Name of the project: Roots of Anti-Western Propaganda

Supported by: Institute for war and peace reporting (IWPR)

Budget: 4500 Euros

Duration of the Project: September 20 - december 20, 2022

Russia actively uses its economic, financial, political, and informational leverages, and resorts to information war and propaganda to return our country to its orbit. It is worth noting that the existence of pro-Russian, anti-Western forces inside the country is the result of the Russian narrative. Due to the long-term Soviet propaganda, the nostalgia for the united Soviet Union, and the fear of European values, lifestyle, and society, in general, still exist in a certain part of society.

The results of the nationwide representative public opinion research conducted in Georgia by USAID Information Integrity Program revealed that Soviet nostalgia is still an issue nowadays. Soviet Nostalgia is strongest among the older, rural and ethnic minority population.

The main focus of the small study will be to analyze anti-Western narrative as constructed within the Georgian press of the 1970s. In particular economic, social and cultural dimensions of constructing the anti-Western discourse in the most important daily newspaper - The Communist (Komunisti) will be examined. As the this was the newspaper that waged a daily informational warfare against the West. 

In the scope of the proposed project, the issues of the newspaper from the five years’ period (1970 to the end of 1974) will be randomly selected and analyzed using the tools of narrative and discourse analysis. Particularly, the data collection and analysis process will be focused on the narratives that include references to the Western examples, coverage of the international news and comparisons used in the media coverage of social, cultural, economic and political issues. In addition, the materials such as posters, caricatures, and other types of visualizations will be included in the study. Understanding the roots of the anti-Western propaganda will be useful for demonstrating the historical relevance of the modern day disinformation tools used mainly by Russian or pro-Russian sources.

Overall project objectives: 

-       Increased understanding of the historical development of the anti-Western propaganda fueled by a regime headquartered in Russia;

-       Students( future journalists and experts of social sciences) trained in critically approaching and investigating deeper roots of the contemporary pressing issue;

-       Increased awareness of the long duree character of the anti-Western propaganda and its historical sources;

-       Trained students in retrieving and deploying archival material for the media purposes.

Activities: 

-       The students will be recruited as trainees and research assistants of the project.

-       The Students will be trained in narrative and discourse analysis, as well as the analysis of the historical sources. The students will also be given training on the importance of the historical first-hand sources for the media.

-       The issues of the newspaper Komunisti will be selected and collected in cooperation with the National Library of Georgia.

-       The analytical tools such as discourse and narrative analysis will be systematically used. 

Budjet

Contract