ABSTRACT
The crisis in Ukraine has accentuated the position of Russian television as the government’s strongest asset in its information warfare. The internet, however, allows other players to challenge the Kremlin’s narrative by providing counter-narratives and debunking distorted information and fake images. The Ukrainian crisis has triggered claims that Russia has raised information war to a new level. The aggressive media campaign has been effective in that approximately 70 per cent of Russian viewers believe that the events in Ukraine are covered by the government owned channels truthfully and without bias. The internet has turned modern information warfare into a global multimedia forum where rival voices struggle to be heard, making it increasingly difficult to impose hegemonic narratives or framings on a conflict. Strategic narratives are a tool for political actors to articulate a position on a specific issue and to shape perceptions and actions of domestic and international audiences.
