Local media and institutional news sources in Russia-held territories in Ukraine and beyond

A dataset with basic details about relevant online sources

Author

Giorgio Comai

Published

February 7, 2023

Modified

March 13, 2023

Work-in-progress

This page is still a work-in-progress. It is shared in the spirit of keeping the research process as open as possible, but it still a draft document, possibly an early draft: incomplete, unedited, and possibily inaccurate. Datasets included may likewise not be fully verified.

Context

This document introduces a dataset with basic details about online sources that are relevant to this research. These include not only sources from or about Russia-held territories in Ukraine, but also other online sources that may be relevant either as a term of reference (e.g. local media in neighbouring Russian regions or contested territories elsewhere in the post-Soviet space) or because of their direct or indirect impact (e.g. national media in Russia, Ukraine).

This is a work in progress and unlikely to ever reach a state where it can be considered complete. Indeed, I add sources that may be of relevance as I advance in my research or as I encouter them serendipitously.

Its purpose is to keep a systematic record of relevant sources that can be used as a starting point for more specific research questions, and grow as a result.

The full dataset can be downloaded as a .csv file. Full metadata specification is likewise available as a .csv file

Note

Allegiance is provided only in reference to local media and institutions in contested territories when it is immediately apparent and obvious. Independent sources or others whose allegiance is not self-evident are all recorded as “other”. The field allegiance is not relevant for sources not specifically related to contested territories (e.g. it is not used for national Russian or Ukrainian media).

Media or other online sources reporting news from or about Russia-held territories in Ukraine

Allegiance to Russia

Allegiance to Ukraine

Other

Local institutions of Russia-held territories in Ukraine

Allegiance to Russia

Allegiance to Ukraine

Other

Russian national media

Russian national institutions

domain

medium

language

name_original

name_en

mil.ru

website

Министерство обороны Российской Федерации

Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

kremlin.ru

website

Президент России

President of Russia

en.kremlin.ru

website

President of Russia

mid.ru

website

Министерство иностранных дел Российской Федерации

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

mid.ru/en

website

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

duma.gov.ru

website

Государственная Дума - Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации

Russian parliament

Metadata specification

The table with metadata description includes a technical specification and a brief description for all fields included in the full dataset available for download:

id, domain_id, wikidata_id, date_recorded, url, news_section_url, base_state, entity, allegiance, category, medium, language, name_original, self_described_as, name_en, description_en, activity_start, activity_end, earliest_available_online, license, telegram, vkontakte, twitter, facebook, instagram, tiktok, youtube, rutube, odnoklassniki, yandex_zen, tiktok, fediverse.

The full metadata specification is available as a .csv file, as well as in the table below.

column_name

mandatory

format

description

true

numeric

Numeric identifier to be attributed to each language version of each source; to be used for reference and without intrinsic meaning.

domain_id

true

character string

A combination of the plain domain name, underscore, and the language code of the main language. E.g. 1tv.ru_ru for the Russian language version of the website of Russian tv 1tv.ru

wikidata_id

false

character string. Must start with capital Q followed by an integer

Wikidata identifier of the source.

date_recorded

true

a date in the YYYY-MM-DD format

Date when a given record was added, updated, or checked

url

true

a url, must start with http

Link to the home page or main page of the source in the relevant language

news_section_url

false

a url, must start with http

Link to the page were “all news” (or similar) are posted.

base_state

false

Two-letter country code, iso2c, fallback on Eurostat

State whose sovereignty over a territory is generally recognised. To be left empty in case of international media.

entity

false

character. Common name of entity or region.

The name of the region, territory, or entity. Generic name of region to be preferred to self-designations that apply to only a specific period. E.g. “Donetsk” would apply to pre-2014, 2014-2022, and post-2022. To be left empty if it applies to a whole state.

allegiance

false

character string. Common name.

If the source is explicitly loyal to one side in a conflict or to de facto authorities (see e.g. P945 in Wikidata)