Abstract Kazun A.D. (Конструирование дискуссии по экономическим вопросам в печатных СМИ (на примере вступления России в ВТО и введения экономических санкций))

National Research University – Higher School of EconomicsFaculty of Social SciencesManuscript copyrightAnastasia Dmitrievna KazunConstruction of public debate on economic issues(cases of Russia's accession to the WTO and economic sanctions)Abstract of Thesisfor the academic degree Philosophy Doctor Higher School of Economics (PhDHSE) Social sciencesAcademic advisorDoctor of SociologySvetlana Y. BarsukovaMoscow, 2018Problem StatementOver the last years, Russia has faced a number of economic difficulties,including a decrease in real disposable income of the population and a growth inconsumer prices1. At the same time, public opinion surveys show that the indicatorsof economic optimism of the population remain high.

Overall, this suggests that theviews of the people about this topic is formed not only based on personal experiencebut is also affected by mass communications.Previous studies of the relationship between public opinion and mediacoverage of events do not allow drawing of unambiguous conclusion about the forceof such influence. Thus, some authors pointed to the minimum role of mass mediaand the crucial importance of personal experience of the population in the formationof economic expectations2. The supporters of this point of view noted that asignificant part of the population does not receive any news about the economy 3. Atthe same time, the assessment of the current situation and expectations of futurechanges do not differ in people depending on the consumption of such news content.Individual studies also show that the intensity of coverage of economic topics in themass media has virtually no influence on search queries in the Internet that can beconsidered an indicator of public interest in the topic4.

At the same time, there is anumber of works that demonstrates the significant influence of the mass media onthe public opinion on economic topics5.1Russian population in 2017: incomes, expenses and social well-being. Monitoring NRU HSE / Ed. by N.L. Ovcharova.Moscow: NRU HSE. 2017.2Grant D. 2014. What Makes a Good Economy? Evidence from Public Opinion Surveys // Economic Inquiry. 52(3):1120–1136.3Haller B., Norpoth H. 1997. Reality Bites: News Exposure and Economic Opinion // Public Opinion Quarterly.

61(4):555-575.4Lee B., Kim J., Scheufele D.A. 2016. Agenda Setting in the Internet Age: The Reciprocity between Online Searchesand Issue Salience // International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 28(3): 440–455.5Behr R. L., Iyengar Sh. 1985. Television News, Real-World Cues, and Changes in the Public Agenda // Public OpinionQuarterly. 49(1): 38–57. Blood D., Phillips P. 1995. Recession headline news, consumer sentiment, the state of theeconomy and presidential popularity: A time series analysis 1989–1993 // International Journal of Public OpinionResearch.

7(1): 2–22. Hester J., Gibson R. 2003. The Economy and Second-Level Agenda Setting: A Time-SeriesAnalysis of Economic News and Public Opinion about the Economy // Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.80(1): 73–90.Anyhow, the discrepancy between different indicators and the level ofeconomic optimism of the population observed in Russia suggests a significantinfluence of the mass media on public opinion.

Therefore, the analysis of thecoverage of economic events in the Russian mass media is of interest.According to previous studies, the mass media exert a significant influence onthe shaping of public opinion, especially if the consumer has not personal experiencewith the problem6. The topics, the understanding of which is formed during publicdiscussions and not through personal experience, include, among others, manyeconomic issues. It is fair to assume that public opinion about economic sanctionsor Russia’s accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization) is influenced by themass media to a significant extent.

Even if personal economic expectations can beformed on the basis of experience, the impression about the situation in the countryas a whole will be rather related to public discussions.7 Thus, the mass media forman understanding of economic topics as a social problem, drawing attention to themand demanding a change of the situation. Consequently, even for those economictopics, regarding which the population has some experience, discussions in massmedia influence public opinion, which in turn can be reflected in the economic andpolitical behavior of the population8.At the same time, despite the increased interest in the study of economicdiscussions in the mass media after the financial crisis of 2008, such studies remainrare9.

The most popular approaches to the analysis of the effects of mass media arepushing the authors to focusing their research in certain areas. Thus, the sociologists6McCombs M., Graber D., Weaver D. 1981. Media Agenda-Setting in the Presidential Election. N.Y.: PraegerScientific.7Boomgaarden H., Spanje J. van, Vliegenthart R., Vreese C. de.

2011. Covering the crisis: Media coverage of theeconomic crisis and citizens’ economic expectations // Acta Politica. 46(4): 353–379. Ju Y. 2014. Issue obtrusivenessand negative bias: exploring the moderating factors for asymmetric news coverage of the economy // Asian Journalof Communication. 24(5): 441–455. Mutz D. 1992. Mass media and the depoliticization of personal experience //American Journal of Political Science. 36(2): 483-508.8Lipset S.

1993. The Significance of the 1992 Election // PS: Political Science and Politics. 26(1): 7-16. Uhl M. 2012.And action: TV sentiment and the US consumer // Applied Economics Letters. 19(11): 1029–1034.9Blondheim M., Segev E., Cabrera M.-Á. 2015. The Prominence of Weak Economies: Factors and Trends in GlobalNews Coverage of Economic Crisis, 2009–2012 // International Journal of Communication. (9).

Carroll C. 2010.Corporate Reputation and the News Media: Agenda-setting Within Business News Coverage in Developed, Emerging,and Frontier Markets. Routledge. Schiffrin A. 2015. The Press and the Financial Crisis: A Review of the Literature //Sociology Compass. 9(8): 639–653. Schiffrin A., Fagan R. 2013. Are we all Keynesians now? The US press and theAmerican Recovery Act of 2009 // Journalism. 14(2): 151–172.that follow the constructivist approach10 pay attention to social problems. At thesame time, the study of mass media carried out in line with the theory of agendasetting11 or frame analysis12 tend to analyze the media coverage of political topics.The studies of the coverage of economic processes in US and European mass mediaare quite rare while in Russia they are virtually nonexistent.

At the same time, it isincorrect to draw conclusions about the specifics of economic discussions on thebasis of empirical studies based on the data from other countries, because the degreeof freedom of the mass media as well as the dominant economic ideologies can leavea significant mark on such news13.However, the relevance of the study of economic discussions is explained notonly by their insufficient coverage and the existence of influence on public opinion.An additional reason for the study of media coverage of economic topics is the activeparticipation in the discussion of such topics of the representatives of differentinterest groups (politicians, business, expert community).

Each of these groups,participating in the communication, pursues its own goals: strives for legitimationof taken decisions, implementation of sectoral lobbying, attraction of attention tothemselves, demonstration of loyalty to the chosen policy, etc. Thus, discussionsabout economic topics are of conflict nature and are accompanied by the collisionsof players with different goals and positions, not only influencing the real situationbut also reflecting it to some extent.The economic topics considered in the thesis - accession of Russia to the WTOin 2012 and the exchange of economic sanctions in 2014 - are widely discussed inthe mass media and in the society.

So, according to a survey of the Levada Center,Russia's accession to the WTO was on the fourth place among the most memorableevents for the Russians in August 2012 (according to 18% of respondents), and10Blumer H. 1971. Social Problems as Collective Behavior // Social Problems. 18(3): 298–306. Spector M., Kitsuse J.1987. Constructing Social Problems.

Transaction Publishers.11McCombs M., Shaw D. 1972. The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media // Public Opinion Quarterly. 36(2): 176–187. McCombs M., Shaw D. 1993. The Evolution of Agenda-Setting Research: Twenty-Five Years in the Marketplaceof Ideas // Journal of Communication. 43(2): 58–67.12Entman R. 2007. Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power // Journal of Communication. 57(1): 163–173.Scheufele D.

1999. Framing as a theory of media effects // Journal of Communication. 49(1): 103–122.13Bjerke P., Fonn B. 2015. A Hidden Theory in Financial Crisis Journalism? // Nordicom Review. 36 (2): 113–127.economic sanctions have been on the list of the most memorable events for severalmonths (up to 28% of respondents named this event in one month or another). Thus,examined cases attracted considerable attention of the population, and the discussionof such topics could affect the public opinion.Thus, the relevance of this research is related to the insufficient study ofeconomic discussions in the mass media, high importance and visibility in the publicspace of the cases chosen for the analysis, as well as the possibility to drawconclusions about the positions of interest groups on the basis of analysis of thepublic discussion of such issues.

The study of economic discussions in the massmedia may allow us to better understand the process of formation of economic viewsof the Russians.Degree of problem elaborationThe study of mass media has a long history. The influence of the discussionsin the mass media on public opinion was studied by E. Katz, G. P. Lazarsfeld,Lasswell, K. Levin, W. Lippman. The impact of the mass media on the society wasconsidered by J.

Baudrillard and M. McLuhan. The ability of the mass media toinfluence the willingness of people to express their opinion can be described in termsof the theory of spiral of silence (E. Noelle-Neumann) and preference falsification(T. Kuran). Mass media's limited effects theories should also be highlightedseparately ‑ the theory of agenda-setting of M. McCombs and D.

Shaw, the theoryof media frames, a significant contribution to the development of which was madeby D. Scheufele and R. Entman. The development of the understanding of the limitsof mass media influence on the opinions of people and the theory of the need fororientation, developed by S. Valenzuela, L. Kamazh, G. Mattes, D. Weaver, G.Chernov.Economic discussions in the mass media are being investigated significantlyless than the discussions about political topics and social problems.