@phdthesis{Ryzhova2026, author = {Ryzhova, Anna}, title = {The Transnational News Diets of Russian Speakers in Germany: what news they use and trust}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-19867}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {187 Seiten}, year = {2026}, abstract = {The present cumulative dissertation consists of four articles, and is based on more than 70 semi-structured interviews with the Russian speakers in Germany. Forty two interviews were conducted before of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the other twenty nine right after its beginning (out of which I used only twenty five for the final analysis, as I focused only on the Russian speakers, associated with agressor or neutral countries in Russia's war in Ukraine). The dissertation addresses a variety of issues, related to the media use of the Russian speakers in Germany, which was previously understudied both in general and from political communication perspective (Panagiotidis, 2023). In the strand of migrants and media research, scholars point the following gaps: the lack of political element in studies of how migrants use media (Leurs and Smets, 2018), the lack of studies how homeland and host society media are used simultaneously, not in isolation from each other, and the lack of studies on the influence of homeland media on migrants as such (Ramasubramanian et al., 2017), and finally, communication scholars not using migration studies frameworks in their research on migrants, which leads to fields existing in parallel (Leurs \& Smets 2018). This dissertation addresses all these gaps. Being the first study to apply the concepts of "news repertoires" and the latest theorization of "news literacy" for studying the migrant populations, as well as looking in-depth in the mechanisms of trust, I analyze the media diets of Russian speakers in Germany in their entirety, considering the contexts and roles, attributed to the German quality, Russian opposition, Russian state sponsored and other types of media, i.e. not analying them in isolation, and also looking at the motivations to use different media for different domains of their lives. Besides, for analysing the transformations of media diets of the Russian speakers in the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I use the concept of "sense of belonging" to Russia to examine the deep, underlying reasons for why news repertoires of these audiences changed, or did not change in the light of Russia's war crimes. As for the contribution to the German-language and Germany-focused literature on the Russian speakers, this is the first comprehensive study to scrutinize the media diets of Russian speakers in-depth with a special emphasis on their motivations, political affiliations and differentiating between the media these audiences "use" and the media they "trust", as previous research on Russian speakers in Germany and their media use was largely focused on integration, largely ignoring the political aspect and Russia's repetitive attempts to influence Russian speakers abroad (e.g.Hepp et al., 2011) or lacked nuance in their results (e.g. Boris Nemtsov Foundation Survey, which posed questions about "Russian media" without defining what it is, i.e. is that opposition media, Kremlin-sponsored media, etc. Finally, this thesis provides a comprehensive case study of audiences from an authoritarian context (or a former authoritarian context, for those, who migrated from Ukraine, but were socialized in the Soviet Union) who migrated to democracy and their media use, and also sheds light on the spectrum of motivations of audiences abroad to continue consuming media from an authoritarian homeland (in our case, Kremlin-sponsored media), which can provide important foundation for future research on other migrant groups from authoritarian contexts in democracies, such as Chinese migrants in Europe. Among the results of the present dissertation is an article on three types of news repertoires that these audiences have, and how political beliefs underpin them; an article on how they view the "truth" in media and why it is a concept of crucial importance for their news trust patterns; an article on news literacy and how migrant audiences need transnational news literacy knowledge in order to navigate complex media landscapes, in which authoritarian states actively try to reach them with their narratives; and finally, how a major crisis event, such as war in Ukraine, changed (or did not change) the news repertoires of the Russian speaking audiences in Germany and why the "sense of belonging" is at the core of these changes.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kling2025, author = {Kling, Julia}, title = {Social Networking Sites as Intermediaries of Authoritarian State Propaganda: How Facebook and VK Disseminated Predominantly Kremlin-Friendly Political Content Before and During Russia's Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-19601}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {48 Seiten, 160 verschieden gez{\"a}hlte Seiten}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Previous research on Russia's use of social networking sites to influence foreign audiences has primarily focused on US-based platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, the activities of Russia's "troll farms", as well as Russia's foreign broadcasters, RT and Sputnik, and their audiences. By contrast, little research has examined the global reach of Russia's state-aligned domestic news content, specifically on US- and Russia-based social networking sites that significantly differ in the level of the Kremlin's control over information flows, and how the activities of novel Russian disinformation production organizations support this reach. In my dissertation, I addressed these gaps in the extant research literature in the fields of political communication, social media, and Russia studies in four distinct research papers focusing on the reach of and engagement with Russian-speaking political content, including Russia's domestic news content, and the activities of ANO Dialog, Russia's novel disinformation production organization with close links to the Russian government, on US-based Facebook and Russia-based VK. To do so, I used innovative qualitative, quantitative, and computational research methods to create knowledge on Russia's informational influence on the two platforms before and after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The findings highlight that, despite differing levels of Kremlin control, both of the social networking sites studied functioned as conduits for the dissemination of Russian-speaking, predominantly Kremlin-friendly political content, including state-aligned domestic news. This content reached audiences both within Russia and abroad in the lead-up to and during the full-scale war in Ukraine. While VK primarily served Russia's users, Facebook disseminated Russia's state-aligned news mostly to audiences outside Russia, particularly in former Soviet countries, in the lead-up to the invasion. During the war, Facebook continued to host critical perspectives on Russia's war crimes, in contrast to VK, where such content was blocked. However, Facebook was banned in Russia in March 2022, limiting domestic access to dissenting views. With the war ongoing as of May 2025 and organizations such as ANO Dialog intensifying their efforts to influence both domestic and foreign audiences on platforms such as VK and Facebook, it is likely that Russia will further strengthen its information control.}, language = {en} } @article{BeselerToepfl2024, author = {Beseler, Arista and Toepfl, Florian}, title = {Conduits of the Kremlin's Informational Influence Abroad? How German-Language Alternative Media Outlets Are Connected to Russia's Ruling Elites}, series = {The International Journal of Press/Politics (ISSN: 1940-1620)}, volume = {30}, journal = {The International Journal of Press/Politics (ISSN: 1940-1620)}, number = {3}, publisher = {SAGE Publications}, address = {Los Angeles, CA}, issn = {1940-1612}, doi = {10.1177/19401612241230284}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-16755}, pages = {659 -- 678}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Extant research on alternative media in Western democracies has focused on scrutinizing their content, organization, production, and audiences. However, the extent to which alternative outlets are linked to powerful foreign actors has not yet been analyzed, despite the fact that a plethora of outlets have openly sided with Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, spreading the Kremlin's propagandistic narratives. To fill this gap, this study adopts a case study approach. It selects Germany as a revelatory case of a key target country of Russia's foreign influence efforts, raising the question of how and to what extent German-language alternative media outlets are connected to Russia's ruling elites. Grounded in qualitative analysis of a wide range of documents, this study proposes a categorization that divides the connections into three different types: organizational, media, and personal connections. Subsequently, it is demonstrated that half of the analyzed German-language alternative media outlets maintain at least one of these three types of connections to the Kremlin. These findings contribute to our knowledge of alternative media, as well as Russia's overt and covert foreign influence operations, the so-called "active measures." They also highlight the need for more transparency in alternative media landscapes in democratic contexts across the globe.}, subject = {-}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Poliakoff2025, author = {Poliakoff, Serge}, title = {From Faking Online Content to Orchestrating Its Creation by Public Workers: Examining Russian Disinformation Production Organisations through Curriculum Vitae Analysis (2013-2024)}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-16100}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {259 Seiten}, year = {2025}, abstract = {This dissertation examines the evolution of Russian digital authoritarianism, focusing on its organisations that produce disinformation, the transition from the Internet Research Agency to the Patriot Media Group and the emergence of ANO Dialog. It shows how the Internet Research Agency operated as a sophisticated "troll farm" during the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian war, with activities similar to those of a PR firm. The Patriot Media Group absorbed these activities, blurring the lines between media and disinformation and prioritising metrics-driven propaganda over journalistic professionalism. This dissertation identifies the organisation ANO Dialog as a new model, heavily integrated with state structures, combining digital surveillance, repression, and Soviet-style agitation adapted to the digital age. Using a novel methodology of career profile collection and analysis, my research illustrates the institutionalisation and regional expansion of disinformation tactics in Russian digital authoritarianism, highlighting its operational adaptability and evolving infrastructure.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{KravetsMeinke2025, author = {Kravets-Meinke, Daria}, title = {Search Engines and Foreign Influence: How Google and Yandex Mediate Russia's Propaganda Abroad}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-15953}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Passau}, pages = {146 Seiten}, year = {2025}, abstract = {This cumulative dissertation examined how the US-based Google and Russia-based Yandex mediate the propaganda efforts of Russia's ruling elites abroad on a case study of Belarus. The findings presented here contribute to a nuanced understanding of how algorithmic gatekeepers, particularly search engines, can be strategically appropriated or manipulated to reinforce and export state narratives beyond national borders. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that both Yandex and Google, albeit through different mechanisms and to varying extents, can serve as mediators of Russia's propaganda efforts abroad.}, language = {en} }