Vedomosti has a daily print circulation of 65,000 and 300,000 unique online users. The media house is one of the few in Russia making money on an online newspaper, even after the introduction of a paywall in 2017 on the websites of Vedomosti.
Vedomosti writes classic business journalism focusing on companies, trade, production, finance, IT and technology, among others. The staff works
professionally and according to normal journalistic principles, also when it comes to the coverage of the Nordic countries.
There were no important new topics on the newspaper’s list of relevant themes from the Nordic countries. Kiril Kharatyan explained the intentions behind the coverage:
“Vedomosti tries to be objective, and we publish a lot of interviews with Nordic ministers. We cover Swedish companies investing heavily in Russia; they invest in media, gas, food, etc. Norway has Telenor but they are on their way out. These are the kinds of stories that we cover. And the newspaper enjoys excellent cooperation with the Nordic countries on business news.”
When it comes to Vedomosti’s overall foreign journalism and Russian readers’
perception of foreign countries, including the Nordic countries, the editor concludes critically:
“Russia is withdrawing into herself. Step by step. Many Russians believe that the country is surrounded by enemies. By people who dislike Russia. That’s why the country must kick back, it is said. And this is a paradox – for Russians love to travel to the EU and the USA, they love iPhones, Gucci bags and Mercedes, but the enemy image still lives on. Pure schizophrenia, but nevertheless our reality. And the image builds on the perception that we are rich in culture and history. And the West is not, but they can still enjoy the consumer culture.”
2.6
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
It is a must for the news media in the Nordic countries as well as in Russia to cover the increasing tension, the sanctions, the escalation of conflict-provoking activities and the critical, tough rhetoric in both East and West. In this way, the news coverage and the media set the stage for this hard-hitting political and military rhetoric. It sometimes sounds harsh and brings back memories of the Cold War.
The closer you get to Moscow and the more you focus on the important foreign and security policy themes, the more blurred the lines between each of the Nordic countries, the Nordic region and Europe become. In relation to international topics the Nordic countries were seen as the outskirts of Europe, and their populations were often included in the major Russian narratives of an amoral Europe, poor in culture as opposed to Russia. That Russia is surrounded by enemies and that among them you’ll find Europe and the institutions NATO and the EU.
In recent years, the narratives of the Nordic countries in particular as amoral societies have been replaced by the problems of Crimea and Ukraine, but according to Professor Anna Kachkaeva, they could quickly be reactivated, should anyone have an interest in so doing.
Vitaly Dymarsky, the widely renowned Russian editor-in-chief of the critical and freethinking radio station Echo Moskvy, concluded that: “When there is no demand for information, there is no media image of the Nordic countries.” But this is incorrect – as clearly shown by the above findings and conclusions of the Russian research group’s mapping of the media coverage in north-western Russia in May 2018 (see section 9). There was continuous coverage with certain patterns and media images.
The published media coverage and the underlying journalistic choices and priorities do of course reflect the type of media concerned as well as its editorial objective and target group. And we have been given several examples.
When it comes to the ways that western media and journalists see and cover the surrounding world there are various things in Russian media that seem different. We can mention three of them: the major editorial attention given to the ‘astonishing topic’ of the Copenhagen Zoo cutting-up of a giraffe and the fact that so many editors emphasised precisely that event several years later. That heroes are given much attention in the media coverage; also Finnish heroes who have done something for the good of others or performed acts of patriotism. That
‘counterparting’ between European and Russian is a commonly used journalistic method. And that Europe is described as a counterpart.
The Nordic countries were given low priority in the news media in north-western Russia, St Petersburg and Moscow, and were covered in somewhat the same way by many of the news media. The demand for this kind of news was limited. But as Professor Ivan Kurilla concluded, Russian society is far from homogeneous, and
this was also reflected in the media. There were contemporary realities to depict;
the result was different types of media images of the Nordic countries, and they differed for Norway, Sweden, Denmark – and Finland, not least.