Measuring news bias: Russia’s official news agency ITAR-TASS’ coverage of the Ukraine crisis

Watanabe, Kohei (2017) Measuring news bias: Russia’s official news agency ITAR-TASS’ coverage of the Ukraine crisis. European Journal of Communication, 32 (3). pp. 224-241. ISSN 0267-3231

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Abstract

Objectivity in news reporting is one of the most widely discussed topics in journalism, and a number of studies on bias in news have been conducted, but there is little agreement on how to define or measure news bias. Aiming to settle the theoretical and methodological disagreement, the author redefined news bias and applied a new methodology to detect the Russian government’s influence on ITAR-TASS during the Ukraine crisis. A longitudinal content analysis of over 35,000 English-language newswires on the Ukraine crisis published by ITAR-TASS and Interfax clearly showed that ITAR-TASS’ framing of Ukraine was reflecting desirability of pivotal events in the crisis to the Russian government. This result reveals Russia’s strategic use of the state-owned news agency for international propaganda in its ‘hybrid war’, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new approach to news bias.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ejc
Additional Information:	© 2017 The Author
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2017 13:18
Last Modified:	15 Nov 2024 00:21
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/83627

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