MASS MEDIA AND MODERN WARFARE
For My wife Mara
and the boys Alexander, Marcus, Andrejs and Martin
Mass Media and Modern Warfare
Reporting on the Russian War on Terrorism
GREG SIMONS
Swedish National Defence College, Sweden
First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright Greg Simons 2010
Greg Simons has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Simons, Greg.
Mass media and modern warfare : reporting on the Russian war on terrorism.
1. War on Terrorism, 2001-, in mass media. 2. Terrorism and mass media--Russia (Federation) 3. Mass media and public opinion--Russia (Federation) 4. Mass media--Political aspects--Russia (Federation) 5. Mass media--Censorship--Russia (Federation)
I. Title
302.230947-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Simons, Greg.
Mass media and modern warfare : reporting on the Russian war on terrorism / by Greg Simons.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-7472-6 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-3155-9422-4 (ebook) 1. Terrorism and mass media--Russia (Federation) 2. Terrorism in mass media. 3. Mass media policy--Russia (Federation) 4. Mass media--Political aspects--Russia (Federation) 5. Mass media--Censorship--Russia (Federation) 6. Terrorism--Russia (Federation)--Prevention. I. Title.
P96.T472R8753 2009
070.4493036250947--dc22
2009031366
ISBN 9780754674726 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315594224 (ebk)
ISBN 9781317099666 (ebk-ePUB)
Contents
Acknowledgements
A book is not something that you can undertake as a one-person project, I may be the person with my name on the cover, however there are a number of people and institutions that have contributed and made this feat possible. I would like to take this moment to thank them, in no specific order for their help and support.
First and foremost I would like to thank my wife Mara, for her patience and good humour. She has contributed many hours of time to reading and re-reading the texts and answering my, at times, obscure questions. For which, I am sincerely grateful!
To my various friends and colleagues, in Sweden and in Russia, they have been a source of inspiration and realisation of this book. Thank you to the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies (CATS), especially Lars Nicander, at the Swedish National Defence College; to the Centre for Crisis Management Research and Training (CRISMART) also at the Swedish National Defence College; Professor Dmitry Strovsky from Ural State University in Ekaterinburg; to Claes, Eva, Lena and Anders from the Department of Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University and Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki for hosting me for two months on a fellowship to work on the manuscript.
And last, but by no means least, an event which sped up my writing when the energy was beginning to wane. Life as an author can get a bit exciting from time to time. When going through the airport at Simferopol on Crimea, the Ukrainian Customs saw all the research papers for writing the book. So they demanded I open the bag. This guy ripped out a big pile of papers. Of all the luck, there was a picture of Shamil Basayev on the top. So they questioned me in Russian for the next 30 or so minutes. They were trying to scare me into offering them a bribe. Alas they came away empty handed, but it was an experience. It was also one that I was in no hurry to repeat, which meant quickly getting what I needed from those papers before disposing of them. So in their own special way, Ukrainian Customs also contributed too.
Introduction
He who is prepared to give up freedom for security deserves neither and will lose both Benjamin Franklin.
Although currently, the Russian war on terrorism has been rhetorically linked to the American-led Global War on Terrorism (as of September 11, 2001), the latest episode in the Russian war on terrorism began in 1999. Along with the war on terrorism has come the element of risk and uncertainly that touch all sectors of society. As such, it becomes a very sensitive subject and the role of information in the conflict becomes critical. Therefore the role of the mass media and how they frame the Russian war on terrorism is of great concern to all actors, national and international, with a stake (directly and indirectly) in the outcome.
The assumption taken is that terrorism is not primarily a form of criminality by its nature, but a form of political communication. This is following the logic of such academics as Brigitte L. Nacos (2007) and Maura Conway (from Oates and Gibson 2006). Therefore the significance of mass media as a form of communication and the means of trying to control the message becomes the focus. The book shall try to highlight the importance of communication during conflict in the contemporary age. It becomes even more important when facing a conflict which has many elements of uncertainty and risk associated with it, such as that posed by irregular warfare.
This book is an attempt to try and track the message narratives and framing involved in the Russian war on terrorism. To achieve this goal mass media reports are collected and assessed according to different themes and frames. Most of the material is dedicated to events in and affecting the Russian Federation and their struggle against terrorism. However, various examples are periodically taken from cases beyond Russia, which is intended to try and give some international context to the Russian case in order to bring it out of isolation.
The Russian war on terrorism is something that is occasionally on the screens of television and the pages of newspapers of the worlds mass media. This normally occurs after a tragic event, such as the Dubrovka Theatre in 2002 or Beslan in 2004. Therefore the everyday life of the Russian war on terrorism seems to be relatively little known, especially from the point of view of communication management. An attempt is made to try and address this gap with this book.
Before I begin and get in to the core of the book, a number of associated background material, terminology and theoretical assumptions need to be broached in order to make the chapters more comprehensible and to give them context. The following are a number of different points that take these essential subjects in turn.
News Production
News production has changed markedly in the last decade as a result of technology and demand, news has become a 24 hour-a-day, 7 day-a-week business. Its relevance is that news is an important source, from which society can derive their meaning of events in the wider community (regional, state or world community). A lot of the news content is distant from most individuals personal experience. News making and production is a complex process, but which is managed in a very methodical manner. Certain routines and steps must be carried out in order to achieve the desired end result. A news story consists of four main parts:
