The image of an elderly woman in media narratives during the Russian-Ukrainian war

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the functioning of the images of a senior woman in the communicational space of mass media and Internet memes as concepts that have formed under the influence of the events of the Russo-Ukrainian war after February 24, 2022. The subject of the research is actualized in the context of changes in gender role stereotypes in the course of the establishment of the legal society, strategies of information warfare, and ideological propaganda, which is meant to influence the international image of Ukraine. The aim of the study is to analyze the media image of an elderly woman, taking into account such concepts as “informational warfare”, “propaganda”, “stereotype”, and “archetype”, because it is through them that the influence on the mass consciousness is performed, in particular, values are established, worldview models are normalized, humanization processes are legitimized. Thanks to the use of analysis, generalization, and interpretation methods, we have managed to systematize the image of a senior woman as an active mass media message. As the results of our research, we have clarified the difference between the narratives in the image of a senior woman that forms Ukrainian and Russian informational environments. We have identified the communicational goal with which they are being spread. Also, we have determined the difference in the mechanics of popularization of the symbolic figure of a senior woman in the mass communication means. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the informational processes in the modern history of Ukraine, which are currently in the state of dynamic evolution. Also, the novelty is conditioned by the cross-disciplinary vision, which takes into account the experience of the gerontology and memetics, the most modern approaches for the Ukrainian scientific thought. Prospects of further research lie in several directions. Among the scientific investigations that rest upon the symbolic codes of physicality in the communicative field there are: analysis of the development of gender-based and age-based stereotypes in Ukrainian mass media; determination of proactivity of archetypical images as a tool used for the creation of informational defense; further comparison of the roles archetypes play in mass media of legal and totalitarian states; identification of the role markers of physicality play in the set of communicational tools used by information warfare.