How Russian Media Represent the Sanctions Imposed on Russia by the West in Relation to Wider International Relations Issues (original) (raw)
Related papers
Political Activity of Russians: Current Trends and Resources of Media Influence
Media Watch, 2018
The study is based on the provision that citizens' confidence in power determines the stability of the political and social system and is a prerequisite for the development of the country. One of the objects of sanctions pressure on Russia is the interaction of the state and civil society. The purpose of the study is to identify the effectiveness of the influence of Western sanctions on the level of political confidence of citizens in the Russian power, as well as to establish the incentive role of the media in this process. The direct and indirect, immediate, and the cumulative effect of sanctions causes both emotional and rational attitude of citizens to them and has positive and negative effects. The article concludes that under modern conditions, sanctions are more likely to strengthen than weaken the power; moreover, they strengthen the confrontational worldview in society. However, the cumulative nature of the impact of sanctions, coupled with a deterioration in the lives of Russians and the accumulation of their egocentrism, reduces the level of political confidence in the power and increases the risks of a social explosion directed against the course of the reigning political elite.
International media image of Russia: trends and patterns of perception
The article presents the results of the research of media image of Russia as a great power in the international political media discourse. The main method used was the content analysis of a corpus of American, British, German, French and Spanish printed media texts during the period from 2000 to the present time. Despite the fact that Russia appears today in a fundamentally new quality and the international political establishment still sees it as one of the leading world powers, its image in the foreign media is mostly negative and largely based on stereotypes of the last century. Special attention the media pays to Russian foreign policy, describing it as aggressive and based on «imperial ambitions». The consequence of all this is a rejection of Russia as an integral part of the «civilized world», as a state which is ready to share «universal values» as they are seen by the Western society.
2013
Putin's Kremlin uses media repression as an indispensable part of a strategy to prevent the emergence of credible opposition that could seriously challenge the current regime. This article reviews recent developments in the Russian media and explains key elements of this strategy. While television remains the most important instrument for the authorities' dominance of Russia's information space, the Kremlin is paying increasing attention to the Internet, given that medium's rapidly growing influence.
The Impact of International Sanctions on Russia’s Media Economy
Russian Politics, 2017
To punish Russia for the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, the United States and the European Union introduced a set of economic sanctions against Russian state companies and individuals closely affiliated with the Kremlin. The goal of this article is to look at the sanctions in relation to the process of the current consolidation of media assets and revenues in the hands of Russia’s biggest media empires, most of whom are close to the Kremlin. It questions whether the sanctions achieved the intended goal of undermining economic stability inside Russia or if, rather, they benefitted major state-aligned media corporations. The main conclusion drawn from the study is that the international sanctions have radically changed the structure of Russia’s media in a manner contrary to their intention. The sanctions unwittingly favored the biggest players to the detriment of the smaller, protecting state-aligned media and their financial incomes. In the climate of sanctions, media tycoons clo...
This article analyzes how the four Russian media that cater to different Russian and global audiences—the newspaper Izvestiya, the satellite television channel Russia Today, the newspaper Kommersant, and the radio station Ekho Moskvy—covered the debate around the controversial law on " foreign agents " passed in Russia in the summer of 2012. The law and the media coverage it received exposed the clash between Russia's desire for global integration and the type of nationalism that defines Russian national identity as incompatible with Western values. The findings demonstrate that, although different media offer different articulations of Russia's national identity, the dominant articulation constructs the identity of Russia around the idea of a strong state that determines and manages the conditions of Russia's global integration.
Russia re-envisions the world: strategic narratives in Russian broadcast and news media during 2015
This study examines the strategic narratives embedded in Russia broadcast and news media to determine how the country advances a narrative framework portraying the Kremlin's world view as propagated through Russian media. We argue these narratives help construct Russian identity in building domestic cohesion while fending off criticisms by Western nations. The study furthers our theoretical understanding of public diplomacy and global narratives by drawing from the work of rhetoricians and IR scholars in addressing how domestic and international narratives become tied together for strategic purposes and their reception by local actors. We analyzed 1016 broadcast and online news segments from 17 different sources representing governmental and official news sites, oppositional sites, and independent news sources. Two studies were conducted focusing on one particular 'contour' of the Russian worldview: Russian multilateral engagement through BRICS, SCO, and Iranian nuclear negotiations as well as media portrayals of NATO. The study concludes by discussing strategies for effective messaging. ARTICLE HISTORY Russia is in the midst of an identity crisis (Lukyanov, 2016). As Mankoff (2012) explains, since the collapse of Communism, Russia has 'endured a confusing, often tortuous process of self-definition' battling over whether it is a European, Eurasian, or a Slavic nation (11). This search for identity is felt in foreign affairs with the resurgence of aggressive actions by the Russian Federation causing concern globally, from its conflict in Georgia, to the takeover of the Crimea, and recent meddling in U.S. elections. While political leaders and policy-makers might vary in their interpretation of this newly aggressive posture, these actions appear to be an attempt to reinvigorate Russian national strength and reestablish the nation as a 'global player,' with the military, economic, and political clout to matter on the world stage. But just as concerning are the emerging geopolitical narratives that seem to be guiding Russian policy, and the accompanying rhetoric toward, and about, the West. As Tsygankov (2016) argues, Russian foreign policy and national interest can best be understood within the context of the country's relations with the West; especially, how domestic identity
The report analyses freedom of the press in Russia as a litmus test of the development of liberal democratic norms under Putin. It addresses both the question of why freedom of the press has deteriorated and what kind of impact the international society has had on this development. It is found that restricting freedom of the press has been a rational tool employed by a Russian president aiming to secure his own position, strengthen state power and win a war in Chechnya. However, the deterioration of freedom of the press is also attributed to Russian political culture and the growing influence and assertiveness of the security structures under Putin. Further, the report concludes that the Western states' response to this development has been muted and has only to a limited degree contributed to promote freedom of the press in Russia. The report is part of an FFI project that analyses the prospects of a Russian-Western "security community". A prerequisite for such a community is the development of common norms. The report reveals a mismatch between closer cooperation and institutional integration between Russia and the West on the one hand and the weak and even deteriorating standing of liberal democratic norms under Putin.
The New Pravda? The Rise of RT and its Effects on Russian/Western Relations In the summer of 2014, the Russian news channel RT launched a major and controversial advertising campaign in the United States. Posters appeared in New York City that depicted former Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council with the caption, "This is what happens when there is no second opinion -Iraq War: No WMDS, 141,802 civilian deaths" 1 . Similar posters had also previously appeared in the United Kingdom, with the word "Redacted" in large letters and a link to a video showing former Prime Minister Tony Blair advocating for military intervention in Iraq 2 . Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, has defended the posters vigorously, stating that "Alternative voices..are often met with fear,
Sanctions in Russian Political Narrative
Published in Politics in Central Europe 1/16. In this paper using the dramaturgical analysis we forcus on how contemporary Russian elites communicate with the public.We analyze the performance of the Russian political elite when presenting the changes caused by the worsening Russo ‑Western relations over the Ukrainian crisis to the domestic audiences, with focus on the impact of sanctions introduced by the Western countries. Which strategies, narratives and symbols remain the same and which are adjusted, erased or newly introduced by the political elite when communicating with the public in order to justify the contemporary situation? We will focus especially on two basic components of the narrative: the symbolic level, particularly the use of history, geopolitics and other symbolic topics to frame the current situation; the pragmatic level, especially adjustment of current strategies and introduction of new plans and partners who will help to manage the new situation.
The Russian Media and Russia's Military Intervention in Georgia in 2008
2011
The Russian Media and Russia s Military Intervention in Georgia in 2008 This study examines the role of the Russian media in affecting the public opinion in Russia regarding the Russian intervention in 2008. The largest armed conflict in Europe since Kosovo in 1999, the August 2008 war was fought between Georgia and Russia over the proclaimed independence of the Georgian separate governments of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which were supported by Russia. Russia intervened militarily and recognized the independence of the two separatist regions, supported by an overwhelming majority of the Russian population. In the study eight popular Russian media outlets were reviewed to examine what kind of messages they delivered to their readers during the time period between March till August in 2008. The method used for the study is discourse analysis, and the theoretical framework underlying the research is Barry Buzan s (et al.,1998) concept of securitization and Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky s (1988) concept of manufacturing consent which was later elaborated by Anthony DiMaggio (2009). The results show that the mainstream Russian media presented Georgia as a big threat to the Russian state, requiring to take urgent forceful measures. In this way, the Russian media, willingly or unwillingly, served as a tool for the Russian government to successfully securitize Georgia and justify the intervention of Russia in Georgia in August 2008. The securitization process was aided with manufacturing consent of the Russian public by means of relying mainly on one-sided (anti-Georgian) sources, choice of words and topics, framing of events, as well as seemingly critical rhetoric reproaching the government policies on superficial issues of procedure rather than issues of moral and international law. These trends identified in the mainstream media coverage must account for the positive opinion of the Russian public towards the intervention. The study also revealed the contrasting trends characterizing the mainstream and alternative Russian media coverage, thus once again confirming the crucial role of the media in establishing the different opinions among the public, by building contrasting images of the world.