Narratives on Ukraine and manipulative techniques in russian english-language media

Conclusions. According to the results of the research, in order to shape the perception of Ukraine in the world, Russian journalists use the following narratives: external governance of Ukraine, Ukraine and Russia as «brotherly nations», «forced Ukrainization» of Ukraine, «Ukrainians being Nazis». The research results of this study suggest that such techniques as repetition, cherry picking, name calling, testimonial, fear, black and white fallacies, logical fallacy «causation vs correlation» are used to manipulate the target audience. Our findings can be useful for policy makers, journalists, linguists and educators. In the future it is possible to investigate how media with different political positions display their attitude to news about Ukraine. Additional study needs to be carried out to reveal the most effective ways to fight propaganda with education.

Keywords: Ukraine; Russian-Ukrainian war; media; propaganda; narrative; manipulative techniques; target audience.

НАРАТИВИ ПРО УКРАЇНУ ТА МАНІПУЛЯТИВНІ ТЕХНІКИ У РОСІЙСЬКИХ АНГЛОМОВНИХ МЕДІА

Мар'яна Караневич

Тернопільський національний педагогічний університет імені Володимира Гнатюка Україна, м. Тернопіль

З огляду на російсько-українську війну, варто звернути увагу на те, у якому світлі зображається Україна в російських медіа. У вищезгаданому контексті виникла потреба комплексно проаналізувати наративи російських засобів масової інформації, що спрямовані на англомовну аудиторію. Тому метою нашого дослідження є виявлення та аналіз наративів і маніпулятивних технік у статтях про Україну, опублікованих на сайті російського видання «Russia Today» англійською мовою з 2014року до сьогодні. Матеріалом нашого дослідження слугували 24 публіцистичні статті та 2 промови Президента Росії В. Путіна. У процесі дослідження використовували методи лінгвістичного спостереження та дискурс аналізу. Результати дослідження свідчать, що для того щоб формувати певне сприйняття України у світі, російські медіа використовують такі наративи: зовнішнє управління Україною, Україна та Росія - братні країни, насильницька українізація України, українці - нацисти. Наративи у промовах Президента Росії В. Путіна слугують орієнтиром для російських ЗМІ. Щоб зняти відповідальність за війну на сході України та анексію Криму, російські журналісти використовують евфемізми та метафоричні вирази. Водночас застосовують дерогативну лексику щодо України та українців. Крім того, російські ЗМІ вперто продовжують використовувати транслітерацію з російської мови українських власних назв. Під час аналізу джерел ілюстративного матеріалу ми виявили застосування таких маніпулятивних технік, як повтор, вибіркове подання фактів, навішування ярликів, апелювання до авторитету, апелювання до страху, фальшива дилема, логічна хиба сумнівної причинності. Результати нашої роботи можуть бути корисними для політиків, журналістів, лінгвістів і педагогів.

Ключові слова: Україна, російсько-українська війна, медіа, пропаганда, наратив, маніпулятивні техніки, цільова аудиторія.

НАРРАТИВЫ ОБ УКРАИНЕ И МАНИПУЛЯТИВНЫЕ ТЕХНИКИ В РОССИЙСКИХ АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНЫХ МЕДИА

Марьяна Караневич

Тернопольский национальный педагогический университет имени Владимира Гнатюка Украина, г. Тернополь

Целью нашего исследования было выявление и анализ нарративов и манипулятивных техник в статьях об Украине, опубликованных на сайте российского издания «Russia Today» на английском языке с 2014 года по сей день. Материалом нашего исследования послужили 24 публицистические статьи и 2 речи Президента России В. Путина. Результаты исследования показывают, что для того, чтобы формировать определенное восприятие Украины в мире, российские медиа используют следующие нарративы: внешнее управление Украины, Украина и Россия - братские страны, насильственная украинизация Украины, украинцы - нацисты. Кроме того, было выявлено применение таких манипулятивных техник, как повтор, выборочное представление фактов, навешивание ярлыков, апеллирование к авторитету, апелляция к страху, ложная дилемма, логическая ошибка сомнительной причинности.

Ключевые слова:Украина, российско-украинская война, медиа, пропаганда, нарратив, манипулятивные техники, целевая аудитория.

Statement of the problem

In the twenty first century, the age of information, one can often hear the term «information war» that is used in the context of Russian -Ukrainian war. When it became obvious that a word can be used as a weapon in mass media, journalists, politicians, and historians focused their attention on fact-checking, psychologists investigated psychological manipulation in communication. At the same time, few studies have been published on linguistic means that are used to create the image of Ukraine in the world.

The analysis of latest research findings and publications

Language manipulation has received much attention of the linguists. Attempts have been made to investigate language manipulation in media [15], manipulation in political discourse [9], manipulative strategies in fiction translation [8], language techniques used by advertisers to arrest attention of their target audience [13]. However, as propaganda is considered to be the basic instrument of information operations [4, p. 25], there is still a need for comprehensive analysis of Russian media narratives on Ukraine targeting English-speaking audiences. In the light of ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, it is necessary to address the problem of portraying Ukraine in Russian media. «Russia Today» (in this paper the acronym RT stands for «Russia Today») is state-controlled media that intends to shape the perception of English speakers about Russia's foreign policy. Journalists and politicians often use language to manipulate their target audience. Hence, there is a need to improve media literacy skills of media consumers and shape their ability to think critically. In the digital age the role of media literacy in educational process is increasing.

Due to this, the aim of this study is to determine and analyze narratives and linguistic techniques found in the articles about Ukraine posted in the English language on RT site since 2014.

In order to study the problem, we selected 24 news articles about Ukraine that were posted on Russia Today website. In addition, we analyzed 2 speeches by Russian President Putin because they may serve as guidelines for Russian media. The main research methods were the methods of linguistic observation and analysis to reveal narratives and manipulative techniques in the materials under investigation and discourse analysis to take into consideration the political framework in which the discourse was embedded.

Results and Discussion

Narratives of Russian Media on Ukraine Targeted at English Speakers

Ukraine and Russia are «Brotherly Nations» The President of Russian Federation stresses the idea that Ukrainians and Russians are one people: «Our concerns are understandable because we are not simply close neighbours but, as I have said many times already, we are one people» (17). He expresses regret with regard to the collapse of the Soviet Union and hopes for its rebirth in a new form: «Millions of people went to bed in one country and awoke in different ones, becoming ethnic minorities in the former Union republics overnight, while the Russian nation became one of the biggest, if not the biggest ethnic group in the world to be divided by borders» (17), «The USSR fell apart. <... '> Many people both in Russia and in Ukraine, as well as in other republics hoped that the Commonwealth of Independent States that was created at the time would become the new common form of statehood. They were told that there would be a single currency, a single economic space, joint armed forces; however, all this remained empty promises, while the big country was gone» (17). The messages in Putin's speeches serve as guidelines for the Russian media. Thus, the same narrative can be found on the pages of RT site: «Then we defend our territory that we recognized, help our fraternal nation» (25), «President Vladimir Putin and other officials in Moscow have maintained that Ukraine remains a brotherly nation to Russia despite the provocative behavior of politicians in Kiev» (24). To relieve Russia of the responsibility for the invasion of the East of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, Russian media use such verbs as «to reabsorb» or «to break away» as can be seen in the following examples: «Crimea was reabsorbed into Russia in 2014 after a local referendum that Ukraine insists was illegitimate» (7); «The Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics also broke away from the continent's second largest country <..>» (7). The same message is delivered through metaphorical expressions: «Since Crimea has returned to Moscow's embrace <..>» (14). Famous Orwell's paradox «War is Peace» finds its realization on RT site: «A year after the peaceful reunification of Crimea with Russia <..>» (27) and Putin's words: «Yes, I make no secret of it, it is a fact and we never concealed that our Armed Forces, let us be clear, blocked Ukrainian armed forces stationed in Crimea <..>» (19). At the same time, these tight «brotherly embraces» are suffocating for Ukrainians who defend territorial integrity of Ukraine: in the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation in Ukraine the total number of the killed from 14 April 2014 to 15 February 2020 made up 13 000 to 13 200 [12, p. 8].

«External Governance of Ukraine» In their article on linguistic techniques of propaganda, Irfan and Khaja [7, p. 1185] state that the most common element of indoctrination is the use of repetition when the same information is presented in different ways so frequently that it comes to be accepted as common knowledge. On RT site one can find the following titiles of articles: Ukraine - a 'Banana Republic' without bananas (13), Behavior of Kiev government is worthy of a banana republic, not a European state (3). Collins Dictionary provides the following definition for a derogatory term «banana republic»: «a small country, especially in Central America, that is politically unstable and has an economy dominated by foreign interest, usually dependent on one export, such as bananas» (6). The message of dependence of Ukraine on the West is often mentioned in RT articles: «a US-preferred Ukraine policy» (1), «NATO's colonization of Ukraine» (20), «Western-backed groups are threatening to instigate political unrest should he (Volodymyr Zelensky) take any action that they don't find acceptable to their political agenda» (22). At the same time, Russia is portrayed as a savior of Ukraine: «<...> Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov stated that this would not alter his brotherly attitude to the Ukrainian people, who can always expect help from Chechens and Russians in times of trouble» (15), «The question now is: will its western `friends' and Russia save Kiev from the abyss?» (10).

«Forced Ukrainization» of Ukraine Nowadays the issue of language politics in Ukraine receives much attention in Russian media. In this context Russian journalists use such phrases as forced Ukrainization («The new law constitutes an act of forced Ukrainization <...>» ^{(21)) or} artificial Ukrainization («Will they ever recognize that the artificial Ukrainization of Donbass, Lugansk and Crimea is not worth the enormous sacrifices (8)?»). In a research paper by Edwards [5] it was proved that the language we speak defines our identity. This explains language policy in the Soviet Union and Russian Empire aimed at russification and cultural assimilation of peoples living under the Russian rule. In [2] and [3] the authors trace the chronology of Ukrainian language suppression from the seventeenth to the twentieth century in great detail. The so called theory of «fusion of nations» implied the disappearance of national languages. In the process of Sovietization an educational reform in 1959 initiated a long process of curtailment of Ukrainian-language instruction in schools and in 1961 the ruling party program emphasized the importance of the Russian language for the integration of the Soviet peoples [1]. President of Russia Putin pursues the same strategy in his politics: «Look, what is `soft power'? Culture is, of course, one of its aspects. Education, culture, and humanitarian ties in general» (18). The same message can be found on the pages of state-controlled Russian media: «Russian culture is a fact of life in Ukraine. Almost everybody - even radical nationalists - can speak Russian» (11), which illustrates one of the linguistic techniques of propaganda - «cherry picking». According to Irfan and Khaja [7, p. 1190], this term means «selective presentation or deliberate obfuscation of facts and misleading of the masses by half baked truths». Though, it is true that many Ukrainians born in the USSR understand the Russian language, it is the result of forceful sovietization / russification.

After a long period of linguocide, Ukrainian policy makers started the process of de- sovietization / de-russification. This evokes Kremlin's fear of losing control over Ukraine. In light of Russian-Ukrainian war, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine launched a campaign «CorrectUA» to stop using Russian transliteration of Ukrainian placenames. In response to the above-mentioned campaign, Western media began to use correct spelling of Ukrainian geographical names. But Russian media persistently ignore the appeal to international community. Thus, on the site of Russia Today one can find Kiev instead of Kyiv: «Western reporters in Kiev continue to ignore the rise of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine» (12); Lvov instead of Lviv: «Incidentally, a nation where whether you were born in Lvov <...>» (2); and Odessa instead of Odesa: «A district court in the Ukrainian city of Odessa has opted to remove Russian as an official regional language» (23). In the article dedicated to «erasing of Russian-style names» Wilson states: «Using the Ukrainian language we would switch from Chernobyl to have Chornobyl and Odessa would lose an `s' to become plain Odesa. But would anyone actually care?» (26). Such resistance to the trend of using Ukrainian transliteration of Ukrainian proper names reveals the fact that Russian policy makers actually do care about it.

«Ukrainians are Nazis». In [7, p. 1189] the authors analyzed the linguistic technique «name calling» that is the practice of attaching certain names, qualities, traits generally with negative connotations to an opposing group without any feasible explanations. Hence, instead of making logical arguments, the opponent's personality or characteristics are attacked and stereotyped negatively. This technique can be easily found in the transcript of Putin's speech, who calls the participants of the Revolution of Dignity «nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites» (17). At this point it should be noted that the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine says that the Euromaidan (which is another name for the Revolution of Dignity) is one of the key moments of the Ukrainian state and an exponent of the national idea of freedom [14]. The above mentioned lexical items are used in RT articles to demonize Ukrainians who support the western vector of the development of Ukraine: «The Foreign Ministry accused Washington and its allies of turning a blind eye to the excesses of what it called militant, Russophobic and anti-Semitic forces operating on Kiev's central Independence Square <...>» (9), «In the process, the West has effectively allied itself with neo-Nazis <...>» (9), «<...> the majority of people of Crimea decided that with neoNazis on the rampage and a fiercely anti-Russia administration in power in Kiev, it was time to say 'dosvedanya' to Ukraine and return to Mother Russia» (5). To create negative associations in the minds of English-speaking readers, in 24 articles on RT website the word Nazi was used 8 times and neo-Nazi - 10 times in reference to Ukrainians, the lexical item Nazism was revealed 3 times in reference to ideology praised in Ukraine.

Manipulative Techniques in Russian Media

As reported above, in the articles under investigation we revealed such techniques as repetition, cherry picking, and name calling. Let us now look at other manipulative techniques. One of the linguistic techniques used for dissemination of propaganda is rhetoric, i.e. the choice of words and the mode of argument employed. At the same time, ethos is the argument based on evoking the credibility of the person making the argument [7, p. 1186]. According to Muluk and Habiburrahim [11, p. 168], in political communication one frequently sees famous people delivering their opinion to the audience and endorsing the speaker and their ideas. For this purpose, the technique «testimonial» is used. Thus, on RT website Oliver Stone's viewpoint is mentioned to put it into practice: «Some like film director Oliver Stone even call it (Maidan) a US-staged coup <... >» (4). It is worth mentioning that Oliver Stone is the creator of the Russian film `Ukraine on Fire', which requires a separate consideration by scholars. Pathos is the argument based on evoking emotions in the audience [7, p. 1186]. Hence, one can observe the attempts to evoke fear in the target audience in the speech of the President of the Russian Federation: «Otherwise, dear friends (I am addressing both Ukraine and Russia), you and we - Russians and Ukrainians - could have lost Crimea completely, and that could have happened in the near historical perspective. <..> It would have meant that Nato's navy would have been right there in this city of Russia's military glory, and this would have created not an illusory but a perfectly real threat to the whole of southern Russia» (17). This example can also serve as an illustration of the technique «black and white fallacies» which is the implication that there are only two sides to a situation or only two options to an issue [7, p. 1191]. Logos is the argument that panders to logic or the appearance of such. If speakers have no strong arguments, they may use logical fallacies [7, p. 1186]. One of them is called «causation vs correlation» that is malicious use of data by the person who aims to prove that an event B occurs due to an event A, even when the case may actually not be so [7, p. 1188]. The following examples that were revealed in the articles posted on RT site illustrate this logical fallacy: «But when hatred for all things Russian is encouraged and even enforced, why expect tolerance for gay or HIVpositive people, the Roma or other minorities?» (2), «The people of Ukraine know this, and they probably also know that changing the names of their streets, towns and cities does not put bread on the table» (26).

Importantly, further analysis of RT publications showed that oftentimes the readers are not provided with the possibility to check information. Thus, the author of the article didn't mention the name of «a member of Zelensky's own party»: «In November, a member of Zelensky's own party and a native of the peninsula said that Crimea was better off under Russian governance» (7). Hence, the source of information is not reliable. In the next sentence «the observers» are anonymous too, no one can check their qualification: «At the time, many observers felt Poroshenko made the move to make life difficult for the incoming leader, given his preference for the use of Russian» (16). Moreover, the readers of RT articles must rely on the assumptions of their authors rather than facts: «The radicals stopped trucks carrying food from Ukraine and blew up several pylons supplying mains electricity to the peninsula. If this happened in any Western country, it would be labeled terrorism» (14). But as the territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation, Ukraine acts according to Article 55 of Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949: «To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate» [6, p. 187]. It should be noted that information war has led to the emergence of fact-checking organizations such as StopFake and Voxcheck that verify information and present their work in many languages, including English.

Conclusions and further research prospects

To sum up, in order to shape the perception of Ukraine in the world, Russian media use the following narratives: «external governance of Ukraine», Ukraine and Russia are «brotherly nations», «forced Ukrainization» of Ukraine, «Ukrainians are Nazis». The evidence from this study suggests that such techniques as repetition, cherry picking, name calling, testimonial, fear, black and white fallacies, logical fallacy «causation vs correlation» are used to manipulate the target audience. Moreover, the consumers of Russian media are often not provided with the possibility to check information and have to rely on assumptions of the authors rather than facts.

We think that our findings could be useful for policy makers, journalists, linguists and educators. In the future it is possible to investigate how media with different political positions display their attitude to news about Ukraine. Further studies are needed to test levels of media literacy among pupils and students. Additional work needs to be carried out to reveal the most effective ways to fight propaganda with education.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIALS

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3. `Behavior of Kiev government is worthy of a banana republic, not a European state'. (2014, August 4). Russia Today. URL : URL :https://www.rt.com/op-ed/177768-ukraine-poroshenko-constitution- tensions/ (retrieved: 04.01.2021).

4. Brokering power: US role in Ukraine coup hard to overlook. (2015, February 19). Russia Today. URL : https://www.rt.com/news/233439-us-meddling-ukraine-crisis/ (retrieved: 10.01.2021).

5. Clark N. (2015, August 21) Putin goes to Crimea - but where's the Western outrage? Russia Today. URL : https://www.rt.com/op-ed/313008-crimea-putin-media-western/ (retrieved: 104.01.2021).

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7. Crimean senator tells Zelensky - return Ukraine to Moscow Time to recall days before it became `Europe's most backward country'. (2021, January 1). Russia Today. URL : https://www.rt.com/russia/511327-ukraine-prosperity-moscow-time/ (retrieved: 03.01.2021).

8. Gurnov A. (2015, May 26) Poroshenko presidency, one year on: Can peace be achieved amid heightened nationalism? Russia Today. URL : https://www.rt.com/op-ed/262169-poroshenko-ukraine- presidency-year/ (retrieved: 12.01.2021).

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12. MacDonald B. (2015, May 10) Western reporters in Kiev continue to ignore the rise of NeoNazism in Ukraine. Russia Today. URL : https://www.rt.com/op-ed/387878-western-correspondents-kiev- neo-nazis/ (retrieved: 11.01.2021).

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