Environmental problematic in media space of Chelyabinsk

From the very beginning of their emergence, mass media began to play a significant role in a person's life, the role of an intermediary or a communicator. Today, the mass media are the general means of informing, socializing, as well as cognition of the world. Researchers from various fields of sciences, such as sociology, linguistics, philosophy, political science, psychology, marketing, are engaged in mass media research, therefore there are a large number of definitions of this term. Within the framework of this study, we are close to the position of A. A. Knyazev ^[7], who considers the terms "mass media" and "mass media" synonyms, and both refer to a variety of media technologies that cover a large audience. According to most researchers, the mass media include radio, television, the press, and today Internet media or new media have been added to them. The main function of all mass media is the transmission and dissemination of information. In this regard, mass media can be defined as special social institutions that collect, process and disseminate social information. In addition, they are a means of meeting information needs. The media not only spread information about events, but also shape history and its perception, because it is they who give people knowledge about what happened today in the world around them, and an understanding of whether it is good or bad. Thus, modern media form moods and attitudes in society, as well as myths and stereotypes ^{[6, p. 210]}. In the information society, the role of the media has increased many times, they have acquired a special status and have become part of the society's management system. In addition, people today depend on Internet media, for a large number of people, turning to them has become an urgent daily need like sleep and food. A modern person experiences serious discomfort if the media is not available to him for some reason.

Under the influence of mass media, most often, they understand "the consequences of actions in the field of mass media production" ^[8], or "a strong impression made by the producer of mass media on the audience, or "changes in knowledge, attitudes, behavior of the recipient" ^[2]. In general, if we consider the views of scientists who have studied the effects of mass communication, they can be divided into two main areas: supporters of large influence and supporters of small influence of mass media on the audience. Supporters of the first version believe that the mass media is a place where the struggle of human consciousness takes place" ^[1], supporters of the second believe that a person is influenced not by the mass media themselves, but by opinion leaders through mass communications ^[3]. However, both groups of researchers are actively working to clarify the causes of media influence, with the main issue being: "What needs do respondents expect to meet?".

In the last twenty years, New media has been actively developing. This term began to be used at the end of the twentieth century for new forms of communication between content producers and consumers to indicate differences from traditional media ^[16]. As mentioned above, the terms "media" and "mass media" (hereinafter referred to as the media) are considered synonyms. The researchers note that new media have three main components: digital format, interactivity and multimedia, which is what attracts consumers of information. As a rule, the following resources are referred to as "new media" ? Internet media, traditional media resources on the Internet, Internet TV and Internet radio, blogosphere, social networks, messengers, virtual communities, virtual games, etc. We have already said above that the media are today a priority source of information, while modern media are becoming a platform for interaction between the content producer and the consumer, as well as consumers of information with each other. In addition, new tools set trends in media consumption and create new basic information needs.

In this paper, we study environmental issues in the information space of Chelyabinsk, analyze the platforms of new media that create an environmental agenda and influence the perception of environmental problems of the city. Let's consider this problem in the scientific discourse of foreign researchers. Over the past decade, environmental issues such as climate change, pollution of the atmosphere and water bodies, and loss of biodiversity have occupied a significant place in publications that are distributed through traditional and new media in both developed and developing countries. For example, the authors of ^[13] note that the mass media are powerful popular communication platforms that historically construct environmental damage mainly on the basis of sensational scenarios. In ^[19], it is indicated that journalists play a crucial role in shaping the perception of environmental problems. An important issue in this case is the transfer of expertise, which often has barriers in the way. And in ^[18], the author emphasizes the bias and negative tone of messages as a characteristic feature of tabloid, party and sensational media that reach a wide readership. The paper ^[15] also examines the role of the media in the perception of climate change problems in the countries of the Global North and the Global South, while the authors pay attention to the different presentation of the problem under study in these countries. All these works consider the potential climate change and the threats that may occur at the same time as an environmental problem.

As part of our research, we are not interested in potential environmental hazards that threaten the population of the planet, but already existing environmental problems that affect the life and health of people living in ecologically unfavorable territories every day. In this sense, it is interesting to turn to studies of environmental issues in the media in countries that have a high level of environmental pollution, for example, works from India and China. Thus, Chinese authors in ^[24] note that the use of mass media has a greater impact when the environmental situation is bad. At the same time , X. Zhang and Z. Zhong claims that the media have a positive impact on the environmental behavior of citizens, as well as contribute to the development of volunteerism and increase the influence of environmentalists. As for Chinese studies of environmental issues in the media in general, two main directions can be distinguished in the works: 1) study of the role of the media in covering climate change issues ^{[23, 24]}, 2) study of the role of the media in informing the population about real environmental problems ^[17]. At the same time, the authors of the listed works use automated or conventional content analysis as a methodology, while, as a rule, they consider one publication (for example, "China Daily"), or one type of sites (for example, print media).

When studying environmental issues in the media, the authors of works ^{[13, 18, 21, 24]} refer to the "agenda setting model" and the "concept of frames". As part of our work, it will also be useful for us to consider the main elements of the mentioned models. By "setting the agenda", as a rule, one understands either the spontaneous circulation of issues, or the purposeful activity of the creator of information (actor) to manage issues beneficial to him ^[11]. At the same time, there is a media bulletin ? the dominant topics of messages (publications) in the media, as well as the public agenda – the most important problems for most people. In this model, special attention is paid to the influence of the media message on the public. In order to move the issue from the media news to the public agenda and increase the social significance of this issue, it is necessary that the number of messages on the topic overcome the "awareness threshold" and be kept at a high level for some time. The repeated repetition of publications on a certain topic gives the audience the impression of the high importance of the topic and the correctness of the actor's assessments of the problem ^[25].

The understanding that the audience is influenced not only by the frequency of messages, but also by the presentation, as well as the structure of the message, led to the emergence of the concept of frames, where a frame is a collection of structured data in a certain way, serving to represent stereotypical contexts ^[4]. In our work, we need to consider the concept of a "media frame", the author of which is the creator of the media text. By "media frame" we will understand the core idea of a communication message, revealing the essence and content of an information message. Moreover, the core idea already contains the articulation of the problem, the diagnosis of causes and consequences, as well as a moral assessment ^[14]. The result of framing is the audience's opinion about the problem, most often the one that the creator of the message himself had ^[20]. The verbal and nonverbal markers of frames in a message are headings, subheadings, photographs, "supporting examples", as well as speech cliches and metaphors.

Summarizing the data from various studies, it can be noted that in developed countries the main environmental agenda is the topic of global climate change, and in developing countries the current environmental problems of specific territories. Along with this, environmental journalism in a number of developing countries is just emerging as a new direction. In this regard, there is a lack of experience among journalists in submitting environmental information, as well as a lack of information about the environmental safety of megacities and other cities of these countries. Summing up the theoretical overview of our research, we can highlight the following main idea: Internet media today is one of the main means of obtaining information and a powerful lever of influence on the audience. For this work, it is especially important that the influence of the creator of information (actor) on the audience occurs through the establishment of a media message, the features of the presentation of messages, as well as through media framing.

The peculiarity of the situation that we are studying is that residents of individual Russian cities (for example, Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Tagil, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk) live in conditions of excessive environmental information, which focuses their attention on environmental problems and threats to residents from day to day. As a result, the image of the territory is deteriorating, situational anxiety of the population is growing, which in turn affects the economic behavior of residents of the territory (the trend towards the outflow of economically active population from Chelyabinsk has been going on for the last few years) ^[26].

Research methods.

To study the environmental media news in the information space of Chelyabinsk, automated content analysis was used (using the Medialogy resource) to study Chelyabinsk (the topic "ecology, Chelyabinsk" was chosen as the semantic unit of analysis). The sample consisted of 1,050 units of local and federal Internet media messages among all published for the year, as well as 5,400 units of messages (posts) in social networks for quantitative analysis and 1,050 for qualitative analysis among all published for the year. Framework analysis was used to analyze the content of messages. At the same time, attention was focused on the frames in the headers and subheadings of messages, the main texts, as well as in the visual part of the message.

Results

As mentioned above, content analysis was used in Internet publications to study the general image of Chelyabinsk.For the convenience of analysis, all publications were divided into two groups ? online media and sources of information in social networks. Moreover, if in the first group we analyzed only the media themselves as producers of information, then in the second group the communities of citizens will also be producers of content on an environmental topic.

The following indicators and indices were analyzed as data:

? the number of messages on this topic for the year, the dynamics of these messages by month (including the number of original messages and reprints);

? the most notable informational occasions;

? the most popular objects of environmental messages and audience coverage;

? the most active media and social groups, as well as authors;

? Mass media and social groups by category, genre, territorial coverage.

Here we will consider the most interesting results. A total of 882 messages on ecology in local Internet publications (mass media) were analyzed, 571 of them were original messages, 311 reprints by other publications (the share of reprints is 35%). Figure 1 shows the dynamics of messages on the topic "ecology" by month.

 As can be seen from the graph, the peak of messages on environmental topics falls on January, February, May and August. Moreover, the increase in reports in January and February is traditional for the Chelyabinsk media, during this period unfavorable weather conditions (NMU) are most often observed, which the press calls the "black sky regime", and residents confuse with smog. The regime is introduced when meteorological conditions occur, in which the process of dispersion of harmful impurities in the atmosphere becomes difficult, which causes a short-term accumulation of pollutants in the atmospheric air. As a rule, the NMU mode occurs when two factors are combined: windlessness and humidity, manifests itself in frosty / hot windless weather.

High temperatures and the NMU regime are not typical for May in the Ural region, but May 2021 turned out to be abnormally hot with temperatures significantly exceeding the average for this month. The surge in environmental reports in May is precisely due to the great attention of the press to this issue. Especially interesting for our study is the more than twofold increase (even compared to February and May) in environmental messages in August. August 2021 was marked by environmental events. At that time, forests were burning in Siberia and Yakutia. Smoke from forest fires reached the cities of the Urals and was recorded in the Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions. Nevertheless, Chelyabinsk residents traditionally associated smoke with emissions from local industrial enterprises. In addition, in the same month there was an emergency at the sewage treatment plants of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise of Chelyabinsk.

As for federal Internet publications, 168 original messages out of 174 messages on environmental topics included in the sample. As we can see from the graph (Fig.2), media interest in this topic was marked by small bursts of activity in December, January and the same large surge of messages as relevant online media in August. The dynamics of messages in both local and federal publications illustrates the interest of online media in environmental issues. Here we can say that the topic "Ecology" is the media agenda.

Next, let's look at the most active online publications that most often write about the environmental situation in Chelyabinsk and create a media bulletin. As you can see from the table , the most active local sites in terms of the number of messages are "chelyabinsk-news.net ", "chelyabinsk.bezformata.com ", "Gorodskoyportal.ru/chelyabinsk ", "74.ru " (Table 1) However, the most notable in the media index were "74.ru " ? 21.68, "OTV TV Company" ? 14.17, "AN Access" ? 11.5, "Evening Chelyabinsk" (vecherka.su ) ? 9.74. In this case, we are talking about a media index developed by Medialogia to assess the quality of mentions in the media, today this index acts as a standard for measuring the effectiveness of PR in the Russian market. The indicator is complex, takes into account the influence of the source, the role of mentioning, quoting, taking into account the positive / negative, the presence of a photo, the size of the message and other indicators, measured in conventional units.

Table 1

Characteristics of the Top - 8 most active online media

Among the federal publications, the following Internet media can be distinguished as the most active platforms in the field of ecology - "Znak.com " (24 messages), "Ura.ru " (14 messages), "TASS" (13 messages), "RIA FederalPress" (12 messages). In the same order, these Internet sites are located according to the media index. Thus "74.ru ", "Chelyabinsk News (chelyabinsk-news.net )", "Gorodskoyportal.ru/chelyabinsk ", "Without the Chelyabinsk format (Chelyabinsk.bezformata.com )", "AN Access", "OTV TV Company" with"Znak.com " they generate the bulk of messages and, accordingly, create an environmental media bulletin.

The following table 2 shows the most notable news items among all the local press reports. The visibility of the event in this case is an assessment of the brightness of the information guides based on a cluster analysis of the information flow into the main topics, taking into account the frequency of mentions, media citations and the visibility of messages (Medialogy metric). As you can see (Table 2), the audience coverage and visibility of events in federal Internet media is certainly higher, but in both groups the most noticeable event is the incident with the release of hydrogen sulfide in August 2021. Other most notable informational reasons are also related to emissions of harmful substances. In this case, we can say that the attributive media agenda of Chelyabinsk is the problem of harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

Table 2

Characteristics of the Top 6 most notable events (informational occasions)

As for the objects mentioned in the articles, the largest number of messages mention "TEXLER Alexey Leonidovich" ? 356, "Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation" – 281, "Government of the Chelyabinsk Region" -165, "National Project "Ecology" – 144, "ABRAMCHENKO Victoria Valerievna" ? 139, "Federal project "Clean Air" – 1133.

Next, we will consider the results of the framework analysis of texts. A detailed analysis of the messages (including headings, subheadings, visual images) included in the sample yielded the following interesting results:

? the topic of air pollution is really an attributive media topic, the frequency of references to this topic is the highest (Table 5);

? the following words and their combinations are most often found in the headings – emissions (hydrogen sulfide, gases, formaldehyde), harmful emissions, industrial emissions, fumes in the air, smog, unpleasant odors, smoky sky, etc.;

? the bright media news of the day in August was the topic of the emergency on 08/18/2021 at the Municipal Unitary Enterprise of the city of Chelyabinsk, while traditional phrases also sound in the headlines – hydrogen sulfide emission, excess hydrogen sulfide in the air;

? 2/3 of the articles have a negative value for the image of the city (although according to the metrics of "Medialogy" the tone of the presentation may be neutral or even positive).

Next, let's look at the frames that were identified during the framework analysis:

1. The frame "Black sky mode", which focuses on the technogenic nature of the phenomenon, while in reality the mode is associated with weather conditions and terrain features.

2. The frame "Chelyabinsk smog", focusing on any haze, fog, thundercloud and other weather phenomena.

3. The frame "Emissions", focusing on exceeding the maximum permissible concentration of harmful substances in the air.

4. The frames "Texler instructed" and "Rosprirodnadzor took control" focus on the complexity of the situation.

5. The "Concealment of the Truth" frame, which claims that the city authorities are hiding real information about the state of the environment.

6. The frame "The city administration does not care about the residents of the city", demonstrating the indifference of executive authorities to citizens.

7. The frame "Top of the dirtiest cities in the country", claiming that Chelyabinsk is an unsuitable place to live.

8.      Visual frames "City against the background of smoking pipes", "Metallurgical plants", "City in fog", "Haze in a clear sky" are used to attract attention.

In general, it can be noted that these frames are repeated many times on various sites, are used in headings, subheadings and the text of the message, almost all focus on air pollution by industrial enterprises. The exception is the "Texler instructed" frame, it not only makes the problem public, but also offers a solution.

Next, consider the second group of Internet media. Within this group, the sample included messages from social networks represented in Russia, such as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, Telegram, etc. It was these social networks that Chelyabinsk residents indicated in our survey (the survey results are detailed in ^[5]) as the main sources of information on environmental issues. Since the sample of messages from social networks turned out to be incomparably larger, here we will look at the main most interesting results for the third quarter of 2021, which, in our opinion, most fully illustrates the current environmental situation in the city and the attitude of city residents to it. As we remember, in the graphs (Figs. 1 and 2), the maximum number of messages refers to August of the same year.

As we can see from Table 3, the most active sites in terms of the number of messages on environmental issues in Chelyabinsk are VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram, Facebook, and all three social networks are leaders in audience coverage and engagement, as well as in the Index. The CM Index, a metric of the quality of mentions in social networks developed by Medialogy, is a comprehensive indicator based on the total involvement of content and the achieved audience coverage on certain topics. Instagram and YouTube are also the leaders in audience coverage, Instagram and YouTube are the leaders in audience engagement (likes, comments, reposts), and Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are the leaders in the CM Index. In this case, it can also be stated that environmental issues are an urgent media issue for social networks.

Table 3

Characteristics of the Top - 8 sites by the number of messages

As we have already said above, new media differ from traditional ones in high interactivity and are a platform for discussing any issues. Automated analysis of social networks allowed us to obtain data not only on the activities of the media in social networks, but also data characterizing the activity and attitude of the population to the issues of environmental safety of the city. For example, Table 4 shows the activity of social communities of residents of Chelyabinsk. The leaders in the number of messages on environmental topics are the communities "Chelyabinsk online", "Chelyabinsk region", "Monitoring 74. Chelyabinsk region", "Harmful emissions of Chelyabinsk". The leaders in influence are "31TV.RU | NEWS", "Our Chelyabinsk". The leaders in the CM Index are "Chelyabinsk online" and "Harmful emissions of Chelyabinsk". The leaders in the number of views and engagement are also "Chelyabinsk online", "Harmful emissions of Chelyabinsk", "Our Chelyabinsk". The data in Table 4 illustrate the interest of users in the environmental problems of Chelyabinsk, in this case we can say that the topic of ecology is also a public agenda.

Table 4

Characteristics of the Top 9 social groups by the number of messages

Next, let's pay attention to the graph of the dynamics of messages (posts) on the topic "ecology" by month in social networks (Fig. 3), all original media reports, their reposts, as well as messages in communities are summarized here. If we sum up the number of messages by month, we will get a similar picture for the first group. That is, the surge in messages related to ecology falls on January, February, May and August, as well as July (it is not on the chart for the first group). However, if we compare the number of messages with each other, it should be noted that the number of messages in August exceeds the number of messages in other months by 3-5 times. It is interesting to note that on August 18 there are 980 messages out of 1700 per month, which is three times the number of messages in the average month. All 980 reports are related to the accident at the Municipal Unitary Enterprise of the city of Chelyabinsk and the release of hydrogen sulfide.

It is also interesting to note the involvement of citizens in the discussion of environmental problems, as the analysis showed, no other topic of citizens' life gives so many views, likes, reposts and comments (the exception is the topic of the Covid -19 pandemic during the next wave of the disease). For example, on the same day on August 18, a potential audience of 30,715,122 network users was reached, 561,858 users viewed these messages, and 9,308 users performed some actions regarding these messages. The ratio of the number of articles on the environmental topic and the reaction of the audience to them allows us to conclude that the media agenda of the day and the public agenda coincide.

Qualitative analysis of social media posts showed:

? the attributive media message in social networks is also atmospheric air pollution, similarly to the Internet media, the creators of messages most often pay attention to emissions of harmful substances, exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations, NMU;

? messages whose headlines mention emissions, smog, fumes, smell are distinguished by the highest views and audience engagement;

? a greater variety of topics (compared to online media), for example, environmental messages related to public transport, pollution of reservoirs and tree felling, reclamation of local landfills, scandals in the Ministry of Ecology of the Chelyabinsk region occupy a prominent place (Table 5);

? the topic of the emergency on 18.08.2021 at the Municipal Unitary Enterprise of the city of Chelyabinsk with the release of hydrogen sulfide also sounded very noticeable (the frequency of appeals for August 18 970 times).

If we talk about frames in social networks, they practically coincide with frames in online media, platforms in social networks use the same metaphors and cliches, including visual ones. We also managed to identify several other frames that are specific only to social networks:

? The frame "Shershnevskoe reservoir is the only source of drinking water", focuses on the pollution of the reservoir.

? The frame "Emergency in Chelyabinsk", represents the city as "33 misfortunes", where disorder and negligence reign.

? The frame "Corrupt officials of the Ministry of Ecology", which focuses on the collusion of officials and large industrialists.

? The "Emissions reduction" frame focuses on measures that should be applied to industrial enterprises.

? The frames "Governor", "Minister of Ecology of Russia" are used to attract attention in the headlines.

Discussions and conclusions.

Environmental issues are an urgent and sustainable media topic for Chelyabinsk Internet media, as well as for social networks. The number of materials that directly or indirectly relate to the topic ensures the constant presence of the problem in the "attention zone" of the audience. The reaction of the audience to the messages indicates the coincidence of the media message and the public agenda.

In the studied Internet sources, environmental messages are evenly distributed throughout the year, but peaks of activity are recorded. For example, there is annual activity in January and February, periodically in the autumn months (2019, 2018), which can be explained by the specifics of the weather and the onset of NMU. We also note an unconventional abnormal peak in August, associated with the aggravation of the environmental situation this month. The intensity of environmental messages is quite high, in some media it can reach 25% (chelyabinsk-news.net , 74.ru ), and in communities ("Harmful emissions of Chelyabinsk", "Chelyabinsk, breathe!") reaches 100%.

The main attribute of the media is atmospheric air pollution. The vast majority of messages fix the audience's attention on emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere, excess concentrations of these substances, NMU, smog and odors. These data are in good agreement with the results of our sociological survey, where 94% of the city residents are concerned about the state of the urban environment, and 87% of respondents consider air pollution to be the most acute urban problem. This also correlates well with the results of surveys conducted in 2015-2017 ^[12].

Table 5

Top environmental topics in online media and social networks

* in August 2021, % of air pollution reports reaches 95%

An important role in the implementation of communication is played by the choice of means of constructing messages. Media frames are precisely the tools for effectively presenting complex issues in an accessible form for the audience. In conditions of repeated repetition of media frames on the topic of emissions, the audience reads well the brief messages of the headings and subheadings of messages that activate traditional schemes of interpretation of environmental problems and determine the nature of the perception of the message. Filling messages with visual media frames (a city against a background of smoking pipes, a city in smoke) does not require additional explanations regarding the position demonstrated by the author. Visual images are easily recognized and fixed in the minds of the audience as destructive.

The degree of similarity of media frames and public opinion indicates the effectiveness of communication. The degree of similarity of media frames and public opinion regarding the environmental situation of Chelyabinsk is eloquently illustrated by comments on environmental messages, as well as descriptions of the image of the city in our sociological survey. Typical comments to messages sound like this ? "Horror!", "We are being poisoned again!", "We see what we breathe!", "Chelyabinsk residents are suffocating!", "The city that could". Typical formulations in the description of the image of the city practically repeat these messages ? "life?threatening", "smog city", "environmental disaster", "uninhabitable", etc. The similarity is also indicated by the negative mood of the audience and pessimistic assessments about the future of the city.

To summarize all of the above, the environmental agenda is relevant and sustainable for the Chelyabinsk Internet media, and at the same time topical and acute for the urban community. This ensures its permanent presence in the media space of the city. The observed sustainability of the environmental agenda could contribute to routine – reducing the severity of the reaction to the problem, but this does not happen due to the amount of information, the specifics of the presentation of information and the emphasis on certain aspects of it, which in turn generates an anxious and panicked perception of the ecology of the city in the audience. The current situation dictates the need for new solutions in environmental issues, interaction of all stakeholders in the urban environment (city and regional authorities, city residents, media, experts and enterprises), thoughtful management of the image of the city and changing the stereotypical image of it. Within the framework of the author's next article, a model of interaction of subjects of the urban environment will be developed and recommendations for managing the current situation will be proposed.

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