UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference
Inclusion Exclusion
Saturday 18 February 10:00 – 11:30: Panel H4: The Media Representation of Exclusion
Tatsiana Kanash (Graduate School for Social Research, Warsaw): ‘Poverty issues in Belarusian newspapers in 1995-2005: the official images and the opposition ones’
In Belarus, like in many other former-Soviet countries, due to the ideological bias poverty has not actually been considered for a long time. Systematic study of poverty in Belarus started in 1990, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, 15 years later, there is still too little knowledge on poverty in Belarus. I hypothesize that the presentation of the poverty issues depends to a large degree on the political orientation of the newspaper, time and historical circumstances in Belarus. Poverty issues include a definition of poverty, a poverty profile, causes of poverty, outcomes of poverty, and an aid to the poor. One of my sub- hypothesis focuses on the presentation of poverty as "Somebody Else’s Problem" that is more often a case in the official newspaper than in the opposition one.
The empirical study is designed as an investigation of variety of presentations of poverty issues in two Belarusian dailies and one weekly independent analytical newspaper in 1996- 2005. The dailies under study represent the different political orientations and are the most widely read in Belarus. The first one Narodnaya Volya represents the political views of the opposition, the second one Sovetskaya Belarus- Belarus Syegodnya represents the official position of the government. The third one Byelorusskij Rynok highlights the processes of formation of the market economy and democratic institutions in Belarus. Such a study gives an opportunity to analyse some of the elements of mass media and political discourses. The method used in the study is content analysis.
The key research questions are the following: How poverty issues are presented in Belarusian press with regard on political position and historical moment? Are the presentations are positive or negative? Which elements of poverty issues are described and which ones are omitted? Are there voices of the poor or just opinions of elites presented? Conclusions from the study will be useful for the scholars and practitioners dealing with the poverty issues.
NOTE: All pages will print in printer friendly format automatically
The 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference School of Slavonic and East European Studies sponsors links page
