Abstract
Disinformation spread by Russian Federation television channels to Latvia’s ethnic minority audiences became an especially challenging problem after the occupation of Crimea in 2014. In the Latvian political agenda, the issue was reduced to seeking legal arguments justifying the ban of Russia’s broadcasts on domestic cable networks and via the internet to protect the Russian-speaking population from propaganda. Public opinion polls, however, did not consider Russia’s transborder communication a critical issue. Media content analyses reveal the absence of feedback communication: Lay people and their problems are underrepresented in leading media. Moreover, reference to “Kremlin propaganda” was instrumentalized as a populist argument discrediting political opponents and critics of government policies. On the one hand, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 proved the significance of the propaganda concerns following 2014. On the other hand, little was done to establish top-down and bottom-up communication channels with the Russian-speaking population identified as vulnerable to Kremlin propaganda.
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Notes
- 1.
LETA belongs to the investment group Media Investments and Holdings registered in Estonia.
- 2.
In this web survey, top managers and students were overrepresented among ethnic Latvian respondents, whereas blue-collar workers, unemployed and retired people were overrepresented among ethnic minorities.
- 3.
Respondents could choose two of the following categories: Newscast of Latvia television channels, Latvia’s news portals, Latvia’s dailies (paper and e-versions), Latvia’s radio stations, Newscast of Russia’s television channels, Russia’s news portals, Social media, Local opinion leaders, Other, Not interested in Latvia’s current affairs.
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The research received the financial support of the Latvian National Research Program “VPP Interframe-LV.”
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Kruk, S., Skulte, I. (2022). The Perils of Defense in an Information War: Media, Minorities, and the Threat Next Door. In: Chakars, J., Ekmanis, I. (eds) Information Wars in the Baltic States. The Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99987-2_10
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