'Better one tiger than ten thousand rabid rats': Russian media coverage of the Syrian conflict (original) (raw)
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The Russian Media as a Promoter of Manipulative Approaches: The Case of the Syrian Civil War
Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 2019
The content of mass information in any society is closely linked to the patterns of its political development. A typical example of this concerns the modern Russian media, which have been influenced particularly by their embeddedness with the authorities. Indeed, the Russian media have served as the mouthpiece of the country’s political leaders, and this fact has left a significant imprint on media coverage. To understand the symbiotic relationship between Russian political leaders and media, this article focuses on the Syrian Civil War, which is currently one of the most important issues on the international political agenda. The Russian government’s role in the conflict over the last several years has affected the Russian media’s tremendous interest in this topic. Nonetheless, Moscow’s participation in the war was determined uniquely by how the communication sphere related the conflict to its audience so that its involvement in the Syrian imbroglio was not an objective reflection of reality. Guided by the political interests of the authorities, the Russian media created an emotionally oriented story, which intended to advance an extremely positive interpretation of Russia’s role in this conflict in the minds of the audience. Therefore, in terms of propaganda, these media acted not as “pure” promoters of the state’s will, but rather as its “interpreters.” This study highlights how leading Russian publications approach this agenda and the consequences this fact has for the Kremlin’s political priorities. The authors come to a definite conclusion regarding Russian media’s unconditional dependence on the political priorities of modern Russian society. It was crucial for the Kremlin that the media present a positive view of Moscow’s involvement in the conflict given that Russia’s military presence in Syria caused a very controversial reaction throughout the world and led to increased tensions and contentious disputation between Russia and many Western countries. Therefore, the Kremlin needed to justify its policies and did so through manipulating the Russian public by means of a large-scale propaganda campaign conducted through the Russian media. This phenomenon is pivotal to understand not only the case of Russia’s involvement in Syria but also contemporary international media development. KEYWORDS: ISIS, political and media bias, Russia, Syria, terrorism
Reflections of Western leaders in the Russian media during the Syrian Crisis
Reflections of Western leaders in the Russian media during the Syrian Crisis, 2016
This study aims at analyzing and critically evaluating the clash between West and Russia in the very context of a Syrian crisis, at exposing the mechanisms of media and its influence coupled with foreign policy goals by using the best practices, theories and empirical works on the impact of media on generic public opinion. Hypothesis put forward is that regardless of differentiation between various positions towards Syrian crisis of Western countries in Russian public discourse, it tends to ideologically distort existing global discourse in order to regain global power status and simultaneously weaken the West in front of Russian populace. To prove given hypothesis the method of critical discourse analysis has been chosen, as media being a crucial link between nationals and political will proves to be a reliable data extraction source for a research of political processes.
Coverage of the Middle East: Comparative Analysis of Russia’s intervention in Syria
This research attempts to discuss, analyze and designate the ways in which the American and European press approach the Middle East issues and the international policy that relates to them. It focuses on the coverage of two of the most prestigious newspapers of the British and American press – the Independent and the New York Times, respectively – and conducts a comparative analysis of their approach to relevant issues of the Middle East and foreign policy. Russia’s military intervention in Syria, in October 2015, has been selected as the case of study. The newspapers’ reporting on the first week of the developments has been examined according to parameters that regard the sufficiency of the coverage, the reliability and accuracy of the news reported, the explanation and analysis of it and the level of propaganda that consists their reportage – in order to understand the points where their coverage resembles and differs. The analysis of the coverage that included both news and opinion articles, focused on the framing of the news, the meaning of the titles and subtitles, the usage of the sources and the editing style of the articles to perceive the way each newspaper reported the news. The findings of the research suggest that American and European press converge in the way they report the Middle East issues regarding the sufficiency of the reporting and the analysis and explanation of the news, they do diverge though when it comes to the reliability of their coverage, as well as in the extent of the bias that describes their reporting. Further research is needed, though, in order to reach a safe conclusion about the American and European press’s coverage of the Middle East issues.
Problems of Post-Communism, 62(4): 236-246, 2015
The Western powers and Russia came head-to-head over the August 2013 chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Not only did Moscow stridently oppose Western plans to intervene militarily, it also steadfastly refused to accept that the Syrian regime had been responsible, a position that the US president described as an ‘insult to reason’. This paper examines how it can be that the Russian government was able to maintain such a seemingly absurd stance. It does so by analysing how the Ghouta attacks were presented in the Russian media, and comparing this with coverage in the US, UK, and France. The core finding is that there is an utterly distinct Russian narrative about what occurred. Focusing on the details and style of reporting, discussions of responsibility and motivation, and representations of the West and Russia’s respective roles, it is found that, not only is the Russian account cohesive, it is also largely plausible and, on several points, compares favourably with the Western coverage. Highlighting these differences provides a completely distinct perspective on the August 21 events. It also goes a long way in aiding understanding of Russia’s response to the crisis, as well as to comprehending its broader outlook on international politics.
The Framing of Russian Military Involvement in the Syrian Civil War on Sputnik Media
2020
The legitimacy of a country’s foreign policy is often determined by how the media report on the country’s political activity outside that country. The country's involvement in a conflict or war and the reason for engaging needs to be communicated to the public globally with a mediaframing strategically. This article aims to explore the framing of the Russian military's involvement in the Syrian civil war by the online media outlet Sputnik. The researchers employed a qualitative content analysis method on 238 articles published by Sputnik between February and September 2016. During this period Russia and the United States, as two external powers involved in the Syrian civil war, agreed on a ceasefire. This development represented a strategic moment for Russia to communicate the activities of its military in Syria by using a framing strategy in Sputnik. This research revealed that Sputnik actively used framing to legitimize the Russian military's involvement in the Syrian ...
This article is concerned with exploring conflicting media positions as reflected in the discursive patterns of news headlines and leads. Using Halliday’s transitivity analysis, this study examines how the Russian Military Intervention in the Syrian Civil War was socially, discursively and linguistically represented in the CNN and RT coverage of the event. The analysis examines the process of news making, role of ideology, and types of relationships between the news agencies and the political institutions in the United States and Russia. The aim is to show the discursive power of news agencies in creating different realities of the same event through language use. Results indicate that media are a political actor in the dissemination of both Russian and American views on the Syrian conflict. Although RT and CNN write about the same issue, the language choices made and underlying ideologies are different. The conflicting ideologies of both CNN and RT were highlighted by the use of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation in order to support self’s ideological positions and distort other’s political stances.
This article is concerned with exploring conflicting media positions as reflected in the discursive patterns of news headlines and leads. Using HALLIDAY " s transitivity analysis, this study examines how the Russian Military Intervention in the Syrian Civil War was socially, discursively and linguistically represented in the CNN and RT coverage of the event. The analysis examines the process of news making, role of ideology, and types of relationships between the news agencies and the political institutions in the United States and Russia. The aim is to show the discursive power of news agencies in creating different realities of the same event through language use. Results indicate that media area political actor in the dissemination of both Russian and American views on the Syrian conflict. Although RT and CNN write about the same issue, the language choices made and underlying ideologies are different. The conflicting ideologies of both CNN and RT were highlighted by the use of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation in order to support self " s ideological positions and distort other " s political stances.
Differentiated Visibilities: RT Arabic’s Narration of Russia’s Role in the Syrian War
Media, War & Conflict
This article focusses on the social media content of RT Arabic – formerly Russia Today – the Russian state-funded international news media organisation. It presents results of a qualitative analysis of social media posts in order to assess whether and how RT Arabic constructs a strategic narrative of its involvement in the war in Syria. It also contributes to conceptualisations of how state-sponsored strategic narratives operate in practice and can be mobilised as a soft power resource. Our key finding is that while Russia’s military presence is rendered almost invisible on RT Arabic, its role as a political and diplomatic actor is highly visible. Although Syrian civilians feature as the most prominent actors, they do so mostly as helpless victims and passive witnesses. Syria is represented as a non-sovereign, dysfunctional state, vulnerable to incursion by foreign forces who are vying for power and control in the region. In RT’s representation of the conflict Russia is portrayed as coming to the aid of Syrians and Syria, as a benign presence promoting the establishment of good governance, and skilfully managing the complex diplomatic relations surrounding the conflict. Rather than using straightforward propagandistic or hard-line ideological narratives, RT Arabic creates its own style of persuasive soft power on social media. This style is characterised by the differentiated visibilities afforded to Russia’s military, diplomatic and political roles. Deftly balancing exposure and concealment, RT Arabic performs a legitimating function - rendering Russia’s presence and power in a positive light.
2018
This thesis critically examines the Russian military intervention in Syria during the period of September 2015-March 2016. It is a study that contributes to the analysis of the interrelation of two areas of political studies: media studies and foreign policy. In order to describe the logic behind Russian participation in the Syrian conflict, a social constructivist reading is suggested; according to which, the way the discourse of the Russian intervention has been presented in Russian media indicates the primary role of specific understanding of the ethical goals of Russian foreign policy. Specifically, the Russian military intervention in Syria is driven, according to the Russian discourse, by the need to present itself to the world as a "good actor" through a "just war." Applying the method of qualitative discourse analysis, the thesis deconstructs society to experience its moral appropriateness and adherence to moral standards of justice.
Russian Analytical Digest 175, 2015
As the Syrian Civil War continues to rage relentlessly, the Russian position seems unchanged. While the Kremlin supports the regime in Damascus, Russian media continue to portray the conflict as a legitimate government’s struggle against terrorism. This paper analyzes the coverage in Russian media outlets and discusses the Russian diplomatic efforts, which have unfolded particularly since mid-2014. It argues that, at least for the time being, the Russian military intervention complements rather than contradicts Russian diplomatic efforts. While criticized by the West over its role in Syria, Russia has at least contributed to bringing a variety of actors around one negotiating table in Vienna in late October 2015.