This paper was published by NATO Strategic Communication Center of Excellence. The research was carried out by Dr. Ofer Fridman, Viktoras Daukšas, Laima Venclauskienė, and Karina Urbanavičiūtė.
State-owned television has been serving narratives aligning with the Kremlin’s agenda for decades. Television gets the top spot as the most trusted information source in Russia and bypasses other means of communication. After the war in Ukraine started in February 2022, Telegram rose to promi-nence, as more people turned to it for fresh, unlimited information. Unlike the polished communication on television and official chan-nels, Telegram was not so tightly controlled, at least in the beginning. Military bloggers (mil-bloggers) were able to react to the situation on the ground and bring insights from the front in real time.
Through the synergy of three parts of the Russian media ecosystem analysed in this paper (official websites of Russian government institutions, television shows, and Telegram channels), the Kremlin can keep control of the media and broadcast its brutal war in Ukraine on all fronts. Content from official websites, TV, and Telegram overlaps, and therefore these sources can reach diverse audiences: people who do not watch TV get the same messages on Telegram and vice versa, and official statements find their way to Russian hearts and minds through both big and small screens.
Full report can be accessed here: https://stratcomcoe.org/publications/war-on-all-fronts-how-the-kremlins-media-ecosystem-broadcasts-the-war-in-ukraine/301