CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Urman, Aleksandra |
|---|---|
| Title | Opposition in Putin's Russia: Resisting Propaganda |
| Summary | Misinformation campaigns and propaganda are among the important pillars of contemporary authoritarian regimes which allow the incumbents to stay in power even without resorting to large-scale repressions. Still, under every authoritarian regime a certain share of citizens maintains oppositional attitudes towards the incumbent and his/her government and demonstrates resistance to the state’s propagandistic campaigns. Present study explores the reasons behind the opposition’s resistance to misinformation in Putin’s Russia. Main methods of Russian propaganda and ideas which it propagates are identified. The study builds up on the existing body of literature on information processing and selective exposure. The hypotheses that Russian opposition assesses new information based not on informed decisions, but on the existing attitudes and values, is confirmed through two online experiments. Big data analysis of media consumption of the supporters of oppositional leader Alexei Navalny and Russian prime-minister Dmitry Medvedev on major Russian social network Vkontakte suggests that at least a considerable proportion of Russian opposition consciously engages in selective exposure, seeking out the media sources that present points of view consistent with the users’ pre-existing oppositional attitudes. |
| Supervisor | Lup, Oana |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/urman_aleksandra.pdf |
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