Unpacking Propaganda and Disinformation in Post-Communist Countries

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

This panel discusses propaganda and disinformation in Russia, Vietnam, Romania, and Kazakhstan. Sultanescu et al. examine Russian propaganda and disinformation on Sputnik at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. DeSisto, Pop-Eleches and Tucker show that the Russian state propaganda effectively frames information to generate popular approval for Russian military actions in Ukraine. Beazer, Christenson and Kern show through Russian TV that when regime control is more vulnerable, authoritarian governments set media agendas that enhance the regime's image and redirect attention towards regime-friendly topics. Achilov shows how autocracies in post-Soviet Central-Asia become information autocracies with state-sponsored propaganda online. Trinh shows how alignment of media to an authoritarian state is closely related to the ownership and sponsorship of media.

Sub Unit

• Division 13: Politics of Communist and Former Communist Countries

Individual Presentations

• Agenda-Setting on Russian State-Controlled Television, 2003-2020 - Quintin H. Beazer, Florida State University; Dino Pinterpe Christenson, Washington University in St. Louis; Holger Lutz Kern, Florida State University

• Measuring Mass Media’s Political Alignment in Single-Party Regimes - Duy Trinh, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

• Ruling through Telegram? The Rise of Information Autocracies in Central Asia - Dilshod Achilov, University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth

• Russian Propaganda and Public Support for the War against Ukraine - Isabelle DeSisto, Princeton University; Grigore Pop-Eleches, Princeton University; Jacob Tucker, Princeton University

Chair

• Samuel A. Greene King's College London

Discussants

• Samuel A. Greene King's College London

• Congyi Zhou New York University