Conclusions, part 1

My aim was to compare how Russian and American Media depict Russian internal affairs and events.

After having read and after having compared lots of materials we can conclude that the most popular topics about Russia in American press are the following:

1. The image of Russian president
2. Human rights and freedom of speech issues
3. Relations between the Russian government and the opposition
4. «Forcefull» tendencies in politics

A few words about the image of V. Putin. According to the Russian constitution, the only source of power in the Russian Federation shall be its multinational people. According to the American media, the only source of power in the Russian Federation is Vladimir Putin.
His name is mentioned almost in every article about Russia.

And we come to the 2 mains conclusions here:

1.       First of all, only American press associate Russia with an image of its president, Russian press doesn’t.

2.       Secondly, there two main ways that American press use to do it.
Here are some examples from our blog:

a)       Mentioning V.Putin in articles, that are not related to him (American press does, it shows the relations between these people and Putin, even when Putin is not related to the subject):
http://armediaa.blogspot.ru/2016/03/blog-post_40.html

American press:
WP: «Putin loyalist posts chilling death threat to Russian opposition leader»

WP: «Roldugin, a childhood friend of Putin who is the godfather of the Russian leader’s eldest daughter»

NTY: «Boris Nemtsov, Putin Foe, Is Shot Dead in Shadow of Kremlin»

Look how Vedomosty (http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2016/02/07/627690-kadirov-opublikoval) writes about the same subject. It doesn’t mention Putin at all.

Russian press
Ведомости: «Кадыров опубликовал видео с Касьяновым в прицеле снайперской винтовки»

Ведомости: «Среди них (подозреваемых) приближенные сирийского президента Башара Асада, сын бывшего президента Египта Хосни Мубарака и сенатор из Нигерии»

- neither Putin nor Roldugin is mentioned

b) The second way to relate Putin with any topic is to use his name as a synonym of the Russian government – look how a meeting that in Russia is called «митинг за сменяемость власти» Washington post names «anti-putin protest»: 

http://armediaa.blogspot.ru/2015/09/20.html

Сomparing the image of president in Russian and American press, we can conclude that Russian media tends to write about what has he done or what is he going to do and about his opinion instead of writing about his personal qualities.

Ведомости:
«Президент России Владимир Путин считает информационные программы российского телевидения правдивыми, передает «Интерфакс»

 
«Путин счел размещение ПРО США в Румынии нарушением договора о РСМД»

«Президент Владимир Путин назвал недавно «Бессмертный полк» «удивительной демонстрацией»»

WP: «He’s aggressive in his moves, but also calculating»

WP: «He has been cunning and forceful but also wary of taking steps that could damage Russia»

WP: «I saw three things - a K and a G and a B. He was a KGB agent. By definition, he doesn’t have a soul».

Main conclusions:

1)American press associates Russia and particularly the Russian government with an image of Putin. The Russian press does not.

2)The numbers of the most discussed topics are almost the same. The difference in opinions about these events.

3)Rus. and American press both use quotations they need to illustrate an opinion

4) Am. press stresses who Putin is and the Russian – what has he done or what does he think

Links:

• ·         https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/01/putin-loyalist-posts-chilling-death-threat-to-russian-opposition-leader/
• 
  
• http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2016/02/07/627690-kadirov-opublikoval

•         https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/01/putin-loyalist-posts-chilling-death-threat-to-russian-opposition-leader/

•         https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kremlin-denies-putin-connection-to-allegations-of-secret-bank-accounts/2016/04/04/3812db5e-fa71-11e5-813a-90ab563f0dde_story.html

•         http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/27/boris-nemtsov-shot-moscow-novosti/24140323/

•         http://izvestia.ru/news/583538

•         https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/02/01/putin-loyalist-posts-chilling-death-threat-to-russian-opposition-leader/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/10/from-honest-to-killer-u-s-leaders-have-said-many-disparate-things-about-putin/

•         http://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/news/2016/05/13/640951-putin-schitaet

•         http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2016/05/13/640948-putin-rsmd

•          http://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/articles/2016/05/06/640180-bessmertnii-polk-georgievskaya-lentochka