Paradoxes of new media: digital discourses on Eurovision 2014, media flows and post-Soviet nation-building

This article explores the contradictions inherent in new media representations of sexual minorities in two bordering post-Soviet countries, Belarus and Lithuania. These nations are divided by their non/membership of the European Union and, being at the western periphery of the former Russian imperial centre, remain directly affected by the Russian mediascape and its information flows. While both countries’ state media closely adhere to the Russian establishment’s homophobic discourse, the role of new media remains largely uncharted. This article uses discourse analysis to (a) examine the influence of Russian media on each nation’s digital discussions about sexual minorities and (b) explore new media’s potential to mediate the intersection of sexual minorities and nation-building in two post-Soviet states. The analysis is centred on a set of online media publications (including their ‘comments’ sections), generated by the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 being won by Conchita Wurst, a drag performer with a beard

Russia Today's coverage of Euromaidan

As I was writing this response to the forum about Euromaidan, the clashes on 18 February 2014 erupted. As there should be a cut-off point for analysing this ‘winter of discontent’ in Ukraine, I will concentrate on the events as they unfolded until 21 February 2014. I approach the issue of Euromaidan from a Media and Cultural studies perspective. After a brief insight on how Euromaidan is seen in Russia, I will analyse how Russia's soft power tool – a multi-language Russian-based TV network called Russia Today (RT) – constructs a narrative of Euromaidan. I will do that by looking at RT's reports on Euromaidan available online. As M. Simonyan, an editor-in-chief, said, RT is set to combine a ‘professional format’ of the BBC, CNN and Euronews and to ‘reflect Russia's opinion of the world’ and present a ‘more balanced picture’ of Russia (RIA Novosti, 2007). It is hypothesised that there might be discrepancies in the coverage of Euromaidan, as RT needs to combine principles of an international broadcaster targeting a global audience with the need to reflect Russia's stance and improve Russia's image aboard

Introduction: the Russian media system at a crossroads

This special issue provides a timely reflection on the Russian media system, which is currently at a crossroads. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of previous theorisations of the post-Soviet Russian media and suggest that they seemingly go in waves. The first wave, to our mind, is linked to the analysis of the perestroika’s ‘Glasnost’ and the dramatic shifts following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This wave is followed by an attempt to reflect on the nationwide processes of media around the mid-2000s. The third wave coincides with the regulatory changes in 2010s and is informed by the pronounced technological changes affecting media industries and growing Internet penetration in the country. This special issue potentially feeds into a new wave of conceptualisation, as it revisits previous assertions of the inherent duality of the Russian media system. The five articles contributing to this special issue in one way or another argue that this dualism constitute the characteristic enduring nature of the Russia media. The authors reflect on the applicability of existing media theories to Russian context as well as offer an up-to-date account of diverse journalist practices, regional differences and converging media sub-systems in Russia.Non peer reviewe

Mediated resistance in post-Soviet communicative ecologies: the case of 'Chinese industrial park' in Belarus

The paper adopts a ‘communicative ecologies’ framework and problematizes it further by exploring a collective protest campaign in post-Soviet Belarus. This study explains how mediated civic protest communication is embedded in the socio-economic, political and cultural structures of a society. It focuses on a recent case involving civic resistance towards the construction of a so-called ‘Chinese industrial park’ near the capital of Belarus. The 5-year timespan (2012–2017) from the conception of this controversial project to its actual implementation is particularly suitable for exploring the complex interdependencies between traditional and new media in the framing of grassroots protest within semi-authoritarian post-Soviet settings

The soft power of commercialised nationalist symbols: Using media analysis to understand nation branding campaigns

Since the late 1990s, nation branding has attracted a lot of attention from academics, professional consultants and government actors. The ideas and practices of nation branding are frequently presented by branding advocates as necessary and even inevitable in the light of changing dynamics of political power and influence in a globalised and media-saturated world. In this context, some have argued that nation branding is a way to reduce international conflict and supplant ethno-nationalism with a new form of market-based, national image management. However, a growing body of critical studies has documented that branding campaigns tend to produce ahistorical and exclusionary representations of the nation and advance a form of ‘commercial nationalism’ that is problematic. Importantly, the critical scholarship on nation branding has relied primarily on sociological and anthropological theories of nationhood, identities and markets. By contrast, the role of the media – as institutions, systems and societal storytellers – has been undertheorised in relation to nation branding. The majority of the existing literature tends to treat the media as ‘neutral’ vehicles for the delivery of branding messages to various audiences. This is the guest editors’ introduction to the Special Issue ‘Theorizing Media in Nation Branding’, which seeks to problematise this overly simplistic view of ‘the media’ and aims to articulate the various ways in which specific media are an integral part of nation branding. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and problematises both the enabling and the inhibiting potentialities of different types of media as they perpetuate nation branding ideas, images, ideologies, discourses and practices

A Comparative Cyberconflict Analysis of Digital Activism Across Post-Soviet Countries

This article analyses digital activism comparatively in relation to three Post-Soviet regions: Russian/anti-Russian in Crimea and online political deliberation in Belarus, in juxtaposition to Estonia’s digital governance approach. The authors show that in civil societies in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, cultural forms of digital activism, such as internet memes, thrive and produce and reproduce effective forms of political deliberation. In contrast to Estonia, in authoritarian regimes actual massive mobilization and protest is forbidden, or is severely punished with activists imprisoned, persecuted or murdered by the state. This is consistent with use of cultural forms of digital activism in countries where protest is illegal and political deliberation is restricted in government-controlled or oligarchic media. Humorous political commentary might be tolerated online to avoid mobilization and decompress dissent and resistance, yet remaining strictly within censorship and surveillance apparatuses. The authors’ research affirms the potential of internet memes in addressing apolitical crowds, infiltrating casual conversations and providing symbolic manifestation to resistant debates. Yet, the virtuality of the protest undermines its consistency and impact on offline political deliberation. Without knowing each other beyond social media, the participants are unlikely to form robust organisational structures and mobilise for activism offline

International broadcasting and the conflict-related national media events: The framing of EuroMaidan by the BBC and RT

This chapter looks at the applicability of Dayan and Katz’s framework of ‘media events’ (1992) to the recent spontaneous event of EuroMaidan and how two international broadcasters, Russia Today (RT) and the BBC, managed this unpredictable and unfolding event. The wave of demonstrations and civil protests in Ukraine now labelled EuroMaidan was triggered by an abrupt refusal by Ukrainian President Yanukovich to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. The unrest started on 21 November 2013 in the capital Kiev and soon after spread to the rest of Ukraine. It embraced a wider set of demands, including the resignation of the President, acknowledgment of human rights abuse during the suppression of the protest, extensive government corruption. EuroMaidan culminated in a set of violent clashes in mid-February 2014 leading to a so-called ‘Ukrainian revolution’ and ousting of the President. I will focus on two international broadcasters — RT and the BBC — to explore how they framed the event before it became a ‘revolution’