Templates and Meta-Narratives
Dissecting a wire service article
[Image: an annotation over one of the graphics used by AP in the article dissected. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.]
Published: 2023-04-18
Introduction
Taking pot shots at the legacy media is easy. I tend to avoid it for that reason and because its gets repetitive and boring. An exception is made for the article below as two themes are examined: that the three core wire services dominate western media, with an Associated Press (AP) article serving as an example, and that this article is merely the latest in a string of articles all serving a meta-narrative. Along the way we note a pattern in modern English language legacy journalism by leading outlets.
Methodology
Your author was reading an article which began with such a slimy and emotive introduction that interest was piqued. The article was attributed to AP. Curious, a search was run:
Time: approximately 07:40 (am) 2023-04-18 UTC (GMT)
Search Engine: duckduckgo.com
Search Term: (unquoted) Russia's UN Security Council presidency proving most contentious in memory
From this search was obtained the source article from AP and a list of reprints which acknowledged AP as the source. Some attributed the author, Edith M. Lederer, some did not. The reprints were verbatim, including the same headline, except one which is noted in Sources.
[Image: the search]
Wire Services and the Legacy Media
The AP article was reprinted by at least The Washington Post, Yahoo! News, USA News, The Independent (UK) and ABC (Australia).
From this we can see that a leading legacy news journal in the USA, UK and Australia all ran the article. This typifies the influence that the wire services have on media in their respective language markets. The other two major western wire services are Reuters (UK) and Agence France-Presse (France).
The Article
Here follows a partial deconstruction of the article. I hope it is instructive in understanding the narrative construction process. All quotes are cut/pasted from the AP source article. When combined with the above prominent reprinting we can see the potential effectiveness of the process. Edith M. Lederer is exerting quite some influence.
The article opens with this one sentence paragraph:
First the Russians gave the U.N. spotlight to the commissioner of children’s rights accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia, sparking a walkout by the U.S. and several others.
This should be combined with the title "Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory" to understand the framing of the article. One could summarize this as "Russia is so inept that their first action lead to a walkout" with addition hints of "war crimes against children". I find the more subtle elements of more interest. The first three words are quite instructive.
We have "First the Russians" which is misleading in itself. The accurate phrase would be "First the Russian Permanent Representative, now Chairman of the U.N. Security Council,". See, "the Russians" don't have influence over what happens at the UNSC. This is controlled by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in turn is controlled by the Russian Security Council (their leading policy group) and the Kremlin (the head of their executive branch of government).
Before I continue to dissect this cadaver I remind you that words are the tools of a journalist. One must assume that they are chosen carefully, with purpose. Please keep this in mind.
We then have "gave the U.N. spotlight to the commissioner of children’s rights accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia". "gave the U.N. spotlight to" is a rather strange expression. It serves in place of a more neutral and accurate "placed on the agenda at the U.N.S.C". The verb ‘gave … to’ is very strange. It attempts to echo ‘turned the spotlight on’.
Next comes "the commissioner of children’s rights accused with President Vladimir Putin of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to Russia". This is not too bad. What it means is "the International Criminal Court's charges against Maria Lvova-Belova (Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights) and President Putin for being allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children". But "accused" has more emotion than "allegedly responsible". The more neutral phrase was used by the U.N. itself which the journalist could have used and even quoted. But, as we shall see either of these more accurate and neutral statements would dismantle the purpose of the leading four paragraphs.
Firstly, Russia is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. The children are in a war zone in which the Ukrainians have repeatedly bombed hospitals, schools and orphanages, not to mention spraying cluster munitions all over Donetsk City and surrounding areas (all of which are war crimes). If Russia moves the orphans to safety to provide them with relief from the terror, a community and an education they receive this idiocy from the ICC. If they don't, they're heartless barbarians leaving these poor children to suffer.
The sentence concludes with "sparking a walkout by the U.S. and several others." Sparking is an interest choice of verb. One could have used 'inducing', 'causing' or many other synonyms, but 'sparking' has a sense of suddenness and violence which compliments the headline which implies ineptitude.
Sorry to take so long on this introductory one sentence paragraph, but I believe it is of prime importance, for recent history shows that many people will only read the first few paragraphs. Thus, the emotional imprint needs be conveyed there, and the beginning sets the frame.
The next single sentence paragraph reinforces the headline by implying that Russia is creating division by throwing around baseless accusations:
Then Russia went after the West by claiming it is violating international laws in arming Ukraine, drawing blistering retorts that Ukraine has every right to defend itself against Putin’s invading army.
"The Russians" have disappeared and been replaced by "Russia" who "went after the West" "claiming" violations which drew "blistering retorts" because "defend" against "Putin's invading army".
[Image: an annotation over another image used in the source AP article. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. and current chairman of the U.N. Security Council.]
Now, I am certain that these accusations would have been carefully put and based upon international law and the U.N. Charter because Vassily Nebenzia is a skilled diplomat. If we look at the behaviour of the USA and it's allies' representatives being described by Edith we have a "walkout" and "blistering retorts". Her narrative blames this on Russia's behaviour. I always thought that one is responsible for one's own behaviour. This is especially so for diplomats who are meant have deep oceans of reserve.
Thus, Edith is actually describing the childish behaviour of the USA's and its NATO allies' representatives. This is why I'm bothering with this analysis. If one takes one's time one can see how this emotive and poor journalism which is being echoed throughout the English language world actually rebounds if one shows a little curiosity and patience.
The next paragraph reinforces the headline with no evidence or attribution.
So far, the Russian presidency of the U.N. Security Council has been the most contentious in the memory of longtime U.N. diplomats and officials. And it’s just at the midway point.
The article’s introduction continues:
More fireworks are to come later in the month when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov presides over the premier event of the presidency — an open council meeting on defending the principles of the U.N. Charter. Russia is widely accused of violating the charter by invading Ukraine and flouting its underpinning principles of respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Now we understand why "sparking" was the verb of choice, Edith wished to use 'fireworks'. Whether an 'open council meeting' is 'the premier event' of a month's presidency of the UNSC I know not, though I am looking forward to it. I expect Russia to present, with China, their approach to a change in world power dynamics which is being constructed before our eyes. Edith concludes the paragraph by undermining the event by declaring hypocrisy with the use of 'flouting its underpinnings'. Again the use of 'flouting' is an interesting choice of verb.
The first four paragraphs are composed of six sentences. The introductory emotional framing is complete. The opening sentence to the fifth paragraph moves to factual reporting and a neutral tone:
The presidency of the Security Council rotates monthly in alphabetical order of its 15 members.
Of course, this does not last, with the paragraph continuing:
As Russia’s turn approached, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell both called it an April Fool’s joke. The U.S. envoy promised to “use every opportunity to push back on their using their perch in the chair to spread disinformation, and to use their chair to push support of their efforts.”
At least Edith is naming the officials and providing a quote. So, points to Edith here, this is an improvement. From Linda we see the talking point of "disinformation" used which is a theme of the last few years with the USA executive flying headlong into a wall with the creation of things like the Disinformation Governance Board and then the emergence of their narrative control via the Twitter Files.
Edith then inserts a bit of "he said she said" with the following three paragraphs providing three quotes from Nebenzia although she provides the context. We must assume she is doing a reasonable job. She is toning down the emotional rhetoric and providing attribution for which she again deserves credit.
The article then moves into far more fact base neutral reporting wherein she even counters her own leading emotional statements. She demonstrates that she is quite capable of good reportage. Here are three paragraphs from later in the article:
Lvova-Belova said the children were taken to Russia for their safety and Moscow was coordinating with international organizations to return them to their families. The International Committee of the Red Cross said later it has been in contact with her about returning Ukrainian children, and UNICEF also said it has been in communication with Russian officials “but has not received feedback on our offer to facilitate reunification processes.”
There is a huge discrepancy over how many children have been removed from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, tweeted that more than 19,500 children had been seized from their families or orphanages and forcibly deported. Lvova-Belova said that since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia has taken in more than 5 million Ukrainians, including 700,000 children — all with parents, relatives or legal guardians, except for 2,000 from orphanages in the eastern Donbas.
Surrounding this are more USA/NATO focused points, but AP is a USA wire service, so this is an expected bias. Here Edith does the reader a service by highlighting the discrepancies, quoting figures and attributing their source. This is journalism. I commend her for this section.
A Pattern
The article is exemplary of a style of journalism which can be seen very often in leading English language legacy news journals. An article begins with a section which is deliberately emotive and furthers a meta-narrative which relates to international power competition. It then changes tone to be less emotive and more factual though still retaining whichever bias is fundamental to the publication.
This is neither good nor bad. People write what they want and publish what they want, though obviously in legacy media editors have a strong influence on the topic and style used.
I hope that the above analysis helps make this pattern more obvious to the reader so that they are better able to dodge the emotional overlay and still learn from the more factual elements in these types of articles.
The Meta-Narrative
The article discussed does not sit alone, even ignoring the reprints. It is the latest part, at the time of its publication, of a theme or narrative which began before Russia assumed its chair of the UNSC.
In Sources below you will find a list of articles from English language legacy media constructing this meta-narrative. If you're interested, grab one and pull it apart for yourself. See if you can identify the pattern. If so consider the ratio of emotive introduction to factual, attributed reportage in the article.
Media Literacy
If you're a high school teacher, please feel free to take this idea for use in a class on understanding news media. Actually, I believe that this topic is an extremely important part of modern education. I encourage you to construct a module on it if one is not already present in your curriculum.
There are, of course, many other interesting questions to ask such as "Why do people place more trust in publisher X than publisher Y?" and "How has trust in legacy/established media changed from the last two decades of the 20th century to the first two decades of the 21st, and why?"
Sources
Source Article
Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory, EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press, 2023-04-17
Reprints
Russia's UN council presidency is most contentious in memory, attributed to AP with author, Yahoo! News, 2023-04-17
Russia's UN council presidency is most contentious in memory, attributed to AP with author, Washington Post, 2023-04-17
Russia's UN council presidency is most contentious in memory, attributed to AP with author, Independent (UK), 2023-04-17
Russia's UN Council Presidency Is Most Contentious in Memory, attributed to AP but no author, USA News, 2023-04-17
Russia's UN Security Council presidency proving most contentious in memory, attributed to AP but no author, ABC (Australia), 2023-04-17
Note that ABC has adjusted the headline. The text is, of course, verbatim.
Earlier Articles Creating the Meta-Narrative
Russia assumes UN Security Council presidency despite Ukrainian anger, George Wright, BBC, 2023-04-01
Ukraine fumes as Russia assumes presidency of the United Nations Security Council, Pamela Falk, CBS News, 2023-04-03
‘Absurdity to a new level’ as Russia takes charge of UN security council, Julian Borger, The Guardian (UK), 2023-03-31
The Danger of Russia Becoming President of the U.N. Security Council, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Sergiy Kyslytsya, Time, 2023-03-14
Russia runs the UN Security Council this month. Ukraine says it’s the worst April Fools’ joke, Richard Roth, CNN, 2023-04-01
‘Outrageous’: Russia Accused of Spreading Disinformation at U.N. Event, Farnaz Fassihi, The New York Times, 2023-04-05
A Discussion
The Roundtable #56: Tarik Cyril Amar, Alexander Mercouris, Gonzalo Lira hosts Amar and Mercouris, The Roundtable -- Gonzalo Lira, 2023-04-27
Culture
John Williams & Vienna Philharmonic – Williams: Imperial March (from “Star Wars”), the title says it all, Deutsche Grammophon, uploaded 2020-05-04
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Copyright and Licensing
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The Mainstream Media has zero credibility it has destroyed itself. Ask Buzzfeed. Ask Fox News.