you can not shoot straight all of

your ammunition [a gradual sanctions

punishing Russia])

Metaphors – traditional

metaphors of politics…

• Theatre (eg. Putin is an actor

appearing in the absurd comedy)

Metaphors - … but also

innovative, emotional

• Sport (eg. Looking at each other like

boxers before a fight)

Metaphors - … but also

innovative, emotional

• Movement/action (He pussyfoots, gives

the impression of an indecisive and

vacillating on Syria [for Obama])

Metaphors - … but also

innovative, emotional

• Disease / body (eg. A political corpse),

Erotica (eg. Poland kneeling in front of

the US as a slut)

Metaphors - … but also

innovative, emotional

• Mythology / sacrum (eg. Russia’s stay in

purgatory)

Conclusions

• The language of description of the Crimea’s events presents that the issue is emotional (incertainty, fear, anger, powerlessness, weakness, sadness), involving and metaphorized.

• It is worth outlining that this mechanism – metaphorization – does not fully explain this complex situation – core of the events, motivations, attitudes, actions, causes and consequences.

Conclusions

• Metaphorization primarly serves to

impose certain frames and schemes of

interpretations.

• Metaphors of Crimea’s discourse seems

to give a complete model of reaction

(on the basis of acctually emotional

simplifications), but do not help recipients

understand and construct adequate

attitude and behaviour

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION!

karolina.brylska@id.uw.edu.pl

tomasz.gackowski@id.uw.edu.pl

lukasz.szurminski@id.uw.edu.pl