Until the 1950s, the LGBTQI community worldwide was lacking representation in the mainstream Press, thus resorting to self-made Press Media early on. Since the 1950s and until the 1980s, LGBTQI people were portrayed by mainstream Press as a threat to public order, public health and socially acceptable standards. Since the 1990s and until today, LGBTQI representation has improved quantitatively and qualitatively, at least in the West, yet without stereotypes disappearing completely.

In this study I examined how a number of digital Media from Greece and abroad covered an ongoing persecution against sexual otherness, more specifically against the LGBTQI community, in the Republic of Chechnya in Russia. I researched to what extent this piece of news was covered, the words appearing most frequently in related articles, as well as the patterns of Media framing used for sexual otherness by journalists. A mixed research method was used for the analysis of data. The sample consisted both of mainstream Media and LGBTQI Media. The results demonstrated a rapid decrease of reporting intensity after only one month of coverage. There was a clear proneness to official political sources and words with a negative connotation. Sexual otherness was mostly framed through referrals to the persecution and the political impact that this human rights crisis had. At the same time, the Media avoided actively ‘‘normalizing’’ LGBTQI identities, as well as investigating the deeper sociocultural factors that led to the persecution. There were not any significant coverage differences between mainstream Media and LGBTQI Media.

KEYWORDS

otherness, LGBTQI community, LGBTQI studies, Queer studies, sexual minorities, international journalism, human rights, human rights crisis, framing, news frames, framing theory, Media framing

1. INTRODUCTION

In the late 2016 acts of persecution against the LGBTQI community in Chechnya, Russia, began («‘‘The prison cell smelled like rotten meat” – Shocking testimonies of homosexuals tortured in Chechnya», 2017). They were revealed initially by the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in April 2017 (Kramer, 2017). 

Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Republic, denied everything, claiming that no homosexuals exist within the region (Palazzo, 2017). Action was taken globally by Non-Governmental Organizations, citizens, activists and politicians (Corner, 2017; Gilchrist, 2017; Martosko, 2017). Some countries, like Canada, officially opened their borders for the victims coming from Chechnya (Gilchrist, 2017). At the same time, the Kremlin announced that investigations on the matter would be carried out, at the behest of Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova (Villarreal, 2017)

During the summer, Kadyrov and his Minister of Foreign Affairs denied once more the mere existence of gay people while talking to journalists (Dearden, 2017; Evans, 2017). In October 2017 the Media’s interest focused on Maxim Lapunov, the first gay man that openly reported the torture he suffered (Carroll, 2017), as wells as on the rumored death of missing singer Zelim Bakaev, a death that probably came in the aftermath of the persecution against the LGBTQI community (Farand, 2017).

The present study examined the ways in which an array of Greek and international Mass Media covered this persecution, which targeted at «sexual otherness» in the Republic. According to Staszak, otherness is the result of a discursive process through which a dominant in-group creates one or man dominated out-groups. These out-groups are created through the stigmatization of a difference –real or imagined– that is presented as a reason for potential discrimination against them (2009).

My focus specifically on sexual otherness derives from my will to enrich the Greek LGBTQI studies, which remain rather under-developed even after the impressive research carried out in recent years (cf. Galanou, 2014;  Karathanasi, 2013; Khatzitriphon & Papazisi, 2007; Makri-Tsilipakou,  2014;  Papathanasiou & Apostolidis,  2013;  Politis,  2006;  Thermos,  2015; Tzamalouka,  2002; Vevi & Samouri,  2018). What is more, this study aspires to deviate from the usual «Western-centric» viewpoint through which the relationship between the LGBTQI community and Mass Media is examined in the literature.

2. PORTRAYAL OF THE LGBTQI COMMUNITY IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND THE LGBTQI MEDIA[1]

2.1. Mainstream Media

Although the first organized communities of LGBTQI people in American cities had already appeared in the 1940s and the 1950s, until the 1960s homosexuality was rarely mentioned implicitly in the news (d’Emilio, 2007; Streitmatter, 1995), and a «symbolic annihilation» from the Media’s was imposed (Gross, 1991, p. 21). Homosexuality was perceived not only as a deviance from sexual normality but as a deviance from national security too (Serykh, 2017). The scaremongering of McCarthyism and the anti-communist climate of the time contributed to this. In 1969, a police raid at the Stonewall Inn bar, a meeting place for LGBTQI community members, led for the first time to news reports that, despite still being homophobic, spoke about homosexuality in less criticizing tone than before (Alwood, 1996, as cited in Armstrong & Crage, 2006).

In the same period, newspapers in the United Kingdom seemed to have a self-censoring stance on homosexuality by making almost no references to it. This changed gradually and editors began to speak more openly about it, yet treating it as a «social problem» (Buckle, 2012, p. 65). In the 1970s, a few British newspapers began covering the demonstrations of the LGBTQI community more objectively (Buckle, 2012).

The situation was similar in Germany (Grau, 1999; Moeller, 2010), Slovenia (Kuhar, 2003), Portugal (Santos, 2016) and Spain (Sotelo, 2000).

During the 1980s, the LGBTQI community –especially gay men− was really strongly identified with AIDS, which was falsely named «the gay plague» (Greene, 2007). Many mainstream American newspapers had a tendency for puritanism, fearing that otherwise they would isolate their reader or deviate from the guidelines of the Authorities (Nelkin, 1991; Seidman, 1988).

In Great Britain a carefully planned «AIDS spectacle» dominated Mass Media, through which gay patients were always represented as the chastised ones, in contrast to the traditional, other-sex family concept, that survived and ultimately reinforced its central position within society (Watney, 1987, p. 80). In France the disease was considered a repercussion of America’s gay culture influence. In the Soviet Union it was treated as a result of (the American) capitalism (Nelkin, 1991). In France, West Germany and Yugoslavia the Mass Media framed AIDS as a threat imported from the USA (Jones, 1992; Kuhar, 2003; Nelkin, 1991).

During the 1990s, the LGBTQI community began to be presented in a less pathologic way. As a result, its struggles for rights (e.g. same-sex marriage and child adoptions) were brought to the fore more often and the community itself was treated as a very promising consumer group (Branchik, 2002; Kuhar, 2003). Still, sincere acceptance was still absent. LGBTQI people were not considered a danger for society anymore, yet they were still presented as stereotypic, peculiar and «exotic» exceptions to the heterosexual rule (Gross, 2001; Walters, 2001).

During the 2000s and the 2010s, coverage of same-sex families was significantly boosted in the American and the British mainstream Press (Jowett, 2014; Jowett & Peel, 2010; Landeau, 2009; Shugart, 2005; Rodriguez & Blumell, 2014), simultaneously with an increasing legal recognition of such family structures by many states globally (Takács, Szalma & Bartus, 2016; Tang, 2019). In the USA same-sex marriage was presented through a «tradition/freedom of religion VS equality for everyone» divisive dipole (Adams, 2012; Panm, Meng & Zhou, 2010; Rodriguez & Blumell, 2014).

In Africa and Asia, two continents characterized by strong disapproval of homosexuality (Pew Research Center, 2013), many Mass Media consider the LGBTQI community a harmful spinoff of the West’s cultural influence (Adamczyk, Kim & Paradis, 2015; Strand, 2012) and capitalism (Huang, 2018; Persson, 2013). In Russia «propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations» among minors (Persson, 2015, p. 257) was penalized in 2013, on the basis of protecting the morality and health of children (Chan, 2017).

2.2. LGBTQI Media

The first LGBTQI magazines were founded within the conservative American society of the 1950s (d’Emilio, 1983). Their goal was to publish educational information on homosexuality and to tone down the negative stance of the Authorities or of society on it (d’Emilio, 1983).

During the 1960s and the 1970s, The Advocate (initially named: The Los Angeles Advocate) was the dominant LGBTQI magazine in the USA. It was the first magazine to treat queer people as potential buyers with big spending power that can be easily targeted (Sender, 2001).

In the same period, similar LGBTQI magazines were founded in the United Kingdom, West Germany and Sweden (Buckle, 2012; Calder, 2015; Ewing, 2016; Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist & Andersson, 2016).

During the 1980s, the spread of AIDS in the USA stemmed the tide of advertisements published in LGBTQI Media (Sender, 2001). The Advocate covered the disease in an individualistic and apolitical manner, appealing almost exclusively to white gay men (Sender, 2001). Other LGBTQI Media reproduced the conservative narrative of mainstream newspapers (Nelkin, 1991). In Australia and the United Kingdom, the famous LGBTQI magazines adopted a more radical-left-wing agenda on the matter (Buckle, 2012; Ware, 2017).

In the 1990s, a «renaissance» of the gay Press took place in the USA (Hitchcock, 2017, p. 82). The Advocate as well as other magazines «refined» their topics. Together they defined how the ideal gay male should be (Sender, 2001). In the United Kingdom the Attitude magazine, first published in the middle of the 1990s, had a similar kind of influence (Padva, 2002).

From the 2000s onwards, some American LGBTQI Media in the USA have been merged, while others offer multimedia content to their readers (Hitchcock, 2017). Articles or advertisements concerning appearance, body care and entertainment comprise the majority of their content (Saucier & Caron, 2008).

The openly politicized identity of the first LGBTQI Media is a thing of the past. In addition, representation of the LGBTQI’s community diversity is still missing, as the advertisements and cover pages of many such magazines depict mostly white, well-shaped and young men (Roy, 2012; Saucier & Caron, 2008).

 

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS, SAMPLE & METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research Questions

The research questions posed were:

• Q1: To what extent did the Media cover the persecution?
• Q2: Which words dominated the coverage of the persecution?
• Q3: Which news frames concerning sexual otherness, more specifically the LGBTQI community, prevailed in the persecution coverage?
• Q4: Did the Media lay emphasis on the violation of human rights or on the political consequences of the persecution?
• Q5: Was there any differentiation on the persecution’s coverage between mainstream Media and LGBTQI media?
• Q6: Did the Media cover the persecution with the aim to sincerely support LGBTQI Chechens or just to give a veneer of forwardness to their news agenda?

3.2. Sample

The sample of this study consisted of 321 digital Media articles. It was a cross-cultural sample, including five different countries: the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Greece. The articles were retrieved from the official websites of 17 Media in total, both mainstream and LGBTQI-focused. Their political orientation ranges from the center-left to the conservative, «alternative right». All the articles of the sample were published from April to October 2017.

The USA and the United Kingdom were included in the sample because of their liberal-minded stance on sexual otherness, as well as because of the global influence their Media ecosystem has. Canada was additionally included, as it was one of the few western countries welcoming and openly supporting gay men from Chechnya.  Russia was included as the country were the persecution took place and as the conservative

«opponent» of the West’s progressiveness. Greece was included as a country standing somewhere in the middle between liberal western countries and conservative Russia with regard to equality of LGBTQI people.

 

3.3. Methodology

For the analysis of the sample a mixed research method was implemented. It consisted of a quantitative and a qualitative part. The quantitative part preceded the qualitative. The concept of «news frame» was central to the analysis. A news fame is the central organizing idea of a reportage, which determines how each piece of news is presented to the public (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989).

The quantitative analysis aimed to count the volume of coverage by the sample’s Media on the persecution, as well as the words appearing more frequently in the sample for each country and the LGBTQI Media individually. The total count of articles and words per Medium was calculated. Moreover, the words’ frequency was calculated with the use of the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, to which the whole sample’s text corpus was copied before analysis. Ultimately, the 58 most frequent words in the sample were detected. Then, individual pivot tables were created for each country and for the LGBTQI Media, sorted by the volume of these words.

For the qualitative part of the study the content analysis method was used. Through this method the sample’s sentences were classified/coded to groups of words «with similar meaning or connotations» (Weber, 1990, as cited in Stemler, 2001, p. 4).  A software specialized in qualitative analysis, QDA Miner Lite, was used. Coding was based on six news frames:

• Persecution mentions frame: LGBTQI Chechens and those in support of them are persecuted and experience negative consequences (e.g. imprisonment, torture, death).
• Hate speech frame: LGBTQI Chechens receive degrading characterizations by the Authorities of their country, owing to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Taboo frame: homosexuality threatens Chechnya’s religion, culture, morality and tradition. For this reason, it is oppressed, concealed and penalized.
• Solidarity frame: the persecution against LGBTQI Chechens provokes reactions of solidarity, both by civil society and state institutions.
• Normalization frame: LGBTQI identities are actively promoted by the Media and journalists as something normal and natural. LGBTQI Chechens are portrayed as people with needs and rights to human dignity and love like anybody else.
•  Political impact frame: The persecution against LGBTQI Chechens evokes reactions on a global political level.

4. FINDINGS

4.1. Quantitative Analysis (Research Questions Q1 & Q2)

It could be said that the coverage volume in the American Media was determined by their political orientation. The Huffington Post and The New York Times, both centre-left Media, dedicated the most words to the issue. In the United Kingdom, the LGBTQI persecution was covered intensively by The Daily Mail newspaper in spite of its conservative agenda. Still, the newspaper’s coverage included not only original reporting but also multiple publications of the same articles or republications of articles from other Media. Moreover, the small coverage volume of the center-left The Guardian newspaper, compared to other Media of the United Kingdom, could be characterized as something unexpected.

In Russia, the Sputnik news agency dedicated few words to the issue. A reason for this might be the possible news agency’s compliance with the official narrative of the Russian government. The government questioned the reports on the persecution of gay Chechens and never proceeded to a thorough investigation on the issue. In the past, Sputnik news has been criticized as an organization controlled by the Kremlin (Alandete, 2018; de Pedro & Iriarte, 2017) On the contrary, the English-speaking online newspaper The Moscow Times dedicated quadruple words on the issue. This probably happened in the context of a possible criticism against the policies of the Russian President Vladimir Putin (Luhn, 2015) or because it appeals mostly to foreigners from the West due to the use of the English language in its publications.

The coverage in Canada was rather limited. One would expect a bigger coverage of the persecution, given that Canada was one of the host countries for Chechen LGBTQI refugees and that the newspaper endorses social justice and individual liberties («About the Toronto Star», 2018).

The coverage was rather limited in Greece as well. This was rather expected, as Greece did not have any direct involvement in this specific issue and that homosexuality remains a taboo for a significant amount of the Greek Society («What the Greeks believe», 2018). In any case, it is noteworthy that the center-left The Editors’ Newspaper features almost the same words volume with the conservative the Lead Story newspaper.

Concerning LGBTQI Media, The Advocate and Antivirus Magazine dedicated a large amount of words on the persecution. This is logical, as their audience could probably identify easier with the victims. Contrarily, the Gay Times dedicated very few words. This might come as a surprise for a magazine focusing on LGBTQI issues.

Upon summing up the total word count of all articles for each month, I observed a rapid decrease in the Media’s interest just one month after the revelations of Novaya Gazeta. Especially after May, the coverage volume was significantly reduced. Many Media stopped covering the issue completely or halted coverage for a few months and revisited it in September or October. Thus, it seems that, in general, the sample’s Media treated the topic as just current affairs and did not spend much time or resources on delving further into it.

The 58 most frequent words include —among others— some of the story’s «protagonists», recurring mentions to specific places, as well as words that demonstrate a clear connotation, either positive or negative.

Concerning the «protagonists», state officials and politicians (e.g. Kadyrov, Putin, Merkel, Macron, members of the Russian government) monopolized the Media’s interest in all the countries of the sample. As a result, noticeably fewer attention was given to supporters of the victims —especially in the Russian Media— as well as to the victims themselves.

As for the «places», mentions of Russia (Russia, Moscow) and Chechnya (Chechnya, Grozny) dominated the sample. This is rather logical, as this is where the persecution took place. Far less were the mentions of Europe (Europe, France, Germany) and Canada (Canada). France, Germany and Canada were quite active in condemning the persecution, by sending démarches to Vladimir Putin or welcoming LGBTQI Chechen refugees.

Thirteen other frequent words had a clearly negative connotation (e.g. Crisis, Violate, Abuse, Arrest, Death, Fear, Kill, Persecution, Torture). These occurred frequently in the Media of all countries, as well as in LGBTQI Media. Nonetheless, there were also eight frequent words with positive connotation (e.g. Freedom, Hope, Pride, Rights, Safety). Remarkably, the word «Pride» was very little used by LGBTQI Media, although it has been co-opted by members of this specific community for several decades now.

4.2. Qualitative Analysis (Research Questions Q3-Q6)

The content analysis demonstrated that the news frame appearing most frequently in the sample’s articles was the «persecution mentions» one (34.30% of all cases, 902 cases, 60.179 words). This news frame was used for coding excerpts like detailed descriptions on how the victims were arrested, put in jail and tortured. In addition, with this frame I coded some excerpts referring either to threats against Novaya Gazeta’s journalists by religious leaders of the Republic, or to arrests of demonstrators supporting LGBTQI Chechens in big Russian cities. Finally, a few excerpts describing how Chechen LGBTQI refugees receive negative behavior by Russian-speaking immigrants in western host countries were also coded with this news frame.

The second most frequent frame was the «political impact» one (29.20% of all cases, 766 cases, 35.291 words). This frame included excerpts focusing on how the political personnel of Europe, the US and the Kremlin reacted in a number of issues: on the persecution itself; on a diplomatic relations crisis between Russia and Canada, caused by the latter’s unilateral initiative to accept Checehn refugees; on the constant denial of the head of the Republic and other members of his government that an organized plan of persecution and murders existed.

The «taboo» frame comes right after (20.10% of all cases, 529 cases, 9.564 words). This frame included excerpts about the honor killings perpetrated by the victims’ relatives upon discovering their sexual orientation. Recurrent themes were the «cleaning of honor with blood», a typicality in Chechnya, the total denial that homosexuals exist in the region and the characterization of LGBTQI Chechens as people with «non-traditional sexual orientation» by locals.

The fourth most frequent news frame was the «solidarity» one (11% of all cases, 290 cases, 17.086 words). It included the coverage of solidarity initiatives by citizens and states (e.g. demonstrations, rescue efforts by organizations, asylum grant), official support statements by celebrities and exhortations by journalists themselves for the support of LGBTQI Chechens.

The «hate speech» news frame followed (4,5% of all cases, 118 cases, 2.590 words). It is worth noting that none of the sample’s Media, not even the most conservative ones, turned to such kind of language itself. This news frame included only statements made by the Authorities and the government of Chechnya about the victims. The lack of hate speech use by journalists is a sign of significant made in the Media portrayal of the LGBTQI community compared to the past.

The «normalization» news frame was by far the least frequent (0.80% of all cases, 21 cases, 486 words). Only very few expressions used by the
editors were coded with this frame. For example: «Love is love», «Gay men are part of humanity», «[Gay men] are people who want to love and be loved, like anybody else». Apart from this, the Media also published similar endorsement quotes by celebrities.

It could be argued that, based on the news frames of the articles, two parallel narratives existed in the coverage of this story: an «official» one, (mentions of the story’s events and the political impact it had) and an «alternative» one (mentions of solidarity action for LGBTQI Chechens taken by some «unsung heroes», focus on the sociocultural factors that led to the persecution).

Based on these findings, one could say the sample’s media showed equal interest both to this human rights crisis and the political repercussions fired up by it.

On the one hand, all the Media presented this human rights breach extensively. The «persecution mentions» frame was the first or second most frequent news frame in almost the entire timespan included in the sample. Moreover, words like «rights», «crisis» and «violate» appeared often throughout the sample.

Apart from this, through the «taboo» frame the Media tried to analyze —to some extent— the deeper cultural or social conditions owing to which the Chechen society applauded fervently the mass detentions, the humiliation and the honor killings of LGBTQI people.

Still, the effectiveness of this effort is weakened by the fact that most articles had a deeply superficial, current-affairs approach of the topic. The news frame of «normalization» was minimally used, trimming down the portrayal of the victims as normal people with the same needs and rights as anybody else. What is more, quotes of official political sources were the norm rather than testimonies of activists or the victims.

All the above, combined with the frequent use of the «political impact» frame, demonstrate that the political/institutional dimension of the story remained a top priority for the Media, even though the topic was appropriate for a more anthropocentric approach. The challenge for longer and, above all, meaningful coverage of human rights crises seems to be still on. It would be good if both Media theorists and journalists themselves contemplated seriously on this challenge.

Moving on to the coverage differences between Mainstream Media and LGBTQI Media, the analysis showed that these two Media types coincide to a large extent on the percentages of the various news frames.

News Frame	Percentage of Total Cases (Mainstream Media)	Percentage of Total Cases (LGBTQI Media)
Persecution Mentions	34,10%	35,40%
Solidarity	10,40%	12,60%
Normalization	0,80%	0,80%
Hate Speech	4,40%	4,70%
Political Impact	28,80%	30,10%
Taboo	21,50%	16,40%

The very scarce use of «normalization» appeared in the LGBTQI Media of the sample too. This was rather unpredictable, given that, historically, LGBTQI Media have been trying to assert human rights and to socially integrate members of the respective community. This finding may confirm that LGBTQI Media have lost the activist-political role they once had.

The «taboo» news frame is scarcely used in these Media as well. This finding could be interpreted as a low interest of LGBTQI Media on showcasing the cultural and religious status quo that led to the persecution.

Apart from the aforementioned quantitative data, it should also be noted that there was an intensely current-affairs approach of coverage in LGBTQI Media as well. The articles and the words volume dropped dramatically right after the first month of coverage. Actually, The Gay Times did not publish a single article on the topic for several months in a row.

In general, it was the same set of events that was covered in both Media categories. The only exclusive story of LGBTQI Media was related to the creation of a calendar with sensual photos of male models, aiming to gather donations for gay Chechens fleeing to Canada. Moreover, The Advocate website published an article written by a transgender woman, Leila, who fled to the USA, as she was persecuted in Chechnya and Russia.

Regarding the final research question, it was rather difficult to give a clear answer on whether the sample’s Media covered the persecution with the aim to sincerely support LGBTQI Chechens or just to give a veneer of forwardness to their news agenda.

On the one hand, the present study indeed documented an improvement on LGBTQI coverage compared to previous decades. This time, journalists did not turn a blind eye to the human rights breach of LGBTQI people, nor did they refer to them in a degrading and abusive way. Actually, in some cases they even openly encouraged readers to help (for instance by signing petitions or donating money).

On the other hand, the concerns already expressed should not be ignored; that is, the superficial, current-affairs approach, the scarcity of victims and unofficial sources within the coverage narrative, the minimum effort to normalize the LGBTQI community.

In any case, journalists’ perspective, at least in the West, seems to have made a turn: In the past gay people were presented as a threat to social norms and values. Now they are portrayed as victims of religious fanaticism, conservatism and political agendas, especially when not protected by the liberal values of Western democracies. They are people deprived of the human rights they are entitled to.

5. CONCLUSION

Taking everything into account, this study confirmed the findings of the literature.

The coverage trends of the two Russian Media in the sample rather substantiated the findings of Gehlback (2010) and Jackson (2016) concerning the influence of the government on journalists. The Sputnik news agency, criticized in the past for its manipulation by the Kremlin (Alandete, 2018; de Pedro & Iriarte, 2017), published just 2.168 words about the persecution, in contrast to the anti-Kremlin Moscow Times newspaper (Luhn, 2015), that published 8.489.

With regard to the «protagonists» of the news story, official sources appeared very often in the articles. Thus, previous research findings demonstrating a clear preference of Media for official sources (e.g.: Berkowitz & Beach, 1983; Brown, Bybee, Wearden & Straughan, 1987; Bullock, 2008; Lee, Maslog & Kim, 2006) were confirmed.

Many of the most frequent words appearing in the articles had a negative connotation, coinciding with the findings of Jenicek, Wong and Lee (2009). Their study, which focused on the Media portrayal of LGBTQI asylum seekers in Canada in 2001, proved that many Media laid emphasis on the violence and discrimination these people experienced in their homelands.

The qualitative analysis also confirmed the existing literature: real and noticeable progress has been made in the portrayal of the LGBTQI community by Media.

Yet, the scarcity of the «normalization» news frame in my sample leaves room for concern. It seems that, most of the times, the Media failed to stress the natural, human hypostasis of LGBTQI Chechens. And even when they did so, they often adopted the oversimplistic narrative of the progressive West VS the regressive East. A similar kind of stereotype was detected, to a larger extent, in the aforementioned study of Jenicek, Wong and Lee (2009).

My research also showed that the LGBTQI Media have stepped out of the radical agenda and the diversity they had in the past. The almost identical way of coverage between the two Media types of the sample corroborates another finding of previous literature: in recent decades  the LGBTQI Media have been gradually converging with the themes and economic models of the mainstream Media (cf. Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist & Andersson, 2016; Bérubé, 2001; Nelkin, 1991; Sender, 2001; Streitmatter, 1995, as cited in in Hitchcock, 2017).

In the future this research could be replicated with a more complete sample (mostly with regard to the number of Russian and Canadian Media included) and a larger timespan. What is more, a completely new study on the coverage of this crisis, based on the «peace journalism» model would be interesting. Peace journalism is a journalism model which «contributes to the process of making and keeping peace respectively to the peaceful settlement of conflicts» (Hanitzsch, 2004, p. 484).

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[1] The term «LGBTQI Media/LGBTQI Press» will be used in this study to describe all the media that appeal almost exclusively to the LGBTQI community and feature a relevant array of topics.

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