Environmental issues in Russian cities: towards the understanding of regional and national mass media discourse

ABSTRACT Based on the media discourse analysis of twelve national and six regional Russian online mass media, the study provides critical reflections on the environmental media coverage across two Russian cities following environmental themes including air and water pollution, waste, sustainable transport, energy, environmental civic engagement, and organic food. The findings suggest that the commonalities of the media coverage include the distribution of diagnostic and prognostic framing of motivational, informational articles over analytical, and the domination of discourses of ‘sustainable innovations’, ‘modernisation’, ‘environmental alarmism’ and ‘environmental conflicts’. The differences include the higher coverage of the city of Moscow and pro-governmental journalists in the national media in contrast to coverage in the regional press where the voices of environmental activists and non-governmental organisations are presented equally alongside those of the pro-governmental journalists. Collectively, the results demonstrate that media coverage does not accurately reflect the complex issues of urban stakeholders’ relationship with environmental conflicts which are inevitable in the context of Russia’s continuous reliance on the hydrocarbon sector.