Preferences for Propaganda: An Experiment on Demand for News Types in Russia

• In Event: Comparative Research on Elite Media Strategies in Authoritarian Contexts

Abstract

The Kremlin's control over information and provision of propaganda have been widely described by both scholars and the popular press as important components of President Putin's grip on power in Russia. The vast majority of Russians rely on state-controlled information sources as their primary means of learning the news, despite the strong pro-Kremlin bias of these sources and the availability of independent alternative sources. Why? In this paper, I discuss the role of audience preferences over content and their beliefs about sources in shaping demand for state and independent news. I present the results of a 2021 survey and experiment designed to measure the distinct effects of content-based preferences and source loyalty on interest in and assessments of the news. In the experiment, participants respond to a sample of real news excerpts drawn from state and independent Russian media. The inclusion or exclusion of source information is randomly varied. Respondents are asked to evaluate the news excerpts along a variety of dimensions designed to capture the various sources of value that audiences derive from media consumption. The research design allows for disentangling the role of content from the role of priors about sources in shaping news preferences. I find that state news audiences tend to evaluate state news content more positively than independent news content even when the source is unknown and accessibility is held constant. They find it more interesting, more relevant, more important and less biased, even in a blind taste test. They also are more likely to have an emotional reaction, especially a positive one, to state news content. These preferences do not significantly change when the source is revealed. The results suggest that state news outlets have succeeded in producing news content that audiences like and that these content-based preferences may be driving their media choices more than strong beliefs about sources. Further analyses of the 330 news excerpt texts used in the study reveal the role of topic selection and framing in driving these content-based preferences.

Author

• Ashley Blum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology