Comparative media: Vremya’s manipulation of foreign conflict reporting in Russia in the context of Western news providers

Celebrations surrounding Israel’s Sixtieth Anniversary were held 8 May 2008 and were attendedby heads of state and government officials from all over the world. It was reported widely inmany countries and was marked by a two-day national holiday with memorial services, militarydisplays, and concerts. This paper uses these events as a case study to analyse the culturalshaping of foreign conflict television coverage and compares the foreign news reports of Vremya– the flagship evening news provider of Russia’s Channel 1 – with that of two other Europeanbroadcasters from France and the UK, which are obliged to adhere to strict guidelines. The casestudy seeks to demonstrate how the Russian state-aligned news provider can promote its homecountry, whilst negotiating the complex combination of the influential Russian-speaking diasporain Israel and Russia’s multi-layered cross-cultural connections. The paper also discusses howvarying constraints imposed by broadcasting regulations can result in differing portrayals of thesame event.