The Rise of the Informational State: Managing Meaning in Ukraine

• In Event: Media Participation and Narrative Warfare in Ukraine

Abstract

Although wars have been affiliated with media technologies before, Russia’s war on Ukraine has integrated the media to an elevated extent. Since early 2022 there has been growing fascination with the images stemming from Ukraine. Memes, video clips, frontline reports, and governmental information mix, and varies between fact-based reporting, irony, and internet ‘trolling’. Content with high production values accompany President Zelensky in parliaments and cultural events around the world. The paper analyses the implications of these ways of managing meaning for our understanding of the state as a unified entity, and as an example of a new form of informational state.

Author

• Göran Bolin, Södertörn U (Sweden)