Russian Propaganda: A Case Study in Turkish Political Cartoons

Abstract

As consumers of information, we must improve our ability to spot potentially bad-faith actors and manipulation campaigns (state-sponsored or otherwise). However, spotting these bad-faith actors and manipulation campaigns can often be quite difficult. This project first offers a set of guiding principles for identifying propaganda, and then applies those principles to examine an ongoing case study Specifically, this project examines the dissemination of Turkish political cartoons by Sputnik News — a Russian state-owned media company. My investigation begins by defining terms--differentiating between rhetoric, persuasion, propaganda, and an influence operation. Next, I apply these concepts to examine Sputnik News ’ s multilingual dissemination of political car-toons. I uncover and outline a systematic framework that Sputnik likely follows when producing its cartoons. I then use this framework to inspect Sputnik ’ s Turkish political cartoons. Combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, my investigation reveals a trend — that Sputnik News ’ s Turkish political cartoons consistently portray the U.S. and Turkey as adversaries engaged in a zero-sum game. I conclude by describing how this portrayal fits my proposed criterion for propaganda. In the closing remarks, I outline additional methods that Sputniks News uses to disseminate this propagandistic narrative to Turkish audiences and describe how such multimodal dissemination tactics are indicative of an influence operation. I also discuss policy implications and offer suggestions for further research.