Advance ticket sales have ended but plenty of additional tickets remain available at the door.
Profs and Pints DC presents: “Russia’s War for Minds,” a look at Vladimir Putin’s propaganda apparatus and the Russian media landscape, with Ksenia Turkova, linguist, former news anchor in Russia and Ukraine, and guest lecturer at American universities.
The recent Moscow killing of Daria Dugina, daughter of famous Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher-propagandist Alexander Dugin and a propagandist in her own right, highlighted how much the war in Ukraine is seen as a battle for minds. Sharing the same views as her father, Dugina had regularly appeared on Russian TV shows to stir up hatred against Ukraine and the West and to dismiss reports of war crimes by Russia as fake news involving staged atrocities.
Learn in depth about Russia’s propaganda efforts, as well as how the war has changed the media landscape on both sides, with Dr. Ksenia Turkova, a journalist for Voice of America who will be speaking in her personal capacity as someone with a doctorate in philology and more than 20 years of experience at Russian and Ukrainian news outlets. She’ll discuss both the key players in this battle for minds and the tools and tactics that they use.
Dr. Turkova will describe how more than 150 journalists have left Russia because they decided they could not continue working in an environment where they were being persecuted and threatened and where a new law subjected them to 15 years of prison if they used the word “war” instead of “special operation.” Nearly all of what Russians now hear about the war is filtered through a propaganda apparatus that relies heavily on euphemism, hate speech, and “mirroring”—accusing other of what they have accused you of doing—to paint a distorted picture.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, all of the media, owned by different oligarchs, has united in joining a government-controlled effort to broadcast only one point of view.
The old adage holds that “truth is the first casualty of war.” This talk will illustrate how true that is, and make clear how those involved in the dissemination of fact and opinion can become casualties themselves. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, save $2 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in. The Bier Baron will be requiring event attendees to purchase a minimum of two items, which can be food or beverages, including soft drinks.)
Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the leadership and correspondents of RT, a state-controlled international news television network. (Image from Putin’s official Web site.)