Propaganda: new old methods of work of the occupiers

article by OLENA MELNYKOVA, PhD in Social Communications, Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism at NAU

"The enemies want us to keep silent, but we do not agree with this. For example, I call my friends or relatives in the city, then find out everything and calmly continue to live here, in the "rotting West," says my compatriot from Mariupol in a queue for help in Germany. – It is impossible to survive there without normal conditions - heat, clean water, communication. And they (occupiers. - O.M.) also go around houses and check phones, drive cars with "locators" and eavesdrop on the population." She said that people still discuss the occupying power among themselves, share observations, ironize and... survive in the occupied territories.

Russian propagandists should know the history of the occupied territories, and not just create new historical narratives, such as, for example, "Mariupol is an ancient Russian city." Let us remind you that Dmytro Dontsov with his ideas of nationalism is a native of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, the ideologue of Ukrainian dissidents Ivan Dziuba with his "Internationalism or Russification?" was born in Mykolaivka, Donetsk region. Many "dissenters" with the Soviet regime came from Donbas.

Disagreement in the south of Ukraine has always been expressed, ideologically, in some writings, dissemination of alternative thought and information. The Southern Ukrainian mentality of wanting to know everything about everyone ("What's the big deal?") is specific, but it is impossible to counteract it. A lot of information comes from the occupation, but the Russians try to block it. Since the beginning of 2014, Ukrainians have developed their own methods of transmitting information from Donetsk or Luhansk and spreading it on social networks. The desire to share, tell or show your life to the world is very strong. "People are being checked, in particular, for records of transferring equipment to the front, or they're just looking for Azov's ghosts for months," my fellow countrywoman quips. After all, videos about enemy equipment can be seen in social networks and messengers.

Publics in social networks: bots and threats to Ukrainian admins

With the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, audiences in social networks increased. Here you can observe many different new channels with a small number of users and not a lot of monotonous content (sometimes bots or admins just take screenshots from other social networks or messengers so as not to retype messages). They work strictly according to the methods that are described in manuals, like each other’s videos, write comments, but do not involve the target audience. "Why are you not reacting to this terrible event?" – once saw a bot's hysterical comment under her message. But they do not understand that since 2014, the population, in particular residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognize provocations and manipulations. At first, people stopped reacting to this kind of message in public places, in particular in public transport, in the market. Similar messages are now circulating in social networks. The number of propaganda YouTube channels is growing rapidly, but bots do not have time to respond in the comments to each of them. Activity is low. Among the features displayed there, citizens of the Russian Federation join the comments, in particular under materials about destroyed occupied Ukrainian cities.

There is an interesting experience of Ukrainian local channels in various social networks, which are run by residents of one or another city. As an alternative source of information, people often send video and photo content from the occupation there to share anonymously with an audience of many thousands. Such alternative channels are monitored from uncontrolled territories. Public owners and administrators receive threats and questions about "protection racket". We can read about this in "question-answer" formats in stories, "nightly" commenting and correspondence in Telegram channels. For example, the Mariupolnow channel publishes such communication with subscribers, the admin notes in anonymous interviews for journalists the specifics of the work and regular threats.

Propaganda narratives and Soviet methods

The main propaganda narratives can be heard in the traditional mass media of the Russian Federation, some Ukrainian projects report on their changes. However, in social media, one can observe various methods of using propaganda - or their "transformation": a word that Russian educators use at their pseudo-scientific conferences. By the way, for some reason, the Russian news is silent about the "transformation" of the statistics of Ukrainians deported from the occupied territories: they return en masse to their destroyed homes or move to Western countries to receive refugee status, shelter and assistance.

First of all, there is an active use of hate speech in order to provoke an aggressive attitude towards Ukraine. For example, according to my observations, bots became more active in writing the words "neo-Nazis" and "Ukro-occupiers" (!), avoiding the combination of "Nazis and fascists" without understanding the meaning of the words.

Secondly, there is a common tendency to transfer words from the enemy's messages (for example, "occupiers") into the context of their messages. Taking into account the monitoring of surveys of the Russian population regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war, it is possible to single out the most emotional and most anti-humane comments of the elderly people, pensioners in particular, which is the basis of the audience of traditional media. In addition to the language of hostility, in particular, that it is necessary to shoot "Ukes, Germans, and all phuking stuff", they also call Ukrainians "inhumans". By the way, Ukrainians from the affected regions called the Russian army "inhumans". For example, during the aerial bombardment of Mariupol in the first half of March, this word – "inhumans" – came to mind by itself, and residents often spoke it out loud. Parents of small children tried to refrain from profanity and only used this word with their children. Sometimes they broke down, swearing obscenely at the shelling and killing of civilians. Accordingly, the children immediately repeated everything, and they were not scolded for it. Therefore, the word "inhumans" was taken from the Ukrainian context, and then the context was changed to the opposite.

In the article "Propaganda Answers Unspoken Questions", Georgy Pocheptsov focuses on narratives as a way of "organizing meanings" and singles out the grand narrative of Russian propaganda "The West is Russia's Eternal Enemy".

A war of meanings is going on for people's minds. Of course, the Russian population is used to informational aggression from monitors. Another thing is Ukrainians in the occupied territories, who in course of eight years learned to use information, conspiratorially send materials to Ukrainian publics, etc. Ukrainians are familiar with the experience of blocking alternative opinion in authoritarian/totalitarian states, particularly on the model of the Soviet Union, because they have a good level of education and skills in using social networks.

Thirdly, "cautious" meanings are spreading on the part of Russian commentators. For example, "it's not Russia there (in the occupied territories - O.M.), but Novorossiya in Russia... that's how it goes. In general, I meant that with every new citizen of Russia there is a Russian." This is how the division is made in the comments of YouTube channels. Or the narrative that all Ukrainians cannot be accepted into the "Russian family", because they often go to the Maidans, organize revolutions, etc. That is, there is an understanding (or fear?) of the risks of the spread of dissent in society. And just critical thinking.

Read this article in russian and Ukrainian.