Disinformation and the media: the case of Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine can be analyzed as an instance where the Internet has strengthened the power of political actors to create disinformation. But it is no longer only the state-supported media monopoly that produces and disseminates propaganda. Citizens themselves actively participate in their own disenfranchisement by using social media to generate, consume or distribute false information, contributing to a new order where disinformation acquires increasing authority. This essay follows disinformation practices through the transition from broadcast to social media in post-Soviet times and theorizes how the coexistence of old and new media in the production of propaganda might inform our understanding of future scenarios, including in Western democracies.