Representation of Feminism in Russian Media Space: Authors and Narratives

The authors examine the features of media representation of feminism as a topical phenomenon and study related stories in Russian news and mass media over recent years. The aim of the study is to determine the dynamics of authors’ publications and the feminist topic’s development in the Russian media space since 2017, as well as to identify trends in the development of the feminist topic. The materials used for the work were online publications with key words “feminism” from eight Russian mass media: Wonderzine*, Meduza*, Afi sha Daily, Takiye Dela, Novaya Gazeta*, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Argumenty i Fakty, The Voice (Cosmopolitan). The main patterns that are observed among key authors of feminist publications are activism and professional feminist interests. Content analysis which was conducted during the research presented the main communicative practices of feminist discourse and thematic priorities. Moreover, the work presents characteristics of the main authors and assesses their potential for constructive / destructive infl uence on the audience. The increasing number of publications established in the framework of the research confi rms the rising journalists’ interest in the feminism topic in the Russian media space. The research has proved that the representation of the feminism theme goes beyond traditional mass media and is being actively discussed on social networks. The following patterns were found – authors of feminism publications, who are not active participants of feminist actions/events, most often represent such thematic areas as history, literature, art, and others; the largest number of publications belongs to journalists participating in actions or promoting “feminist” agenda. Activity monitoring of the studied authors revealed a lack of systematicity in the feminist publications, but some fi nd a newsworthy occurrence to return to the topic in their materials. We revealed that feminist texts are tended to acquire political color, and the appeal to political subjects refl ects worsening social dynamics of feminist movement in the context of important world and Russian events.