The Many Faces of the Contemporary Russian Propaganda in the Balkans: Sputnik Srbija analyzes information published by the news website Sputnik Srbija during the first year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This book provides an overview of the contemporary Serbian media sphere and the dire conditions that Serbian journalists face to explore how Russian propaganda has flourished in the region. This volume establishes a framework to understand the ideological core of Russian propaganda that, above all, aims to reconstruct societal reality through anti-Western rhetoric. This framework helps to explore the relationship between Russian propaganda and Serbian nationalism, expanding on the significance of their mutual ties and confronting the implications of their close-knit connections.
Vladimir Dordevic is associate professor in the Department of Area Studies at the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University.
Foreword Dimitar Bechev Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: From Theory to Method Chapter 2: Revisiting the State of the Art and Broadening the Field Chapter 3: Identifying and Defining the Propagandist: The Case of Sputnik Srbija Chapter 4: Contextualizing the Propaganda: The Contemporary Serbian Media Space Chapter 5: Sputnik Srbija Utilization Techniques: Metaphors, Historical Parallels, and Symbols Chapter 6: Ideological Framework of the Sputnik Propaganda Chapter 7: Target Audience: The Case of the "First Serbia" Conclusion Afterword Jade McGlynn Bibliography Index About the Author
"In this insightful book, Vladimir Dordevic, a rising star in Western Balkan studies, analyzes Russia's presence in the Serbian mediascape, showing how this affects Serbian public opinion and serves the interests of an authoritarian political elite. For anyone interested in contemporary Serbian affairs or in how Russia wields influence beyond its borders, this is an exceptionally useful volume." -- Sabrina P. Ramet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology "While the book spotlights the phenomenon of Russian media presence in Serbia, it usefully moves beyond the canonical paradigm of the research in propaganda and soft power. Instead, it engages with the area studies in politics, ideology and media in both Russia and Serbia and proposes an analytical framework for understanding the international impact of Russia's ideology as a "two-way traffic" of ideas, metaphors, and political visions. The book, thus, attains a truly stereoscopic understanding of the reasons for Putinism's broad resonance beyond its own country." -- Mikhail Suslov, University of Copenhagen
