My research is not exactly representative, it shows how the housing needs of orphans are presented at the regional level in local communities.

1. The International Conference on
Communication, Development and
Human Rights: Social Change and Media
Flows
Autonomous University of Barcelona
November, 6-8 2013
Housing Problem of Orphans
Addressed by
Russian Local Media

2. Motivation
Russian Orphan Care attracts the
world media spotlight
The focus is mainly on international
relations rather than on the essence of
the problem – Orphan Care
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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3. Background
Federal State Statistics
Service / Online Data:
http://gks.ru/bgd/regl/b12_13
/Main.htm
(in Russian)
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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4. Definitions
Orphans – (for the purposes of
this research) are children
whose parents died as well as
children left parentless due to
other reasons (parents addicted
to alcohol, court orders, etc.)
Housing problem – a broad
concept implying vital needs of a
person and including the complex
system of exercising housing
rights, issues of household
services (chores), etc.
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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5. Approach
The theoretical foundation of the research is taken from Pierre Bourdieu
and Herbert Blumer, who postulate:
People’s awareness of social problems is mediated by the information
engendered by means of mass communication.
Mass Media
Information
People’s
awareness
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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6. Data
Orlovskaya Pravda is the chief newspaper in
the Orel region
First edition — 1917
А2 format
Various number of columns (at least 8)
Circulation — 15,000 issues
Frequency — 4 times a week (Tuesday,
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday).
Integrum is the largest factual mass
media archives in the CIS countries
and Eastern Europe. The system
allows for search and automated
monitoring of the data base of over
25,000 print sources, television
channels and blogs.
About 800,000,000
open for access
documents
http://opravda.ru/
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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7. Method
The publications were filtered by the
key words ‘housing ‘ and ‘orphans’ for
the period from 01.01.2003 to
01.01.2013. The articles were selected if
both words were used in the same
context.
175 texts were analyzed (articles, stories,
legal overviews)


The selected articles were sorted
according to the adopted categories
‘Lifestyle of Orphans’ and ‘Work Done
by the Officials’ with regard to the date
of publishing and organized in MS Excel
2003 on the basis of discourse analysis
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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8. Findings
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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9. Conclusion

The growth of publications in the
regional mass media highlighting
the housing problem is observable.
The growing attention to the
problem is proportional to the
growing support provided by the
state.

The regional printed press focuses
on the beneficial work of the local
authorities rather than presents the
reality (interviews with orphans,
expert comments on the protection
of rights, ways to overcome red tape
barriers, etc.)
Vinkov Sergey, Housing Problem of Orphans Addressed by Russian Local Media
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10. Thank you
Questions are welcome
NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY
HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
www.hse.ru
Sergey Vinkov, svinkov@hse.ru
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