M, M., J, A., & M, B. (2026). Selling war at home and abroad: The dual objective of state media propaganda in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Journal. Stud..
Summary
This paper examines how authoritarian regimes engaged in armed conflict construct parallel but distinct propaganda agendas for domestic and foreign audiences, using Russian state media coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian war as its empirical case. The authors advance a dual-objective model of wartime propaganda: at home, messaging works to sustain regime legitimacy by amplifying the stakes of the conflict while downplaying its costs; abroad, messaging pursues a separate strategic aim of shaping international perceptions of the war’s costs and benefits. The paper situates state media not as a monolithic apparatus but as a bifurcated instrument reconciling — and sometimes straining under — the competing demands of internal control and external influence.
Key Contributions
- Proposes a dual-objective theoretical framework distinguishing domestic legitimation from foreign audience management as separate propaganda goals.
- Articulates the specific pressures faced by regimes that rely on public support for legitimacy when their two audiences require divergent framings.
- Applies the framework empirically to Russian state media coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
- Bridges political communication and international relations scholarship on state media and strategic communication.
Methods
Case-based analysis of state media output during the Russo-Ukrainian war, comparing domestic-facing and foreign-facing propaganda streams. The specific empirical procedures (corpus, coding, quantitative techniques) are not detailed in the available abstract.
Findings
- Domestic propaganda emphasizes high stakes and low costs of the conflict, sustaining unity and pre-empting dissent.
- Foreign-directed propaganda adopts a distinct framing aimed at influencing international audiences’ perceptions of the war.
- The two agendas can be in tension, requiring active management by regimes dependent on public legitimacy.
- Detailed empirical findings are not specified in the available abstract.
Connections
This paper connects to work on state-affiliated influence operations and coordinated information campaigns around the Russo-Ukrainian war, notably Kulichkina2026-zk and Bollenbacher2026-vz, as well as broader research on cross-national propaganda and disinformation ecosystems such as Humprecht2025-ml and Cazzamatta2026-lo. Its focus on audience-tailored strategic communication also resonates with studies of narrative framing and manipulation in polarized information environments like Starbird2025-jj and Hameleers2026-mc.
Podcast
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