Russian Propaganda versus Alexei Navalny: Word Frequencies, Clusters, Concordances, and Collocates

• In Event: Instruments and Influences of Russian Propaganda II: Text as a Weapon

Abstract

The Russian Federation, along with its state-owned media, has effectively implemented long-term propaganda, particularly successful in shaping perceptions related to Ukraine. To gain deeper insights into the reasons behind the success of Russian propaganda, it is crucial to explore extensive collections of texts or corpora. The utilization of corpora and corpus linguistics tools in studies on propaganda, extremist forums, and other media has proven essential. Corpus methods have facilitated the development of techniques to identify propaganda and recognize extremist rhetoric. One significant direction for corpus linguistics, in general, is the examination of long-term changes in writing. This work-in-progress article aims to respond to this need by investigating how Russian propaganda has altered its discourse over time. Specifically, the focus will be on the portrayal of opposition leader Alexey Navalny in the Russian state-owned media RT over the past decade (2014-2024). This study aims to concentrate on word frequencies, clusters, concordances, and collocates surrounding the name of Alexey Navalny. The objective is to provide a better understanding of how Russian propaganda has evolved in its treatment of the Russian opposition over the last 10 years.

Author

• Dmitrii Pastushenkov, Harvard U