Диссертация (1136841), страница 14
Текст из файла (страница 14)
This article is not about the process of Russia’s accession to theWTO. And it is not about influence of this decision on Russian media. This. At the time of Russia’s accession to the WTO (August 2012), only two events attracted morepublic attention: the Olympic Games in London and the trial of Pussy Riot.26VOL. 47 / N°4 – DÉCEMBRE 201645Russia’s Accession to the WTOarticle is about how the media reflect the interests of the various groups and theirstruggle for the support of wide audience to legitimize their action.1.WTO ACCESSION IN A TROUBLED CONTEXTWTO accession was connected for Russia with the need for tradeliberalization, and tariff and subsidy reductions (for example Shepotylo & Tarr,2013; Barsukova, 2013). All these measures could have both positive andnegative impacts on the Russian economy.
And this effect varied betweensectors. According to the forecasts, some of them would potentially benefit fromthe opening of markets, while others would potentially lose—the most alarmingpredictions were made for the agricultural sector (Wegren, 2012). Thesecontroversial predictions largely contributed to the intensification of the debateon this issue in the media.1.1.A long and complex debateWe use the Russian database Integrum to demonstrate the development ofRussian print media interest in the WTO topic. This database includes only printmedia material (not TV, Radio or Internet content, that does not have a printedversion).Integrum contains material from the print media: approximately 500 Russianmagazines, more than 250 central and 1000 regional newspapers.The Russian mass print media showed an interest in the WTO from thebeginning of Russia’s post-Soviet period (see Figure 1).
This interest peaked in2006 during the Asia Pacific Forum, when Russia made its first agreements withthe USA about accession to the WTO. The success of these first bilateralnegotiations with the USA generated hopes for Russia’s approaching accessionto the trade organization. However, it soon became clear that these hopes wouldnot be realized, leading to a sharp decline in interest. A new wave of intensedebates about Russia’s membership of the WTO was generated at the end of 2010due to the Russia-EU summit, during which a memorandum was signed aboutRussia’s eventual accession27. The accession ultimately took place on August 22,2012; after that date, interest in the WTO naturally decreased.27.
Russia’s WTO website is located at http://www.wto.ru.VOL. 47 / N°4 – DÉCEMBRE 201646Russia’s Accession to the WTOFigure 1. Number of articles that mention WTO in Russianmass mediaSource: calculated from Integrum database.The discussion of Russia’s accession to the WTO proceeded against thebackdrop of various economic and political events in the country. Therefore, itwas closely linked with the names of top officials. Thus, a significant decline inthe intensity of the debate in 2008 was partly connected with the economic crisisand the statement of President Putin, “We wholeheartedly tried to join the WTO,but, fortunately, you did not let us go there!” After Dmitry Medvedev becamepresident in 2008, negotiations with WTO were resumed. The agreement ofWTO members to Russia’s accession to the organization was received at the endof Dmitry Medvedev’s presidential term in 2012.The period just before accession to the trade organization (end of 2011 andfirst half of 2012) was marked by widespread political protests in Russia(Bikbov, 2012).
This partly influenced the discussion about WTO in the mediaand the actions of some interest groups. For example, Russia’s WTO accessionbegan to compete for media attention with a variety of political issues (Hilgartner& Bosk, 1988). Thus, the success of the negotiations on accession to the WTObecame a convenient theme for shifting public attention from topics that wereundesirable to the authorities, but nevertheless problematized in the media.Researchers repeatedly observed the impact of the authorities’ representatives onVOL.
47 / N°4 – DÉCEMBRE 201647Russia’s Accession to the WTOthe public discussions on various topics, including the daily news agenda(Yasaveev, 2006b). However, citizens’ attention could not always be redirected.Thus, the Pussy Riot28 court case coincided with the formal adoption of Russiaby WTO members and it led to a decrease in the intensity of the debate on theWTO.In this difficult political situation, the authorities needed to demonstrate to thecitizens their willingness to change and liberalize the economy.
Oppositionpoliticians participated in this discussion to gain the support of people whodisagreed with the government’s decisions. All this led to the politicization of thedebate on WTO accession. As will be shown below, the composition of theparticipants in the debate and their activity in the discussion had a stronginfluence on its nature.1.2.Temptation to oversimplify debateIn this study, we follow the approach that asserts that social problems areconstructed. According to this perspective, there are various ways of drawingattention to problems and highlighting existing dysfunctions: opinion polls, filinglawsuits in court, collecting petition signatures and so on (Blumer, 1971; Spector& Kitsuse, 1987).
The background of this theory is the paper by Fuller and Myers(1941), who noted that the existence of some fact in reality does not necessarilymake it a problem. Thus, discrimination against the black population wasobserved in the southern and northern states in the US, but not everywhere (andnot always) was this situation defined as problematic.
Guided by this logic, theproponents of this approach believe that when we study poverty we have to seekto understand what makes it a social problem and why people define it in suchway (Best, 2003).Consequently, there is no such thing as “natural importance”, whichautomatically excites the mass media with respect to certain events and drawsthem into the broadcasting focus (Blumer, 1971). The interpretation of an issuelargely depends on the social stance of an interpreter; i.e., his or her membershipin a certain occupational community (Berger & Luckmann 1966), which makesit almost impossible for the mass media to report anything with completeobjectivity.
For us, these ideas imply, first of all, the importance of debate in themedia in governing public opinion, because mass communication is able to draw. This was a group of young women who sang a song with antichurch and anti-Putin content in aMoscow cathedral. They were arrested and convicted.28VOL. 47 / N°4 – DÉCEMBRE 201648Russia’s Accession to the WTOthe attention of the greatest number of people to the issue. This is thereforeimportant research.
Second, claim-makers who are interested in attractingattention to the various aspects of the problem are of great importance to thediscussion in the media.The way in which various issues are problematized, sensitized and interpretedin the mass media is greatly influenced by various authorities (Tidmarch, Hyman& Sorkin 1984; Walker, 1977) and large corporations (Hill & Watson, 2000).Analyzing the situation in Russia, Koltsova highlights a wider range of agentsthat can influence the media, in addition to the state and business, e.g. thepersonal beliefs of editors and journalists, as well as direct pressure from lawenforcement agencies (Koltsova, 2001).
In addition, finance also influences theagenda of the media. “Dzhinsa (derived from the English word “jeans”) is a termused in Russian journalistic jargon to refer to paid-for material presented in themedia as ordinary news” (Daucé, 2016). Thus, the impact on the media mayoperate at various levels, both through regulation and the creation of conditionsfor the discussion, and by the use of direct pressure. However, the opposite isalso possible: the mass media’s close attention to particular problems enablespoliticians and corporations to solve them. For instance, in the mid-1980s, theactive mass-media discussion of increasing crime rates in the USA pushed theAmerican government to increase its efforts in solving the problem (Wolfe, Jones& Baumgartner, 2013). Similar examples are found in Russia.
For instance, thebroadening of policemen’s authority in Kazan caused multiple inspections ofpolice stations across the country (Koltsova & Yasaveev, 2013). Thus, therelationship between interest groups and the media is two-sided: the mediainfluence the government and businesses, and government and business try toinfluence the media.The authorities can influence agenda setting in the form of either publicappearances or management solutions.
It has already been shown that politicians’attention to various issues has a very short-term effect (Cohen, 1995). A moreenduring effect can only be achieved through more direct measures, such asinterfering with legislation and/or the business environment (Olds, 2013). Thatis, certain economic measures or merely the intention to impose them affectsagenda setting to a much more significant extent.However, an issue’s problematization in the media is not always inaccordance with the interests of the authorities.
Of course, the simplest way todivert attention from the problem is to eliminate the theme from the newsagenda— for example, a ban on media discussion of the issue (Edelman, 1988).VOL. 47 / N°4 – DÉCEMBRE 201649Russia’s Accession to the WTOHowever, implementation of this strategy requires a lot of resources (power,administrative resources) 29 .
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
