Russian media used repetition of very strong instances of “loaded words” in order to justify their “special military operation.” Genocide and de-nazification were commonly used in Russian media, especially before the war, to justify entry into Ukraine. These claims are profoundly untrue. There was and currently is no evidence of a genocide against Russians in Ukraine or “Nazification.” Nazism and genocide are two concepts that people understand to be inherently unjustifiable and morally wrong in every circumstance. In theory, no one will be able to argue that a mission to end Nazism and genocide is unwarrented. It is, in fact, the moral duty of mankind to stop such horrendous crimes against humanity. This completely fabricated narrative is used by Russian to justify entry into Ukraine. Entry into Ukraine is a moral duty under the guise of genocide and Nazism.
Furthermore, Russia denies that a war is even occurring. The word война (war) was not used in a single article. The media has maintained that entry into Ukraine is a военная операция (military operation) despite insurmountable evidence that a war is occuring.
Russia also alleges that sanctions against the country are русофобский (Russophobic) and an expansion of threatening neoliberalism. Anti-NATO sentiments are prominent among several of the articles that we analyzed. Our articles were highly critical of countries that sanctioned Russia, especially the United States and Germany.
The United States has adopted similar rhetoric to other Western nations. The word "invasion" has been used frequently to describe Russia's actions in Ukraine. Support for neoliberal organizations, like NATO have been prominant in this rhetoric.
Although there were few instances of content that was partially true and partially false, we did not find any blatant instances of disinformation. We have a few theories as to why. First, American media is not state owned. Thus, news outlets are not required to take one specific viewpoint on topics. Second, independently owned news outlets are in constant competition with each other and face higher pressure to provide accurate information.
American media stresses the importance of Ukrainian sovereignty, freedom, and democracy. It frames the war as an attack on Western values and stresses that human rights are being violated. The media promoted sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
Our research was limited by our small dataset and limited time to complete our project. The scope of articles that we could access were limited due to the sudden shutdown of several Russian news outlets in the United States, such as Russia Today.
We started our research in January 2022, before the beginning of the war. As a result, the timeframe of the articles that we selected is small. All articles were published between late 2021 and March 2022. All selected articles were articles that were published online.
We also want to acknowledge researcher bias and how that may have affected our research and conclusions.
Future research should include a larger dataset and more diverse sources for finding articles. This dataset should include articles from before the beginning of the war and during different phases of the war. Furthermore, it could incorporate other types of news, such as television broadcasts or radio.