NEWS FRAMING ON SOCIAL MEDIA: A CASE STUDY OF RUSSIAUKRAINE WAR NARRATION ON FACEBOOK IN VIETNAM
Name: マイティダン

トゥー/Mai Thi Dang Thu

Keywords: Russia-Ukraine war, news framing, social media in Vietnam, regulated SNS
1

Objective
This study aims first to uncover the dominant discourses surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war on Facebook within

Vietnam’s regulated social media landscape. Furthermore, it seeks to identify the trend in frame distribution byinvestigating how Facebook news coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war has evolved in Vietnam. Lastly, it examines
how the image of Vietnam is shaped in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war.
2 Methods
This study will use quantitative analysis to provide statistical information from collected data. The data collection
period has been particularly set as one year from the beginning of the war, February 24, 2022. Four Vietnam-based
Facebook pages with at least 100,000 followers that update Russia-Ukraine war news were randomly chosen. Twohundred fifty-five posts on these pages are manually gathered and filtered by searching for Russia-Ukraine war related
terms such as “Nga-Ukraine” (Russia-Ukraine), “Nga” (Russia), “Ukraine”, and “chiến sự/chiến tranh Nga-Ukraine”(Russia-Ukraine warfare/war). Tankard (2001)’s devices to detect news frames were used to categorize these posts.
Statistical tests using MedCalc and Excel were employed to analyze and categorize data to show the main narrativesof the Russia-Ukraine war on Facebook in Vietnam.
3 Results
The posts collected in this study revealed eight main frames narrated on Facebook in Vietnam including: AntiEuropean countries sentiment; Anti-US sentiment; Anti-Ukraine sentiment; Disparaging Zelensky; Pro-Russia; Waraftermaths; Shaping Vietnam’s image and Other aspects. Among these frames, the category of Anti-European
countries sentiment was the most prevalent, with 61 posts covering war-related news, accounting for 23.92% of thetotal. When analyzing the data on a monthly basis, the study observed a downward trend in the distribution of thesenews frames. The first three months since the beginning of the war accounted for the majority of posts, with 151
featuring all eight frames. Additionally, the study found a significant correlation between the volume of posts
containing the Anti-Ukraine sentiment and Pro-Russia frames (p < 0.05). Regarding 41 posts dedicated to the Shapingof Vietnam's image during the Russia-Ukraine war, the study noted that this main frame is supported by minor frames,
primarily the one of Justifying Vietnam’s stance, which accounted for 29.27%.
4 Conclusion
This study identified eight major frames that dominated narratives on Facebook regarding the Russia-Ukraine war
in Vietnam. Frame distribution significantly decreased over time, particularly following the first three months of thewar. The correlation between Anti-Ukraine sentiment and Pro-Russia frames also emerged, suggesting that Vietnam's
social media narratives of the war has limited neutrality. The research also looked at how Vietnam is portrayed in thecontext of the Russia-Ukraine war, identifying a few minor frames, most notably Justifying Vietnam's stance. This
underscores Facebook's function in communicating Vietnam's political position within a regulated social media
environment. These findings offer insights into the narration of a global issue within Vietnam's online sphere and thestrategic portrayal of Vietnam's image amid complex geopolitical dynamics.
References: Tankard W. James (2001) The empirical approach into the study of media framing. In Reese D. Stephen,Gandy H. Oscar & Grant E. August (2001) Framing public life (pp. 95–105). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum