Winning Western Audience through Western Media Techniques

On October 27, 2014, RIAC Deputy Program Director Timur Makhmutov and Media and Government Relations Manager Anton Tsvetov took part in discussion “The Pen and the Bayonet: Worldview of Information Warfare?” within the lecture series of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (CFDP).

On October 27, 2014, RIAC Deputy Program Director Timur Makhmutov and Media and Government Relations Manager Anton Tsvetov took part in discussion “The Pen and the Bayonet: Worldview of Information Warfare?” within the lecture series of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (CFDP).

Co-sponsored by Russian International Affairs Council and moderated by CFDP Presidium Chairman and RIAC Member Fyodor Lukyanov, the event attracted Deputy Director General of holding Rossiyskaya Gazeta Eugeny Abov, Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow Times Nabi Abdullayev, Head of Russia Today Spanish Service Miguel Baz Fernandez and Deputy Director of Information and Media Department at Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. 

The debaters stressed that the Ukraine crisis has significantly complicated media-related activities, while the international environment has evolved into a mix of contradictions whose coverage and analysis are getting increasingly intricate. Hence, Russian official institutions are increasingly relying on their digital resources able to provide the audience with first-hand information.

At the same time, it appears hardly possible to assess the efficiency of Russian broadcasting platforms orientated toward foreign audiences. There seems to be a noticeable gap between Russian and Western journalism, which means that credibility to Russian information may emerge only through taking up Western standards. Alternative media products do exist all over the world, but they must be unquestionably competitive.