War of words: the impact of Russian state television on the Russian Internet

Abstract

How effective is Russian state television in framing the conflict in Ukraine that began with the Euromaidan protests and what is its impact on Russian Internet users? We carried out a content analysis of Dmitrii Kiselev's “News of the Week” show, which allowed us to identify the two key frames he used to explain the conflict – World War II-era fascism and anti-Americanism. Since Kiselev often reduces these frames to buzzwords, we were able to track the impact of these words on Internet users by examining search query histories on Yandex and Google and by developing quantitative data to complement our qualitative analysis. Our findings show that much of what state media produces is not effective, but that the “fascist” and anti-American frames have had lasting impacts on Russian Internet users. We argue that it does not make sense to speak of competition between a “television party” and an “Internet party” in Russia since state television has a strong impact in setting the agenda for the Internet and society as a whole. Ultimately, the relationship between television and the Internet in Russia is a continual loop, with each affecting the other.

Keywords:

• state media
• the Internet
• frames
• Russia
• Ukraine

Notes

1. For the Levada Center data since 1999, see http://www.levada.ru/indeksy, accessed 26 January 2015.

2. Rossiia Segodnia translates to “Russia Today” but should not be confused with the English-language news network RT, formerly known as Russia Today. Though the two outlets claim mutual independence, both share Putin sympathizer Margarita Simonyan as their creative editor-in-chief.

3. In the poll, 8% of respondents named Kiselev, second only to Vladimir Solovyov with 13%. See “Otnoshenie k zhurnalistam” [Attitude Towards Journalists] by the Public Opinion Foundation, available at: http://fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/11428, accessed 26 January 2015.

4. All data on ratings are from the TNS site, available at: http://www.tns-global.ru/, accessed 25 January 2015. See also Schimpfossl and Yablokov (2014).

5. A list of entities and individuals under sanction is available at: http://www.vedomosti.ru/special/countrysanct.shtml, accessed 26 January 2015.

6. “Dmitriia Kiseleva nagradili ordenom ‘Za zaslugi pered Otechestvom’” [Dmitrii Kiselev Was Awarded the Order “For Service to the Fatherland”], Lenta.ru, 17 February 2014, available at: http://lenta.ru/news/2014/02/17/kiselev/, accessed 26 January 2015.

7. “Dmitrii Kiselev i Oleg Dobrodeiev stali sovetnikami Putina v oblasti russkogo yazyka” [Dmitrii Kiselev and Oleg Dobrodeiev Became Advisers to Putin in the Field of Russian Language], Moskovskii komsomolets, 9 June 2014, available at: http://www.mk.ru/politics/2014/06/09/dmitriy-kiselev-i-oleg-dobrodeev-stali-sovetnikami-putina-v-oblasti-russkogo-yazyka.html, accessed 26 January 2015.

8. The texts of the decrees are available at: http://kremlin.ru/acts/19806 and http://kremlin.ru/acts/19805, accessed 26 January 2015.

9. Interview transcript between Elena Rykovtseva and Matviey Ganapolski, Radio Svoboda, 13 December 2013, available at: http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/25199504.html, accessed 26 January 2015.

10. “Dmitrii Kiselev: Ia ne propagandist i ne gomofob” [I Am Neither a Propagandist Nor Homophobe], RBK, 4 April 2014, available at: http://top.rbc.ru/society/04/04/2014/915620.shtml, accessed 26 January 2015.

11. See Kiselev's comments on the politico-historical talk-show “Istoricheskii protsess,” broadcast on 4 April 2012, in episode “No. 19: Government and personal life,” available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvE16z6FrI (accessed 7 August 2014).

12. Vesti nedeli, Rossiia 1 TV, 27 April 2014.

13. Alexei Navalny, “Byt’ luche ryb” [To Be Better Than Fish], available at: http://navalny.com/p/3686/, accessed 26 January 2015.

14. “Samye zapominaiushchiesia sobytiia” [The Most Memorable Events], Levada Center, 26 June 2014, available at: http://www.levada.ru/26-06-2014/samye-zapominayushchiesya-sobytiya, accessed 26 January 2015.

15. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 13 July 2014.

16. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 13 July 2014.

17. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 13 July 2014.

18. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 16 March 2014.

19. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 13 July 2014.

20. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 16 March 2014, 20 April 2014, and 27 April 2014.

21. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 27 April 2014.

22. Vesti nedeli, Rossiya 1 TV, Moscow, 27 April 2014.