The report presented at the conference "The Ukraine crisis in the modern-day information space" held in Vilnius 4th of December 2014. The study concerns the Polish media discourse on situation in Crimea in February and April 2014. The aim of the project is to examine how Polish media comment and analyse the events associated with the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The researchers wanted to retrieve the ways of storytelling and explaining this complex political situation by various journalists, but also to examine their ability to foresee and anticipate the course of events. Research project is being held at Laboratory of Media Studies of Warsaw University (www.lbm.uw.edu.pl). The presentation has been prepared with participation of academic and student research team - to which authors of the presentation want to thank and congratulate!

1. „From the escape of Viktor Yanukovych to
the annexation of the Crimea by the
Russian Federation.
Events in the Crimea in the Polish national newspapers and
periodicals in February and March 2014.
Contexts, metaphors and meanings“
Dr Karolina Brylska
Dr Tomasz Gackowski
Dr Łukasz Szurmiński

2. Introduction
Why we decided to analyze this topic?
 the issue is heavily exposed in the Polish
media discourse
 the issue is important from the perspective
of Poland and its closest neighbors
 the issue is complex, complicated, and
need to be profoundly explained to the
audience

3. Introduction
Purpose of the research was to check:
 to what extent the sociopolitical
journalism can be predicative
 to what extent press journalists can
explain the complex reality to their
readers

4. Data & Methodology
• articles (editorials: feuilletons, analysis,
comments, etc.) containing the word
„Crimea”
• published in Polish newspapers (dailies,
weeklies)
• time scale: from the escape of V.
Yanukovych to the annexation of the
Crimea by the RF (February – April 2014)
 317 articles met the criteria

5. Data & Methodology
• method: qualitative and quantitative content
analysis, narrative analysis (frames), quantitative
language analysis
• only text (language) examined (without
graphics, photos, diagrams, etc.)
• Extended code key (with multiple categories –
almost fifty categories – defined as precisely as
possible - dozens of operational definitions (on
the basis of pilot research)

6. Temporal distribution of texts
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
numberofpublications
date

7. Text genre
126; 40%
59; 18%
48; 15%
44; 14%
40; 13%
comment
interview
analysis
reportage
feuilleton

8. Number of publications by
newspapers and magazines
108
64
23 16 15 12 10 10 10 8 8 7 5 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120

9. Number of publications by
newspapers and magazines
221; 70%
96; 30%
Daily
newspaper
Weekly
magazines

10. Number of publications by
theme sections in press
113; 36%
76; 24%
66; 21%
24; 7%
18; 6%
14; 4%
3; 1%
3; 1%
Comments/reportages
News
Foreign affairs
Special issue (Crimea)
Economy
Topic of the week
First page
Others

11. Nationality of authors
257; 81%
19; 6%
10; 3%
10; 3%
6; 2%
4; 1%
2; 1%2; 1%
1; 1%
1; 1%
1; 0%
1; 0%
1; 0%
1; 0%
1; 0%
31; 10%
Polish
Ukrainian
American
Russian
English
Belarussian
Turkish/Tartar
Polish/Ukrainian
Bulgarian
German
Estonian
French
Polish/Belarussian
Polish/German
Polish/American

12. Professions of authors
220; 69%
39; 12%
33; 11%
7; 2%
3; 1%
2; 1%
2; 1%
2; 1%
2; 1%
2; 1%
1; 0% 1; 0%
1; 0%
1; 0%
1; 0%15; 5%
journalist expert politican
social activist lawyer musican
philosopher historian writer/poet
political commentator actress soldier
sportsmen priest translator

13. Point of view presented in
articles
129
85
43
22 11 3 2 2 1 1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140

14. Leading thread
220; 69%
54; 17%
27; 9%
12; 4%
4; 1%
political
socio-cultural
economical
military
legal

15. Secondary thread
75; 24%
74; 23%
71; 22%
68; 22%
23; 7%
6; 2%
socio-cultural
none
political
economical
military
legal

16. Historical context
189; 60%
128; 40%
Yes No

17. Most frequent historical
contexts
 detachment of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
from Georgia in 2008
 the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008
 Crimea transfer from the Russian SFSR to
the Ukrainian SSR in 1954, at the 300th
anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1659)
 Treaty of Pereyaslav (1659)
 uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi

18. Definition of situation
Russia's military aggression in the
Crimea may turn into war
Russia's military aggression is a violation
of international law
sanctions against Russia may help to
stop V. Putin from escalation of the
conflict

19. The object and the axis of
dispute
conflict about the power in Ukraine
conflict about the control of the Crimea
social and political position of the
Crimean Tatars
conflict about the truth
conflict between Western and Russian
perspective
internal Polish conflict about attitude
towards events of the Crimea

20. The most frequent nouns in
the titles
Crimea; 100
Ukraina; 66
Russia; 50
Wladimir Putin; 38
West; 28
War; 22
Poland; 22
Wiktor Janukowycz; 16
Moscow; 16
Kreml; 16
EU; 12
Sanctions; 10
Kiev; 8
Annexation; 8
Revolution; 8
Army; 8
America/U.S; 6
Fear; 4
Separatism; 4
Maidan; 4
Contrrevolution; 2
Crimea
Ukraina
Russia
Wladimir Putin
West
War
Poland
Wiktor Janukowycz
Moscow
Kreml
EU
Sanctions
Kiev
Annexation
Revolution
Army
America/U.S
Fear
Separatism
Maidan
Contrrevolution
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Russia: 136
Western World: 80

21. Scenarios in texts
106; 33%
211; 67%
No Yes

22. Possible scenarios
44
36
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
scenarios in favour of Russia scenarios in favour of Western
world

23. Probability of military conflict
20
41
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
conflict not expected conflict expected

24. Scenario considered as the
most possible
long-term, international political
tension
further expansion of Russia on the
territory of Ukraine (and even
Moldova)
BUT: lack of specified scenario in 106 of
317 analyzed articles

25. Subject of metaphor
• Russia (inc. V. Putin)
• Western world (USA, inc. B. Obama;
Europe)
• Poland
• Ukraine (inc. Crimea)
• International relations (Ukrainian-
Russian; Russian-Western; Polish-
Ukrainian; Polish-Russian; Polish-
Western)

26. Metaphors – traditional
metaphors of politics…
• Game (chess, cards) (eg. Calculation of
"geopolitical" is always the same, it consist of the
leading the little tin soldiers on a well-worn
chessboards of paper)

27. Metaphors – traditional
metaphors of politics…
• War (you can not shoot straight all of
your ammunition [a gradual sanctions
punishing Russia])

28. Metaphors – traditional
metaphors of politics…
• Theatre (eg. Putin is an actor
appearing in the absurd comedy)

29. Metaphors - … but also
innovative, emotional
• Sport (eg. Looking at each other like
boxers before a fight)

30. Metaphors - … but also
innovative, emotional
• Movement/action (He pussyfoots, gives
the impression of an indecisive and
vacillating on Syria [for Obama])

31. Metaphors - … but also
innovative, emotional
• Disease / body (eg. A political corpse),
Erotica (eg. Poland kneeling in front of
the US as a slut)

32. Metaphors - … but also
innovative, emotional
• Mythology / sacrum (eg. Russia’s stay in
purgatory)

33. Conclusions
• The language of description of the
Crimea’s events presents that the issue is
emotional (incertainty, fear, anger,
powerlessness, weakness, sadness),
involving and metaphorized.
• It is worth outlining that this mechanism –
metaphorization – does not fully explain
this complex situation – core of the
events, motivations, attitudes, actions,
causes and consequences.

34. Conclusions
• Metaphorization primarly serves to
impose certain frames and schemes of
interpretations.
• Metaphors of Crimea’s discourse seems
to give a complete model of reaction
(on the basis of acctually emotional
simplifications), but do not help recipients
understand and construct adequate
attitude and behaviour

35. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!
karolina.brylska@id.uw.edu.pl
tomasz.gackowski@id.uw.edu.pl
lukasz.szurminski@id.uw.edu.pl