Information Wars: A Look at the Role of Social Media in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution

Author

Natalie RudakevychFollow

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2018

Capstone Advisor

Steven Pike

Honors Reader

Christal Johnson

Capstone Major

Public Relations

Capstone College

Public Communications

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Professional

Subject Categories

Communication | International and Intercultural Communication | Mass Communication | Social Influence and Political Communication

Abstract

Guided by American University Professor Rhonda Zaharna’s previous works on narrative battles, this thesis examines the Facebook pages of four major players in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution to determine how social media is used to create narratives during times of conflict. The paper argues that modern day wars are partially fought in virtual spaces and social media platforms serve as important battlegrounds for "information wars" between opponents. Over 300 Facebook posts from between November 2013 and May 2014 were collected from the Facebook pages representing the Euromaidan protestors, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the European Union in Ukraine and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. These posts were then analyzed in a coding sheet that included both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Through this analysis, it was determined what strategies each group used on Facebook and which groups were most successful at building persuasive narratives to influence their target audiences. This study emphasizes the growing importance of social media as a strategic tool in modern warfare and shows that narrative battles can now be fought and won on digital platforms.

Recommended Citation

Rudakevych, Natalie, "Information Wars: A Look at the Role of Social Media in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution" (2018). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1251.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1251

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.