Image of the EAEU in the Leading U.S. News Media Outlets

Abstract

At a time when representation in the digital and information environment becomes one of the most important factors in the development of the territories, as well as a full-fledged tool for achieving geopolitical and economic goals, the work on the formation of foreign policy images of the regions in foreign media space takes on special importance. In this article, based on the analysis of theoretical and methodological aspects of its use, the author distinguished between the concepts of "image" as a chaotically forming set of audience perceptions and "image" as a purposefully structured work on the formation of specific ideas about the territory. Taking into account that the measures stipulated by the Strategy for the Development of Eurasian Economic Integration until 2025 aimed at providing broad audience access to information about the Union are focused only on the population of the participating countries, and there is no purposeful work to form the image of the EAEU in foreign media, the author analyzed the image of the Eurasian Economic Union created in the leading American Internet media. The results of the frequency content analysis of the materials of the USA leading online news media, conducted within the study, as well as the emotional tone of these publications, demonstrate that the Eurasian Economic Union is in dire need of focused effort to create and consolidate a sustainable foreign policy image in the media space of the West. Already in 2017, the negative image of the integration association associated with Russia's aggression, actively formed by the leading US news media in 2014–2016, has lost relevance as uninteresting to the American audience and was deleted from the agenda.