The Kremlin is losing the propaganda battle, not in the West, but in Russia. State-run media is losing the ability to influence ordinary Joe-bag-of-donuts Russians. It seems that the state-run propaganda outlets, with their ever so constant bashing of Western governments and culture has forced many ordinary citizens to tune out, in favor of the internet. Therefore, the Kremlin is considering refocusing news towards the internet and providing more local, instead of overseas, and less confrontational, coverage.
“There needs to be greater discussion of ordinary people’s prospects, the state of the economy, and the domestic situation, so there’s not such a divide between the nightly news and what people really care about,” one source told RBC, reports The Moscow Times.
However, this concept may raise more problems than it solves. It seems obvious that if there is more domestic coverage, then people will find out more about the problems facing the country internally. Then, there will need to be someone to blame for the Russian government’s failures.
“Criticizing [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko is safe,” a source told RBC, “but discussing domestic policy raises questions about who is to blame in various cases,” reports The Moscow Times.
There is also the problem of getting the current talent to make the transition from their current routine. “There’s nothing you can do with people like this,” political analyst Nikolai Mironov told RBC. “If you tell them to think up something new, it just causes them cognitive dissonance.”
Many Russian youth don’t watch TV at all. This means the new generation will be much harder to reach with state-generated propaganda.
