Ukraine through a Baltic Lens: Regional Networks of Meaning

Abstract

Informed by the third-level agenda setting model, also known as the Network Agenda Setting Model, this article contributes to our understanding of the dynamic between meanings by the leading national media and young opinion-influencers (media professionals and civil society members with public profiles) in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In focus are their meanings of Ukraine and its relations with the three Baltic countries and the EU. Our main findings— bifurcated meanings building “storylines” about Ukraine in the Baltic region—raise the possibility that as the EU Baltic states become further embedded in the EU and as the next generation of leaders emerges, the resulting narratives will become more fractured and contested.