Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who makes good use of SNS to develop information warfare (Photo: Bloomberg)
Today’s wars and conflicts are not annihilation wars with conventional weapons, but information warfare, intelligence warfare, and cyber warfare involving the media and SNS. It is said. What kind of information warfare and cyber warfare was deployed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this time?
Ukraine conflict is a new global war
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the worst armed conflict that has occurred in Europe since World War II, and is believed to have a major impact on the future of the international community. But at the same time, it also seems to mark the dawn of a new era in the history of information warfare and propaganda.
The special features of the September 2022 issue of GALAC are “Aim! World TV Awards” and “Present tense of war coverage.” This article is reprinted from the special issue (Click the magazine cover image above to jump to the Bookwalker page)
A video posted on social media by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky captured the world’s attention at the beginning of the invasion to show that Russia did not flee before the enemy, as claimed by the Russian government.
It was a picture of the president of a party to the conflict not on a brightly lit press conference podium, but in a dark city, not for TV but for the internet, and not filmed by a professional TV crew, but a selfie. When the Taliban invaded the Afghan capital Kabul in August 2021, the contrast with the exiled President Ghani was stark.
On the other hand, even before the start of the invasion, Russia actively promoted its claims to the outside world through SNS. Pro-Russian accounts spread hoaxes in various languages, such as “Ukraine has a bioweapons research facility” and “The victims of the Russian invasion in the country’s videos are actors.” In Japan, an SNS post by the Russian Embassy in Japan became a hot topic.
These are examples of situations in which citizens of many countries and regions, including countries that are not parties to the conflict, have been targeted by propaganda and have been indirectly drawn into the conflict. The Ukraine conflict is a new war in which propaganda using SNS has been deployed on a global scale by both parties to the conflict.
How can this conflict be understood in the history of propaganda? I would like to consider from a historical point of view what kind of meaning it has in the relationship between war and broadcasting.