This analysis identifies the dominant media frames in the coverage of four right-wing populist actors - Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, and Roman Abramovich - by the Bulgarian editions of Elle and Cosmopolitan. Although the political platforms of these men are not, in fact, anti-establishment, which is the core characteristic of populism, they are referred to as populist actors because of their use of populist tools and discourses to practice so-called “neo-populism from above.” The four men were framed as: a carriers of a “golden touch”; b sources of profound/problematic wisdom; and c admirable collectors of “trophy” women. The findings are discussed as illustrative of the tabloidization of U.S. women’s magazine brands in the post-communist context of Bulgaria.
This article examines transformations of females' representation in women's magazines of Soviet and Post-Soviet times. The paper is based on case study of two domestic publications Rabotnitsa and Krestyanka of two decades before Soviet Union's collapse (1971-1990) and two decades after it (1991-2010). Using the method of content analysis, texts, visuals and advertising are analyzed in terms of portraying women as of their gender and social roles, occupational images, beauty types, body languages, and job representations. Range of topics of the women's magazines of two periods under research are compared. Major inference of the study is that Soviet propaganda and communist values are replaced by a western-style image of a woman in Post-Soviet women's magazines, yet still influenced by traditional Slavic views of womanhood.