The paperboys of Russian messaging: RT/Sputnik audiences as vehicles for malign information influence

ABSTRACT

This article examines the reception and dissemination of ‘malign information influence’ (MII) in a liberal democracy; information sponsored by authoritarian regimes or other hostile actors and projected through international broadcasting outlets across borders. The study contributes to the scarce research on the reception of narratives transmitted by the Russian state-supported media platforms RT and Sputnik, exposing characteristics, political attitudes, and sharing behaviors of RT/Sputnik consumers. A nationwide, representative survey (n: 3033) from November 2020 revealed a surprisingly high number of Swedish RT/Sputnik consumers (7%), with an overrepresentation of young, men and supports of non-parliamentarian parties and the right wing, nationalist Sweden Democratic Party. These consumers are somewhat more willing than non-consumers to disseminate news on social media and in real life despite being distrustful of the sources. The findings strengthen previous research in demonstrating the attractiveness of identity grievance narratives among alternative media consumers, yet the results show that RT/Sputnik consumers also aligned with narratives that contrasts with national security policy. They state less trust in politicians, institutions, the media, news, and journalism, yet are comparatively prone to share unreliable or untrue news content on social media and in real life. The analysis thus identified a section of media consumers who can function as vehicles for the dissemination of MII. The article contributes to the under-researched problem of the potential of MII to take root and provides a basis for future qualitative research that can refine and provide nuance to the knowledge of reception of MII.

KEYWORDS:

• Information influence
• media audience
• narratives
• RT
• sputnik

Acknowledgements

For excellent research assistance, I thank Torsten Blad. For very helpful feedback, I thank two anonymous reviewers and Aiden Hoyle.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency.

Notes on contributors

Charlotte Wagnsson

Charlotte Wagnsson is Professor of Political Science at the Swedish Defence University. Her research interests include European security, political communication in the security sphere and strategic narratives. She has published her works in journals such as New Media and Society, Journal of Common Market Studies, Media, War and Conflict and European Security.