Media coverage of international terrorism at the leading Russian and French newspapers during 2015-2016

Abstract

The issue of media coverage of the activity of terrorist organisations turns out to be especially relevant nowadays because of the frequency and the scale of terrorist attacks. The phenomenon of the "Islamic State" is a complex and a contradictory phenomenon. The article demonstrates changes in the rhetoric of the French and Russian media on the activities of the IS during the period from the beginning of the Russian military operation in Syria (the end of September 2015) until the terrorist attacks in Brussels (March 2016). A content analysis of 574 materials in the newspapers "Le Figaro", "Le Monde", "Kommersant" and "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" allowed us to identify features of the Islamic State actions coverage. Journalists regard ISIS as a terrorist organisation, as well as the real state, but predominantly it is considered as a terrorist group. Its formal leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, hardly ever appears in the articles of the four newspapers, this points the high level of impersonality of the IS. The majority of the reviewed materials are written around  a variety of binary oppositions, the most prevalent being the “we - terrorists” juxtaposition. The frequency of political leaders’ references generally correlates with the frequency of the mentioned countries they represent. The intentions analysis made it possible to formulate the conclusion that French journalists identify Russia with Vladimir Putin, while in Russian press F. Hollande’s activity is discussed separately from France. In the context of international terrorism, Russian journalists mention Russia, Syria and the United States as key actors, whereas in French press the main axis is "France – Syria – Russia".