Browsing by Author "Voltri, Johannes"

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2017 Catalan independence referendum: the projection of Russian strategic narratives by RT and Sputnik
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Voltri, Johannes; Makarychev, Andrey, juhendaja; Sazonov, Vladimir, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
During the recent years, Russia has been accused in meddling in the internal affairs of Western countries on several occasions. Claims of Russian information campaign have also surfaced related to the Catalan independence referendum, held on 1 October 2017. Although there have been some analyses the author is not aware of any wider academic research examining Russian information activity related to the referendum. The aim of the thesis was to identify the strategic narratives that Russia disseminated to the English-language audience in relation to the Catalan independence referendum, and connect them with broader Russian foreign policy interests. The author, inter alia, seek to ascertain why Russia was interested in Catalonia in the first place and how it is used various communicative tools to achieve its goals. The author set a hypothesis that Russia was taking advantage of the events in Catalonia to enfeeble the European Union. To test the hypothesis the author conducted a poststructuralist discourse analysis on the content of Sputnik and RT that was published between 1 September and 31 October 2017. Apart from the news articles, television coverage of RT was also analysed. The coverage was viewed through the prism of the strategic narratives theory by Miskimmon, O’Loughlin and Roselle in connexion with the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. The author ascertained that the tense and at times violent conflict in Catalonia gave Russia a pretext to amplify the tensions and direct the coverage towards the European Union. Russia first argued for the intervention of the EU to give the conflict an international dimension. As the EU remained a bystander, Russia actively projected an identity narrative of the EU as hypocritical and not living up to the democratic values it serves to epitomise. EU was shown in decay and in the process of disintegration with an intent to weaken the West’s hegemony and by doing this strive for a multilateral world order where the role of Russia would be increased. The hypothesis was thus confirmed. The work contributes to the wider efforts of elucidating the range and technique of Russian information activities and demonstrates that Russia has vested interest not only in its close neighbourhood but also further away where it is not and active player itself.
Comparison of governmental approaches to counter Russian information influence in the Baltic states
(Tartu Ülikool, 2021) Voltri, Johannes; Sazonov, Vladimir, juhendaja; Ventsel, Andreas, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Numerous studies on information influence activities such as mis- and disinformation or inauthentic behaviour on social media have been published in recent years, mainly concentrating on the prevalence, characteristics and causes. Yet, comprehensive research of how governments manage this “information disorder” has remained largely on the sidelines, contributing to a dearth of knowledge when it comes to adequate responses to information influence activities. The study seeks to contribute to this literature by focusing on Baltic reactions to Russian information influence. The main aim of the thesis is to examine and compare Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian governmental approaches to responding to Russian information influence activities. Main strategic documents were analysed, and state officials interviewed to obtain a comprehensive understanding of how the Baltic states deal with information influence in general and which countermeasures the three countries have undertaken, concentrating on the setup of strategic communication, media literacy in formal education and media policy. In order to make sense of various strategies democracies might opt for, an analytical framework by Hellman and Wagnsson (2017) was used. The focus of the research is on governmental action, excluding media and third sector activities such as independent fact-checking or educational projects. The author argues that albeit in general the Baltic states approach countering Russian information influence similarly, the understandings diverge on the extent to which the state should regulate the media to achieve its goals. Compared to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania seek to actively shape the media environment, either through media support measures to encourage media literacy and raise awareness or by restricting access to Russian television channels to respond to incitements of hatred. Estonia, on the other hand, has fared better in developing Russian-language public media as an alternative to still influential Russia’s information space. More broadly, the author suggests that governments respond to information influence activities first by implementing regulations and secondly by raising awareness.