Abstract
<jats:p>This study aims to identify the dominant orientations of audience responses to social media information about the Russia–Ukraine war. The research object is a quantitative content analysis of more than 5,000 comments selected from the Instagram page of “Radio Azattyq” over the period from February 2022 to March 2023. Since media distortion is often produced through topic selection and framing (Rodrigo-Ginés et al., 2023), the study adopts Entman’s (1993) framing theory as its analytical foundation. Papacharissi’s (2014) concept of “affective publics” is used to interpret the emotional tonality of comments. Coe, Kenski, and Rains (2014) note that online discussions frequently become uncivil; accordingly, this study also examines whether similar tendencies are present in the comment sections of Azattyq’s page. The findings indicate that most comments contain elements of emotional response and political polarization, while constructive deliberation is relatively rare. Importantly, the analysis also reveals a temporal shift in the discursive core of the dominant position: during the early phase of 2022, it was more strongly driven by humanitarian sensitivity and moral condemnation (the perceived injustice of the war, the tragedy of victims, empathy for civilians), whereas by 2023 its internal content expanded to include anti-imperial and historical arguments. Thus, even when the overall share of the frame remained relatively stable, its discursive nucleus shifted within a year from a humanitarian-empathetic tone toward political-historical interpretation. These conclusions resonate with Raimbekova’s (2023) and Shevchenko’s (2022) observations regarding informational risks and patterns of ideological differentiation.</jats:p>