Paradigms of economic thinking in journalism: The post-Soviet transformations’ experience

Abstract

The paper, using the example of publications in federal periodicals in the period from 1991 to 2022, examines the process of formation and transformation of economic thinking paradigms that have gone from a liberal economic agenda that promotes the values of private property and market reforms to an administrative concept that brings paternalistic sentiments to the fore and pro-government stance. The content analysis and sentiment analysis of the texts, carried out by the author, show that over the three decades of post-Soviet transformations, not only the economic ideas broadcast through periodicals have noticeably transformed, but also the emotive field of these ideas has changed sign from negative to positive context. The conclusion is drawn about the prospects for such a transformation, which inevitably leads to the consolidation in the public mind of the principles of learned helplessness and a return to the argumentative constructions of the Soviet period with the dominant role of distribution motives and state support for the economy. The results showed that the increase in the subjectivity of the media in the representation of economic topics during periods of dominance of paradigms and the intention of periodicals for objectivity during the period of paradigm transition.