"On March 9, 2022, the maternity and children’s hospital number 3 in Mariupol, Ukraine, was bombed as part of Russia’s full-scale war efforts in Ukraine. However, Russian statealigned media promoted a different narrative: namely, that the bombing itself, as well as the victims on site, were fake
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. Thus, combining concerns of war, gender, and disinformation, I analytically unfold the state-aligned news media coverage of the Mariupol case in Russia within the framework of multimodal critical discourse analysis. The analysis demonstrates how female agents are stripped of victimhood and symbolically annihilated across the material, introducing the concept of false agency. Meanwhile, the experts in the coverage are solely male and predominantly Russian, pointing to an intersectional and unequal divide based on gender and nationality. Moreover, the analysis illuminates how fact-checking is used as a deliberate tool to legitimize the disinformative coverage within the discourse of information warfare in Russian state-aligned media." (Abstract)
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"Key findings: Critical role of local media in addressing specific population needs, compared with national media which is increasingly seen as painting a false picture of reality. Audiences on the frontline feel excluded from national discourse. Ukrainians (57%) use local Telegram channels more tha
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n traditional media sources: only 34% often follow national media, and 38% often follow local media. Audiences express a deep need for positive news, such as culture, sports, leisure, and “dream projects.” Strong demand for inclusive dialogue between authorities and citizens, particularly on the use of public funds and tracking reconstruction projects. Internally displaced people (IDPs) and Russian-speaking Ukrainians are not perceived as potential sources of local tension." (Page 2)
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"Nations use media to disseminate stories about their culture, history, and values. This study explored Russian public-diplomacy efforts by examining news content exported to its neighbors, Ukraine and Georgia, from February 2021 to July 2021, approximately one year before Russia’s invasion of Ukr
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aine. We looked at pro-Russia media that targeted Russian-speaking Georgians and Ukrainians showing that Russian public-diplomacy messaging was not so much about Russia, as it was about anti-Western frames. Local pro- Russia media in Ukraine and Georgia repeated these anti-Western frames in their news coverage. These anti-Western frames provide insight into the messaging before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, thus contributing unique insights into public-diplomacy messaging for theorizing soft and hard power." (Abstract)
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"Laure-Hélène Piron (The Policy Practice Director) undertook an analysis of official development assistance to media and the information environment for the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee which was published in June 2024. The report shows that the rhetoric of gover
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nments which support freedom of expression and condemn disinformation is not matched by sufficient resources. ODA for media and the information environment has increased since 2002, reaching USD 1.5 billion in 2022, but this only represented 0.5% of total ODA in that year. When infrastructure support is excluded, ODA for media fluctuated around USD 500 million a year since 2008 (representing 0.19% of total ODA in 2022). This is despite the growth of threats facing media, such as the rise of censorship and the dominance of technology platforms.
And not enough aid directly reaches local organisations. Only up to 8% of ODA for media and the information environment (representing only 0.05% of total ODA) is directly channelled to media organisations in partner countries, such as journalists, media outlets or civil society organisations working with media or on access to information. To improve the quality and quantity of ODA for media and the information environment, the report recommends: increasing direct assistance for local public interest media; adopting a broader “information environment” lens; improving coordination between (i) digital transformation and ICT infrastructure and (ii) media and information policies and programmes; improving co-ordination and coherence between development partners (including global initiatives); strengthening the evidence base." (https://thepolicypractice.com)
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"This volume addresses the concept of “(in)nocent lies” in the media – beyond the concept of misleading information online, this extends to a deliberate effort to spread misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories – and proposes a critical approach to tackle the issue in related i
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nterdisciplinary fields. The book takes a multidisciplinary and international approach, addressing the digital divide and global inequality, as well as algorithmic bias, how misinformation harms vulnerable groups, social lynching and the effect of misinformation on certain social, political and cultural agendas, among other topics. Arranged thematically, the chapters paint a nuanced and original picture of this issue." (Publisher description)
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"Carole Grimaud propose une plongée au cour de la complexité des processus de réception médiatique dans un contexte où la perception et l'interprétation des informations sont soumises à une incertitude palpable. À travers une approche interdisciplinaire, cet ouvrage explore les dynamiques so
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us-jacentes à la formation des représentations et des croyances chez les récepteurs. En s'appuyant sur une étude qualitative approfondie, cette recherche analyse les influences exercées par les médias, les processus cognitifs impliqués dans le traitement de l'information et les mécanismes de régulation cognitive et métacognitive, offrant ainsi une vision nuancée des réactions du public face à la surmédiatisation de la guerre en Ukraine. Ce livre donne des clés de compréhension essentielles pour appréhender les enjeux de la réception médiatique en période de crise." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"A Saudi-led coalition of states initiated an on-going-armed conflict in Yemen on 26 March 2015. Meanwhile, Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Though no two armed conflicts are exactly alike, there is reason to compare US media coverage of the two because: (1) civilians have been victims of
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both conflicts; (2) both conflicts have undermined food security; (3) the US has provided military support to a party to each of the conflicts; and (4) the conflict in Yemen is in the Global South whereas the conflict in Ukraine is in the Global North. This article comparatively analyses US media coverage of the conflicts in Yemen and Ukraine, via New York Times headlines, by documenting the number of stories and their placement; assessing the types of media frames used; reviewing headlines for attribution of responsibility; and conducting a content analysis to identify the descriptive and normative terminology used. We find extensive biases in coverage and framing, rooted in peripheralism, culturalism and differential geopolitical US positioning. This results in reduced coverage of the war in Yemen, shielded in neutral language and lacking responsibility attribution—serving to devalue the suffering of victims and condemning the crisis to be functionally forgotten." (Abstract)
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"The article is interested in the role of humour employed in memes on X by the government of Ukraine in the war following the invasion by Russia in 2022. It brings insights from cultural and humour studies as well as psychology into politics and shows how and what kind of humour the government aroun
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d President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a professional comedian, uses in their meme communication via social media in order to communicate with the public, seek global legitimacy and support, as well as depict and attack the enemy. It shows that the government uses a broad set of different humour types, styles and theories while completely avoiding self-deprecation as a humour style and humour which corresponds to relief theory. While this absence may not seem surprising at first in a situation of war in which there is a need to maintain tension towards the enemy, to galvanize support and avoid emphasizing own faults which might make it appear weak, the void of such forms of humour should be reconsidered. While this absence may not seem surprising during a war – a time in which there is a need to maintain tension towards the enemy, to galvanize support and to avoid emphasizing one’s own faults so as not to give the appearance of weakness – the void of such forms of humour should be reconsidered. The article calls for further research on the benefits and limitations of laughter in war. It argues that both relief theory and self-deprecation can be effective tools of crisis communication as these forms of humour can contribute to the portrayal of confidence and strength, while also providing a means of dealing with the difficult and traumatic experiences the population is facing in times of war." (Abstract)
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"Inhaltsanalysen über die Darstellung von Konflikten in den Medien werden häufig durchgeführt, um den Vorwurf der Einseitigkeit empirisch zu überprüfen. Dies wirft die normative Frage auf, wie die Forderung nach einer ausgewogenen Bewertung, d. h. einer Gleichverteilung positiver und negativer
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Bewertungen zwischen Kontrahenten, als Qualitätsmaßstab rechtfertigt werden kann und wie dies fallbezogen, d. h. kontextabhängig geschehen muss. Diese Frage wird am Beispiel von Inhaltsanalysen zum russischen Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine diskutiert. In einer qualitativen Metastudie von 22 Inhaltsanalysen wurden zunächst induktiv acht Annahmen zur Rechtfertigung der Anwendung des Maßstabs für diesen Fall ermittelt. Vier davon beziehen sich auf das Verhältnis der Medien zu ihrer Umwelt: zur journalistischen Profession, der Medien untereinander sowie zum Publikum und zur Politik. Vier weitere Begründungen sind vom Verhältnis der Medien zum Krieg als Thema abgeleitet: zum normativ „richtigen“ und „falschen“ Handeln der Kontrahenten, zur Antizipation negativer Folgen, zum Framing des Kriegs als Machtkonflikt (statt als Konflikt um Werte) und aus der Position des Werterelativismus. Die Forderung nach einer ausgewogenen Bewertung war in den Studien häufig mit der Kritik an einer angeblich zu negativen Sicht der russischen Seite verknüpft. Die Diskussion der Fundstellen zeigt, dass die Argumente zur Rechtfertigung einer ausgewogenen Bewertung für den vorliegenden Fall nur begrenzt oder gar nicht tauglich sind. Damit kann die Studie zeigen, dass das Problem der „False Balance“nicht nur im Bereich des Wissens, sondern auch des Wertens zu finden ist. Außerdem ist „False Balance“ damit nicht nur ein Phänomen im Journalismus, sondern auch in der Wissenschaft." (Abstract)
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"First of all, following a reform in 2020 that reorganised Ukraine’s districts, merging many of them to form larger ones, the situation on the map is not critical. There are indeed "unhealthy districts", but the overall situation is better than it could be. With the exception of the temporarily oc
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cupied territories, most districts are "healthy" or "partially healthy". One of the limitations of this study is that there was no immersion at the amalgamated hromada level. We believe that the situation would be worse on closer examination. Secondly, it is clear that districts with oblast centres are always "healthy". Each oblast centre has at least one independent editorial team – a regional branch of the public broadcasting company Suspilne and Ukrainian Radio. These meet the criteria of our methodology, being independent and covering most of the critical information needs. And that is the nature of centres of public life, due to the number of people living there and the logic of journalistic activity. In general, the names of settlements that are far from the centres (district towns, villages) receive fewer mentions in the media (and media research). In the 11 oblasts covered by this study, we found 879 editorial teams that are definitely functioning at present. The average number of operating editorial teams per oblast is 60-70, with 10 or fewer of them being what we consider independent. The majority of independent editorial teams were found in Kharkiv and Donetsk oblasts (14 and 13 respectively). The Kharkiv district (the area around and including the city of Kharkiv) is the "healthiest" of all the districts we studied, with 7 independent editorial teamsLuhansk and Dnipro oblasts have the least number of independent media outlets (3 and 7 respectively). In the case of Luhansk Oblast, many media outlets have simply ceased to exist due to the temporary occupation. Therefore, all the media outlets that actually serve the critical information needs of Luhansk Oblast residents are currently operating as internally displaced outlets outside their home oblast." (Overview of the oblasts)
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"In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The relevant narrative articulated by Vladimir Putin presented it as a short-term mission of military professionals. However, as the war continued, the situation at the front required complicated decisions that the initial narrative w
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as not able to cover. This article analyses the core transformations of the Russian narrative on the war in Ukraine. Appealing to the strategic narrative concept, this article suggests a framework for assessing the narrative’s viability. The author reveals that, although the current modified narrative is not able to provide a clear and coherent explanation corresponding to people’s lived experiences, it is still effective due to the following reasons. First, it is built on and perceived within an intuitively familiar discursive landscape that has been promoted for decades. Second, the external prerequisites of the viability, such as the scale of its articulation through propaganda or existing opportunities to perceive alternative narratives, remain strong. Thus, it is likely that most of the rational argumentation in the narrative will be further replaced by its sacralization, and the information isolation will be continuously reinforced." (Abstract)
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"The Ukrainian crisis has received substantial Global Northern policy support and favourable news coverage, contrasting sharply with Global Southern crises. Nevertheless, refugee organizations can influence public perceptions through social media. This study comparatively analyses UNHCR’s Instagra
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m communication strategies for the Ukrainian and Syrian crises (2022–2023). Applying a multimodal critical discourse analysis on UNHCR’s Instagram posts (N=90), we discern interacting humanitarian and post-humanitarian appeals, involving inter- and intra-group hierarchies of deservingness, expanding research on humanitarian communication. While UNHCR mainly represents forcibly displaced Ukrainians as victims and focuses on ‘ideal victims’, it mostly portrays forcibly displaced Syrians as empowered individuals, likely due to context-specific differences and partially countering news and policy narratives. Both humanitarian representations often intersect with post-humanitarian strategies, facilitated by Instagram affordances. This study thus contributes to the literature on humanitarian communication with comparative crisis-specific and platform-specific insights and causes. Moreover, it nuances the often-assumed importance of post-humanitarian imageries on social media." (Abstract)
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"This book explores how journalism is practiced around the world and how there are multiple factors at the structural and contextual level shaping journalism practice. Drawing on case studies of how conflicts, pandemics, political developments, or human rights violations are covered in an online-fir
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st era, the volume analyzes how journalism is conducted as a process in different parts of the world and how such knowledge can benefit today's globally connected journalist. A global team of scholars and practicing journalists combine theoretical knowledge and empirically rich scholarship with real-life experiences and case studies to offer a storehouse of knowledge on key aspects of international journalism. Divided into four sections – journalistic autonomy, safety, and freedom; mis(information), crises, and trust; technology, news flow, and audiences; and diversity, marginalization, and journalism education – the volume examines both trends and patterns, as well as cultural and geographical uniqueness that distinguish journalism in different parts of the world." (Publisher description)
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"In modern warfare, digitalization has blurred the line where civilian ends and military begins. Embedded in the participative warfare theoretical paradigm, this article looks into how the information and communication technologies (ICT) enable civic resilience under the conditions of the foreign ar
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med aggression. Specifically, the authors explore how smartphones and smartphone applications empowered the Ukrainian civil society in the aftermath of the Russian full-scale invasion of 2022. Based on an online survey and semi-structured interviews, the article highlights how the device and its features not only allowed civilians to adapt to living in conditions of
a constant threat, but also to respond and support the defence from the rear. The authors conclude that, while the smartphone becomes an ‘online resilience hub’, acquiring many new functions like a mobile office, an online volunteer (frontline logistics and procurement) hub, an air-threat warner, a first-hand news source and so on, its security provision functions are not unconditional and may turn to the opposite, depending on the physical circumstances on the ground as well as the virtual information battlefield." (Abstract)
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"Political technology' is a Russian term for the professional engineering of politics. It has turned Russian politics into theatre and propaganda, and metastasised to take over foreign policy and weaponise history. The war against Ukraine is one outcome. In the West, spin doctors and political consu
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ltants do more than influence media or run campaigns: they have also helped build parallel universes of alternative political reality. Hungary has used political technology to dismantle democracy. The BJP in India has used it to consolidate unprecedented power. Different countries learn from each other. Some types of political technology have become notorious, like troll farms or data mining; but there is now a global wholesale industry selling a range of manipulation techniques, from astroturfing to fake parties to propaganda apps. This book shows that 'political technology' is about much more than online disinformation: it is about whole new industries of political engineering." (Publisher description)
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"On average in the 16 countries surveyed, 56% of internet users frequently use social media to stay informed about current events, far ahead of television (44%). However, it is worth noting that differences exist among population groups: television is the primary source in the most developed countri
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es (55% compared to 37% for social media), while it lags significantly in countries with high (42% vs 63%) or medium/low levels of Human Development Index (HDI) (37% vs 68%) [...] The significance of social media as a source of information, especially during election campaigns, is even more crucial given that citizens believe disinformation is highly prevalent there. Across all 16 countries, 68% of internet users told us that social media is the place where disinformation is most widespread, far ahead of groups on online messaging apps (38%) and media websites/apps (20%). This sentiment is overwhelmingly prevalent in all countries, age groups, social backgrounds, and political preferences. This is even more important and citizens feel that the issue of disinformation is a real threat: 85% express concern about the impact and influence of disinformation on their fellow citizens." (Analysis of key results)
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"This volume aims to deepen understanding of the dynamic intersections of war and media in the rapidly transforming media ecology and the reordered geopolitical context. The volume examines the ways in which the digital media and communication environment is involved in and shape the war in Ukraine.
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The chapters in the volume analyse expanding mesh of media-from mainstream broadcasting and press to social media platforms, and the latest digital technologies and addresses four key themes: media infrastructures and the interplay between platforms, technologies, institutions and civic actors; open-source intelligence contributing to (dis)information about the war; the everyday life of war performed and documented on social media; and different interplays between the local and the global in the news coverage of the war." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines the war discourse on Russian television, particularly in political talk show broadcasts aired after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The question of how the two conflicting parties, Russia and Ukraine, are portrayed verbally and visually in these shows is s
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pecifically emphasized. While the quantitative analysis traces a massive increase in Russian talk show broadcasts since the beginning of the war, the Critical Discourse Analysis demonstrates which strategies are utilized to demonise and defame the Ukrainian side and to legitimise the war. By comparing the current war discourse with the Ukraine discourse in 2014, this study shows that talk shows have undertaken a significant role in supporting the war and have become a puissant didactic tool to influence and manipulate public opinion by perennially repeating key governmental messages and efficiently orchestrating all visual, verbal, and non-verbal means at their disposal." (Abstract)
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