Attachment #18: The Media’s Role, Including that of Social Media; Misinformation
The media’s role, including that of social media is crucial and weaponized. Ukrainian government officials have followed Zelenskyy’s lead. On February 26th Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister, tweeted a direct request to Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, to set up his Starlink internet service in Ukraine. The same day Musk replied that the service was now active. Ukraine’s active presence on social media has been helped by an abundance of dramatic “content” unlike that seen in any previous war. Most get online using smartphones. These have generated the videos that make up the raw material of viral content, from unarmed pensioners yelling abuse at Russian soldiers to a Ukrainian motorist asking a group of stranded tank-drivers if he could tow them back to Russia.
Poignant images are influencing the narrative. A wounded pregnant woman who eventually dies as did the unborn child, stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as emergency workers carry her through the rubble, with her blanched face mirroring her shock at what just happened at a bombed maternity hospital. Images of this woman were seen all around the world, personifying the horror of an attack on civilians. The Ukraine conflict has already generated dozens of similarly dramatic moments, nearly all filmed by citizens with phones. Previously, it took extraordinary luck for a camera crew to capture a moment such as the Tiananmen Square “tank man” filmed by CNN in 1989.
Social media have helped Ukraine’s international supporters to co-ordinate their actions. Synchronized protest marches around the world have attracted hundreds of thousands of participants. Public outcry has translated into policy change. The way in which social-media users quickly coalesce around a point of view increases the pressure on their leaders to act. (From Mar 1 Economist “The blogs of war.“)
There are now calls for banning of any programming service that is either owned or controlled by a state that is subject to Canadian sanctions or by any individual or entity named in special economic measures against Russia. This would include broadcasters controlled by Putin’s sanctioned regime, including RT, Channel One Russia and RTR Planeta. The CRTC is currently carrying out a speedy inquiry into whether RT and other Russian broadcasters should be banned from Canada’s airwaves.
Where are the Russian people in this; what kind of information are they receiving and the role of misinformation? The Kremlin has continued to tighten down information out to the public. The official narrative, which its media have been ordered to transmit, is that it is performing a necessary liberation of Ukraine, with a military operation that has spared civilians and secured the “peaceful surrender” of cities such as Melitopol, in the county’s east (which has not actually been captured yet). The majority of Russian people today, in this totalitarian state, are unaware that there is even a war going on next door and are even prevented by law from calling it such.
News reports of sunny success in the conflict are filling the air. They have banned and blocked access to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Google has been warned to stop using YouTube to spread what is labelled as threats against its country’s citizens. They flood popular platforms such as the messaging app Telegram with state approved content. A top radio station critical of the war was taken off the air after authorities threatened to shut it down over its coverage of the invasion.
Among other things, the Kremlin is not allowing the fighting to be referred to as an ”invasion” or “war” or “attack”. Ten days into the war, the Russians set up an Orwellian-like agency – a Ministry of Truth”, which is to protect the Russian people from these loaded words, and ideas not of the Kremlin making; offenders are subject to 15 years in prison. OBID-Info monitor, an organization that has documented crackdowns on Russia’s opposition, has said that more than 5,500 people have been detained by mid March.
Russians, with dwindling news options, tend to buy what their government and its media allies are selling. The alternative – that the invasion is not justified, that Russians are the aggressor – is too horrific to entertain. A recent series of man-on-the-street interviews from the independent outlet Current Time shows everyday Russians saying the invasion is meant to protect Russians, or that they don’t believe that Kyiv is being bombed.
Russian officials continue to contort themselves in dealing with the outside world regarding the invasion. On March 1, their embassy in Canada made a statement that Russia’s aim is to rescue citizens from fascism with the help of high-precision weapons. This is a mockery of truth by those who know the truth, but have made it subject to the dictates of power.
This question of misinformation is important. People tend to believe stories that reinforce their existing beliefs (“motivated reasoning”). The mere repetition can also make information seem more believable, and when these mechanisms are reinforced by repression and violence, the result is inevitable. One persisting message is that the West seeks Russia’s complete destruction and that Russian heroes are saving you from Nazism. Spokespersons invoke the idea of a holy war. The rhetoric is laced with a new religiosity. God is on Russia’s side against the evil Western forces that encircle it
Where are the Ukranian people regarding information? Putin is attempting to take out TV and communications towers. So far Ukraine 24 has stayed on air providing information and encouragement. The new generation, however, are getting and transferring the realities in real time. Millions of TicTok users watch Ukranian teens vlog their experience fleeing Kyiv as cluster munitions pummel the street.
Ukrainians in North America are tied into family connections, North American media and their own language outlets. The weekly newspaper, Nova Gazeta, is an influential weekly newspaper serving the US and Canadian Ukranian community, which in the US numbers over a million. It has a 15,000 circulation plus online traffic.