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Vol. 20, No. 4 [212] ◆ April 2025
ԼՈՒՍԱՐՁԱԿ
SPOTLIGHT Armenian women mainly focus on Armenians (and their neighbours) The data revealed a strong geographic focus in Armenian women’s writing. The most common geography keywords were ‘Armenia’ and ‘Artsakh,’ and the most common nationality keyword was ‘Armenian.’ The most common country keywords were of countries surrounding Armenia (‘Azerbaijan,’ ‘Russia,’ etc). I could oversimplify and accuse Armenian women writers of being ethnocentric, but I think this takeaway is a result of the data sources I used. I specifically analyzed Armenian women writing for Armenian publications, where the topics are naturally centered on the current events impacting the Armenian nation. Armenian women who write personal blogs, fiction, or other non-political content were largely excluded from the dataset. Still, this finding is significant—it highlights that Armenian women writing for publications are interested in national and regional affairs impacting the modern Armenian state. Armenian women are influenced by world events Tracking keyword trends over time revealed that Armenian women’s writing is responsive to global events. For instance, I noticed ‘Lebanon’ spiked as a keyword during the year of the Beirut Blast, while mentions of ‘Ukraine’ increased after Russia’s 2022 invasion. This correlation points to Armenian women’s reporting potentially being influenced by world events.
Data Takeaways Analyzing the data revealed several key insights into the ‘typical’ style of writing featured in Armenian publications. Armenian publications often don’t cite individual contributors One of the most surprising findings was the lack of bylines in many articles. More than half of the pieces I scraped did not credit an individual author. Instead, they were attributed to the editorial team, an external organization (such as ARS and ANCA) or anonymous ‘guest contributors.’ This significant lack of authorial accountability and transparency was unexpected. Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with publishing press releases, collaborative reports, or anonymous pieces—they can be valuable additions that bring diverse perspectives to a newspaper. However, when these types of contributions dominate original content, they pose a real risk to journalistic diversity, critical coverage, and overall quality of publications. If Armenian publications are largely recycling the same press releases and republishing articles instead of offering fresh analysis or local reporting, what’s the point of duplicating work and using up resources? Armenian newspaper writers are likely disproportionately men This finding, while not surprising, is still disappointing. Among the articles I scraped with individual contributors, less than a third were written by likely female authors. There are a few possible explanations. Perhaps Armenian women are more likely to contribute without individual credit—as part of editorial teams, organizations, or under anonymous bylines. It’s also possible that rather than write about current events for Armenian publications, Armenian women writers are contributing their skills elsewhere. While I can’t say for certain that there are more male than female Armenian writers overall, the data suggests that men are disproportionately represented in bylined contributions. It’s still important to have Armenian women writing for Armenian publications as they can help highlight unique gender issues from the perspective of someone directly impacted.
Armenian women focus on Christianity when writing about religion I had seeded the religion keywords category with words from all major religions. However, the overwhelming majority of keywords in this category were related to Christianity. One of the most frequently mentioned words was ‘church,’ which isn’t surprising given the central role churches play in Armenian community life. Interestingly, the keywords also highlighted diversity in the type of Christian denominations featured. Armenian women write about Evangelical, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Apostolic religious traditions. This suggests that while Christianity remains a dominant theme, the coverage acknowledges and explores its different → 22 expressions within the Armenian world.