MOSCOW (Realist English). The role of the media in shaping a person’s opinion about what is happening is greatly overestimated, it is not as significant as it is commonly believed. This opinion was expressed by political scientist Alexey Chadaev at a conference dedicated to countering fakes and false information in the media.
The fact is that when a person begins to consume media content, he or she already comes with a certain, formed picture of the world, a set of ideas about reality: who to believe, who not to believe, who is right. And this picture of the world is formed at a much earlier stage. The key role here is rather played by the education system — school and university, the expert explained his position.
Chadaev cited as an example the biography of the founder of the Nazi neo-pagan group “Azov”* (an organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation):
“If you remember how the “Azov”* began? And it began with the Kharkov History Faculty, whose student and undergraduate student Andrei Beletsky at some point realized that since no one knows the real history and is not interested in it, it means that you can write another, more “correct” history. And on its basis you can form a community. And it will be such a history and such a community that will work for the tasks he needs. That is, what we now see as a combat unit of indoctrinated, ideologized people began as a university intellectual club.”
How does a person consume news?
“He or she already has an idea of who is good and who is bad. Who is usually right and who is usually to blame. To whom he sympathizes, and whom, on the contrary, he treats negatively. And the news that he sees either strengthens his picture of the world, or undermines it, shakes it. Accordingly, he/she is inclined to believe the news that strengthens this picture, even if later it turns out that they are not completely reliable or somehow the facts have been distorted. Or, if this news contradicts his picture of the world, he is obviously inclined to treat them with suspicion, consider them propaganda, fake, falsification, he is much more critical in his assessment, analysis and even in choosing which news deserves attention and which are something peripheral and secondary,” Chadaev stressed.
The political scientist noted that in the media tsunami mode, which accompanies events such as the conflict in the Ukraine, the threshold of criticality decreases.
“People are starting to believe much more even the most unexpected, non-obvious, even delusional news and rumors. And this, of course, is a beneficial breeding ground for spreading fakes. Because when a news story is thrown in, it has already been replicated in millions of copies in a variety of places, on a variety of sites and accounts, then when there is a refutation, which happens but 2-3 days later — it is no longer interesting, when the topic is gone, the next one is on the agenda. Therefore, this refutation is seen at times by a much smaller number of people than those who have seen the main informational occasion. As a result, the topic has gone, the refutation has not been fixed, and the brick has already been put into the picture of the world that propagandists need.”
* an organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation
