Short-form insights and rapid-reaction analysis of breaking news and global events.
For the seventh consecutive week, coronavirus predominated the Russian media ecosystem. By far the majority of the coverage has consisted of basic news updates on travel restrictions and the virus’s spread. This week Russian media paid greater atten [...]
From February 22-28, the coronavirus remained a prominent topic for the Russian media ecosystem, with a particularly dominating presence on Twitter. This period also saw an uptick in coverage about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who faced the fir [...]
Beginning in late January, when news emerged of a “novel coronavirus” spreading through China, Beijing’s propaganda apparatus shifted into overdrive. The epidemic has also been heavily covered in externally-directed Russian state-backed media outlet [...]
Walking around China, the ubiquity of German cars on Chinese streets is astounding. Audi and Mercedes are everywhere in affluent cities; Volkswagens take their place in smaller municipalities. This anecdotal observation is reflected in the spectacul [...]
From February 15-21, the novel coronavirus continued to be prominent within the Russian media ecosystem, dominating Russian state-funded media Twitter accounts. However, the number of tweets mentioning Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, emanati [...]
From February 8-14, the Russian media ecosystem continued to prominently feature updates on the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, particularly on Twitter. Limited coverage of the U.S. presidential race on Twitter straightforwardly covered the r [...]
From February 1-7, the Russian media ecosystem was largely preoccupied with the novel coronavirus; however, there was also a clear push to fuel conspiracy theories related to the Iowa caucus and, to a more limited degree, the ongoing war in Syria. O [...]
As has become the norm in moments of international crisis, the fallout from the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani last month unleashed a flood of disinformation onto social media. In crisis environments, where unconfirmed facts of even benign or [...]
Deepfake technology that uses artificial intelligence to create and modify videos, images, and audio recordings to place individuals in situations they were never in, or put false words in their mouths, has burst onto the scene as the latest technol [...]
Each week, ASD researchers will analyze Hamilton 2.0 data to understand the narratives and topics the Russian government and Russian state-funded media are promoting on Twitter, YouTube, broadcast television (RT), and state-sponsored news websites. [...]