Coding

The basic coding began with rating each news article as takingeither a positive, negative, orneutral tone in itsdescription of the relationship betweenthe Indigenous Peoples andthe federal government. I decided to narrow it down tothe focus ontheFederal-Indigenous relationshipsince thatwaswhatbestillustratedthe power relationship within the country as related to the subethnos-superethnos paradigm. Asthe subethnos wasaunitofthe superthnos, which is embodied by MoscowandPutin, focusing onthis relationship--as opposed to the overallliving conditions ofthe Indigenous Peoples--served toturnuncovertheway thatthe Eurasianist theme ofanorganic political unionof peoples manifests. For example, some articles were focused onthe rectification ofaproblemof Indigenous Peoplesbeingdenied subsistence privileges becauseof faulty documentation. Even though this made Indigenous Peoples lives

difficult, the articles often portrayed them as workingcloselywith the federal governmentto rectify theproblem. Inother words, insteadoffocusing onthe fact thatthegovernmenthad created the problem originally, thearticles focused onthe government's rolein fixing the problem. These articles were thus coded aspositive, since they portrayeda positive working relationship between Indigenous groups and thegovernment. Most articles werecodedas

neutral, since they didn'tportray any sort ofrelationship betweenthefederal governmentandthe Indigenous Peoples, and a few werecodedas negative. These were articlesthat clearly indicated atense relationship betweenthefederal government and Indigenous Peoples, such as protesters at the Standing Rockcalling thegovernment's approval of Keystone XLPipeline “ecological genocide.” This preliminary coding scheme helped verify my originalcontention of aEurasianist influence in the news media.

Next, I established acoding schemeforeach section in response to thequestion: “How are Eurasianist themes manifested in theRussian media's portrayal ofIndigenous Peoples?” As Eurasianism addressesthe relationship of theperiphery (IndigenousPeoples) to the center(U.S. federal government or Russia), theanalysis focuses on Indigenous Peoples' relationships with their respectivefederal governments. Basedon a preliminary analysis and common sense, one would predict that, in general, a Eurasianist influenceon the news media's coveragewould assume thattheRussian-Indigenous Peoples relationships will be portrayedin a positive light, since Eurasianism assumes an organic fusionof the people ofEurasia, while theU.S.-Indigenous Peoples relationships will more often beportrayed as fraught, since Eurasianism posits

oppression of minoritiesintheWestern paradigm. Iwill use my own interpretation to evaluate each article as portraying either a positive, negativeor neutral overall tone in its portrayal of the

federal-Indigenous government. This allowed a baseline of quantitative data that served as an entry point to more detailed analysis.

Based on a summary of the tenets of Eurasianism asthey relate to nationalities in Chapter 2, I constructed aroughpredictionofwhat themes might arise and be highlighted inthe Russian newsmedia. I tested the themes forfalsifiabilityby including contra-positives for each code.For example, if one of the codes was NativeAmericans' discontentwith federal government I created thecorresponding falsifiedcode NativeAmericans'satisfaction with federal government. In addition to thedeductivetesting,I used an inductivecomponent tothe coding process toadd certain codes during the data analysis. Whilethereare certainly predictionsabout thewaythat Eurasianism wouldmanifest itselfin coverage of Indigenous Peoples, thephilosophyis broad, and itscomplexities multiply whenapplying abstract philosophical ideas to frame real-life events. Some events may easily becategorized within the frame of Eurasianism, while others may be more elusive. This inductiveclassification allows a more nuanced view of thewaythat Eurasianism is--orisnot--manifestedinthedata. AsJi Young Cho and Eun-Hee Lee note, a “unique characteristic of qualitativecontentanalysisisthe flexibility of using inductive or deductive approaches or a combination of bothapproaches in data analysis.”204

For Section 1 Indigenous Russians, I identified two major themes. The first was:

204 Ji Young Cho and Lee Eun-Hee. “Reducing confusion about grounded theory and qualitative data analysis: similarities and differences.” The Qualitative Report 19 no. 32 (August 2014), 4. Accessed on December 2 2018.

http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol19/iss32/2

• Forces Uniting Eurasia andincludes:

o Civilizational unity which refers tomentions of anineffableforce that unites the diverse communities within Russia;

o Geographic unity which refers to Savitsky's notion ofa natural symmetry oftheEurasian continent thateconomically binds diverse peoples;

o Linguistic unity, which refers to Trubetskoy's contention thatthe various language groupshave converging features that suggesta common direction; and

o Spiritual unity, which refers to either commonbeliefinthe Russian Orthodox Church, or more generalfeelings of spiritual unity.

The second category was Russian state as abenevolent patriarchto IndigenousPeoples, arranged to include the subthemes.

• Russian State as a benevolent patriarchto IndigenousPeoples

o Cultural stewardship bytheRussiangovernment in nurturing the cultures of its Indigenous peoples through government;

o Defense of traditional lifestyles, referringtoprotection of subsistence and other forms of cultural expressions;

o Economic development, which refers to both developing traditional and modern economic activities;

o Educational development, which includes traditionalforms of education, as well as educational conferences ormuseum construction;

o Equitableresolutionof territorial disputes, as opposed tounfair, exploitative resolutionsas Russia views those intheUnited States; o Funds grantedto IndigenousPeoples from thefederal government

foranypurpose;

o Stewardship of Indigenous health, including expanding health insurance and services;

o Language stewardship, referringtogovernment initiatives to preserve Indigenous languages through education or other means; o PoliticalempowermentofIndigenousgroups, including the

organization of conferences and meetings withfederal officials; o Improvement of social conditions'” which refers to a wide variety

ofaid from thefederal government to reduce unemployment, homelessness, or socialprestige;

o Special rights or privileges granted to Indigenous groups, which refers to various governmentallowancesto different Indigenous groups that acknowledge their distinctiveness from themajority culture.

The contrapositivecodes were made based on this code list. For example, the counter code for Russia as a benevolent patriarchto Indigenous Peoples was coded as Russia as a malevolent/negligentsteward to IndigenousPeoples.

For the Native American Section of this project, I identified three general framing themes. The first was

• Native Americans' discontent with the U.S. Government. This theme takes a variety of forms based largely onNeo-Eurasianist interpretations of theEurasian mission, which denigrates the West. Subthemes identified in thiscategory include:

o Avarice of the Westindealing withNative People (i.e.how asoulless capitalism drives disrespect for minority groups);

o Cultural or spiritual suppression of Native American groups; o Environmental pollution ordegradation of nativelands; o Lack of recognitionoflegalrights ofNativeAmericans;

o Mentions ofGenocide including “cultural genocide,” and “linguistic genocide”;

o Political suppression orlackof self-government by NativeAmericans; Language suppression of Indigenous languages;

o Excessive violence in engaging withNativeAmericans;

o Social problems including social pathologies suchas alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, depression, as well as hunger, poor healthcare,povertyand unemployment among NativeAmericans;

o Fragmentation ofdemocratic governments caused byNative Americans pursuingtheir rights outside of normal national legal avenues, such as

street protests outside of normal legal avenues, lawsuits,and appealsto international organizations;

o Racism onthepartofthe West orWestern institutions towardsNative American minorities;

o Territorial disputes between Native American groups and theU.S. or state governments;

o Treachery of the U.S. government in Treaties and Contracts with Native Americangovernments; and

o Violence towards the U.S. Government perpetrated by dissatisfied Native Americans. As inthe Indigenous RussiansSection,Ialsocreated alistof contrapositive codes from the Eurasianist codes.

The second theme IidentifiedinRussianmediaarticles about Native Americans was that of Russia as a benevolent alternative tothe West. Sub themes included:

o Appeals by Native Americans toRussia for help in problem solving;

o mentions of theInherent egalitarianism of Russian culture in articles aboutNative Americans;

o mentions of Russian interest in Native American culture with implicit references toAmericans' general disinterest inminority cultures;

o mentions of Eurasians asguardians of natives in their own country or in their exploration of theAmericas;

o Honesty of Eurasians in treaty or deal-making with Indigenous Peoples;

o Interest from Native Americans inaEurasian model of political organization;

o Empowerment of Indigenous language by Russia;

o Pacifism ofRussia in its treatment of IndigenousPeoples; o Russia as an equitabletrading partner to IndigenousPeoples; o and Spiritual development ofIndigenousPeoples by Russia and

Orthodox missionaries.

Thethird major theme comprisesthenatural Affinity between Eurasia and American Indians. This refersto suggestionsthatEurasians share one or more characteristics with Native Americansthatthey do notsharewith non-Native Americans.Within this category, I identified several sub-themesrelatedtothe ways themediaexpressthis affinity. Theseincluded:

o Cultural affinities, or general culturalsimilarities between various

Eurasiangroups and NativeAmericans and based on Trubetskoy's idea of a convergence ofcultural markers;

o Geneticaffinities, orthe commongenetic origin of Eurasians and Native Americans;

o Linguistic affinities, based on Trubetskoy's linguistically-rootedidea of Eurasia; and

o Spiritual affinities, based on theDuginian ideas of the Russian Orthodox Church as a cornerstone of Eurasian identity and Panarin's suggestionthat all civic Russians share a “high degree of spirituality.”

As with previous sections, I created codesforthe contrapositives of thislist tocapture explicit mentions of cultural, genetic, linguistic, or spiritual differences.

I developed these schemata withonly preliminary reviewof the actual contentof the articles and without in-depth knowledge of thepressing on-the-ground issues coveredinthe national media. As such,the results of the study dependon the elaboration ofthesetwo schemata into more specificthemes to reveal more about how themedia portray Indigenous Peoples within Russiansociety and whether the narratives alignwith Eurasianist ideology.