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Russian language Satellite TV


!Ukraine @lange@social.sciences.re
I think its great that independent media is available via satellite tv for Russian speakers. My thought - Should we be including a rqnge of russian language entertainment in those packages to attract audiences?
denisdiderot.net/svoboda-packa…
This entry was edited (6 hours ago)

don't like this

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in reply to abeorch

Not to be a downer, but I don't believe access to information is the root cause of russians' support for genocidal imperialism and authoritarianism.

FWIW, russian language YT channels have been available since 2010, including international services (DW, BBC; in russian) and local opposition leaning channel such as TV Rain (Телеканал Дождь).

For the average russian the fear of shame associated with military defeat and the rejection of the notion "that russia is the greatest culture there is" stand above all other considerations. Even the lives of their own soldiers or the future of their children (the millions of lives they have destroyed in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Syria is not even on their radar).

I am not saying this is true of every single russian, but when 65% [1] to 85% [2] of the population are supportive of genocidal imperialism, this is a society-wide problem and not an issue tied to a single individual or a small group.

[1] Estimates of support for the full scale invasion of Ukraine accounting for preference falsification via list experiments and comparisons with direct polling. With the caveat that the authors of the list experiment believe their methodology under-estimates the true level of support (i.e. it is higher than 65%).
[2] Estimates of support for the annexation of Crimea both via list experiments and direct polling (preference falsification with respect to the annexation of Crimea is practically nonexistent even though alleged russian liberals claim otherwise).

This entry was edited (4 hours ago)
in reply to Skiluros

Agree .. but making information and entertainment together attracts people and opens the opportunity provide alternative views to people who are primarily consumers of TV. Its about working away on the marginal audience using soft power.

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in reply to abeorch

That is a fair point, I see where you are coming from and I agree on a abstract level.

I guess it's more that I personally don't believe the majority of russian want to change. Platitudes about "peace with Ukraine, but also we continue to occupy 20% of your country and continue to eradicate Ukrainian culture/language/identity) in the occupied terroritories" notwithstanding.

in reply to Skiluros

Sure.. so you need to work away at changing minds which never really works if you are just yelling at people.

I think the opportunity is to demonstrate that Sat TV could be the space (sic) where people.might prefer to go to get away from wall to wall news.

I think this article is an interesting read...ridl.io/how-the-war-changed-ru… and a quote "Some entertainment and infotainment programs were removed from the broadcast schedule." - That is something that external broadcasters could fill.

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in reply to abeorch

I am not arguing against this initiative and to be honest I support it even though I don't believe in it. I am just sharing my own perspective and it's not meant to be a critique of this post (even if it comes off that way). FWIW, I upvoted this post after reading the linked page.

I don't believe there is any point in engaging with russians (be it yelling at them or any kind of dialogue revolving around what I see as platitudes). This is not because they are inherently bad or incapable of change or anything like that. They are very much capable of change, not to mention that framing their behaviour in essentialist terms in many ways allows them to avoid responsibility.

Based on the facts on the ground, the lack of information is not relevant when discussing broad support for genocidal imperialism among russians. They are adults, they full well understand that invading another country, annexing their territories and enforcing their language and culture is wrong. The stuff about "nazis in Ukraine" and NATO/BATO expansion is all a ruse and the russians who promote such polemics know this.

For someone to change their mind, there has to be some sort of driver or incentive. Ethical and humanist arguments cannot change minds when a strong majority (at the very least) of the population explicitly endorses and supports a genocidal imperialist position (while also engaging in duplicitous messaging in order to whitewash their crimes in context of the world at large).

One has to be honest with russians and explicitly tell them their ruse is not going to work. That they will be treated as genocidal imperialists until they change their behaviour (end of occupation, extradition of all russians involved in war crimes, compensation for all killings and damage). Tell them that they are welcome to play the victim, lie about russophobia or support putin or do whatever; they will be treated based on their actions. If you do evil things, you will be treated as evil people, no one is buying your lies.

Now you might say this approach is unreasonable, unrealistic or lacking in pragmatism. To that I will answer; look at it from a more long term perspective. Over the last 110 years, 16 nations have de jure liberated themselves from the yoke of russian imperialism (I am not even counting Warsaw Pact countries). Reagan took an explicit position (evil empire) and lo and behold, the USSR did collapse.

I simply don't believe the vast majority of russians have any interest in changing their views (based on ethical arguments). They know what they are doing is wrong and they still support it. They need real incentives to change their tune.

Regarding the BBC article, I will point out that the Nazi regime was defeated by military force. Denazification was implemented via multi-decade allied occupation aimed at limiting any hint of revanchism both via positive initiatives such as the marshal plan and long term education initiatives. Unfortunately, this is not viable when it comes to russians.

Like I said earlier, this just my opinion and I do think it's a well meaning initiative. I would be glad to be wrong regarding the above-mentioned arguments.

This entry was edited (14 minutes ago)