Women in a Human Rights Media Discourse During the Armed Conflict in the East of Ukraine

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Women in a Human Rights Media Discourse During the Armed Conflict in the East of Ukraine

Natalya Sydorenko, Anastasiia Volobuieva, Olesia Zental

Abstract

women media discourse armed conflict

The aim of this study is to analyze the representation of women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine in 2014-2019. Thus, critical discourse analysis was conducted using monitoring methods, qualitative content analysis, comparison, analysis, synthesis and generalization. For the first time, methodological innovation was introduced by combination of critical discourse analysis with agenda-setting theory through application of an integrative approach to the research. Within media texts analysis, the discourse practice of using genres, interdiscursivity and intertextuality was identified. The existing social practice in Ukraine was studied which included women's defence of their rights to serve in various army units; at the same time, one could observe a struggle between political discourse and the ideology of paternalism as well as between human rights protection discourse and ideology of feminism.

An analysis of social practice was also conducted, and for the first time, a methodological innovation was implemented by combining critical discourse analysis with agenda-setting theory using an integrative approach in the research. In particular, it was found that due to the media discourse reproduction of social inequality, members of the public competed for their agenda with politicians. It was found that in case of women's struggle for their rights in the army during the armed conflict, there was a conflict between human rights discourse of feminism ideology and political discourse of paternalism ideology. This study shows that in the studied conflict's discriminatory situation, women succeded in defending their rights to serve in the army during the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine, and, accordingly, human rights discourse succeded in the media space.

KEYWORDS: women; Ukraine; armed conflict; human rights protection; media.

Резюме

Жінки у дискурсі з прав людини під час збройного конфлікту на сході України

Сидоренко Наталія Миколаївна, д. філол. н., проф., Інститут журналістики Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка; Волобуєва Анастасія Михайлівна, к.н. із соц. ком., доц., Інститут журналістики Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка; Зенталь Олеся Юріївна, Інститут журналістики Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка.

Мета дослідження - проаналізувати представлення жінок у правозахисному медіадискурсі під час збройного конфлікту на сході України в 2014-2019 рр. Для досягнення мети було проведено критичний дискурс-аналіз за допомогою методів моніторингу, якісного кон- тент-аналізу, порівняння, аналізу, синтезу та узагальнення. Було проведено аналіз медіате- кстів на предмет виявлення елементів транзитивності, рівнів агентивності, ступенів модальності та наявності фемінітивів. На основі здійсненого аналізу текстів, було проаналізовано дискурсивну практику на предмет жанрів, інтердискурсивності та інтертекстуальнос- ті. Зокрема, було виявлено використання у публікаціях медіа художньо-публіцистичних, аналітичних та інформаційних жанрів із кількісним домінуванням останніх. Було установлено високий рівень інтердискурсивності у розглянутих публікаціях, зокрема поєднання політичного та правозахисного дискурсів. Крім того, ми виявили інтертекстуальний ланцюг у всіх проаналізованих публікаціях, які були пов'язані між собою не лише тематично, але і таким елементом мережевої інтертекстуальності як гіперпосилання.

Також було проведено аналіз соціальної практики, вперше здійснено методологічне нововведення шляхом об'єднання критичного дискурс-аналізу з теорією порядку денного за допомогою інтегративного підходу у наукових дослідженнях. Зокрема, було встановлено, що оскільки медіадискурс відтворює соціальну нерівність, то представники громадськості конкурували за свій порядок денний з політиками. Виявлено, що у випадку боротьби жінок під час збройного конфлікту за свої права в армії, відбувалася боротьба між правоза- хисним дискурсом з ідеологією фемінізму та політичним дискурсом з ідеологією патерналізму. У розглянутій конфліктній дискримінаційній ситуації перемогли жінки - у захисті своїх прав щодо доступу до посад в армії під час збройного конфлікту на сході України - і, відповідно, в медіапросторі переміг правозахисний дискурс.

Ключові слова: жінки; Україна; збройний конфлікт; захист прав людини; засоби масової інформації.

Резюме

Сидоренко Н.М., Волобуєва А.М., Зенталь О.Ю.

Женщины в дискурсе по правам человека, во время вооруженного конфликта на востоке Украины

Цель исследования - проанализировать представление женщин в правозащитном медиадискурсе во время вооруженного конфликта на востоке Украины в 2014-2019 гг. Для достижения цели были проведены критический дискурс-анализ с помощью методов мониторинга, качественного контент-анализа, сравнения, анализа, синтеза и обобщения. Был проведен анализ текстов медиа на предмет выявления элементов транзитивности, уровней агентивности, ступеней модальности и наличия феминитивов. На основании проведенного анализа текстов была проанализирована дискурсивная практика на предмет жанров, ин- тердискурсивности и интертекстуальности. В частности, было выявлено использование в публикациях СМИ художественно-публицистических, аналитических и информационных жанров с количественным преобладанием последних. Был установлен высокий уровень интердискурсивности в рассмотренных публикациях, в частности сочетание политического и правозащитного дискурса. Кроме того, мы обнаружили интертекстуальную связь во всех проанализированных публикациях, которые были связаны между собой не только тематически, но и таким элементом сетевой интертекстуальности, как гиперссылки.

Также был проведен анализ социальной практики, впервые осуществлено методологическое нововведение путем объединения критического дискурс-анализа теории повестки дня с помощью интегративного подхода в научных исследованиях. В частности, было установлено, что поскольку медиадискурс воспроизводит социальное неравенство, то представители общественности конкурировали из-за своей повестки дня с политиками. Выявлено, что в случае борьбы женщин во время вооруженного конфликта за свои права в армии, происходила борьба между правозащитным дискурсом с идеологией феминизма и политическим дискурсом с идеологией патернализма. В рассматриваемой конфликтной дискриминационной ситуации победили женщины - в защите своих прав доступа к должностям в армии во время вооруженного конфликта на востоке Украины - и, соответственно, в медиапространстве победил правозащитный дискурс.

Ключевые слова: женщины; Украина; вооруженный конфликт; защита прав человека; средства массовой информации.

Introduction

The armed conflict in the east of Ukraine over the past five years has demonstrated the important role of media in the reality's reproduction and construction. This role is reinforced when it comes to a numerically larger part of the population - female part. According to the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, women in Ukraine represent 53.7% of the population [1]. Researchers Sarah Macharia and Pamela Moriniere believe that the task of people working in media is to make media a mirror of the society, and therefore, a fair coverage of gender aspects should become a priority if media are committed to fully reflect the role of women in the society [2]. At the same time, in the Ukrainian media environment there is gender asymmetry [3], which is an integral part of gender inequality reinforced in conditions of armed conflict. Therefore, achievement of gender equality should be an important goal of media during the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. War operations in the east of Ukraine are regularly covered in the Ukrainian media messages, which also include human rights media discourse.

Since the authors of this study are convinced in the importance and urgency of achieving equality in the rights and opportunities provided to women and men, and also believe that there is gender asymmetry in the Ukrainian media environment, they considered it necessary to carry out the research on the representation of women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine.

The results of the existing Ukrainian studies analyzing the selected topics prove that neither in Ukraine nor abroad, there are no researches dedicated to women in the human rights media discourse during an armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine. This fact makes our scientific research the first in this particular field of studies. Nevertheless, we provide a review of the existing findings.

The method of critical discourse analysis was used in the thesis “The Critical Discourse © 2019 Актуальні питання масової комунікації

Analysis of Ukraine Crisis as Represented in the News: A Critical Discourse Analysis” [4] to study the role of language in constructing ideological positions in newspapers of different countries which covered political crisis in Ukraine in 2013-2014. The comparison of selected articles demonstrates how news agencies form public opinion; it also shows how news is used for legitimizing specific political decisions and actions. As for the methodology, the work “Through a media lens - The Crimean Crisis” [5] is interesting as it presents a combination of discourse analysis method (in the theory of Laclau and Mouffe) with linguistic theory in international media analysis of the Crimean crisis of 2014. The visual and textual practices of news framing and the role the news media plays in conflict in Ukraine were highlighted in the article `Naturalizing the new cold war: The geopolitics of framing the Ukrainian conflict in four European newspapers' [6]. At the same time, there was no research in Ukraine dedicated to women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine.

Through application of critical discourse analysis approach, this goal was achieved by com- pleteting such tasks as to analyze media texts, to analyze the discursive practice, and to analyze social practices.

1. Research methods

Before describing further application of critical discourse analysis approach in our study, we would like to point out what exactly we designate as the media discourse concept. We take the view that “media discourse is any type of discourse that is implemented in the field of mass communication and is produced by media” [7, 15]. In our study, attention is focused on human rights media discourse, the units of which are texts from media publications, which, on the one hand, is the result of discursive practice, and on the other hand, its instrument.

To achieve the goal of the study we decided to use critical discourse analysis according to the Theory of Norman Fairclough as the most relevant for our goal scientific approach. In particular, we used the main pillars of theory of critical discourse analysis described by Norman Fairclough in his works [8-10] and generalized by scholars Marianne Jorgensen and Louise Phillips in the book “Discourse analysis as Theory and Method” [11].

Discourse is a form of social practice, which, on the one hand, constitutes social world, and on the other hand, is included in other social practices. Since Norman Fairclough's approach is a text-oriented discourse analysis, in our empirical study we focused on analyzing media texts.

In accordance with critical discourse analysis methodology in the Norman Fairclough's Theory, our study comprised four stages. The first stage is finding the research problem. Since the purpose of the study was motivated by the need to critically interpret a particular social problem as a form of inequality and injustice and, ultimately, to contribute to resolving this problem, we have chosen gender inequality problem, in particular, in equal representation of women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine.

The second stage is selecting material for the research. In order to carry it out, we selected publications for the period December 28, 2014 - January 19, 2019 from the Ukrainian internet publication “Novynarnya”, the website of the campaign against sexism in politics and the website “Povaha”, the website of the radio station “Hromadske Radio”, thewebsite of the editorial house “Human Rights Information Center”, Internet media “Livyy Bereh”, information and news portal “Segodnya”, the website of the Ukrainian editorial house “Deutsche Welle”.

Considering the peculiarities of the chosen methodology of critical discourse analysis within Norman Fairclough's Theory, it is worth explaining how the sample population has been formed, since the first level of three-level analysis envisaged analysis of texts (media publications). Materials selection has been determined geographically (Ukraine), thematically (women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine) and chronologically (2014-2019). The primary selection of materials included search for publications using the combination of the keywords «women», «rights», «women's rights», «human rights», «ATO», «JFO», «war» in online search engine «Google». Based on the primary selection of the most relevant publications in media, the secondary selection of materials included only the intertextual chain in the analyzed publications, namely - the search for texts that were related not only thematically, but also by such element of network intertextuality as hyperlinks. Since the critical discourse analysis feature is the ability to choose any dataset for analysis, 15 publications were selected for this study, which proved to be enough for a three-level analysis.

In addition, we would like to clarify the peculiarities of our analysis of texts in the context of feminitives. Ukraine is the country where there still is a patriarchal culture with deeply rooted gender stereotypes, which, according to the United Nations in Ukraine (UN House in Ukraine) is one of the examples of system gender inequality in Ukraine. That is why in Ukraine (initially, following the initiatives of feminism and gender equality advocates, and later with the support from the Ukrainian government), the use of feminine nouns for denoting the female was introduced which derived from single-rooted nouns of the masculine category, denoting male, and are paired to them. Typically, feminitives denote occupations, social affiliations, and place of residence. For an analogy, we give examples of some feminitives in English: actor (actor) - actress (actress), duke (duke) - duchess (duchess), etc. However, in Ukraine, the use of feminitives is an important linguistic practice aimed at establishing gender equality in the Ukrainian society. The need for the introduction of feminitives at the national level was recognized by the Ukrainian Government by approving a new edition of the Ukrainian orthography on May 22, 2019 in which, for the first time since the proclamation of Ukraine's independence, the mechanism of the formation of feminitives was specified.

The third stage is the implementation of critical discourse analysis. This stage of the study became the basis and included a three-level analysis - text (media publications), discursive practices, and social practices. In particular, text analysis included linguistic texts characteristics as to their transitivity, agentiveness and modality of media publications. Discursive practice analysis included the analysis of the specifics of production and consumption of media publications. It is critical to note that Norman Fairclough, the founder of critical discourse analysis, did not study methods of texts production and decoding from a sociological point of view. He analyzed texts from a linguistic point of view, determining discourses on which they were based on (interdiscur- sivity) and how they used other texts intertextually.Therefore, we analyzed the intertextuality and interdiscursivity of the texts, and also using the Fairclough's example, we minimized it to the level of explanation of general mechanism of texts' production within media production and their consumption by the audience through mass media communication channels. The analysis of social practices consisted of the study of a broad social context in which specific communicative events existed. This analysis was conducted with the help of Norman Fairclough's multidisciplinary approach, in our case, the integration of critical discourse analysis of media texts and political approach, which, in addition to analyzing social practices, allowed us to study various aspects of ideology and hegemony in media discourse.

The fourth stage is the provision of recommendations. The purpose of critical discourse analysis is not only the explanation of social practices, but also the democratization of the society through promotion of egalitarian and liberal discourses. Having analyzed representation of women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the eastern Ukraine, we focused on the importance of equality of human rights and freedom, equality of rights and freedom of women and men. Thus, when providing the recommendations, we were guided by the concepts of «technology of discourse» and critical awareness of language. According to Norman Fairclough, «technology of discourse» means using discourse research results to change existing discursive practices. At the same time, adoption of critical awareness of language is used to enable people to eliminate restrictions that exist in their lives, which is preceded by recognition of the fact that discourse functions as a form of social practice that reflects and exacerbates unequal distribution of power. We emphasize and hope that this stage will allow the Ukrainian citizens to

achieve equality of rights and freedom of women and men as well as equal distribution of power not only in media discourse but also in all spheres of life.

Having completed the review of four stages of critical discourse analysis, we would like to emphasize that the strong reason for choosing this scientific approach for conducting the study was its interdisciplinary nature, applied character and provision of theoretical and methodological freedom to scientists in their research. As a result, we have complemented the approach of critical discourse analysis by agenda-setting theory specified in the concept of James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers (1996), according to which creation of information agenda and its development depends on who dominates in this process - public (public agenda), politics (political agenda) or media (media agenda). The peculiarity of the model suggested by the scholars is interaction and simultaneous competition of each of these agendas.

In conclusion, it should be noted that although critical discourse analysis is the main approach in our study, its application was made possible through the use of monitoring methodology for selection of media materials that highlighted women in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. Based on the prevailing sampling of media materials, method of qualitative content analysis and its auxiliary methods of comparison, analysis, synthesis and generalization were applied.

2. Results and discussion

Since we have already completed the first two stages of the study, i.e. choice of the research problem and selection of material, we focus on the core stage of the study - critical discourse analysis. We would like to start with the first level of critical discourse analysis - analysis of texts of the selected publications; for the convenience of perception, examples with quotes and results are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Analysis of publications' texts (the contents are translated into English from Ukrainian and Russian).

Critical discourse analysis is an interpretative method, therefore, since we have already investigated the linguistic peculiarities of human rights media discourse, we start the second level of our study - analysis of discursive practice. It involves analysis of the specifics of production and consumption of media publications, we follow example of Norman Fairclough's, the founder of this approach, who focused on the definition of interdiscursivity and intertextuality due to complexity of conducting such analysis at this stage.

Since media discourse is any kind of discourse implemented in the field of mass communication and produced by media, we have defined the intertextuality and levels of interdiscursivity in the publications of each media selected for the analysis.

The publication «The order forbidding recruiting women for service in the army» (14 January, 2016) produced by internet media «Novynarnya» is focused on the order issued by the Commander of the military unit A1314 on December 4, 2016 which forbids recruiting women for army service. The publication contains political discourse as it focuses on forbiddance to recruit women for military service, and it also contains human rights discourse, as it presents the position of a journalist and volunteer Olena Shargovska, who advocated the right of women to serve in the army.

The content of this publication is intertextually related to the next publication «Invisible Battalion March»: The General Staff canceled the order forbidding recruiting women for contract service in the army. Photo (21 January, 2016) produced by the same media, which also has a high level of interdiscursivity due to presence of several discourses. In particular, political discourse is presented in the information about the Order issued by Ministry of Defense of Ukraine No. 337 from May 27, 2014, which did not allow women to serve in the army on «male» positions. Human rights discourse is also presented in connection with this Order, but through coverage of a protest action «Invisible Battalion March» and civic positions of its participants, who demanded equal rights and opportunities for women and men in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during this action in Kyiv at the end of January 2016.

In its turn, the publication of internet media «Novynarnya» about «Invisible Battalion March» is intertextually related to publication «Gender War» focusing on recognition of women in the army: «The march of the «Invisible Battalion» and response of Ministry of Defense» (1 February, 2016) posted on the website of the campaign against sexism in politics and media resource «Povaha». These two publications are connected through such element of network inter- textuality as a hyperlink. The publication in «Povaha» also had political and human rights discourses. It is interesting that the same publication on «Povaha» website has a dual intertextual chain: on the one hand, the link to Internet publication «Novynarnya», on the other hand, hyperlink to the publication on «Hromadske Radio» website.

In particular, the publication «We are not kitchen-maids, we are equal soldiers - a woman- activist» (21 January, 2016) also contains a high level of interdiscursivity due to existence of political and human rights discourse, and, accordingly, intertextually associated with other publications of the same media with similar interdiscourse - «Women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to serve as snipers, reconnaissance groups members and heavy armored vehicle commanders» (24 June, 2016) and «In 2014 I had to prove to men that I could be a part of an assault group and I did it - Andriana Susak» (19 January, 2019).

By tracing interdiscursivity and intertextuality, we found a new component of the intertextual chain at «Hromadske Radio» node - a link to already mentioned publication «Women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to serve as snipers, reconnaissance groups members and heavy armored vehicle commanders» to other media «Human Rights Information Center» in the publication «Ministry of Defense allowed women to serve officially as snipers, reconnaissance groups members and heavy armored vehicle commanders» (26 June, 2016). It already mentioned Order issued by Ministry of Defense of Ukraine No. 337 and problem of assigning women soldiers to high-risk military positions. This publication, with political and human rights discourses, is intertextually and interdisciplinary connected to other «Human Rights Information Center» publications on this subject, in particular, the publications «I am in a reconnaissance group, but I was officially offered the position of a cook» - Berlinska (28 December, 2014), «Women were allowed to occupy 63 additional positions in the Army» (23 November, 2016). Continuing the discovery of the intertextual chain, we want to emphasize that some of the heroines of the publications, in particular, Andriana Susak and Invisible Battalion participants, including Maria Ber- linska were also represented in other media, which also covered the topic of women in the war. In this context, «Hromadske Radio's publications are intertextually and interdiscusively related to publications of online media «Livyy Bereh», in particular, to publications entitled «The Right to War» (16 November, 2017), «Invisible Battalion» comes out of the dark. A documentary film about women in the war was presented in Kyiv» (27 November, 2017) and «The war is outside gender. How women serve in the armed forces of Ukraine» (29 November, 2017).

The last media, which we will consider at the level of analysis of discursive practices, will be «Segodnya» and «Deutsche Welle». Each of them contains a publication that is intertextually related to the publication «The Law on the Equal Right of Men and Women in the Military Service came into force» produced by «Human Rights Information Center». The difference between them is in the level of agentivity - it is low in the publication of «Human Rights Information Center» and it is high in the publications «Poroshenko equaled the rights of women and men to serve in the army: the signed law» (12 October, 2018) produced by «Segodnya» and «Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine made equal the rights of women and men in the army» (6 September, 2018) «produced by Deutsche Welle». In particular, both media used synonyms «equaled» and «made equal», which indicates the high level of the agentivity of these power institutions in establishing the equality of the rights of women and men in the Ukrainian Army.

An integral part of the analysis of publications is the discovery of genres. In this respect, it should be noted that all studied publications were produced in informative (notes, interviews, reports, reports), analytical (article) and artistic and journalistic (review, essay) genres. Subjectivity level and author's position on the issue was stronger in artistic and journalistic genres (which prevailed in «Livyy Bereh» materials), while the most objective were materials produced in information and analytical genres. However, information materials prevailed among the the publications which were the subject to critical discourse analysis (11 out of 15 publications), in which the author's attitude to the problem of inequality of women in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine was completely minimized. This led to a neutral presentation of news on the facts of discrimination against women in the army. Although, it should be noted that the focus of media attention was still on the rights of women.

Summing up our analysis of discursive practice, we would like to note that each of the reviewed publications contained both political and human rights discourses. However, since the focus of the media was precisely on women's rights and their protection, we believe that media discourse was by definition a human rights defender, as even the highlights of political decisions referred to women's rights - their violation or protection. That is why we define the human rights media discourse as the dominant one in the analyzed publications.

Given this, for the first time in the Ukrainian journalism studies on critical discourse analysis we applied agenda-setting theory of James W. Dearing and Everett M. Rogers. We believe that media agenda is an intermediary between public agenda and political agenda as media discourse includes many different types. Media agenda is always influenced either by the public or by politics, which will be either politically or publicly dominant in each media discourse.

In our study, we identified the dominant social agenda, which was nominalized as human rights media discourse. This choice is caused by the fact that human rights protection is influenced by what is happening between the authorities and an individual. And in this case, media publications reflected not only the decisions of the authorities, which either violated or protected the rights of women in the army, but also public (women's) reaction to them. And since each media raised the issue of women's rights in its publications, we have identified human rights media discourse as the predominant one.

Thus, we introduced methodological innovation by combining critical discourse analysis with agenda-setting theory using an integrative approach in scientific research. Hence, successfully passing two levels of our critical discourse analysis, we move to the third level - social practice analysis.

Based on the structure of subject-object communications, we argue that in our study mass communication system between the politicians and the public through media had a binary feedback. On the one hand, political actors, through their actions (decision-making, adoption of legal acts), established political agenda (and, accordingly, political discourse) through their media messages to the audience of citizens. In this case, orders issued by military units, as well as by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine prohibiting to hire women on numerous positions in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, had to be communicated by media to the audience. A part of the audience, which consisted primarily of women volunteers, female servicemen, volunteers, activists and other citizens, negatively perceived such decisions of the government institutions and reacted to it through protest actions with the help of the «Invisible Battalion» initiative.

Thus, the reverse direction of the system of mass communication was established - this time between the public and politicians, forming the binary nature of such interaction. In particular, the public, i.e women, now as a communicator, not a recipient, through the «Invisible Battalion» initiative and holding protests against the decisions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine regarding women's access to positions in the army, created messages for the government institutions through media. And finally, as our analysis of media publications showed, authorities reacted to women's demand to protect their rights by abolishing discriminatory orders and by the end of 2018 adopted a law on creating equal conditions and opportunities for service of women and men in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Thus, as one can see, the order of discourse initially was influenced by the domination of political media discourse, as well as political agenda, and then - human rights media discourse, as well as public agenda. The genres of discursive practices remained unchanged, but the order of discourse was defined as one in which human rights media discourse dominates.

Based on this, we transfer to the second component of social practices analysis - the definition of non-discriminatory structures and relationships. In order to do this, we use the integrated approach we have already proposed for critical discourse analysis and agenda-setting theory, applying traditionally used in our methodology terms of hegemony and ideology.

Critical discourse analysis is used to reveal the relationship between power, language and ideology. Since the struggle of discourses to establish hegemony in the media environment is inextricably linked with ideology, we, in our study, have come to the following conclusion.

Since discourse represents social inequality, public opinion (in our study - discriminated women) started competing for its agenda with the politicians. In the case of women fighting for their rights in the army, there was a struggle between human rights discourse and the ideology of feminism and political discourse with the ideology of paternalism.

In this case, we use the term paternalism because it means a system of relations based on the authority and control of the state over its citizens, by analogy with the patronage behavior of a father in relation to his own children. In terms of terminology, the patriarchal society, through state power, discriminated women, especially in an area which in Ukraine is traditionally ruled by men - military service. In contrast, women who were discriminated on the basis of sex while defending their rights opposed the ideology of feminism to the ideology of paternalism. Media were obliged to respond to such manifestations in society, due to this fact in publications under review we observe struggle of discourses. Hence, according to concepts of content and form, the content is a struggle of paternalistic and feminist discourses, as to the form it is a struggle of political and human rights discourses and, accordingly, of political and social agendas. Media were in the middle, being real actors and moderators between the authorities and society. In the conflict situation of discrimination women have won in defending their rights to gain access to positions in the army during the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine - and, accordingly, human rights discourse has triumphed in the media environment in our study.

Now, having successfully passed the preliminary stages of our study, we are moving to the last stage of critical discourse analysis - providing recommendations. Guided by the concepts of «technology of discourse» and critical awareness of language, we want to draw the attention of scientists and journalists-practitioners to the following aspects. First, it is important to critically treat creation of own scientific and journalistic publications.

It is important to master the science of logic, formal and informal, which will contribute to critical thinking necessary for those who cover in their publications' topics of law enforcement, politics, gender and media. Secondly, it is not necessary for media to enhance the existing inequality in society and discrimination of certain groups of people in their texts. If in the future there will be a threat to the equality of women and men, media should not only inform, but create a balance of points of view (but not at the expense of harassing a particular group of people or individuals), not to create discriminatory texts, but to help resolve the emerging social inequality.

Media should remember that they are not only presenters but also actors - they not only present reality, but also construct it. Finally, we hope that this study contributes to the development of international media studies about Ukraine as well as contributes positively to the establishment of equality in rights, freedoms and opportunities for women and men in all domains of life in Ukraine.

Conclusions

women media discourse armed conflict

Studying women's representation in human rights media discourse during the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine in 2014-2019, we conducted all research stages through applying the approach of critical discourse analysis. In particular, we analyzed the texts of Ukrainian media to find out the elements of transitivity, levels of agentivity, degrees of modality, and presence of feminitives.

At the same time discursive practice of using genres, interdiscursivity and intertextuality has been identified. Thus, all media groups used different types of genres - art-journalistic, analytical, and informational; in the quantitative sense the last one dominated. A high level of inter- discursivity is identified, first of all, the combination of political and human rights discourses. In addition, an intertextual chain was discovered in all analyzed publications that were related not only thematically but also by such element of network intertextuality as a hyperlink.

Moreover, for the first time, we conducted social practice analysis applying methodological innovation by combining critical discourse analysis with Agenda-Setting Theory using an integrative approach in scientific research. In particular, it has been established that since media discourse recreates social inequality, public representatives competed for their agenda with the politicians. It was found that in conditions when women protect their rights in the army during armed conflicts, there is also a struggle between human rights discourse with the ideology of feminism and political discourse with the ideology of paternalism. Women in this conflict have been protecting their rights to gain access to positions in the army during an armed conflict in the east of Ukraine and, accordingly, human rights discourse has triumphed in the media environment in our study.

In the end, we provided recommendations to scholars and journalists on topics related to armed conflicts, human rights protection, politics, covering gender in the media.

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