Russian Media at War

Undergraduate / Graduate

In this course we will form a collective to follow and respond to Russian media coverage of the war in Ukraine and its larger context. We will consider the impact of tightened control over journalistic free speech and the increasingly top-down control of representations of Russia's role in the region, with a primary focus on Ukraine. We will analyze the main narratives that have been used to justify the actions of the Russian state, and the methods that have been used to undermine counternarratives. While we will find tools of analysis through background reading in theory, we will spend most of our time looking at current media content coming out of Russia, Ukraine, and their neighboring countries, with some attention also to American and other western sources. Russian, Ukrainian, and other language skills will be highly useful, but are not required.