The Crisis in Crimea – “Voices” From Canada: A Qualitative Study

• Main Author: Brent McKenzie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEECA 2014-10-01
• Series: Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research
• Subjects: Crimean crisis; Canada; newspaper articles; content analysis
• Online Access: https://ieeca.org/journal/index.php/JEECAR/article/view/63

With the movement of Russian troops into the Crimean peninsula, the subsequent vote on secession from Ukraine and joining with Russia, many voices wanted to be heard. The focus of this study is to provide insight as to the views from an interested, but arguably a neutral player in the discussion, the second largest country in the world, but one with the third largest population of those with Ukrainian heritage outside of Ukraine and Russia, Canada. Newspaper articles from the period of the crisis from February and March 2014 were collected and analyzed. The articles were published in three national newspapers and also three newspapers with a significant population of those with Ukrainian heritage.  Evidence from this sample of suggests that there was a dominance of negative coverage as to the role of Russia consistent with prior research. The articles reviewed were found to present non-neutral coverage particularly through opinion pieces, which also tended to be both longer and more frequently published than neutral, or alternative articles.