Scholarly record
INFLUENCE OF MODERN MASS MEDIA ON MORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITION: HOW KREMLIN PROPAGANDA BECAME ONE OF THE MAIN CAUSES OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR, 2014-2024
Abstract
Propaganda was historically a neutral term used by playwrights in ancient Greece to describe the promotion of political and religious beliefs. In the 19th century, with the rise of the press, cinema, and radio, propaganda became a tool for shaping opinions and behaviours, often biased, misleading, or false, to promote specific agendas. In the early 20th century, especially in Europe, propaganda was employed by dictatorial regimes—Nazism, Fascism, and Communism—for building popular consensus and political repression; it’s still widely used nowadays for the same reasons by current autocratic regimes around the world. The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate how Kremlin propaganda utilizes modern mass communication methods and technologies to influence the social and moral cognition of Russian society, thereby sustaining and continuing the 10-year-long war against Ukraine, which is currently in progress. This study also shows how Russian propaganda is one of the main causes of the war itself. Because to start a war, it is necessary to first secure the consent of one's own people, who must accept, support, and justify the invasion of another country. In this context, the propaganda of the Kremlin political regime plays a crucial role. Well-thought-out Kremlin propaganda has constantly incited different fears in individuals through using persuasive neurolinguistic techniques: in information texts, in social networks, and especially on TV; by doing so over the past 20 years has turned at least 80% of Russian society into people who exist in a parallel reality and seem to have no critical thinking. The social and moral impacts of propaganda are analyzed through various research methods, aiming to determine if and how the Kremlin propaganda can be effectively countered. The paper’s results suggest communicative and social tools that could change public opinion in Russia and spread the truth about the war. However, this would only be possible after the end of the and the transition of the Kremlin dictatorial regime to a democratic one. Future research may focus on identifying the best strategies to achieve this goal for potential implementation.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References26
Lasswell, Harold D, Propaganda Technique in the World Warm, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, USA, p. 23, 1927.
Ethel Spector Person, Sigmund Freud, International Psycho-Analytical Association, On Freud's "Group psychology and the analysis of the ego" (First published in 1921), Analytic Press, Hillsdale, NJ, USA, 2001 ISBN:9780881633252, 0881633259.
Bernays E., Propaganda, Horace Liveright, New York, USA, 1928 ISBN: 9780804615112.
Lenin, V. I., What Is to Be Done? Burning question about our movement (First published in 1902), Wellred Books, UK, 2018 ISBN: 9781900007924.
Koschorke A. translated by Butler E., On Hitler's Mein Kampf: The Poetics of National Socialism (Untimely Meditations) The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, p.31, 2017, ISBN: 9780262533331.
Hazan, B. A., Soviet propaganda: A case study of the Middle East conflict. (First published in 1976) Routledge, New York, USA, DOI: 10.4324/9781351319089.
Michałowska-Kubś, A., & Kubś, J. (August 2022). Coining lies: Kremlin spends 1.5 billion per year to spread disinformation and propaganda, Debunk.org NGO Vilnius, Lithuania https://www.debunk.org/coining-lies-state-budget-financing-of-russian-propaganda
Russia-24, a state-owned Russian-language news channel from Russia https://www.vesti.ru/
Federal State Statistics Service, Rosstat Moscow, Russia https://eng.rosstat.gov.ru/
Hobbs, R. Mind over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age, WW Norton & Co Inc, USA , p.5, 2020, ISBN-13 978-0393713503.
Martin, E. D. (1929). Are we victims of propaganda, our invisible masters, Edward L. Bernays Papers (17) Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921 -192 (382) Manuscript Division (166,424), Digital Id http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/amrlm.mss12534_20
Brown, J.A.C.,Techniques of Persuasion: From Propaganda to Brainwashing, Pelican. Elmwood, USA, 1969.
Smith, T. J., Propaganda: A pluralistic perspective. Praeger, New York, USA, 1989, ISBN: 9780275927431,
"The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company" (RTR), Moskow, Russia, https://vgtrk.com/ ; https://smotrim.ru/
Orwell, G. Nineteen Eighty-Four, (First published in 1949), Penguin, London, UK, pp.336-359, 2004, ASI: B002RI991O
Romanyuk, O. (July 2022) Ruscism as a new version of totalitarianism. The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Issues of Political Science, 41(41), 7-14, Ukraine, DOI: 10.26565/2220-8089-2022-41-01
Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. Communication and Persuasion. Psychological studies of opinion change (first published in 1954), Yale University Press, USA, 1963.
"Lentaru", Online newspaper (Rambler Media Group) Moscow, Russia https://lenta.ru/
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, Moskow, Russia, http://ps.fsb.ru/
BBC Russian Service, London, UK , https://www.bbc.com/russian
European University Institute, Florence, Italy, https://www.eui.eu/research-hub?id=trajectories-of-russian-migrants-leaving-russia-in-the-aftermath-of-ukraine-crisis-2022-panel-survey
Zolkin, V. , YouTube channel @VolodymyrZolkin. English version: @zolkinvolodymyr9639
Official website of Ukraine, Administered by Brand Ukraine NGO in cooperation with Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, https://war.ukraine.ua/
Tsargrad TV, a Russian television channel, Moskow, Russia https://ug.tsargrad.tv
"20 Days in Mariupol", documentary film directed by Mstyslav Chernov, Ukraine, 2023, official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H_Fg_5x4ME
Jakub Kalenský & Roman Osadchuk (January 2024), How Ukraine fights Russian disinformation: Beehive vs mammoth, Hybrid CoE Research Report 11, The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, Helsinki, Finland, https://www.hybridcoe.fi/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20240124-Hybrid-CoE-Research-Report-11-How-UKR-fights-RUS-disinfo-WEB.pdf, ISBN 978-952-7472-88-0 (web) ISBN 978-952-7472-89-7 (print)
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
