The Price of War, the Price of Peace: The Russian-Ukrainian War Coverage in the European Newspapers
The Price of War, the Price of Peace: The Russian-Ukrainian War Coverage in the European Newspapers

Author(s): Anastasiia Simashova
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies, Hybrid Warfare
Published by: Факултет по журналистика и масова комуникация, Софийски университет „Св. Кл. Охридски”
Keywords: ceasefire journalism; European community; media framing; military aid; Russian invasion
Summary/Abstract: Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine shook the European community in early 2022. Despite the economic and armed support provided by the EU to Ukraine, the internal debate about the cost of war and the diplomatic ways to resolve the war within EU countries does not subside, as does the public demand for “peace. In this article, we aim to investigate the news frames used to cover the war in Ukraine in Italy, where support for providing arms to Ukraine is one of the lowest in the EU. We use an empirically-based method to assess a frame analysis comparison between three Italian news outlets that support military aid to Ukraine until it achieves true peace, and “ceasefire journalism” that calls for the preservation of human lives at the cost of Ukraine's territorial concessions. Consequently, 18 frames were extracted and divided into clusters. Some of the extracted frames confirm those identified in the existing literature as being prevalent in this context, including those related to Europeanness, international law, and the human aspect. Our supposition that economic resources represent a significant factor was also validated.

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