Narrative composition of Russian public diplomacy: content analysis of the Facebook engagement of Russia’s embassy in Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article contributes to the discussion of Russia’s public diplomacy efforts to transmit and diffuse certain narratives to foreign audiences online. Utilizing the case of understudied Russia’s public diplomacy strategies concerning Asian countries, the study analyzes what narratives Russia’s embassy projected to the Japanese public from 2013 to 2019. The findings demonstrate that although the embassy gives preference to positive self-description over active advocacy, it constructs Russia’s image through history-dependent narratives. This practice is unlikely to contribute to the understanding of modern Russia, which its political elites are striving for. The study contributes to the overall understanding of the narrative composition that Russia constructs as a part of its public diplomacy efforts. The article also brings together elements of qualitative and quantitative methodology to conduct a content analysis of narratives online, which paves the way for further investigation of social media public diplomacy practices.