“Je suis Satisfaction:” Russian politics in the age of hybrid media

ABSTRACT

This article traces a hybrid media event that unfolded in Russia in January 2018. Started on YouTube as a homoerotic music video, the so-called Satisfaction Challenge turned into a meme with hundreds of participants, millions of followers, and national media coverage. Using digital ethnography, we examine the interaction of Russian officials, publics, and media throughout this multi-sited, multi-actor, and multi-voiced event. In so doing, we pose questions about the relationship between hybrid media and political regimes, particularly, the interplay between traditional and digital media as it plays out in the realm of social contention in Russia.

KEYWORDS:

• Hybrid media
• media events
• illiberalism
• political contention
• Russia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Alina Ryabovolova is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Julie Hemment is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of Youth Politics in Putin’s Russia: Producing Patriots and Entrepreneurs (Indiana University Press, 2015).

Notes

1 Public comment on the change.org petition in support of the Ulyanovsk cadets.

2 Russia’s largest polling agencies cite different numbers of Internet users in Russia in 2018—from 72% according to FOM (https://fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/13999) to 80% according to VCIOM (https://wciom.ru/index.php?id=236&uid=116780).

3 The citation ratings are provided by a Russian media-analytic organisation, Medialogiya, available at http://www.mlg.ru/ratings/media/federal/5830/

4 http://1ul.ru*obnazhennye_studenty_uiga_ustroili_plyaski_pod_satisfaction_v_obshchezhitii/#reviews

5 The original post is no longer available. When the video went viral, the post was deleted together with the poster’s YouTube account.

6 It was actively promoted by a popular VKontakte community, MDK, with 10 million subscribers, and received over a million views in just one day. VKontakte is Russia’s most popular social network.

7 http://73online.ru/readnews/56258

8 https://www.vesti.ru/videos/show/vid/742492/#

9 http://tass.ru/obschestvo/4878422

10 https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2976668#

11 Petition “Don’t expel Ulyanovsk cadets” (Ne otchislyaite ulyanovskikh kursantov”) at https://www.change.org/p/%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2-%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%B9-%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87-%D0%BD%D0%B5-%D0%BE%D1%82%D1%87%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BB%D1%8F%D0%B9%D1%82%D0%B5-%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%85-%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2

12 https://www.ul.kp.ru/daily/26783.4/3816967/

13 https://meduza.io/feature/2018/01/17/studenty-ulyanovskogo-vuza-stantsevali-v-nizhnem-belie-rektor-sravnil-ih-s-pussy-riot-gubernator-poobeschal-maksimalno-zhestkuyu-proverku

14 Solovyov hosts a three-hour-long Sunday television talk show and a shorter daily talk show on “Rossiya-1,” mostly dedicated to Russia’s international affairs, as well as a radio talk show on “Vesti FM.”

15 Satanovskiy often makes positively connoted references to Stalin, in this case, saying that Stalin did not think people’s sexual life affected their professional performance.

16 https://www.ul.kp.ru/daily/26783.4/3816891/

17 A post by Dimitrovgrad Novosti (News) on YouTube subtitled as “the main news of the day”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBqFnCV_B5M

18 An informal name for the cadets of Moscow Higher Military Command Academy

19 “Fun” and “hype” were mentioned by an anonymous cadet interviewed by “Meduza,” who says, however, that the video was only meant to be shared among friends and not on YouTube: https://meduza.io/feature/2018/01/17/studenty-ulyanovskogo-vuza-stantsevali-v-nizhnem-belie-rektor-sravnil-ih-s-pussy-riot-gubernator-poobeschal-maksimalno-zhestkuyu-proverku