The war of words?: the role of new media in state propaganda and foreign policy : the cases of Russian, Chinese, and Turkish media news coverage

Abstract

The central goal of this dissertation is to explain how nondemocratic states use the state-controlled media to influence international public opinion, generate support for and legitimize their policies and actions, and to shape international discourses on critical issues. It is often perceived that the new media reduce the power gap between state and civil society in nondemocratic or authoritarian states. This dissertation challenges this idea of a democratizing effect of the new media and argues that the governments in authoritarian states, in fact, benefit from the use of new media more than any other actors. They learn, adapt, and assert their power, thus becoming even more authoritarian. In order to explore this phenomenon, I study three cases of state-controlled media coverage: Russian RT coverage of Russia’s 2015 involvement in the Syrian War, Chinese People’s Daily’s coverage of 2016 Hague court ruling on the South China Sea, and Turkish Daily Sabah’s coverage of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.