Russian Media and Conspiracy Theories: Conspiracy Panics, Professional Ethics

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Announcement published by Alexander Kolassa on Friday, April 28, 2017
Type: Lecture
Date: June 6, 2017
Location: United Kingdom
Subject Fields: Contemporary History, Diplomacy and International Relations, Political History / Studies, Russian or Soviet History / Studies
A public lecture with Ilya Yablokov (University of Leeds)

Abstract

Whilst nowadays conspiracy theories are mainstreaming all over the world – the victory of Donald Trump and Brexit are the cases in point – contemporary Russia is a curious example. From the mid-2000s the Russian government have spent years and millions of roubles to spread the fears of Western conspiracy among the population and thus sustain Putin’s popular support. Russian media played a key role in this process, constantly spreading falsified evidence of subversive activities of the Russian opposition with the alleged support of the West. Moreover, from the end of the 2000s the Kremlin reshaped the international television channel RT into a source of various conspiracy theories thus turning a media outlet into a sophisticated public diplomacy tool. ...

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