Protests - a threat to the security of the state or an expression of civil rights? A qualitative content analysis of the Russian media – state-dependent and independent – covering the events of the “protests-2021”

Abstract: Protests are a common way for citizens to express their grievances and can occur in almost every regime. Each state reacts to protests in different ways – some listen to citizens' demands and adjust their policies, others resort to forceful methods, but in one and the other case, the media occupy an important place among the tools of response. This becomes especially evident in non-democratic or hybrid regimes, where state-dependent media become a propaganda tool and independent media are repressed. This thesis embarks from the standpoint that the news media play a significant role in protests representations, and different media portray them differently. Intending to enhance our understanding of protests in Russia, the present thesis investigates how the state-dependent and independent media depicted the “protests-2021”. By utilizing the theories’ synthesis – securitization theory and framing theory, guiding concept, and inductive qualitative content analysis, this thesis demonstrates how different media, with the means of different frames, portrayed the “protests-2021” and how such frames reflect de-securitizing moves attempted by the media. With a strong focus on analysis, this work seeks to contribute to the study of protests from a qualitative perspective, thereby paying attention to what and how is said about protests in different media.