War in Ukraine: not all propaganda is created equal
Video provided by Ukraine's Presidential Press Office: Volodymyr Zelensky speaks from Kyiv, early Sunday, March 20, 2022 ahead of his speech in the Knesset.
PA
Text by: Romain Mielcarek Follow
7 mins
In the war in Ukraine, both sides are using propaganda.
Two very different strategies, which must not make us lose sight of the truth: there is an aggressor and an attacked.
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The Russians assure it, without any proof: the Nazis occupy the Ukraine, manufacture nuclear weapons and arm the hospitals.
The Ukrainians retaliate with fictional videos of equally imaginary invulnerable pilots.
Each denies his losses while amplifying those of the enemy.
In the midst of this battle of propaganda, it is difficult for citizens to sort out.
Russia: a Soviet legacy
In Russian military doctrine, information is a weapon like any other.
"
Russia has a double logic
," explains David Colon, propaganda specialist at Sciences Po Paris.
It strives to protect the Russian informational sphere while disrupting the Western informational sphere.
»
To weaken the adversary, Russian propaganda relies on the distrust of part of the people towards its leaders.
For this, it fires all wood: “
Since the time of the KGB, the Russians have conveyed all the conspiracy theories which challenged the official truths
, continues David Colon.
This is the function attributed to RT and Sputnik, which have left a disproportionate place to conspiracy theorists, to encourage relativism and division.
»
One of the best-known examples took place during the Russian attack on a maternity hospital on March 10 in Mariupol.
Moscow says the facility was occupied by Ukrainian fighters.
As proof, to "debunk" the findings of journalists present on the spot, the Russian embassies began to denounce the fact that one of the pregnant women affected by the bombardment is also an influencer on Instagram.
It's a conspiratorial reasoning: there is no demonstration, but it arouses doubt in the viewer, who risks thinking that there may be something surprising there.
Even if it only takes a few clicks to verify that the young woman had indeed announced that she was pregnant for a long time on her social networks.
Russia is often content to affix a big red "Fake" stamp on articles, imitating fact-checking sites, to denounce a lie without any other form of demonstration.
Screenshot of the Instagram account of the Russian Embassy in France: on the left, the injured young Ukrainian woman, photographed by Associated Press journalists.
On the right, his Instagram account.
That's all it takes for Russia to conclude that it's a "staging".
© Screenshot
The Russian site War On Fakes mixes real and fake “Fakes”.
Difficult for the user to sort.
He just has to believe the red stamp mimicking the real verification sites, without any further investigation.
© Screenshot
A doubt that must never reach the Russian population.
The March 4 law against “
false information
” threatens anyone who talks about a “war” in Ukraine.
This Friday, March 18, Vladimir Putin repeated his lies in front of a banner "
for a world without Nazism
", in front of a crowd gathered for the occasion in the Moscow stadium.
Even though neo-Nazi militants in Ukraine
are an ultra-minority
.
"
The denazification of Ukraine is a transposition of the victory in the Great Patriotic War
", believes Maxime Audinet, Russia specialist at Irsem.
This way of qualifying the Second World War,
specific to Russia
, refers to an extremely mobilizing collective imagination.
“
It is a story that has been disseminated over several periods,
continues the researcher
.
Russian opinion seems to agree with the majority, especially among those over 45, who have been confronted throughout their lives with this Soviet narrative of the fight against fascism
.
»
Ukraine: American-style com
The Ukrainian president has become the face of resistance to the invasion.
“
No one knew Zelensky, apart from a few researchers and journalists
, remarks Colin Gérard, researcher at the Geode laboratory in Paris 8.
Now everyone knows him.
It is aimed directly at populations, especially Europeans, to push their leaders to take political decisions.
Although I doubt it will work
.
»
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an interview with foreign media in kyiv, Ukraine, March 3, 2022. via REUTERS - UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SER
He broadcasts the image of a humble head of state, in a khaki t-shirt, at the bedside of his people.
“
He does the opposite of Vladimir Putin, who tried to install a verticality of power
, decrypts David Colon.
He applies a communication technique very well known to Americans, known as
Plain Folks Appeal
, aimed at projecting an image close to the people.
It is extraordinarily effective in convincing Western opinions that recognize themselves in this character.
»
However, as Carl Miller, a specialist in digital networks
, has pointed out
, if one can have the impression in Europe that the Ukrainians have won the information battle, "
all too often we think only of the informational spaces that we inhabit
".
Elsewhere, and particularly in Africa and Asia, Russian messages are widely taken up and disseminated by Internet users.
Researcher Carl Miller has observed a strong upturn in Russian propaganda in many language communities on social media, especially in Asia and Africa.
© Screenshot
On the day of the invasion, February 24, it was however to another audience that Volodymir Zelensky wished to speak.
"
He spoke to the Russians, in Russian, to explain to them that his own grandfather had fought the Nazis in the Red Army
," notes Maxime Audinet.
This is not easy for many Ukrainians who, on the contrary, seek to mark the distance between Ukraine and the Soviet Union
.
»
However, Ukrainians also spread false information.
They greatly amplify the performance of their soldiers, for example.
“
There is a propagandist part in Ukrainian communication
, confirms Maxime Audinet.
She heroizes the dead soldiers and insists on the martyrdom of the Ukrainian people.
It is a reactive, defensive propaganda, which aims to support the morale of the troops
.
»
"The Ukrainian pilot has already shot down ten planes", welcomed the Twitter account of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on February 27.
A “ghost pilot” whose filmed feats were actually images taken from a video game.
© Screenshot
Are propaganda valid?
Ukrainians and Russians therefore resort to propaganda and manipulation of information.
But can we, for all that, simply send them back to back?
"
The principles of propaganda are the same for all belligerents, in all conflicts
," analyzes David Colon.
It is the other who started the war and who commits the atrocities.
But relativism has a limit
: when two States assert that it is the other which started the hostilities, one of them is lying.
And here, there is no doubt
: Russia is the aggressor.
»
To sort out the true from the false, it is up to knowledge professionals in particular to be particularly rigorous.
“
The only solution I see
, believes Colin Gérard,
is serious journalistic treatment, which does not allow itself to be overwhelmed by emotion, as well as researchers who do their job of analysis and explanation.
»
►To listen also: The underside of the infox, the chronicle - Deepfakes on the front of disinformation in the war in Ukraine
... © FMM Graphic Studio
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