Значимые темы в местных новостях национальных цифровых СМИ и общественная безопасность: международное сравнительное исследование

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Under “homogenization” of the national media systems caused by digitalization and globalization, we decided to study news flows that reproduce national issues for local audiences by identifying the most significant topics in the media agenda of different countries, their nominal and thematic diversity. On the one hand, the scientific discourse has long considered the media agenda, revealing obvious differences in agendas of various national media systems. On the other hand, there is not enough research of intra- and inter-­country agendas [1. P. 173], especially agenda studies that consider local realities and traditions [2. P. 20]. The importance of such studies is determined by digital transformation of media systems, which changes the understanding of society and its communicative capabilities, and by the need to analyse trends that unite or divide media systems of countries (despite or due to their historical or territorial proximity) in the given national-­journalistic context. Therefore, such studies can contribute to understanding traditional values of local cultures under globalization, which is now determined not so much by Westernized ideological-­political factors as by communicative technologies.

We conducted a comparative analysis of news in the national media intended for local audiences in five countries — Russia, Latvia, Tajikistan (the post-­Soviet space), Sweden (representative of the European Union), and Bangladesh (South Asia), i.e., geographically, the East and the West, Europe and Asia, following the idea of the Eastern-­Western cultural diversity. The traditions of the Western civilization are important to Latvia and Sweden, the traditions of the Eastern civilization — to Tajikistan and Bangladesh, while Russia can be described as a distinct Eurasian state-­civilization. Although three out of five countries are post-­Soviet nations with the shared history, under digitalization and technological unification the post-­Soviet media systems have minimized previous similar semantic vectors and even more so the current unifying ones [3. P. 622].

At the start of the study, we had two hypotheses: first, journalistic materials continue to represent each country’s unique issues connected with its history, culture and social-­political situation, which means that national media systems maintain the systemic stability of journalism even under the influence of global trends; second, despite different geographical, social-­political, historical and cultural factors, media agendas, even those intended for local audiences, may have similarities in different countries in terms of nominal and thematic diversity.

The theoretical basis of the study consisted of three conceptual blocks: first, the agenda-­setting theory [4] and the ideas of diversity and salience that underlie it. The agenda-­setting theory explains how the media audience’s “information menu” is formed, how the media constructs media reality [5] and social reality, and how the media logic of the digital age determines social-­cultural effects. The concept of salience allows to identify the most important issues and events reflected in the national media systems (the classical agenda of the first level), while the concept of salient topics (media salience) — to evaluate thematic media content as a multidimensional construct based on three-­level indicators. The first two indicators provide an external characteristic of content (attention as measured by the quantity of information on the topic on the agenda [6] and prominence as a leading topic highlighted by the editorial board) and an internal one (valence — its positive, negative or neutral tonality). According to Thompson, the author of the social theory of media, believes that today we live in the era of high media visibility [7. P. 49] and fight for external visibility — a strong and extensive presence in the media; we either achieve or fail to get public recognition in the open digital media space. Visibility of coverage as a feature of thematic content and an external indicator of its salience is of paramount importance [8], while valence has conditional significance for determining the topic’s salience (alternative indicators of topic salience can be used when analysing content — mental images, frames, and other semantic categories of national importance). The concept of media diversity allows to identify the “representation” [9] of content in the media agenda through its quantitative (a nominal characteristic — number of journalistic materials on the agenda) and qualitative (a thematic characteristic — the range of topics and events on the agenda) variability. Nominal diversity is determined by the number of categories from the suggested list, whereas the quantity of materials on particular topics make them rich and dense in terms of thematic diversity [10. P. 50]. “The specific weight of an information array on a certain topic reinforces the significance of information, ensures its recognizability for the audience (transforms the message into something “valuable for me”) [11. P. 10]. The increased (both quantitatively and qualitatively) coverage of specific issues establishes the media agenda priorities, pushes messages in the zone of dominant meaning and increases their value for the recipient.

The second important theoretical block focuses on how the media space represents national cultural traditions and values and reproduces the journalistic content of the national media systems, i.e., news is a form of culture that unconsciously or consciously incorporates universal and national values and beliefs [12; 13]. News makers (the journalistic community) function as a cultural transmitter, conveying meanings and symbols to society and create a networking of values that people live by and that form the foundation of their worldview. Thus, the media act as agents of national development, because they not only produce, process, distribute and store information with nationally specific characteristics but also affect patterns of behavioural, linguistic and mental self-­organization. Cultural diversity can be preserved by shifting away from the globalized and universalist discourse and by strengthening cultural harmony based on local standards for analysing news and media systems that reproduce local values and issues [2. P. 14].

The third theoretical block emphasizes the unique role of language in preserving national identity (central/core and peripheral discourses in the agenda of the national media systems). With corpus linguistics methods (like keyword and collocations analysis) we can identify semantic fields in the media from a certain historical moment and highlight its central and peripheral components; separate lexical-­semantic groups and reconstruct “media portraits” of reality based on such groups [14]; identify significant topics in the agenda as determined by local cultural, historical, and social-­political contexts.

The research methodology consisted of the previously developed lexical-­statistical and contextual analysis in Sketch Engine [14] for identifying the most salient topics in the country-­specific selections and of the thematic analysis for identifying the most salient topics of nominal and thematic intra- and inter-­country media diversity (to find similarities in the media agenda of highly differing countries). The empirical base has the following features:

Arrays of media texts from the largest national media in Russia, Tajikistan, Latvia, Sweden, and Bangladesh for July 2024. Traditionally, the middle of summer is a period of vacations, decline in social-­political activity, and broadcasting of specific seasonal themes repeated at different times of the year. The first condition for the research design was the similarity of sample media texts due to their national diversity (each country has its unique media system). Possible significant variations in the national media [15] and possible ambiguous results make it difficult to justify sampling for such comparative studies [16]. However, since we analyzed digital national media and reconstructed the media agenda in the same month, we consider the sample method relevant for a comparative analysis and for identifying the most salient topics in the national collections of media texts.

Materials about foreign events, including those of global significance (like the US Presidential Elections and the Olympics), were excluded from the sample due to the research focus on the media agenda for the local (national, intra-­country) audience.

The number of texts published in different national media in July 2024 varied significantly, so the lexical-­statistical analysis allowed to reduce it to comparable data. However, when identifying the nominal and thematic diversity of the most salient topics, we realized the need to make corpora of media texts with the same volume for a comparative cross-­national analysis of media systems, and this method can be viewed as exploratory. Nevertheless, we believe that such artificial sameness and limited volume of texts provided objective findings about nominal diversity in the national media text samples.

After several attempts to follow the two criteria specified above (materials published in July 2024 and not related to foreign events), we concluded that a sample of approximately 60,000 words was optimal, which resulted in the total sample of over 300,000 words from all countries for the first and second stages of the comparative study. Thus, Russian media texts were selected from news articles in the Izvestia, a famous online media that carries on the traditions of the country’s oldest social-­political and business daily newspaper established in February 1917. This media was also chosen because it had been banned in the EU in May 2024 “for manipulating information and gross distortion of facts”. To reach the established 60,000 words, the following steps were taken: since from 60 to 100 materials (10 per tab) were published on each online page, and 2/3 of these were news, three to four texts on the Russian agenda were chosen from each consecutive page of the relevant materials.

The sample of media texts for Tajikistan was also formed in Russian, because Sketch Engine does not have a reference corpus of the Tajik language. The content of four medias was considered to reach 60,000 words, since no single major Tajik media published enough news on the national agenda in Russian: ASIA-Plus (an independent media group with a correspondent network in all regions of Tajikistan; content in Tajik, Russian and English), Avesta (a major independent media), Radio Ozodi (a regional office of “Radio Svoboda”) and Sputnik Tajikistan (regional representative of the media group Sputnik founded by the Russia Today). Certainly, the media owners and, consequently, editorial policies of four medias were diverse; however, the main research goal at this step was to form a comparable collection of texts.

The largest news portal LA.LV was chosen for the analysis of the Latvian media (the sample of texts was formed in Latvian), in Sweden it was the largest news portal SVT.SE (texts in Swedish), in Bangladesh — the largest digital newspaper The Daily Star (content is published in Bengali and English, the sample was formed in English for the same reason as in the Tajikistan case). Thus, an advantage of this research project is its ability to analyze media content of countries that have never been analyzed with Sketch Engine before, although the corpora formation faced unique issues and occasional interference that reduced the high quality of the collected data. The fact that the corpora for Sweden, Latvia and Russia were formed in their national languages is another advantage of the study.

All media text collections were analyzed with the Sketch Engine’s “keywords” and “keyword collocation” methods: a hundred of the most common keywords and collocations in each country’s text array were found with the automatic context analysis; they were divided into thematically related groups with additional (manual) contextual analysis. The “score” indicator was added to show the “strength” of vocabulary, i.e., to identify the most salient topics. This indicator demonstrates the topic’s “visibility” in the public space (the topic’s salience in the media agenda). “Score” compiles information about the lexeme’s typicality, priority and frequency in a given corpus compared to the reference corpus of Sketch Engine. Table 1 displays the top 50 “strongest” keywords in the texts under analysis. Then the list of the most salient topics was identified.

Thus, in the Russian local news the most salient topic is “SMO” and, more broadly, “Russian Armed Forces’ military operations”; the second most significant category is “state, power, and social order” as associated with the names of state leaders and those in power and with the activities of government entities and law enforcement agencies both on the frontlines and at home (e.g., the main naval parade), informing about the strengthening of new Russian territories and the full control over the country’s daily life. The third most significant category is “incidents and legal issues”, since people are constantly concerned about their safety, and incidents associated with crimes and terror attacks stand on a par with military reports in the conditions of military operations (news about incidents involving fatalities).

Table 1
The “strongest” key words in the national text samples 

	Russia		Tajikistan		Latvia		Sweden		Bangladesh
	Key word	Score	Key word	Score	Key word	Score	Key word	Score	Key word	Score
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
1	telegram-­канал	751.65	сомони	1812.631	Сitskovskis	495.67	presstalesperson	317.99	Chhatra	943.2
2	ВСУ	530.95	Таджикистана	1581.396	TV24	425.88	Northvolt	312.89	Dhaka	921.39
3	Путин	457.23	Эмомали	1297.258	Tet	307.67	Floderus	235.18	quota	842.07
4	Гладков	197.4	Душанбе	1068.941	dreģe	146.19	skjutning	221.29	Chattogram	640.77
5	спецоперации	178.16	Рахмон	875.582	jv	141.53	TBE	213.16	BCL	591.16
6	СВО	159.04	Согдийской	795.541	Klaišis	137.39	veteranbil	190.32	Tk	521.73
7	Мишустин	154.16	Хатлонской	774.774	VDD	128.43	Anhöriga	150.3	Guader	509.6
8	БПЛА	146.99	таджикский	388.512	Covid–19	110.44	skottlossning	147.34	Razakar	425.8
9	тыс	146.75	Усмонзода	316.135	Kijiva	108.63	Dalsjön	146.43	upazila	424.32
10	уточняется	136.93	Маджлиси	298.73	Kreile	105.51	parkslide	145.88	Awami	412.11
11	беспилотника	135.99	сель	293.19	eviks	105.32	skyddsobjekt	140.53	Shahbagh	408.41
12	дронов	111.93	КЧС	291.125	Trons	101.57	morduppdrag	133.3	Hasina	405.53
13	Развожаев	106.35	Худжанда	258.638	Premjere	100.69	polisregion	130.15	Obaidul	371.32
14	обстрел	106.19	Азия-­плюс	225.118	Čakša	98.744	anhållen	129.81	Hossain	367.5
15	ОЗХОо	105.37	Цзиньпина	220.399	darbnespēja	97.829	jaktkort	129.42	Nahid	367.23
16	РСЗО	98.7	Муминзода	215.617	soctīkla	96.178	vapenbrott	126.35	enforcer	349.42
17	КХЛ	97.396	чайхана	207.649	Evika	94.464	hemförlossning	121.71	BNP	339.65
18	Himars	96.744	Хакимов	188.11	Tavars	86.267	Torpshammar	120.18	Yunus	328.15
19	ИИХФ	91.959	Нурали	166.461	Mmom	83.083	Momqvist	119.63	NBR	296.17
20	беспилотниками	86.691	Рохат	164.286	SEPLP	83.083	matbibel	118.14	Rangpur	286.68
21	Шебекино	86.485	намояндагон	162.787	arborists	78.967	Ulriksfors	116.46	Alam	260.73
22	Минобороны	84.974	Шокирджон	152.44	Kronbergs	78.246	badgäst	113.85	DMCH	253.26
23	пески	83.279	Мирзозода	152.156	līgumreiss	77.872	anstalt	113.21	Dhanmondi	250.99
24	Дроновка	81.954	Расулзода	152.142	loto	76.178	rättspsykiatrisk	111.34	Uddin	249.56
25	Кунафин	80.59	Зарафшан	152.048	Rajevs	75.4	skåpbil	110.15	Kurigram	242.3
26	уточнялось	80.304	Горно-­Бадахшанской	147.865	Mazepins	75.296	Klarin	108.06	HC	239.86
27	артезиан	79.993	Айни	142.846	Siliņa	74.053	Fahlström	106.26	Nazmul	237.32
28	автокредитов	79.488	Ашурзода	139.87	avioreiss	73.318	frontalkrock	105.96	Rahman	230.46
29	позывной	73.889	Шамсиддин	139.337	Ribņikovs	72.982	Gecer	104.86	Rajshahi	225.77
30	Ковальчук	72.621	Ховар	137.907	Tobago	69.571	bärföretagare	104.43	anti-­quota	219.48
31	Минченко	72.507	ГБАО	136.058	Rovanpere	69.402	avföringsbakterie	104.27	Uttara	219.46
32	Купальский	71.011	Гутерриш	135.39	Larsons	69.193	älgstamm	102.59	Bogura	219.06
33	ДНР	70.04	Цзиньпин	134.66	UPP	69.017	algblomning	101.9	BGB	205.52
34	Кохал	67.337	ШОС	131.84	Imantdiena	69.017	E18	101.05	Rampura	203.32
35	Рвачева	67.015	Рудаки	128.771	Jakaite	68.671	Kristoffersson	100.63	Sylhet	195.26
36	Русяев	66.691	Шохин	127.802	Rokens	68.363	isoleringscell	96.496	Faisal	186.19
37	Таволжанка	66.614	Халимзода	127.245	Lelis	67.962	häkte	95.428	protester	186.09
38	Тарабрин	65.645	Саидмуродова	127.2	Telia	66.106	sommarspel	94.692	curfew	178.17
39	ВСМ	65.584	Ахмадзода	127.189	Gute	65.516	cruising	90.679	Bazar	177.62
40	Superjet	65.404	ПЭРТ	127.121	Valainis	65.212	mordförsök	90.244	Haque	172.07
41	Белгородской	65.318	Солиева	126.884	LPV	65.142	Norrlidengäng	90.111	Begum	170.71
42	рэпера	64.46	Наргис	122.926	LRS	62.651	Hallebratt	90.088	Bangla	169.59
43	пересдача	63.977	ЕАБР	118.98	Jančevskis	60.32	bilträff	89.383	Teesta	168.31
44	спецоперация	63.344	Солехджона	114.621	studētgribētājs	57.899	ambulanshelikopt	88.839	Anisul	167.4
45	Мосбиржи	63.04	Гиёсиддин	114.621	Mamikins	56.606	anstaltschef	87.458	Razakars	163.79
46	Драганов	62.987	джамоат	114.427	Kariņš	56.368	Gisslén	86.252	Huq	162.15
47	Вильфанд	62.39	Абдухалим	114.316	ķīvīte-­urtāne	55.722	Strömsund	83.051	Parishad	161.09
48	НСН	62.053	НИАТ	112.196	valstspilsēta	55.722	fågelbaja	82.868	Sayed	155.51
49	Купала	60.989	Улем	105.916	disciplinārlieta	55.617	utskrivningsprövning	82.848	Fakhrul	153.64
50	чистотел	60.519	Лахути	101.969	ūdensmotociklists	55.135	kroppsskada	79.359	Bhaban	152.99

The next in frequency topics are “economic sustainability” (multifaceted problems solved by the country, including import substitution; effects of an act of international terrorism — the Nord Stream explosion — as reflecting a crisis in the international economic interaction; not guaranteed safety due to the Zaporizhzhya NPP shelling; the automotive industry and stock market volatility); “social media” (Telegram as a leading social network); “professional education” (seasonal topic, since July is the traditional time for admission to Russian universities and colleges, but it is also connected with the SMO with the “preferential right of enrollment” due to the state policy of supporting SMO participants and their families; the country’s need for blue-­collar workers with the secondary vocational education). The following topics are less prevalent but nonetheless salient: “religion and traditions”, “Slavic culture”, “health and innovative treatment methods”, “spectator sports”.

Within the categories of nominal diversity, the following salient topics can be identified: “army and military operations”, “state and power”, “law and order”, “government spending”. “technology/research activities”, “education”.

In Tajikistan, the two most salient topics in the local news are political stability and economic sustainability, and the latter is determined by the fact that this developing country strives to improve the well-­being of its citizens by attracting resources and fostering collaboration with other countries and regions (Somoni, the Tajik currency, ranks highest among the most frequent and typical words in the analyzed array). “Political stability” is the second most salient topic, since the state and political structures control the editorial policies of the official media, there are stability, harmony and hierarchy as national cultural traditions, and the materials cover the activities of political leaders and parties. Other salient topics include “preservation of national culture and art” (prominent poets and cultural leaders, strong Muslim traditions and customs); “agriculture” (an agrarian-­industrial country, adverse weather conditions that could affect crop yields); “military service” (hazing).

Within the categories of nominal diversity, the following salient topics can be identified: “economy”, “state, power and politics”, “culture and art”, “agriculture”, “military service”.

In July 2024, the controversy surrounding the former Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš’s special airline flights was the key news on the Latvian portal LA.LV, which forms the topic “corruption scandal”. The second most salient topic was “compensation for the employee’s incapacity for work due to illness” (the conflict over sick leave payment between policymakers (employers and trade unions) and employees. Since July is traditionally the month of admission to universities in Latvia. The third salient topic was “summer admission campaign” (especially applications to the Latvian University of Biosciences and Technologies), the fourth — about the technology company SIA “Tet” (access to its fixed-­line optical network infrastructure), the fifth — “technology and the state” (construction of the fence on the Latvian-­Belarusian border), the sixth — “anti-­Russian rhetoric” as part of the government policies towards post-­Soviet countries (cases against “pro-­Kremlin activists”, “genocide committed by the USSR in Latvia”, national independence, integration into the EU value system). Since July is the month of enlistment in the National Defense Service in Latvia, another salient topic ise “military service”.

The most salient topics in the Swedish local news were primarily seasonal, except for “criminal” topic standing out the most. “Crime and justice” was the largest category in quantitative and qualitative terms (the growing level of criminality and violence in Sweden which currently ranks sixth in the world for rapes; construction of new prisons). Another salient topics are related to summer activities and the environment (mainly cultural events — generally positive news focused on how society functions in the summer, including festivals, and sports evens), “health hazards on roads and water bodies” (seasonal and eternal health risks and hazards for Sweden locally, regionally and nationally; some environmental issues like climate change, depletion of ozone layer, manmade disasters and environmental degradation due to invasive plant and animal species), and “migration policies” (a bill to facilitate a smoother and quicker administrative process for refugees, adherence to the EU’s policy).

In Bangladesh, two topics were the most salient in the local news. Student unrest was the most significant topic of national concern, while the other was related to the necessity of a sustainable economy and corresponding issues. The semantic field of student unrest throughout the country was defined as “quota reform movement” (protests against the quota system in government jobs, which aimed at a transition to a merit-­based system; participation of prominent organizers, tactics used during protests, government response; substantial mobilization in several locations, notably in large urban centers; substantial disruptions, including the imposition of curfews, Internet blackout, teargas usage and blockades in key cities; enduring effects in public life; participation of political parties and law enforcement agencies), but the historical causes of this rise in student protest activity were explained on the periphery of this semantic field (the Liberation/Independence War in Bangladesh was mentioned as a reference). The second salient topic, although rather on the periphery of the first one was “economic development of the country” (impact of the national VAT regulations, a draft of the universal pension model, national financial stability as significantly affected by the economic consequences of Chinese loans and persistent floods).

The nominal and thematic diversity of the most salient topics in the analyzed national samples is summarized in Table 2.

Table 2
Nominal and thematic diversity of salient topics in the local news

Russia	Tajikistan	Latvia	Sweden	Bangladesh
Army, military service and military operations	Economy	Politics	Law and order	State, power, and education
State and power	State and power	Health	Culture	Law and order
Law and order	National culture and art	Education	Health	Politics
Economy	Agriculture	Technology	Economy	Memory of the Liberation War
Technology Research	Military service	Policy towards some post-­Soviet countries	State and power	Economy
Education		Military service	Environment
			Sport

 Thus, in July 2024, the Swedish media had the most nominally diverse agenda, while Bangladesh — the least diverse one. Moreover, the seasonal agenda was represented to the greatest extent in Sweden compared to other countries. The studied texts contain unique topics such as references to the Bengali liberation war in Bangladesh and military actions of the Russian army to defend national interests, environmental issues in Sweden, agriculture and cultural traditions in Tajikistan, violation of financial and ethical standards by the Latvian government. Concerning nationally determined signs and symbols, in the Russian corpus these include the proximity of Orthodox and Muslim cultures, the role of the top state officials in decision-­making, and an emphasis on the defensive position during military operations; in the Tajikistan corpus — a focus on hierarchy and continuity, dedication to Muslim culture, and the importance of the senior state authorities in decision-­making; in the Latvian corpus — aspirations of the people for self-­sufficiency and self-­determination, country’s current integration into the EU value system, and the policy of non-­acceptance of the values of some post-­Soviet countries, especially Russia and Belarus; in the Swedish corpus — the seasonal work and rest schedule of the local population, and the country’s adherence to the EU policy regarding foreign nations; in the Bangladeshi corpus — memories of the Liberation War and the unfair treatment of the descendants of that war’s veterans by the ruling structures. The value semantics of the media content reflects various national histories and cultures as demonstrated by salient topics. We believe that such unique topics in the national media reproduce historical, cultural and social-­political features of each nation, thus maintaining the systemic stability of journalism and preserving the cultural diversity of media discourse despite the trends of unification and globalization.

Nonetheless, there are also some similarities in the following salient topics represented in all national media agendas albeit to varying degrees: economic challenges, political decisions, law and order, national health, technology, education and culture. These findings suggest that there are similar media content and similar structural elements of different national media systems even in the intentionally limited samples. An additional and unforeseen outcome of the study was that in July 2024 all national media agendas presented one leading conflict: in Russia — international and potentially global; in all other cases — intra-­country (local), but with different characteristics (moral and legal in Sweden, resonant political in Latvia, legal in Tajikistan, massive and ideological in Bangladesh).

Об авторах

Анна Сергеевна Сумская

Уральский федеральный университет имени первого Президента России Б.Н. Ельцина

Автор, ответственный за переписку.
Email: anna.sumskaia@urfu.ru
доктор филологических наук, профессор кафедры периодической печати и сетевых изданий ул. Ленина, 51, Екатеринбург, 620000, Россия

Грегори Симонс

Международный университет Даффодила

Email: gregmons@yahoo.com
доктор политических наук, профессор политологии и журналистики кафедры журналистики, средств массовой информации и коммуникации Бирулия, Савар, Дакка-1216, Дакка, Бангладеш

Ананда Кумар Бисвас

Международный университет Даффодила

Email: ananda.ku.mds18@gmail.com
преподаватель кафедры журналистики, средств массовой информации и коммуникации Бирулия, Савар, Дакка-1216, Дакка, Бангладеш

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