A Russian-American News Cross-Coverage. A Hidden Threat to the Democratic Way of Life

ABSTRACT

This research is a comparative content analysis of the media coverage of presidential elections in Russia and America in 2012. The theoretical framework for this research came from the three classical works by Walter Lippmann published a century ago. This study is a centennial anniversary empirically grounded reexamination of his ideas. The research found a stark contrast between the ways the American and Russian media covered the elections in the counterpart country. Consequently, it is found that at that time it is not Russian but the American media outlet acted in a way that could present a danger for democracy.

KEYWORDS:

• International journalism
• media and democracy
• Walter Lippmann
• Russia
• election coverage
• content analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).