HEADLINES AS A TOOL FOR SHAPING NARRATIVES: UKRAINE ON THE PAGES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES (DURING THE PRESIDENCY OF D. TRUMP)

The article investigates the role of headlines as autonomous meaning-making units in shaping media narratives about Ukraine in the American press, using The New York Times during Donald Trump’s presidency as a case study. The study aims to identify dominant war-related and political narratives, discursive strategies, and value orientations through which Ukraine’s image was constructed for a Western audience. The research material consists of a corpus of headlines from news, analytical, and opinion publications, selected via purposive sampling from the sections World, Politics, Europe, and from authored columns. The analysis revealed four key types of war narratives: heroic, victim, just-war, and dehumanization narratives, as well as a separate block of meta-narratives related to diplomacy and international negotiations. It is shown that The New York Times headlines not only inform but also actively interpret events, emphasizing the political unpredictability of the United States, the personalization of the conflict through global leaders, and Ukraine’s vulnerability amid the transformation of international alliances. The study concludes that narrative headlines play a crucial role in shaping the emotional and ideological framing of the war, influencing public opinion and legitimizing political decisions within the global media space.