Russian Nationalist Media Ecology, Discourses of Othering and “Enemification” before and during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The changing legal environment affects the Russian media landscape by controlling the framing of the war and Russian armed forces whilst suppressing independent or more liberal media outlets. These processes have shaped the position of nationalist media and their channels by increasing the salience of their discourses and their visibility to Russian audiences. Nationalist actors are promoting new alternative sources to state-owned sources of information. Private actors such as Konstantin Malofeev or Yevgeny Prigozhin have funded their own digital media production. The research seminar firstly explores the characteristics and transformations of Russian nationalist media ecology and its key actors. Secondly, two cases are selected for in-depth discourse analysis: Tsargrad Society and Tsargrad Media as well as the Patriot media group and its outlet RIA-FAN (closed down after Prigozhin's mutiny).  By adopting critical discourse analysis (discourse-historical approach) and digital ethnography, shifts in Russian national identity discourses, the discursive construction of the enemies, and the communication of otherness are assessed. The seminar presents findings from a larger PhD thesis project and is theoretically aligned with the discursive and cultural turn in theories of nationalism, media ecology, and representation theory. It also explores the applicability of postcolonial lenses for the Russian case, the digital mediatisation of war nationalism, and the framing of neighbouring states in line with Russian nationalist imaginaries. Russian post-colonial discourses are marked by internal inconsistencies. While Tsargrad and the former Patriot media groups promote global multi-polarity, conservatism, and anti-colonialism towards the West using transformation discursive strategy, their discourses envisage grand imperial narratives and inclusion of other nationalities and territories in the imaginaries of the nation.

Alexandra Brankova is a PhD candidate in Media and Communications at Uppsala University, the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES) and the Department of Informatics and Media (IM). Alexandra Brankova's PhD project investigates Russian nationalist media ecology, practices, and discursive constructions of Russian national identity pre- and during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine (2018 - 2023). The research approaches developed in the project are related to the study of digital nationalism, new media ecology, media practices, and the discursive construction of national identity. Her main research interests are related to national identity construction, nationalism, critical discourse studies, digital social science, new media, and digital methods with a specific focus on the Russian Federation and South-East Europe. Alexandra has completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Glasgow where she graduated with an MSc in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies from the School of Social and Political Sciences and worked as a research assistant. She has also been a visiting scholar at the Centre for Research on Extremism, University of Oslo and the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.