Who Is to Blame and What Is to Be Done: Analysis of Comments to Films about the Beslan School Siege

301

Abstract

Objective. Analysis of YouTube comments to documentaries about the fifteenth anniversary of the Beslan school siege. Background. Amid reactivation of the Beslan discourse, demand for social reflection of the tragedy is increasing. It seems relevant to address nonreactive data to evaluate framing perception. Study design. Using random forest modeling we examine the content of YouTube comments to evaluate their specific characteristics. Data. Array of comments to Yuri Dud, Ksenia Sobchak and Novaya Gazeta films about Beslan (N=141,966, upload date: 02/29/2020, parsing loss<1% of the total). Measurements. Random forest modeling for textual data. Results. In the comments to all three films, blame is mainly reattributed to the state. The moral performatives are different: in the comments to Y. Dud and K. Sobchak’s films there are appeals for helping victims of the terrorist attack; in the case of Novaya Gazeta — to the punishment of the guilty. Conclusions. The Beslan tragedy turns out to be a serious point of social dissociation, there is neither rallying around the state nor a consensus on how to heal the trauma.

General Information

Keywords: Beslan siege, random forest, collective trauma, framing perception

Journal rubric: Empirical Research

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2021120306

Acknowledgements. The author is grateful to Rodionova M.M. and Skvortsov I.A. for their assistance in the data collection and coding.

For citation: Smirnov N.M. Who Is to Blame and What Is to Be Done: Analysis of Comments to Films about the Beslan School Siege. Sotsial'naya psikhologiya i obshchestvo = Social Psychology and Society, 2021. Vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 74–86. DOI: 10.17759/sps.2021120306. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

References

  1. Gavrilov K.A., Tolmach A.D. Kto vinovat: kontent-analiz blogov o terakte v «Domodedovo» [Who is to blame: content analysis of blogs about the terrorist attack at «Domodedovo»]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya = Sociological Studies, 2014, no. 12, pp. 81—88. (In Russ.)
  2. Devyatko I.F. Instrumentarii onlain-issledovanii: popytka katalogizatsii [Online research toolkit: cataloging attempt]. In Shashkina A.V., Devyatko I.F., Davydova S.G. (ed.) Onlain-issledovaniya v Rossii 3.0 [Online research in Russia 3.0]. Moscow, 2012, pp. 7—30. (In Russ.).
  3. Efimova A. «Istoricheskaya travma ot Beslana sformiruetsya ne ran’she, chem cherez 50—60 let» [Elektronnyi resurs] [The historical trauma from Beslan will not form until 50—60 years later]. MEL. URL: https://mel.fm/vazhny_razgovor/7648502-beslan_tragedy (Accessed 21.06.2021). (In Russ.).
  4. Radkevich A.L. Internet-auditoriya v Rossii: sostoyanie, dinamika, tendentsii [Internet audience in Russia: state, dynamics, trends]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie. = Knowledge. Understanding. Skill, 2009. No. 1, pp. 230—236. (In Russ.).
  5. Alexander J.C., Eyerman R., Giesen B., Smelser N.J., Sztompka P. Cultural trauma and collective identity. University of California Press, 2004. 304 p. DOI:10.1525/9780520936768
  6. Andersen J.C., Sandberg S. Islamic State propaganda: Between social movement framing and subcultural provocation. Terrorism and Political Violence, 2020. Vol. 32, no. 7, pp. 1506—1526. DOI :10.1080/09546553.2018.1484356
  7. Bayulgen O., Arbatli E. Cold War redux in US-Russia relations? The effects of US media framing and public opinion of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 2013. Vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 513—527. DOI: 10.1016/j.postcomstud.2013.08.003
  8. Bulman R.J., Wortman C.B. Attributions of blame and coping in the «real world»: severe accident victims react to their lot. Journal of personality and social psychology, 1977. Vol. 35, no. 5, p. 351. DOI:10.1037//0022-3514.35.5.351
  9. Chong D., Druckman J.N. Framing theory. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci., 2007. No. 10, pp. 103—126. DOI:10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.072805.103054
  10. Condorcet M.D. Essay on the Application of Analysis to the Probability of Majority Decisions. 1785. Paris: Imprimerie Royale. 195 p.
  11. Freud S. Mourning and melancholia. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914-1916): On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works. 1957, pp. 237—258.
  12. Haider-Markel D.P., Joslyn M.R., Al-Baghal M.T. Can we frame the terrorist threat? Issue frames, the perception of threat, and opinions on counterterrorism policies. Terrorism and Political Violence, 2006. Vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 545—559. DOI:10.1080/09546550600880625
  13. Hall S. The work of representation. In Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices, 1997. Vol. 2, pp. 13—74.
  14. Higgins E.T., Bargh J.A., Lombardi W.J. Nature of priming effects on categorization. Journal of experimental psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1985. Vol. 11, no. 1, p. 59. DOI:10.1037/0278-7393.11.1.59
  15. Jackson L.B. Framing British «Jihadi Brides»: Metaphor and the Social Construction of IS Women. Terrorism and Political Violence, 2019, pp. 1—19. DOI:10.1080/09546553.2019.16 56613
  16. Krippendorff K. Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage publications, 2018. 472 p.
  17. LaCapra D. Writing history, writing trauma. JHU Press, 2014. 264 p.
  18. Luhmann N. What is communication? Communication theory, 1992. Vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 251—259. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2885.1992.tb00042.x
  19. Morin A. Framing terror: The strategies newspapers use to frame an act as terror or crime. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2016. Vol. 93, no. 4, pp. 986—1005. DOI:10.1177/1077699016660720
  20. Mueller J.E. Presidential Popularity from Truman to Johnson. American political science review, 1970. Vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 18—34. DOI:10.2307/1955610
  21. Neimeyer R.A., Stewart A.E. Trauma, healing, and the narrative employment of loss. Families in Society, 1996. Vol. 77, no. 6, pp. 360—375. DOI:10.1606/1044-3894.933
  22. Somasundaram D. Addressing collective trauma: Conceptualisations and interventions. Intervention, 2014. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 43—60. DOI:10.1097/WTF.0000000000000068
  23. Sztompka P. The trauma of social change. In Cultural trauma and collective identity. University of California Press, 2004, pp. 155—195. DOI:10.1525/9780520936768-006
  24. Woods J. Framing terror: An experimental framing effects study of the perceived threat of terrorism. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 2011. Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 199—217. DOI:10.1080/17539153 .2011.586205

Information About the Authors

Nikita M. Smirnov, Research Intern, Politics & Psychology Research Laboratory, National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9513-2641, e-mail: nmsmirnov@edu.hse.ru

Metrics

Views

Total: 532
Previous month: 15
Current month: 2

Downloads

Total: 301
Previous month: 2
Current month: 1