How war propaganda works in ongoing Russia-Ukraine duel
A serviceman of Ukrainian Military Forces looks out from his tank prior to the battle with Russian troops and Russia-backed separatists in Lugansk region on March 8, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Propaganda can be used in controversial matters including war.
- The Ukrainian conflict has generated many propaganda techniques.
As we enter the second week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, false or misleading videos and images about the invasion continue to go viral. Among the things spreading quickly are old videos depicted as current – along with claims that pictures are old, even when they verifiably come from the present conflict. Claims have circulated online of images and clips from the destruction of some cities in Ukraine. These claims – made by a variety of pro-Russia groups – are all false propaganda.
Few cases come to mind: A journalist at the scene posted a video showing the aftermath of a fire and other sources. Photographers at the scene posted images from the same event onto social media. Some of those photos appeared on websites and newspaper front pages all around the world.
A blurry video claiming to show a Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier has generated 12 million views on Tik Tok and nearly one million views on Twitter. It actually shows Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi, aged 11 at the time, confronting an Israeli soldier after her older brother was arrested in 2012.
The Ukrainian conflict, however, has generated many propaganda techniques including another dramatic video chip showing a Ukrainian pilot shooting down a Russian fighter jet tweeted by Nexta TV, a Belarusian outlet- a major source of anti-government protests in Belarus over disputed presidential election in 2020.
Likewise, an image of Kyiv mayor Vladmir Klitschko went viral on Instagram claiming to show him on the front line. Lastly, did President Zelensky take tea with Ukrainian forces as shown? Maybe not. All this is propaganda.
These ideas or beliefs are intentionally propagated — by using words to reach their goals — pictures, drawings, graphs, exhibits, parades, songs, among other devices. Of course, propaganda can be used in controversial matters including war, but it is used to promote things that are generally acceptable and controversial. Propaganda can be concealed or open, emotional or containing appeals to reason, or a combination of appeals to reason, emotional and logical appeals.
Democratic propaganda
Historically, it was used in 1940s by Germany’s Adolf Hitler with radio as his voice. A propaganda strategy division was established with the intention of sowing suspicion and doubt about the fidelity of an ally — there was propaganda of fear – the voice of defeatism. “The words of the radio speaker are honeyed words,” said the Nazi war machine.
There is the use of a communication technique that creates an emotional appeal to accept a particular belief or opinion, to adopt certain behaviour or to perform a particular action. There is disagreement about whether all persuasive communication is propaganda or whether the propaganda label can only be applied to dishonest messages.
Hitler himself in Mein Kampf laid down his rules for dictatorship. He started the “principle of the whooping lie” — “the greater the lie, the more effective it is as a weapon.” He went on, don’t be fooled into thinking that you have to sway the influential people — the leaders of opinion — to your side”.
However, with even these simple governing principles of democratic propaganda, Nazis blinded their people against the truth. A free people will soon find out the truth in spite of official suppressions and distortions – a realistic policy for effective dealing with allies neutrals and even enemies. The UN General Assembly in New York voted for nothing but the truth – minus war propaganda.
In today’s world, war is therefore fought on all four fronts at once – the military front, the economic front , the political front and the propaganda front, all in the end fight for patriotic motives — it is their love for their country where the army can be one per cent of the mass population which in the end gives rise to both patriotism and nationalism even in times of such harsh Russian winter, both civilian and military sacrifice through muscle, mind and money at war times because of the influence of propaganda.
Mr. Martin Kurgat is a former soviet graduate and a lecturer at Moi University's Department of Publishing, Journalism and Communication Studies. [email protected]
