Propaganda is something that promotes the interest of its sender. This is how a non-fiction writer and dissertation researcher defines it Joonas Pörsti from the University of Helsinki.
There has been enough propaganda in the Ukrainian war. The Russian forces waging a war of aggression claim with bright eyes that they are cleansing the country of Nazis. Meanwhile, Ukraine stubbornly denies being responsible for a missile fired into Poland in November that killed two people.
This week, the world has been talked about by a video that appeared online, in which the Russians appear to be executing a surrendered Ukrainian soldier. There is no information about the origin of the video or what happened before the camera started.
Footage of a possible war crime is not propaganda in itself, but it is clear that Ukraine is using the video to promote its own cause.
– Moral justice is sought for the war and thus people’s support. This is what propaganda and other communicative influence strive for, says a researcher at the Latvian Digital Forensic Research Lab, or DFRL Nika Alekseeva Yelle by phone.
DFRL, which monitors fake news and propaganda circulating online, operates under the umbrella of the US-based Atlantic Council think tank. At the moment, Alekseeva is closely monitoring the visibility of the Ukrainian war on social media.
– Some has played a role before, for example, in the Syrian civil war. However, the war in Ukraine is the first significant, hot conflict in which it has been possible to prepare in advance for influence on social media, Aleksejeva says.
Propaganda meets the needs of the listener
According to communication researchers interviewed by , the version of the war spread by Ukraine has been more successful in Western countries because it is closer to the truth and Ukraine wants to be listened to.
Russian propaganda has not been successful because it tries to present black as white to a reluctant public.
– The effectiveness of propaganda is partly based on the recipient’s desire and need to receive new information. In Europe, this desire has not existed, Pörsti sums up.
The EU has also blocked the broadcasting and distribution activities of the propaganda media RT in the territory of the Union. There are no similar restrictions in the developing countries of the southern hemisphere, and the Russian story about the liberation of Ukraine has found sympathetic listeners.
In many former colonies, Western powers are viewed with reservations.
– The Russian narrative about the war is popular in Africa and South America, for example. It will be difficult for Ukraine to change this story due to resources alone. We need to focus on Europe and our allies, says the director of the Ukrainian Detector Media organization Galyna Petrenko by phone from Kiev.
The organization piloted by Petrenko engages in media education. It aims to expose propaganda and educate people to be critical of the material they encounter online.
There has been enough work, Petrenko sighs.
– Social media has changed the operating environment so much in the last ten years. In the beginning, social media was seen as an empowering innovation, now it is seen more as a problem, Petrenko describes.
A martial law is in force in Ukraine, which restricts the media. For example, it is pointless to look for information about the country’s losses at the front in local newspapers.
According to Galyna Petrenko, censorship has contributed to the fact that Ukrainians increasingly turn to social media when looking for news.
– People search for information through the Telegram application, and at the same time it has become the platform where Russia spreads its propaganda the most.
– It is estimated that about ten percent of Ukrainians could have a positive attitude to the Russians’ claims. This is, of course, a pure estimate, because these people do not make their views public, says Petrenko.
Bubbles insulate for better or for worse
High-quality propaganda mixes false and true information and blurs the dimensions of things.
According to Petrenko, Russia has invested in quantity instead of quality.
– Russian propaganda is not smart, but it is very active. They try a little bit of everything and continue with what seems to work, describes Petrenko.
According to researchers interviewed by , in recent years, various social media platforms have begun to be more sensitive to deliberately spread false information, which serves as fuel for propaganda.
However, you can’t talk about Some as a whole. Youtube does not intervene in the content shared by users, while for example Facebook and Twitter are known to have frozen user accounts quite sensitively.
– The corona pandemic changed the attitude of social media companies towards fake news. At that time, the companies woke up to the problem and took it upon themselves to prevent the deliberate dissemination of false information, explains researcher Nika Aleksejeva of the Digital Forensic Research Lab.
The operating logic of social media is based on algorithms that tailor the media experience to be individual.
The companies are reluctant to reveal what their calculations are based on. However, one thing about algorithms is known. They offer the user content that he has previously reacted to.
This easily leads to the so-called social media bubble. Inside the bubble, the user can easily find content that confirms their own opinions, but there is very little material that contradicts them.
Doesn’t this bubbling actually protect the user from propaganda that specifically seeks to change the mind of the recipient?
Not necessarily, say the researchers interviewed by .
– Some companies’ main goal is to get the user to return to the service. It requires some kind of emotional reaction. Bringing something new into the bubble can create this reaction, analyzes Nika Alekseeva.
Galyna Petrenko, director of the Detector Media organization, says the same.
– Users are members of many communities at the same time. It should also be noted that propaganda can find its way into the bubble precisely because there is a reaction to it in the first place, Petrenko reflects.
You can discuss the topic until Saturday 11.3 at 23:00.