Populism and Contemporary Global Media: Populist Communication Logics and the Co-construction of Transnational Identities

Chatterje-Doody, Precious N; Crilley, Rhys

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04621-7_4

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…RT’s most successful YouTube videos rarely touch on political or ideological matters. Rather, their focus has been on sensational, eye-witness reports of catastrophes and disasters, for example, user-generated footage of the 2011 Japanese Tsunami (Chatterje-Doody and Crilley 2019b; Mickiewicz 2018). In fact, according to figures quoted by Mickiewicz, political videos count for only 1 percent of RT’s YouTube content.…”

Section: Rt’s Operational Paradigms: Reviewing the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

Crilley

Gillespie

Vidgen

et al. 2020

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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The Russian state-funded international broadcaster RT (formerly Russia Today) has attracted much attention as a purveyor of Russian propaganda. To date, most studies of RT have focused on its broadcast, website, and social media content, with little research on its audiences. Through a data-driven application of network science and other computational methods, we address this gap to provide insight into the demographics and interests of RT’s Twitter followers, as well as how they engage with RT. Building upon recent studies of Russian state-sponsored media, we report three main results. First, we find that most of RT’s Twitter followers only very rarely engage with its content and tend to be exposed to RT’s content alongside other mainstream news channels. This indicates that RT is not a central part of their online news media environment. Second, using probabilistic computational methods, we show that followers of RT are slightly more likely to be older and male than average Twitter users, and they are far more likely to be bots. Third, we identify thirty-five distinct audience segments, which vary in terms of their nationality, languages, and interests. This audience segmentation reveals the considerable heterogeneity of RT’s Twitter followers. Accordingly, we conclude that generalizations about RT’s audience based on analyses of RT’s media content, or on vocal minorities among its wider audiences, are unhelpful and limit our understanding of RT and its appeal to international audiences.

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Section: Rt’s Operational Paradigms: Reviewing the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

Crilley

Gillespie

Vidgen

et al. 2020

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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“…These research areas are pertinent when considering malign information influence as the antagonistic strategic narratives projected by foreign hostile actors often incorporate analogous narrative devices. Russian state-funded media outlets RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik, for example, are widely noted to weave elements of various conspiracy and populist narratives into their content (Chatterje-Doody and Crilley, 2019;Yablokov, 2015). Such research areas, therefore, provide a solid platform to base research that looks more at the specific context of malign information influence.…”

Section: The Possibilities For Experimental Psychological Research Into Malign Information Influencementioning

confidence: 99%

Grey matters: Advancing a psychological effects-based approach to countering malign information influence

et al. 2021

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Hostile political actors frequently engage in malign information influence, projecting antagonistic strategic narratives in targeted societies to manipulate the information environment and distort the perceptions of the citizens. Research examining malign information influence is growing, but more attention could be given to its psychological effects. Information operations are commonly assumed to affect the levels of trust and the emotional experiences of citizens who are targeted by them, but these notions are currently supported by limited evidence. We propose that experimental psychological research is a promising avenue to more clearly demonstrate these effects and individual differences of the target audience that may exacerbate these effects. This article discusses the knowledge gap regarding the psychological effects of malign information influence and suggests relevant psychological research that can be built upon when devising experimental studies that might address it. Finally, the article outlines key benefits that insights gleaned from this experimental research would offer to those seeking to counter malign information influence.

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“…Russia’s strategy, however, matched RT’s long-term self-positioning as an alternative to the mainstream media not only in content (its reporting of neglected stories), but also in style (its adoption of the colloquial register and of mocking humour associated with tabloids and social media). RT rationalises this approach by contrasting the ‘artificial’ impartiality of ‘hypocritical’, mainstream Western broadcasters, and its own ‘authentic’ appreciation of the impossibility of objectivity and acknowledgement of the role of emotions and strong political preferences among audiences (Chatterje-Doody and Crilley, 2019).…”

Section: The Power Of Media Logicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediatization and journalistic agency: Russian television coverage of the Skripal poisonings

Tolz¹,

Hutchings

Chatterje-Doody

et al. 2020

Journalism

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The 2018 Skripal poisonings prompted the heavy securitisation of UK-Russian relations. Despite the ensuing tight coordination between the Russian government and state-aligned television, this article argues that in today’s mediatised environment – in which social and political activities fuse inextricably with their own mediation – even non-democracies must cope with the shaping of global communications by media logics and related market imperatives. With a range of media actors responding to events, and to each other, on multiple digital platforms, no state could assert full narrative control over the Skripal incident. Counterintuitively, Russian journalists’ journalistic agency was enhanced by mediatisation processes: their state sponsors, seeking to instrumentalise reporting, delegated agency to journalists more attuned to such processes; yet commercial imperatives obliged them to perform independence and professional credibility. These competing forms of agency clashed with one another, and with that of the audiences engaging in real time with the journalists’ outputs, ultimately undermining the Russian state’s efforts to harness news coverage to its political and security goals. The article concludes that in today’s global communications environment, mediatisation substantially constrains the ability of non-democracies to micro-manage journalists’ treatment of major events relating to national security.

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Populism and Contemporary Global Media: Populist Communication Logics and the Co-construction of Transnational Identities

Cited by 10 publications

References 58 publications

Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

Understanding RT’s Audiences: Exposure Not Endorsement for Twitter Followers of Russian State-Sponsored Media

Grey matters: Advancing a psychological effects-based approach to countering malign information influence

Mediatization and journalistic agency: Russian television coverage of the Skripal poisonings

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