Fear and loathing in Eastern Europe

Framing and agenda setting of foreign affairs in Czech, Polish and Romanian Sputnik news (2017-2022) – An analysis of headlines

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v11i1.1229
Abstract Views: 0 PDF Downloads: 0

Keywords:

Sputnik News, affective framing, agenda setting, war journalism, computational analysis, mixed methods

Abstract

The Sputnik News network of websites has been the subject of scholarly attention since its 2014 launch in the context of the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. In January 2022, Sputnik News websites were blocked by EU countries, thus acknowledging the network’s potential influence. Some researchers claim that Sputnik news follows the model of Soviet propaganda, while others claim its discursive patterns point towards new communication strategies. There is scarce literature on Eastern European Sputnik editions and no comparative approaches to date. This research article aims to fill that gap by employing mixed methods to study a large dataset (N=118,198) of Sputnik News headlines from the foreign news sections of three language editions – Czech, Polish, and Romanian, from January 2017 to January 2022. The main findings indicate a conflict-oriented, war journalism approach that mostly focuses on USA-Russia and the individual actors Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Furthermore, the coverage leans towards fear as the dominant affective framing, and the most frequently represented organization, NATO, is framed as a failing alliance, actively pursuing the consolidation of power or even as an aggressor.

Author Biographies

Radu M. Meza, Babes-Bolyai University

Radu Mihai Meza is Associate Professor of Digital Media and Journalism at Babeș–Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. With a background in both journalism and computer science, he holds a PhD in Sociology from Babeș-Bolyai University with a thesis on the structure and dynamics of popular social networking systems. His research focuses on digital media and online popular culture, media and information literacy, computational methods, digital social science and machine learning applications in the study of computer mediated communication.

Andreea Mogoș, Babes-Bolyai University

Andreea Alina Mogoş is Associate Professor of Journalism and Digital Media at Babes–Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. She holds a PhD in ̦ Sociology from Babes-Bolyai University and a PhD in Information and ̦Communication Sciences from Université Paris 8—Vincennes Saint-Denis with a thesis on the media representations of the Romanians in the French daily newspapers. She btained her Habilitation in 2016,with the thesis “Traditional and new media representations”. Her research focuses on media representations and frames, visual analysis methodologies, media genres and their transformation.

Downloads

Published

2025-09-18

How to Cite

[1]
Meza, R.M. and Mogoș, A.A. 2025. Fear and loathing in Eastern Europe: Framing and agenda setting of foreign affairs in Czech, Polish and Romanian Sputnik news (2017-2022) – An analysis of headlines. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 11, 1 (Sep. 2025), 63–85. DOI:https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v11i1.1229.

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2025): Eastern and Central European political discourses from the perspective of computational social science - Part 2

Section

Research Papers

License

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work three months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. This acknowledgement is not automatic, it should be asked from the editors and can usually be obtained one year after its first publication in the journal.