A quantitative discourseprominence analysis of

Sputnik Czech RepublicVáclav Cvrček

New Media Inspiration: Digital HumanitiesOctober 19, 2019

AcknowledgementLong-term cooperation with Mako Fidler (Brown University):

▶ Cvrček, V. – Fidler, M. (2019): More than keywords: Discourseprominence analysis of the Russian Web portal Sputnik Czech Republic.In: Berrocal, M. – Salamurović, A. (eds): Political Discourse in Central,Eastern and Balkan Europe. John Benjamins. (p. 93–117).

▶ Fidler, M. – Cvrček V. (2018): Going Beyond “Aboutness”: AQuantitative Analysis of Sputnik Czech Republic. In: Fidler, M. – Cvrček,V. (eds): Taming the Corpus. From Inflection and Lexis to Interpretation.Springer, (p. 195–225).

IntroductionIj

Motivation

Corpus linguistics methods in discourse analysis

▶ study of political discourse (previous research on presidentialspeeches)

▶ uncovering hidden strategies by identifying prominent units(keyword analysis, KWA)

▶ methodological innovation: extend KWA by also taking intoconsideration the grammar (morphemes as meaning-bearingunits)

Sputnik

▶ “alternative” news portal (https://cz.sputniknews.com/)– “Sputnik. Telling the untold.”

▶ established in November 2014 by the Russian state mediagroup Rossia segodnia, which replaced the previous RIANovosti

▶ 30 foreign-language portals of Sputnik for the internationalaudience

▶ engaged in disinformation activities (Smoleňová, 2015) andproviding “false stories” (MacFarquhar, 2016); Sputnik is the“BuzzFeed” of the Kremlin’s propaganda (Groll, 2014)

https://cz.sputniknews.com/

Sputnik

▶ “alternative” news portal (https://cz.sputniknews.com/)– “Sputnik. Telling the untold.”

▶ established in November 2014 by the Russian state mediagroup Rossia segodnia, which replaced the previous RIANovosti

▶ 30 foreign-language portals of Sputnik for the internationalaudience

▶ engaged in disinformation activities (Smoleňová, 2015) andproviding “false stories” (MacFarquhar, 2016); Sputnik is the“BuzzFeed” of the Kremlin’s propaganda (Groll, 2014)

https://cz.sputniknews.com/

Sputnik

▶ “alternative” news portal (https://cz.sputniknews.com/)– “Sputnik. Telling the untold.”

▶ established in November 2014 by the Russian state mediagroup Rossia segodnia, which replaced the previous RIANovosti

▶ 30 foreign-language portals of Sputnik for the internationalaudience

▶ engaged in disinformation activities (Smoleňová, 2015) andproviding “false stories” (MacFarquhar, 2016); Sputnik is the“BuzzFeed” of the Kremlin’s propaganda (Groll, 2014)

https://cz.sputniknews.com/

Sputnik

▶ “alternative” news portal (https://cz.sputniknews.com/)– “Sputnik. Telling the untold.”

▶ established in November 2014 by the Russian state mediagroup Rossia segodnia, which replaced the previous RIANovosti

▶ 30 foreign-language portals of Sputnik for the internationalaudience

▶ engaged in disinformation activities (Smoleňová, 2015) andproviding “false stories” (MacFarquhar, 2016); Sputnik is the“BuzzFeed” of the Kremlin’s propaganda (Groll, 2014)

https://cz.sputniknews.com/

Partiality vs. imageAdherence to journalistic style (Smoleňová, 2015) – citation ”mania”

podle ’according to’ Relative frequency (ipm)Sputnik 2923SYN2015 (news & mag.) 1498

▶ Zahraniční dobrovolníci bojující na straně domobranců v Donbasuprozradili, že přijeli pomoci místním obyvatelům, kteří se ocitli uprostředskutečného „masakru“, píše Sputnik s odkazem na reportáž italskéhoprogramu Le Lene [sic].(https://cz.sputniknews.com/svet/20150331188150/)‘International volunteers fighting on the home-defenders’ side in Donbasrevealed that they came to help the local residents who found themselvesin the midst of a real “massacre,” writes Sputnik, with a link to thestory of [from] the Italian channel Le Iene.’ (= a comedy-satirical TVshow that provides “infotainment,” a mixture of “journalistic inquiry withentertainment”)

Partiality vs. imageAdherence to journalistic style (Smoleňová, 2015) – citation ”mania”

podle ’according to’ Relative frequency (ipm)Sputnik 2923SYN2015 (news & mag.) 1498

▶ Zahraniční dobrovolníci bojující na straně domobranců v Donbasuprozradili, že přijeli pomoci místním obyvatelům, kteří se ocitli uprostředskutečného „masakru“, píše Sputnik s odkazem na reportáž italskéhoprogramu Le Lene [sic].(https://cz.sputniknews.com/svet/20150331188150/)‘International volunteers fighting on the home-defenders’ side in Donbasrevealed that they came to help the local residents who found themselvesin the midst of a real “massacre,” writes Sputnik, with a link to thestory of [from] the Italian channel Le Iene.’ (= a comedy-satirical TVshow that provides “infotainment,” a mixture of “journalistic inquiry withentertainment”)

DataIj

Data

Sputnik Czech Republic (SPUCz)

▶ texts published from March to June 2015▶ containing seed words (stems): česk-, čr, prah-, hrad-, zeman-,

ukrajin-, kyjev-, porošenk-; bělorusk-, minsk-, lukašenk-; rusk-,moskv-, putin-

▶ SPUCz – how Sputnik projects images of Russia and Ukraineduring the Ukrainian crisis (Russia’s annexation of Crimea, theMalaysian Air crash, and the Minsk Agreements) and theirrelations to the Czech Republic.

Corpora used

Name Unit SizeTagret corpus tokens 395,110SPUCz words (excl. punctuation) 336,653

texts 1492Reference corpus tokens 121,666,414SYN2015 words (excl. punctuation) 100,838,568

MethodIj

Method – keyword analysis (KWA)

▶ text can be characterized by its prominent linguistic units▶ a prominent words (a keyword) can be identified by

comparison with reference corpus▶ statistical significance + effect size (DIN, Fidler & Cvrček

2015)▶ reference corpus = interpretation perspective

▶ KWs – pointers to the meaning▶ keyword analysis – literary texts (e.g., Culpeper, 2002; Scott

& Tribble, 2006; Walker, 2010), media (e.g., Baker, 2005 onLGBT discourse; Baker & McEnery, 2005 on immigration; andTabbert, 2015 on crime)

Beyond keywords

Keymorph analysis (KMA)

▶ prominent morphemes – meaning-bearing parts of words(prominent morpho-syntactic features: cases, tenses etc.)

▶ little attention in studies of English texts▶ representation of events and participants in discourse,

especially the degrees of agency expressed in texts (Fidler &Cvrček 2019)

▶ use of “ideological” words can be suppressed, but you cannotsuppress grammar

Results: Keyword analysisIj

KLs: prominent lemmas

KLs – associated with prominent topics raised in SPUCz:▶ anti-Russian actions▶ negotiations about Ukraine▶ Ukrainian “aggression”

KLs themselves do not directly show how the lemmas are used, asthey are only pointers to what the text is about.

KWs: Most prominent word-forms

KW DINprotiruská ‘anti-Russian’ (fem nom sg) 100.00domobrancům ‘to home-defenders’ (dat pl) 100.00domobranců ‘of home-defenders’ (gen pl) 99.941třístranná ‘tri-lateral’ (fem nom sg) 99.891vrtulníkových ‘of helicopter’ (gen, loc pl) 99.891domobranci ‘home-defenders’ (nom pl) 99.873neonacismus ‘neonacism’ (nom acc sg) 99.869default ‘of default’ (gen sg) 99.855batalionů ‘of batallions’ (gen pl) 99.837

KWs (cont’d)

KWs are associated with prominent topics + discourse role:

▶ The fem nom sg case of the adjective protiruská ‘anti-Russian’highlights Sputnik’s emphasis on the anti-Russian rhetoric,campaign, and hysteria (all fem nouns)

▶ Domobrancům ‘to home-defenders’ suggests contentiousdispute over arms supply by Russia to the separatists andfighting against the separatists (dative case).

KWs (cont’d)

KWs are associated with prominent topics + discourse role:

▶ The fem nom sg case of the adjective protiruská ‘anti-Russian’highlights Sputnik’s emphasis on the anti-Russian rhetoric,campaign, and hysteria (all fem nouns)

▶ Domobrancům ‘to home-defenders’ suggests contentiousdispute over arms supply by Russia to the separatists andfighting against the separatists (dative case).

Using contextIj

Collocates of ukrajinský and ruský

Collocations (cont’d)

Collocations indicate connotations

▶ (large overlap between semantic domians of collocates)▶ Ukrainian has more collocates connected with military forces

and political instability (‘army’, ‘of force’, ‘crisis’, ‘conflict’,‘[army] division’, ‘armed’, ‘force’) than Russian.

▶ Russian collocates with lemmas report official negotiationsand announcements (‘diplomacy’, ‘relation- ship’,‘spokesman’, ‘of press’, ‘delegation’).

KL-links: co-occurrences of KWs in distantcontext

KL links (cont’d)

KL-links – connections among prominent topics in discourse

▶ (apart from usual attributes of state/nationality, e.g.president, verba dicendi)

▶ ruský: economic connections: ‘sanction(s)’ (against Russia)and ‘gas’

▶ ukrajinský: armed participants and conflict

Both collocations and KL-links consistently include armed andconflict for Ukrainian

Victimization of RussiaIj

Victimization I: verbs

Verbs of unfavorable actions (VUs): keyd verbs that report eventsin which a culprit and victim can potentially exist

VUs: torédovat ‘to torpedo’, démonizovat ‘to demonize’, ostřelovat‘to shoot, to shell’, obstavit ‘to freeze [assets]’, uvalit ‘to impose[sanctions]’, znepokojit ‘alarm, pf’, sestřelit ‘to shoot down’,destabilizovat ‘to destabilize’, podkopat ‘to undermine pf’,porušovat ‘to violate, impf’, podkopávat ‘to undermine impf’,zmařit ‘to thwart’, vyprovokovat ‘to provoke’, pobouřit ‘tooutrage’, postrkovat ‘to push’, bombardovat ‘to bombard’,zkreslovat ‘to distort’, znepokojovat ‘to alarm, impf’

Victimization I: verbs (cont’d)

(results for Russia: chi2 = 37.133, p < 0.0001)

Verbs of unfavorable actions (VUs)

▶ grammatical participants of VUs can inform who is viewed astaking negative actions and who is affected by those actions

▶ Russia appears more often in the passive voice than the activevoice of VUs

⇒ Russia as target of unfavourable actions

Victimization I: verbs (cont’d)

(results for Russia: chi2 = 37.133, p < 0.0001)

Verbs of unfavorable actions (VUs)

▶ grammatical participants of VUs can inform who is viewed astaking negative actions and who is affected by those actions

▶ Russia appears more often in the passive voice than the activevoice of VUs

⇒ Russia as target of unfavourable actions

Victimization I: verbs (cont’d)

(results for Russia: chi2 = 37.133, p < 0.0001)

Verbs of unfavorable actions (VUs)

▶ grammatical participants of VUs can inform who is viewed astaking negative actions and who is affected by those actions

▶ Russia appears more often in the passive voice than the activevoice of VUs

⇒ Russia as target of unfavourable actions

Victimization II: cases

Cases contribute significantly to the image of the referent

▶ nominative – signals agency▶ dative – signals that the referent is represented as the

experiencer or victim▶ instrumental – means by which actions are carried out; the

preposition s ‘with’ suggests that the referent is portrayed asa companion

Victimization II: cases – Putin vs. Porošenko

▶ Putin is represented as an active participant (agent or partnerin joint actions): image of a strong (and collaborative) leader

▶ Porošenko is portrayed as a recipient and experiencer ofactions possibly carried out by someone else

Victimization II: cases – Putin vs. Porošenko

▶ Putin is represented as an active participant (agent or partnerin joint actions): image of a strong (and collaborative) leader

▶ Porošenko is portrayed as a recipient and experiencer ofactions possibly carried out by someone else

Victimization II: cases – Putin vs. Porošenko

▶ Putin is represented as an active participant (agent or partnerin joint actions): image of a strong (and collaborative) leader

▶ Porošenko is portrayed as a recipient and experiencer ofactions possibly carried out by someone else

Victimization III: cases – Russia vs. Ukraine

The prominence of dative and instrumental corresponds to themost likely semantic roles played by the lemma Rusko.

Victimization III: cases – Russia vs. Ukraine

The prominence of dative and instrumental corresponds to themost likely semantic roles played by the lemma Rusko.

Victimization III: cases – Russia vs. Ukraine

⇒ Russia is portrayed not as a territory but as a victim or objectof actions

Victimization III: cases – Russia vs. Ukraine

⇒ Russia is portrayed not as a territory but as a victim or objectof actions

Examples

▶ Obama prodloužil sankce proti Ruskudat o rok‘Obama extended the sanctions against Russiadat for a year’

▶ Ukrajina se integruje do struktur NATO a Evropské unie amění se v stát nepřátelský vůči Ruskudat.‘Ukraine integrates into the structures of NATO and theEuropean Union and changes into an unfriendly state towardsRussiadat.’

▶ Jak republikánští “jestřábi”, tak i demokraté trvají na nutnostiozbrojit Kyjev s konečným cílem zasadit Ruskudat smrtelnouránu, [...]‘Both Republican “hawks” and Democrats insist on the needto arm Kiev with the final goal to strike a fatal blow toRussiadat.’

ConclusionIj

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse

▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistentrepresentation of Russia as a victim

▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×Ukrajina):

▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidencyin Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse

▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistentrepresentation of Russia as a victim

▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×Ukrajina):

▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidencyin Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse

▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistentrepresentation of Russia as a victim

▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×Ukrajina):

▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidencyin Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse

▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistentrepresentation of Russia as a victim

▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×Ukrajina):

▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidencyin Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistent

representation of Russia as a victim

▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×Ukrajina):

▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidencyin Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistent

representation of Russia as a victim▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×

Ukrajina):

▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidencyin Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistent

representation of Russia as a victim▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×

Ukrajina):▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidency

in Ukraine

▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of avictimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistent

representation of Russia as a victim▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×

Ukrajina):▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidency

in Ukraine▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of a

victimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia

▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of stateleadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

Conclusion▶ isolated prominent words (KWs and KLs)

▶ empathy towards Ukrainian separatists, concern aboutanti-Russian actions and Russophobia

▶ …serve as a starting point for researchers to focus on aspectsof Russia and Ukraine

▶ keymorph analysis – role of participants in the discourse▶ passive voice for VUs + subject (Russia) ⇒ consistent

representation of Russia as a victim▶ case endings prominence (Putin × Porošenko, Rusko ×

Ukrajina):▶ for Ukrajina and Porošenko point to the inadequate presidency

in Ukraine▶ for Rusko and Putin point to the representation of a

victimized state and a need for a strong presidency in Russia▶ …suggests a consistent pattern of (de)legitimization of state

leadership in Russia and Ukraine and possibly legitimization ofRussian actions

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Thank you for your attention

IntroductionDataMethodResults: Keyword analysisUsing contextVictimization of RussiaConclusion