This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An international team led by Alexander Vorbrugg analyzed (online) media reporting on war-related land changes in Ukraine. The study asked: How is damage to land represented?
What knowledge do these representations draw on? How does the war affect the symbolic meaning of land and visions of the future? How are material damage and destruction translated into the media discourse?
What ideas of landscape does this create? One of the researchers' conclusions is that the media play a key role in reporting on the military damage inflicted on the land and ecosystems—particularly for subsequent economic and scientific assessment. Reporting makes visible risks that can often only be identified through technical and scientific expertise.
In addition, the study shows that Ukrainian media present land in a dual role: on the one hand, as an essential foundation for human and nonhuman life, and on the other hand, as a space where dangers lurk—from mines or chemical pollution, for example. The study is published in the journal Global Studies Quarterly. The results are based on a discourse analysis of Ukrainian media coverage since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
The focus was on how the destruction and potential restoration of land are addressed. The team examined the linguistic patterns and layers of meaning used to describe the physical environment in the context of armed conflict. This made it possible to distinguish between the purely strategic view of territory and an ecological and social understanding of land.
A key finding of the study is the link between land, collective identity and national history. "Our study shows that in public perception 'land' is more than a strategic area or geographical space," says Nataliia Miroshnyk. "'Land' is understood as a living medium that both bears the wounds of war and forms the foundation for future reconstruction and national identity." In media coverage, land appears not only as a physical surface but as a medium that transfers war-related damage into the future.
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