The Media as an Instrument of Information Warfare E-Book

Inga von der Stein

• Herausgeber: GRIN Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, grade: 7, Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: The puzzle this paper aims to solve is twofold: firstly, this study investigates how Russian and European media were used as an instrument of information warfare. Secondly and in more depth, it is examined to what degree the framings of the Russo-Georgian War in Russian and European media constitute information warfare. Here, the first question serves as to provide the necessary foundation on which the answering of the second one can build on. The relevance of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on media bias on the Russian but also on the European side. While European media such as The Economist, The Guardian and the BBC claim that Russia is waging an “Information War” against the West, in EU countries such as Germany, there is a growing dissatisfaction of a considerable amount of people with the media coverage on Russia. By examining Russian and European media on the use of propaganda, this paper aims to address these concerns.

Leseprobe

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CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. STATE OF THE ART

2.1 Literature Review

2.3 The “new” wars in the Information Age

2.2.1 The old vs. new wars debate

2.2.2 Media and Propaganda Warfare

2.2.3 The relation between media and government

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Sampling and case selection

3.2 Propaganda techniques in Media

3.3 Data collection

3.4 Data analysis

3.5 Model of Measurement

4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 The Moscow Times

4.2 Russia Beyond the Headlines

4.3 The Daily Telegraph

4.4 Süddeutsche Zeitung

4.5 Extent of Information Warfare in the framing of the Russo-Georgian War

5. CONCLUSION

6. REFERENCES

1. INTRODUCTION

“When the country goes to war, so do the major news organisations.”

Bagdikian, 2004, xii

This quote by the American Journalist Ben Bagdikian grasps the entanglement of war and mass media in contemporary conflicts. While in Ancient times war primarily was conducted with weapons on the ground, with the era of Total War media has emerged as “a new battlefield” on which war is waged (Morris, 1995, p. 33). The reason why mass media plays such a significant part in war is its power as agenda-setter and framer of the events, steering public opinion in a deliberate way. Public opinion in turn plays a great role in politics in terms of decision-making and legitimacy. With reference to the fusion of media, military and politics, Schechter goes as far as to describe the current form of government as a “media-ocracy” instead of a traditional democracy (Schechter, 2004, p. 29).

The puzzle this paper aims to solve is twofold: firstly, this study investigates how Russian and European media were used as an instrument of information warfare. Secondly and in more depth, it is examined to what degree the framings of the Russo-Georgian War in Russian and European media constitute information warfare. Here, the first question serves as to provide the necessary foundation on which the answering of the second one can build on.

To answer the first part of the question, this paper looks at the theory of “new” wars in the Information Age while putting special emphasis on the role of communication technologies in warfare. Further, the term “Information Warfare” as part of the new wars is outlined, here the focus lies on the concept of media and propaganda warfare. The relationship between media and the government is also taken into account.

The second part of the question is investigated by concentrating on information warfare in terms of the use of propaganda, in particular how many techniques of propaganda were employed. The method to analyse propaganda rests on the seven techniques of propaganda as identified by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2012, p. 237).

The media under investigation are four broadsheets which are constituted by the Moscow Times, Russia Beyond the Headlines, The Daily Telegraph and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The time frame ranges from August 8, 2008 until October 8, 2008.

The relevance of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on media bias on the Russian but also on the European side. While European media such as The Economist, The Guardian and the BBC claim that Russia is waging an “Information War” against the West ("Aux armes, journalists”, 2015; Ennis, 2015; Galeotti, 2015), in EU countries such as Germany, there is a growing dissatisfaction of a considerable amount of people with the media coverage on Russia (Krone-Schmalz, 2015, Preface). By examining Russian and European media on the use of propaganda, this paper aims to address these concerns.

The organisation of this paper is as follows: firstly, this paper gives an overview of the start of art, including a literature review and an outline of the “new” wars in the Information Age. Here, light is shed on the debate on old vs. new wars, the concept of media and propaganda warfare and the relationship between government and media. In the second part, the methodology is presented, starting with the sampling and case selection. Further, the seven techniques of propaganda are presented and an explanation is given on how data was collected, analysed, coded and measured. Fourthly follows a section in which the findings are discussed. Finally, a conclusion forms the end of this paper.