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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.
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References1
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