Browsing by Author "Popkova, Anna"

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    Cold War discourse in the post-Cold War media world: Articulations of global politics in Russian and US mainstream and alternative media
    (2015-06) Popkova, Anna
    This project examines the role that the Cold War discourse plays in informing and structuring the Russian and US mainstream and alternative news media narratives about international events and controversies that occur in the post-Cold War time but trace their historical roots to the Cold War geopolitical struggles and expose disagreements between Russia and the United States in the 21st century. This project also seeks to identify what other discourses of global politics and international affairs are interwoven in media narratives examined in this study and how their interactions with elements of the Cold War discourse work to create meanings for these media's audiences in the post-Cold War. Theoretically, the study brings together discourse analysis theory, Stuart Hall's theory of articulation and a set of concepts defining the debate on the forces of nationalism and globalization that shape the post-Cold War environment. The project is based on the combination of qualitative textual analysis and critical discourse analysis, and examines three case studies: the war in South Ossetia in 2008, the debate in the United Nations Security Council over the peace resolution in Syria in 2012, and the death of Hugo Ch�vez in 2013. The findings reveal that certain elements of the Cold War discourse continue structuring the narratives that different Russian and US media produce as they make sense of various events that occur in the post-Cold War time, raising critical questions about the persistence of powerful discourses, and about the ability of media both in Russia and in the United States to re-articulate discourses of global politics in the post-Cold War world.
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    “We Struggle With Being ‘All Things To Everybody’”: Negotiating Multiculturalism at KFAI.
    (2010-12) Popkova, Anna
    This project explores KFAI – a non-profit, mostly volunteer based community radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota – as a site of negotiation between assimilation and different types of multiculturalism. While KFAI’s mission of increasing understanding among peoples and communities by providing a voice to people ignored or misrepresented in the mainstream media corresponds to several theoretical conceptualizations of multiculturalism, various constraints of reality constantly push the station towards utilizing approaches that assimilate the difference. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with station’s paid staff and volunteers, author’s observations and the analysis of the listener survey report, the project reveals and discusses the major tensions between KFAI’s mission and everyday reality in areas of station’s programming, audience and internal relations among the staff and volunteers. Having determined the key areas of tension in station’s practices, the project also outlines the directions for future research.