Russia Today (RT) covers Canada The so-called “Freedom Convoy” Opposes far more closely than any other international outlet, according to new research.
Russian state controlled television network Used key words associated with the convoy protest during more than four-and-a-half hours of broadcast between January 13 and February 12 – no other international outlet’s coverage of the anti-occupation mandate that rattled the streets of Ottawa earlier this year dwarfed the rate.
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This is according to the analysis of Google Jigsaw’s global database of events, language and tone (GDELT), Ahmed Al-Ravi, director of Joe Simon Fraser University’s Disinformation Project, published on its website on Tuesday, The analysis has not been peer-reviewed.
“I was surprised to see that Russia Today, a television channel run by the Russian government, was well ahead of many other news channels in covering the convoy protests,” al-Ravi told Global News in an interview.
The only other outlet that came close to covering the protests so closely was Fox News, which devoted two and a half hours of coverage to the so-called “freedom convoy”.
Al Jazeera devoted the third most time to the topic, with only one hour of coverage during the month, while CNN, MSNBC, Deutsche Welle, BBC News and CBS spent less than 30 minutes on the topic.
Why was Russia Today so interested in the convoy?
The Russian network’s interest in opposing the Canadian convoy was not surprising to experts in the intelligence community, who have followed the Kremlin’s strategy in recent months.
This is because, until recently, Russia has focused on reducing the scale of specific election outcomes. Rather, according to an FBI official who spoke with us earlier this year, the country has focused on sowing chaos and mistrust abroad.
David Porter, an assistant section chief, said, “The primary purpose is not to create a particular version of the truth, but to cloud the truth and destroy our ability to find it, creating the feeling that any narrative or news source But cannot be trusted at all.” with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, told a US election security conference in March.
Simply put, in this space Russia wants us to see ourselves as separate.
Poilievre leads a march of convoy protesters next to a man with right-wing extremist ties
It makes sense that Russia would see the so-called “freedom convoy” as an opportune moment to sow such division, according to Stephanie Carwin, a former national security analyst and assistant professor at Carleton University.
He pointed to the protesters’ repeated criticisms of the Canadian government as “corrupt” as evidence that anti-government seeds were already planted in the movement – and with just the right amount of nourishment, Russia can help them. Can help develop ideas.
Carwin said, “(US intelligence officials) think that the Russian government … is trying to target democratic institutions and increase distrust so that people do not believe in democracy, that they believe their Institutions are corrupt.”
For RT, there was “a group of interests” as opposed to the trucked convoy, she said.
“It makes sense for RT to promote events like this.”
According to Carmen Celestini, a lecturer at the University of Waterloo who worked with Al-Ravi’s Disinformation Project, RT has a “history” of sowing and spreading disinformation.
Convoy’s protests earlier this year were “based on disinformation”, she said – from their unscientific claims about vaccines to their beliefs that they could demand the government to resign.
Celestini said, “All of these things are assumptions that Russia is going to try and promote, simply because everywhere in the world it turns away from dissent in (Russia) the differences and puts them in a strong position.” “
RT also chose to frame the protests in a specific way, Al-Ravi found after sifting through the various outlets used to describe the protests.
Instead of referring to the event as a “truck protest” or “truck convoy”, RT often used its own terminology of convoy, calling it the “freedom convoy”.
The Russian outlet used the word 1,032 times—five times more often than its next most-used word: “convoy protest.”
Fox News and ‘Azadi Convoy’
RT devoted a disproportionate amount of its time to covering the convoy protests – but experts agree that, despite claiming fewer convoy-related broadcasts, another outlet could be making a huge impact on Canada. Might be able to: Fox News.
Without clear sources, RT’s website claims that its channel is available in over 700 million homes worldwide. It is unclear whether that number has changed since Canada banned RT from the airwaves in March.
Fox News, on the other hand, says it reaches 200 million people every month.
“RT may have played a role in generating a lot of the content, possibly feeding content into the American media ecosystem, but really, it was Fox News that was promoting this convoy,” Carvin said.
Carwin said US news outlets have a far greater role in Canada’s media ecosystem than outlets in Russia.
Convoy protesters used American rhetoric and symbols during their protest in Ottawa, with several American flags and other emblems showing their support for former US President Donald Trump.
“We have to remember that this was, in fact, a Canadian movement led by Canadians, supported by Americans,” Carwin said.
It was a “domestic movement” that Russia tried to increase.
“It was not something that was created by Russia…. The fact that RT was reporting on it is in line with their overall goals,” she explained.
Navigating the Media Landscape
When pressed about how Canadians should navigate the information environment where foreign media may try to skew stories, al-Ravi said he is not suggesting that everyone on Fox News, Or even stop watching RT.
Instead, we should try to “consume as many diverse channels as possible”.
“Watching them is important to compare and see their perspectives,” he said.
“And from that, they’ll have a better idea of how different channels frame an event like this — a very important event, actually — in our history.”
Carwin said that wherever you get your information, it’s important to be mindful of the source you’re reading.
“People really need to sit down and think, you know, ‘I’m on Facebook and I’m reading a story. Now, does this come from a reputable news source?'”
Canadians have a tendency to create social media bubbles, where they get their information from sources that all think the same way they do – a reality that will plague the information ecosystem in 2022 as a “troubling problem”. problem”, according to Carvin.
“Getting through this, it’s a very hard thing to do.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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