Information War?
An Analysis of Russian, Ukrainian
and Western TV Newscasts during
the Ukraine Crisis
Anna Brindyukova, Vladimir Grigoriev, Michael Rochlitz, Darya Volkova
and Alexander Zhuravlev
Idea & Motivation
Institutional Economics Class at HSE Moscow (third year undergraduates, political science)
Discussion about media bias in Russia, but also in
Germany and elsewhere: “everyone is lying”, “there is no objective truth”, “Lügenpresse”..
How can we find criteria to objectively monitor the
quality, possible bias and critical coverage of TV news?
Literature
Shevtsova 2015, Pomerantsev and Weiss 2015, Gatov 2015, Yablokov 2015, Bonch-Osmolovskaya 2015,
Darczewska 2014…
The Russian state actively uses the media as a tool in a new kind of “information war”
Katchanovski, Morley 2012, Dougherty 2014
“Everybody lies”, “systematic biases in the representation of many post-Soviet countries by the major U.S.
Literature
King, Pan, Roberts (2013, 2014) censorship in
China: the role of the media as a channel of information for the autocrat
Why having (state-) control of the media?
To control and prevent criticism of the regime and/or collective action?
To bring out a message and influence the population into a certain direction? (propaganda)
Research Questions
Is there an “information war” ongoing between Russia and Ukraine? How can this war be characterized?
(quantified?) focus on conflict in Eastern Ukraine
Do we have an information war between Russia and the West?
What role do TV evening newscasts play in Russia, Ukraine and the West?
Data & Methodology
We decided to monitor and code TV newscasts from 17 Russian, Ukrainian and Western European TV channels
Time period: December 23rd, 2014 to January 31st, 2015
Russia: Channel One (Первый канал), Russia 1 (Россия-1),
NTV (НТВ), Channel 5 (Пятый канал), TV Rain (Дождь), Russia Today (RT)
Ukraine: Inter (Інтер), TV Ukraine (Украина), ICTV,
First National Channel (Перший національний), THC 1+1
UK: Channel 4, BBC News
France: TF 1, France 2
Descriptive Statistics: Newscasts
Channel Newscast Time Average
Length
Number of news items
Ownership /
Control Language
Channel
One Время 21:00 45 min 17 State Russian
Russia 1 Вести 20:00 50 min 20 State Russian
NTV Сегодня 19:00 40 min 19 State Russian
Dozhd Вечернее шоу 21:00 60 min Private Russian
Russia Today News 22:00 30 min 13 State English
Inter Подробности 20:00 45 min 20 Private Russian
Ukraina События 19:00 45 min 23 Private Russian
ICTV Факты 18:45 15 min 12 Private Russian
Channel 4 Channel 4 News 19:00 60 min 13 State English
BBC BBC News at Ten 22:00 25 min 11 State English
ARD Tagesschau 20:00 15 min 11 State German
Methodology: Coding I
For now, we have data for 11 channels (additional data is still in the process of being coded)
In total, we coded 4073 news items until now
For each news item, we noted/coded:
The country the news item was about, as well as its
duration and if visual material (film with voiceover) was
presented
A short description of the subject covered
Methodology: Coding II
Degree of “critical coverage“(0,1 or 2)
0 the topic does not address a problem (entertainment, weather…), or reports “facts” that can with reasonable
certainty be judged as true, without assigning responsibility
Examples:
“death of pop singer Udo Jürgens”
“French adventurers successfully complete world tour”
Methodology: Coding III
Degree of “critical coverage“
1 the topic identifies a “problem” and potentially names / suggests who might be responsible for the problem
Here a “problem” is defined as an issue / deficit / harm caused to somebody, and it is not (yet) 100% clear or uncontroversial who might be responsible
Examples: “security checks on Frankfurt airport are not effective, during tests every 2nd weapon smuggled through
security remained undetected, Frankfurt airport authority has to act”
”Ukrainian army has continued bombing attacks on Donetsk”
Methodology: Coding IV
Degree of “critical coverage“
If the news item is framed in a way that assigns blame / responsibility ( coded 1)…
Methodology: Coding V
Degree of “critical coverage“
2 the topic is a positive coverage of a success
Examples:
“The regional government in Belgorod Oblast has successfully modernized the internet infrastructure in the Oblast”
Methodology: Coding VI
Problem of intercoder reliability
We are now in the process of reviewing the coding (everyone has been assigned to review coding made by another coder)
In each case where a decision is not 100% clear (especially with respect to “critical coverage”), the news item will be
highlighted, to be reviewed and recoded by a different coder
Results
Channel Overall number of news items coded about home country % of news items Critical Coverage (in %)
0 1 2
Channel One 557 45% 66% 28% 5%
Russia 1 584 40% 51% 35% 13%
NTV 419 42% 70% 25% 5%
Dozhd
Russia Today 476 4% 57% 40% 2%
Inter 733 64% 43% 52% 5%
Ukraina 230 45% 45% 40% 15%
ICTV 380 69% 47% 34% 18%
Channel 4 308 50% 79% 20% 1%
BBC 212 48% 47% 46% 7%
ARD 138 50% 74% 25% 1%
Channel Criticism of home country authorities
(as % of home country critical coverage / number of news items)
Critical Coverage (% of all critical coverage news items)
Coverage of Ukraine Crisis
Whom to blame?
about RUSSIA about UKRAINE crisis
Russia /
Separatists Ukraine
other / unclear
Channel One 0% 13% 28% 0,1% 77% 23%
Russia 1 0% 11% 52% 0% 95% 5%
NTV 6% (1/17) 15% 39% 0% 95% 5%
Dozhd Russia
Today 0% 1% 15% 0% 97% 3%
Inter 11% (32/286) 7% 75% 82% 1% 17%
Ukraina 48% (21/44) 2% 48% 95% 5% 0%
ICTV 11% (9/83) 1% 64% 100% 0% 0%
Channel 4 47% (16/34) 0% 0% - - -
BBC 13% (5/38) 3% 5% 100% 0% 0%
ARD 41% (5 / 12) 3% 5% 50% 0% 50%
Results – Quantitative Analysis
Russian channels
Channel One, Russia 1, NTV critical coverage about Russia: sometimes blame is assigned to individuals and private entities (firms, organizations), but never to official authorities or the government (1 out of over 2000 news items criticized some regional officials)
With respect to the Ukraine crisis and fighting in Eastern Ukraine, all four channels assign the blame / responsibility for the situation almost uniquely to the Ukrainian side
(Ukrainian government and army)
Results – Quantitative Analysis
Ukrainian channels
On the situation in Eastern Ukraine, the picture is almost the exact opposite from that of the Russian channels
Almost exclusively, the separatists and the Russian government are blamed for breaking ceasefires,
committing war crimes, and for the situation in general
Separatists usually called “terrorists“, “boeviki”, “rossiskie naemniki”, “rossiskie terroristi”…
Results – Quantitative Analysis
Ukrainian channels
However, different to the Russian channels, the Ukrainian media is very critical of its home government
The Ukrainian government is constantly held accountable and criticized (for example with respect to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, for not equipping the Ukrainian army well enough, but also with respect to domestic problems)
Results – Quantitative Analysis
Ukrainian channels vs Russian channels
Interesting dichotomy in Ukraine: you do not criticize your forces fighting in the field...
...but criticism of the government in Kiev is quite vivid
On the other hand, in Russia any form of criticism of the government seems to be seen as treason in the state
Results – Quantitative Analysis
Western channels (Channel 4, BBC / ARD / TF 1)
Almost no coverage of Ukraine or Russia, only topics – house arrest of Alexey Navalny (when he joined the
protesters in early January) and the attack on a bus near Donetsk
Further Research
Focus on a number of themes / topics more in detail (Charlie Hebdo, Donetsk bus shooting, coverage of MH17, Greek debt crisis...)
In-depth analysis of Russian coverage about the US / UK / other Western countries, with the data we have at hand does Russia indeed wage a “media war”
against the West?
Conclusion
There is a clear information war ongoing between Ukraine and Russia mainstream media in both countries intensely report on Eastern Ukraine, and almost exclusively assign blame to the other side
One crucial difference between both countries: while criticism of the Russian government / authorities is all but absent on Russian state TV, Ukrainian TV actively criticizes the Ukrainian government and authorities
For Western TV stations, the amount of coverage on Russia / Ukraine during the period covered was
