Reframing Russia for the Global Mediasphere: From Cold War to 'Information War'?

冷战后地缘政治动态和全球新闻媒体格局变化的双重影响，正在彻底改变国家身份和利益在全球舞台上的投射。像今日俄罗斯（RT）这样的新玩家的到来正在改变国际媒体生态。RT是俄罗斯主要的国际广播公司，以普京政权的喉舌而闻名，但现实情况要复杂得多。政治冲突的媒介化，或者像今日俄罗斯这样的媒体不仅代表、而且干预和塑造冲突的各种方式，对和平与安全产生了重大影响。这项拟议的研究是第一次深入、全面地研究RT在向国际观众展示俄罗斯方面的作用。调查将由俄罗斯文化、历史、政治专家以及媒体、安全和计算语言学专家组成的多学科团队进行。当代俄罗斯安全与媒体的关系与冷战历史和俄罗斯的帝国历史有着复杂的关系，但这方面的研究却很少。迄今为止，关于RT的当代工作缺乏与强大的理论框架相关的详细实证分析。它没有考虑到RT与其非常多样化的受众之间当前关系的复杂性。理解RT在不断演变的东西方“信息战”中的重要性，对于提高国际理解、知情公民以及为看似棘手的冲突找到外交解决方案既紧迫又必要。该项目阐明了RT不仅重新配置公众和受众的过程，而且还为前所未有的国际不信任、冲突和不安全模式提供了条件。在一个创新的方法论框架中整合历史、话语分析、受众和社交媒体研究，我们测试了从试点研究中得出的假设，这些假设挑战了关于RT的传统思维和假设，并真正掌握了RT对俄罗斯国际受众的公共形象的重新校准，以及它模糊了公共外交和宣传之间的区别。我们将讨论以下核心主题和问题：1)叙事：RT对俄罗斯民族的叙事及其叙事策略如何回应和改变苏联/帝国的过去？2)正当性：国家议程如何合法化？3)改编：国内新闻叙事如何适应RT的国际受众？4)身份：在RT的输出中，“身份语法”和其他语法是如何表示的，对加剧“信息战”和放大证券化过程有什么影响？5)参与度：受众和用户如何参与RT的广播新闻和社交媒体内容？我们通过对三种“媒体事件”的案例研究来研究上述过程：(1)预先计划好的俄罗斯媒体与国家的合作；(2)持续的政治冲突；(3)突发、破坏性安全事件。产出包括为研究用户共同撰写的专著和报告（国际广播观众研究人员会议（CIBAR），美国广播理事会，BBC世界服务，CCNI，半岛电视台，法国媒体世界，德国之声，英国外交和联邦事务部，查塔姆研究所和BBC监测）。我们将通过大型会议和研讨会，让记者、政策制定者和学者进行对话，展示艺术与人文学科研究对研究媒体、身份与国际安全之间关系的重要性。

The projection of national identities and interests on the global stage is being radically reconfigured by the twin consequences of post-Cold War geopolitical dynamics and transformations in the global news media landscape. The arrival of new players like Russia Today (RT) is altering the international media ecology. RT is Russia's primary international broadcaster with a reputation for being a mouthpiece of Putin's regime but the reality is more complex. The mediatization of political conflicts, or the myriad ways in which media like RT not only represent but also intervene and shape conflicts, have significant consequences for peace and security. The proposed research is the first in-depth, comprehensive study of the role of RT in projecting Russia for international audiences. It will be carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of specialists in Russian culture, history, politics as well as experts in media, security and computational linguistics. The contemporary Russian security-media nexus bears a complex relationship to the history of the Cold War and to Russia's imperial past but it is poorly researched. Contemporary work on RT has hitherto lacked detailed empirical analysis tied to a robust theoretical framework. It has failed to account for the complexities of current relationships between RT and its very diverse audiences. Understanding the significance of RT in the evolving East-West 'information war' is both urgent and necessary to improving international understanding, informed citizenship and finding diplomatic solutions to seemingly intractable conflicts. This project illuminates the processes by which RT not only reconfigures publics and audiences, but also furnishes the very conditions for unprecedented modes of international mistrust, conflict and insecurity. In integrating historical, discourse analyses, audience and social media research in an innovative methodological framework, we test hypotheses drawn from our pilot research that challenge conventional thinking and presumptions about RT and really get to grips with RT's recalibration of Russia's public image for international audiences and its blurring of distinctions between public diplomacy and propaganda. We address the following core themes and questions: 1) Narration: how do RT's narratives of Russian nationhood, and its narrational strategies echo and transform those of the Soviet/imperial past?2) Legitimation: how are state agendas legitimated? 3) Adaptation: how are domestic news narratives adapted for RT's international audiences?4) Identities: how are 'grammars of identity' and othering represented in RT's outputs and with what implications for exacerbating an 'information war' and amplifying securitisation processes?5) Engagement: how do audiences and users engage with RT's broadcast news and social media content?We research the above processes through case studies of three kinds of 'media events': (1) pre-planned Russian media-state collaborations; (2) on-going political conflicts; (3) unexpected, disruptive security-related events.Outputs include a co-authored monograph and reports for research users (Conference of International Broadcasting Audience Researchers (CIBAR), the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, the BBC World Service, CCNI, Al-Jazeera, France Medias Monde, Deutsche Welle, the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Chatham House and BBC Monitoring). We will bring journalists, policy makers and academics into dialogue via a major conference and workshops, demonstrating the significance of Arts and Humanities research for studying the relationship between media, identity and international security.