"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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"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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"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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"This report provides an overview of how Russian state and pro-Kremlin propaganda undermining international support for Ukraine has evolved over the two years since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. It outlines a range of semi-covert tactics through which Russian state an
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d pro-Kremlin outlets continue to reach substantial audiences despite European Union sanctions. Finally, this report highlights four key areas of vulnerability of the Western alliance that Russian state and pro-Kremlin actors are likely to exploit over the coming year." (About this report)
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"Central Asian post-independence media and communication industries, professional practices, education, persisting and evolving values, and traditions remain critically understudied with a notable scarcity of research and scholarly publications on the complex and increasingly changing communicative
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ecology landscape of this region. Mapping the Media and Communication Landscape of Central Asia: An Anthology of Emerging and Contemporary Issues addresses this gap in literature by exploring, analyzing, and shedding light to the field, practice, research and critical inquiry of media and mass communication in four countries in Central Asia—Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. This book includes local authors as well as new and emerging researchers from this region to contextualize the issues explored and provide a supportive dialogue between different points of view." (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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"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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"Combining an innovative mix of traditional chapters, autoethnography, case studies, and dialogue within an intercultural framework, the handbook focuses on the future of media education and provides a deeper understanding of the challenges and affordances of media education as we move forward. Topi
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cs range from fighting disinformation, how vulnerable communities coped with disadvantages using media, transforming educational TV or YouTube to reach larger audiences, supporting students’ wellbeing through various online strategies, examining early childhood, parents, and media mentoring using digital tools, reflecting on educators’ intersectionality on video platforms, youth-produced media to fight injustice, teaching remotely and providing low-tech solutions to address the digital divide, search for solutions collaboratively using social media, and many more." (Publisher description)
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"Before launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia had maintained a low-scale war with Ukraine since early 2014. That conflict, which culminated in the annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the ongoing Donbas war, received less international attention than the 2022 ful
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l-scale invasion. Due to the Kremlin’s propaganda channels, troll armies, and “useful idiots” in the West and beyond, Russia was able to control the narrative on the situation in Donbas and Crimea and significantly diminish both support and interest toward Ukraine throughout 2014–2022. Yet, things changed after the start of the full-scale war in 2022. In 2022, Ukraine shifted international views on the Russian invasion. Ukraine’s efforts significantly contributed to Russia’s digital isolation and mainstreamed Ukraine’s counter-narratives using open-source data, digital allies, and successful communication campaigns." (Abstract)
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"Propaganda has been an age-old part of warmongering. It is thus no surprise that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was preceded by, and continues to be fuelled by, propaganda transmitted by state-controlled Russian media. What is more unusual about the Russian (dis)information campaigns is the sheer
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volume of distorted narratives or complete fictional accounts about the conflict. This article explores the content and technologies of Russian information manipulation of domestic audiences in the context of the invasion of Ukraine. We also examine the bases for the sustained robust public support for the war within Russia during the first 12 months of the conflict, despite being based on mostly fabricated (dis)information. Relying on political psychology and communication theory we explain how emotions and associative memories have played an important role in the Russian public's sustained approval to the war. Our findings point to that in the absence of contrasted and independently-verified information, the volume, frequency, emotional intensity of slick, plug-and-play media packages on Ukraine have acted to displace and distort the average Russian's associative social monitoring processes." (Abstract)
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"The two essays in this report highlight ways in which two global authoritarian powers, Russia and China, provide surge capacity to kleptocratic networks in Africa. In his essay J.R. Mailey dissects the Wagner Group’s illicit activities in key parts of Africa. The Wagner Group’s activities are c
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omplex, but Mailey zeroes in on the fact that the military support offered to African kleptocrats has little to do with providing security and stability for the African people. Rather it is focused on extracting resources, advancing geopolitical goals, and serving as a brutal cog in the authoritarian mutual support machinery. Even if the ultimate fate of the Wagner Group remains unclear, these trends are unlikely to abate. The opaque economic relationships that the Wagner Group has developed on the continent no doubt are too lucrative for the Kremlin to surrender [...] Andrea Ngombet Malewa’s essay highlights the ways in which Beijing facilitates Congo-Brazzaville’s deeply kleptocratic regime. In addition to long-standing Chinese involvement in the timber and extractive industries, Ngombet’s analysis spotlights the establishment of a Sino-Congolese Bank for Africa that could allow kleptocrats to bypass the transparency requirements of Western-linked banks, thereby affording opportunities to launder money with impunity. This development has significant implications for accountability norms worldwide." (Executive summary)
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"During the six months of the gender-based disinformation study (January 1 – June 30, 2023), the following trends were revealed: A total of 42 cases of gendered disinformation were identified, of which 24 were homophobic and 18 were sexist or attacked women based on moral criteria. In most cases,
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the target of homophobic or gendered disinformation was the West, while false content related to Ukraine was predominantly homophobic. In connection with internal socio-political processes in Georgia, disinformation was directed against politicians, persons associated with them, journalists, and civic activists, who, in addition to disinformation, were targeted in discrediting campaigns." (Key findings, page 8)
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"Im Ringen um die globale Deutungshoheit setzt die russische Regierung seit Jahren auf die Verbreitung von Desinformation. Die finnische Journalistin Jessikka Aro hat nicht nur derartige Propagandataktiken aufgedeckt, sie wurde auch selbst zur Zielscheibe orchestrierter Drohungen durch vom Kreml unt
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erstützte Internettrolle. Sie zeigt, mit welch aggressiven Strategien die russische Seite schon lange vor dem Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine versucht hat, die öffentliche Meinung in anderen Staaten in ihrem Sinne zu beeinflussen, sei es in Europa oder in den USA, im Baltikum oder auf dem Balkan. Durch vorgeblich unabhängige Nachrichtenseiten, durch massive Stimmungsmache in sozialen Medien und durch gezielte Hasskampagnen wird versucht, kritische Berichterstattung zu diskreditieren, Journalistinnen und Politiker einzuschüchtern und Zweifel an Fakten zu säen. Aro zeigt dieses Vorgehen beispielsweise anhand der Angriffe gegen sie selbst, aber auch anhand von Recherchen zur russischen Einflussnahme in Nachbarländern oder zum Abschuss des Passagierflugzeugs MH17. Die Autorin verdeutlicht einerseits die Gefahren dieses Informationskrieges für demokratische Gesellschaften und beschreibt andererseits, welchen Preis mutige Einzelpersonen zahlen, die sich der russischen Propagandamaschinerie entgegenstellen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Online media is a blessing and a curse for academic research on war. On the one hand, the internet provides unprecedented access to information from conflict zones. On the other hand, the prevalence of disinformation can make it difficult to use this information in a transparent way. This article p
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roposes digital forensic process tracing as a methodological innovation to tackle this challenge and make case study research on the causes of war fit for the social media age. It argues that two important features of process-tracing methodology – source criticism and Bayesian updating – are well developed in theory but are rarely applied to the study of armed conflict. Digital forensic process tracing applies these features to online media sources by drawing on the journalistic practice of open source intelligence (OSINT) analysis. This article uses the case of the war in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed methodology." (Abstract)
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"Der Beitrag analysiert die Berichterstattung über den Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine in den russischen Teilrepubliken Tatarstan und Baschkortostan, welche sich beide durch die starke Präsenz von turksprachigen Bevölkerungsgruppen auszeichnen. Die Medienanalyse ergab, dass die Berichterstattung
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Propagandafunktionen erfüllt. Die militärischen Freiwilligenverbände nehmen dabei eine zentrale Rolle ein." (Zusammenfassung, Seite 13)
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