Competing propagandas: How the United States and Russia represent mutual propaganda activities

Dmitry Chernobrov,Emma L Briant

doi:10.1177/0263395720966171

Abstract

The period of growing tensions between the United States and Russia (2013–2019) saw mutual accusations of digital interference, disinformation, fake news, and propaganda, particularly following the Ukraine crisis and the 2016 US presidential election. This article asks how the United States and Russia represent each other’s and their own propaganda, its threat, and power over audiences. We examine these representations in US and Russian policy documents and online articles from public diplomacy media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and RT. The way propaganda is framed, (de)legitimized, and securitized has important implications for public understanding of crises, policy responses, and future diplomacy. We demonstrate how propaganda threats have become a major part of the discourse about the US–Russia relationship in recent years, prioritizing state-centred responses and disempowering audiences.

Highlights

How we talk and think about different forms of propaganda in different discursive arenas is crucial to the policies and strategies that result
We examine US and Russian key policy documents that put forward legal frameworks and strategic visions for media, information, and public diplomacy (PD), and compare the representations of propaganda in the two countries’ state-funded PD media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and RT
We examine the representation of propaganda activities in policy documents and PD media output during the recent period of growing tensions in US–Russia relations (2013– 2019)

Summary

Introduction

Principle that, while authoritarian and democratic systems of propaganda differ greatly, it is valuable to consider these together as interacting discourses, with implications not just for scholarship but for public understanding of crises, future diplomacy, and policy. Propaganda and PD configurations differ considerably between the US and Russian systems, including their domestic and foreign contexts, the role of the state, media protections and restrictions, and target audiences. The work of RT is often critiqued as centred on the creation of uncertainty and doubt, promotion of anti-establishment sentiment, and stimulation of conspiracy theories (see Yablokov, 2015), while US PD media, claiming truth and accuracy as well as greater journalist autonomy, are frequently accused of ignoring alternative cultural and political contexts and aiming to persuade rather than build dialogue (Comor and Bean, 2012) Both RFE/RL and RT perform PD functions, even though both maintain a claim to objective and professional journalism. RT and RFE/RL claim to expose Western and Russian misinformation and focus their media discourse on propaganda threat and power

Method

Findings

Conclusion