The Problem of Migrantophobia in Russia: the Representation of the Image of a Migrant in Online Newspapers in 2020

The study was carried out on migrantophobia in the context of representation of migrant image in Internet newspapers ("Life.ru", "Gazeta.ru", "Lenta.ru"). The problem of the study was that xenophobic attitudes have been on the rise for a long time, despite the positive discourse on migration among experts and authorities. Since the media can be mechanisms for the construction of certain attitudes in society, the purpose of the work was to determine the characteristics of the representation of the migrant. The study conceptualized the concept of migrant phobia, both in a broad sense and in a narrow context, as applied to Russia, on the basis of the historical context studied. Theoretical aspects of the role of the mass media in shaping public perception were also discussed, and the main characteristics of the representation of the image of a migrant in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in Russia were identified. Three methods were used in the study. A qualitative content analysis of 285 news articles was carried out and 1,705 comments were analysed with the help of discourse analysis on social media pages of Internet newspapers. As part of the additional method, a thematic analysis of three expert interviews was carried out. The results of the study showed that the negative, criminalized image of the migrant in news reports was prevalent, while comments showed a greater marginalization of the image of the migrant. It has also been found that positive discourse meets more often negative comments from users.