EFFECT OF PROPAGANDA ON THE RUSSIAN – UKRAINE WAR

Media framing tactics have Russia and Ukraine used in representing the conflict and its actors, propaganda campaigns framed the narratives on the causes and implications of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the role of international media in framing the conflict. When two countries go to war, the media in these countries also go to war through the use of framing in content production. This study focuses on the media framing of the Russia-Ukraine war by the TASS and Ukrinform during the first month of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A descriptive content analysis guided by framing and political economy theories was used. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has passed through a filter of media propaganda. The Russian government has taken extraordinary measures by stemming social media and threatening to shut down independent media houses. The media has been told to use only government sources and to avoid certain words of conflict in their reports. This study examines the media framing of the Russia-Ukraine war during the first month of then invasion by state-owned news agencies, TASS (Russia) and Ukrinform (Ukraine). The following conclusions have been drawn first, the Russian News Agency, TASS sees the exercise in Ukraine as a ‘special military operation’ and as such did not make it a media agenda. This could be seen in the low frequency of the use of media frames. On the other hand, the Ukrainian News Agency, Ukrinform saw the exercise in Ukraine as a ‘war’ or ‘invasion’ and it made it a media agenda. This could be seen in the frequency in the use of frames.