Transnational news repertoires are associated with patterns of emotional responses to war: A case study of Russian speakers in Germany

Research on distant suffering has documented diverse emotional responses to violent conflict. Yet few studies have set out to examine how audiences’ emotional responses may be associated with their news repertoires. Addressing this gap, this study asks whether and how migrant audiences’ transnational news repertoires are associated with their emotional responses to a war to which they are connected through one of the conflict parties. Drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with Russian-speaking migrants in Germany, the study examines their emotional responses to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. The findings identify four news repertoire types, each closely associated with a distinct emotional response pattern. Especially stark differences emerge between democratic and pro-Kremlin repertoire users. While the former expressed predominantly negative emotions and sometimes considered personal guilt, the latter reported relief at Russia’s attack, a sense of being discriminated against in Germany, and renewed pride in Russia. The study advances the literature on distant suffering by identifying news repertoires as an important factor associated with specific emotional response patterns and by showing that witnessing suffering from a distance may elicit not only negative but also positive emotions.