PERCEPTION OF THE UKRAINIAN CRISIS WITHIN LATVIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

The battle of narratives was a significant aspect of the Ukrainian crisis because the interpretations of events by parties involved in the conflict were very different. This paper addresses issues related to the perception of stories reported by the Russian and Latvian media about the Ukrainian crisis. Latvia was chosen as a case study because it is a country with a pro- Western geopolitical orientation where Russian media content is also widely available. It is estimated that as of March 2016, 25% of Latvia’s television audience were regular viewers of Russian television channels, including the First Baltic Channel, which is registered in Latvia but largely retranslates media content from Russia.