Media Reports as a Tool of Hybrid and Information Warfare (the Case of RT – Russia Today)

Abstract

The study looks at how Russian regional hybrid warfare actions on Ukrainian territory serve as occasions for Russian global information warfare and how media messages become information weapons. The goal is to understand how events in the combat zone and the general situation in Ukraine impact basic features of Russian media reports, such as intensity, eventfulness, and intentionality. The research focused on the informative materials of the Russian multilingual international information channel Russia Today (RT). Titles and leads of over 44 thousand short information messages from October 1, 2014, to June 30, 2020, as well as more than 1 thousand extensive analytical materials for the period from October 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020, are analysed. The article demonstrates that RT media influence is deliberate, targeted, and pre-planned, beginning with the first words of the publications, i.e., the title and the lead.

Keywords

• media report
• hybrid warfare
• russia
• information warfare
• ukraine
• information occasion
• rt