Paradigm Shift in Economic Media Publications: From Liberal Assessments to Information Paternalism

The article examines lexical and sentimental transformation of journalistic publications on economic subject, which occurred from 2005 to 2015, and ended with the departure of periodicals from the liberal explanatory model in favor of the administrative concept, bringing to the fore the role of public financial management in economic media materials. By the techniques of content analysis, sentiment analysis and statistical analysis, the author shows how the description of economic problems in the Russian media has transformed. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate the consistent deviation of information discourse from the values of the free market and private property, first in favor of the values of the consumer society, and then to promote and widespread the ideas of paternalism and state dominance in economic policy. The study sample included 61,769 articles published between 2005 and 2015 in leading Russian periodicals. 53 keywords were identified as the most frequently used in economic publications, which included: 45 unigrams, 7 bigrams and one trigram. When analyzing the texts, we took into account the array of terms associated with the specified keywords, as well as the dominant tone of the corresponding texts. The article substantiates the existence of a paradigmatic transition in economic media publications, and also identifies the characteristic features of journalistic texts related to it.