Soviet legacy in Russian political communication

Soviet Kontrpropaganda is a practice of direct rebuttal, a defence mechanism against anti-communist narratives.

The challenge

Russian international TV news channel RT is surrounded by political and media scandal. There have been many attempts to explain its operations, its techniques and methods. However, our understanding of the channel’s inner workings is incomplete.

Approach

This research looks at the Soviet legacy in contemporary institutional practices and journalistic ethics. Through archival research it traces Soviet kontpropaganda practices and juxtaposes them to the contemporary practices on Russian international broadcaster, RT (formerly, Russia Today). I show how this practice has institutionally progressed from the Soviet journalistic and made its way into the everyday reality of journalists on RT.

Publications

Kuznetsova, E (2021) Kontrpropaganda today: The roots of RT’s defensive practices and countering ethic. Journalism. DOI:10.1177/14648849211033442

Affiliation