68
KEYWORDS: disinformation, Russia, Ukraine, information warfare, TASS DOI: https://doi.org/10.4079/2578-9201.1(2022).03
Speaking Anti-Ukrainian in English: An Analysis of Russian Narratives about Ukraine Forwarded by TASS’s TASS ’s English-Language Online News-Reporting KATERYNA STEPANENKO INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ESIA ‘21, kstepanenko@gwu.edu
ABSTRACT With Russia’s growing ‘hybrid warfare’ and disinformation campaigns, there is limited research into Russian news agencies and their English-language online publications. The Russian news agency TASS is a critical player in Russia’s international narrative development regarding Ukraine. This paper analyzes the rhetoric TASS uses when covering events in Ukraine in English. By surveying 120 TASS articles, the research identified eight prominent anti-Ukrainian narratives: that Crimea was rightfully reunified with Russia, that Ukraine inhibits the resolution of the Donbas conflict, that Euromaidan was a coup aimed at establishing a Russophobic regime and discriminate against Russian-speakers, that the Ukrainian government officials are nationalist extremists destroying Soviet heritage, that Kyiv caused anti-Russian sanctions, and that the Ukrainian economy needs Russian support. Due to Russia’s dominance in the English-speaking media market covering Ukraine, these narratives represent most of the information available to Western audiences. The paper suggests that Ukrainian media cannot compete for narrative dominance. Additional research should explore the narratives promoted by other English-speaking Russian outlets or review strategies that Ukrainian media institutions can utilize to counter Russian disinformation in the West.
•
INTRODUCTION Russian disinformation campaigns are of growing concern among Western powers such as the United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany, and other members of the European Union (E.U.). Disinformation is the circulation of misleading information spread through publications, social media networks, and websites, by impersonating journalistic styles and simulating objectivity (Bennett & Livingston, 2018). Russia is at the forefront of ‘hybrid warfare,’ a non-military effort to destabilize democracies, international dialogue, and public trust (Bennett & Livingston, 2018). Since the student protests at Kyiv’s Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in 2014 named the Euromaidan, Russian news sources began spreading misleading information about Ukraine via the Internet. Russian news agencies such as TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union) have a distinct pro-Russian bias showing prejudice for E.U. perspectives, criticizing international organizations such as the North Atlantic Peace Treaty (NATO), and vilifying neighboring countries. News agencies differ from regular publications because they are “wholesale news providers,” employing a large number of journalists to release “maximally accurate, maximally fast, and maximally factual information”
relating to a wide range of topics in a 24/7 news cycle (Boumans et al., 2017). News agencies have a uniquely vast international reach, unattainable to an online newspaper publication due to the increased frequency of reported news. While TASS employs thousands of journalists worldwide, publishes an endless stream of daily news, and utilizes an internationally recognized journalistic style, it is not journalistically objective. Post-2014 Russian media is more centralized and homogeneous compared to Soviet propaganda, outliving any attempt at independent media in Russia (Campbell et al., 2014). Given the Western uniform condemnation of Russia’s aggression in eastern Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea, this paper hypothesizes that TASS amplifies an anti-Ukrainian narrative, common in Russian domestic news outlets, in its Englishlanguage coverage. By synthesizing academic research on Russian disinformation, Russian antiUkrainian sentiments, and the Russian media market, this paper (1) establishes a historical context for changes in TASS’s editorial objectives between 1992 and 2014 and describes the ideological shift among independent online publications and news agencies in Russia. By identifying keywords, this paper (2) determines the most frequently utilized anti-Ukrainian narratives in TASS publications between March 2016 and 2021. Finally, the research
