Anna Litvinenko
Biographic Data
| ID | 336630 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anna Litvinenko |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anna |
| FAMILY NAME | Litvinenko |
| SIGNATURE | LITVINENKO A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Freie Universität Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4029-0829 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Studying Propaganda as a Social Process
In recent scholarship on propaganda, no aspect has attracted more attention than the digitally mediated propagation of disinformation. In this intervention, we argue that focusing narrowly on disinformation risks missing the forest for all the trees: Only by considering disinformation’s embedding within broader propaganda strategies and processes, we can understand falsehoods’ distinctive rhetorical functions alongside other forms of (normative, …
Trust in Anonymous News? How Users Navigate Political News Channels on Russian Telegram
The paper explores the phenomenon of anonymous news channels on Russian Telegram, which have become increasingly popular in recent years. Drawing on 25 self-confrontation interviews, we answer the following questions: Do users trust anonymous news? If not, why do they keep using this information source? How does a restrictive socio-political context influence users’ trust in alternative news sources? Our results show that, in Russia, the concept …
Migrants as “Objects of Care”: Immigration Coverage in Russian Media During the Covid-19 Pandemic
For over 20 years, Russia has been within the top five most attractive countries for immigrants. Before the pandemic, the federal policies that stimulated the immigration of cheap workforce contradicted the public perception and the media coverage of immigrants as problematic communities. Unlike labor immigrants, the EU refugees from the Middle East were depicted as a challenge for the disunited and unhospitable EU, and re-settlers from Donbass w…
Politicization of Science Journalism: How Russian Journalists Covered the Covid-19 Pandemic
The (Non-)Adoption of Participatory Newsroom Innovations under Authoritarian Rule: How Comment Sections Diffused in Belarus and Azerbaijan (1998–2017)
Extant research on how innovations diffuse among news organizations over time has largely focussed on democratic contexts. By contrast, this is the first longitudinal study to investigate the spread of a participatory newsroom innovation under authoritarian rule. Adopting a multiple case study design, the article reconstructs the histories of comment sections on the opinion-leading online media in two authoritarian contexts, which varied maximall…
Re-Defining Borders Online: Russia’s Strategic Narrative on Internet Sovereignty
Over the past decades, internet governance has developed in a tug-of-war between the democratic, transnational nature of the web, and attempts by national governments to put cyberspace under control. Recently, the idea of digital sovereignty has started to increasingly gain more supporters among nation states. This article is a case study on the Russian concept of a “sovereign internet.” In 2019, the so-called law on sustainable internet marked a…
Constructive Aggression? Multiple Roles of Aggressive Content in Political Discourse on Russian YouTube
Today, aggressive verbal behavior is generally perceived as a threat to integrity and democratic quality of public discussions, including those online. However, we argue that, in more restrictive political regimes, communicative aggression may play constructive roles in both discussion dynamics and empowerment of political groups. This might be especially true for restrictive political and legal environments like Russia, where obscene speech is p…
Critically Commenting Publics as Authoritarian Input Institutions: How Citizens Comment Beneath their News in Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkmenistan
Little is known presently about how, why, and with what consequences audiences comment on their news in contemporary authoritarian regimes. In order to address this gap, this study leverages recent theorizing about the multiple public sphere under non-democratic rule. Accordingly, critically commenting publics are theorized as “input institutions” that not only create risks but also offer important benefits for autocrats. Grounded in this approac…
YouTube as Alternative Television in Russia: Political Videos During the Presidential Election Campaign 2018
Previous studies on 'youtubification' of political communication (May, 2010) have largely focused on democratic contexts. This study aims at exploring the role of the global video-sharing platform in non-democratic political communication, using the example of the Russian presidential election of 2018. It draws on the qualitative content analysis of 169 political videos collected from the 'Popular' section of Russian YouTube during the last 2 mon…
Memories on Demand: Narratives about 1917 in Russia’s Online Publics
This article analyses the digital remembrance of the Russian Revolution in the year of its centenary. It examines what memory narratives about 1917 were constructed by leading Russian online media in 2017, in the absence of an overarching narrative about the event imposed by the state. The authors reveal a multiplicity of digital memories about the revolution and discuss their implications for the regime’s stability. It is argued that the flexibl…
Who is the censor? Self-censorship of Russian journalists in professional routines and social networking
Today’s communicative environment, including the rise of social media, makes journalists perform publicly as both professionals and private citizens. In these circumstances, practices of self-limitation and self-censorship may extend to online behaviour. In this article, we analyse what makes journalists in public affairs media limit themselves in expression, both in editorial production and in online posting. We ask whether their self-censoring …
Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts
Studies of political polarization in social media demonstrate mixed evidence for whether discussions necessarily evolve into left and right ideological echo chambers. Recent research shows that, for political and issue-based discussions, patterns of user clusterization may differ significantly, but that cross-cultural evidence of the polarization of users on certain issues is close to non-existent. Furthermore, most of the studies developed netwo…
Please Follow Us: Media roles in Twitter discussions in the United States, Germany, France, and Russia
The media are normatively expected to play significant roles in conflictual discussions within national and international communities. As previous research shows, digital platforms make scholars rethink these roles based on media behavior in online communicative environments as well as on the structural limitations of the platforms. At the same time, traditional dichotomies between information dissemination and opinion formation roles, although s…
Transferring control from the backend to the frontend: A comparison of the discourse architectures of comment sections on news websites across the post-Soviet world
This study compares how comment sections (CSs) were implemented, as of summer 2016, on the 179 leading national news websites across the 15 post-Soviet countries. In order to pursue this aim, a novel coding scheme is developed that facilitates assessment of the degree to which the discourse architectures of CSs transfer control over the content published from the backend to the frontend of a website. Accordingly, each CS is assigned a value on a …
New globalization’ and media studies: Notes on the second international conference ‘Comparative media studies in today's world’, 25 April 2014, St. Petersburg, Russia
Daya Thussu (University of Westminster, UK) as a keynote speakerThe second international conference ‘Comparative media studies in today's world: journalism cultures in various socio-political conte
Who is the censor? Self-censorship of Russian journalists in professional routines and social networking
Today’s communicative environment, including the rise of social media, makes journalists perform publicly as both professionals and private citizens. In these circumstances, practices of self-limitation and self-censorship may extend to online behaviour. In this article, we analyse what makes journalists in public affairs media limit themselves in expression, both in editorial production and in online posting. We ask whether their self-censoring …
Politicization of Science Journalism: How Russian Journalists Covered the Covid-19 Pandemic
Please Follow Us: Media roles in Twitter discussions in the United States, Germany, France, and Russia
The media are normatively expected to play significant roles in conflictual discussions within national and international communities. As previous research shows, digital platforms make scholars rethink these roles based on media behavior in online communicative environments as well as on the structural limitations of the platforms. At the same time, traditional dichotomies between information dissemination and opinion formation roles, although s…
YouTube as Alternative Television in Russia: Political Videos During the Presidential Election Campaign 2018
Previous studies on 'youtubification' of political communication (May, 2010) have largely focused on democratic contexts. This study aims at exploring the role of the global video-sharing platform in non-democratic political communication, using the example of the Russian presidential election of 2018. It draws on the qualitative content analysis of 169 political videos collected from the 'Popular' section of Russian YouTube during the last 2 mon…
Memories on Demand: Narratives about 1917 in Russia’s Online Publics
This article analyses the digital remembrance of the Russian Revolution in the year of its centenary. It examines what memory narratives about 1917 were constructed by leading Russian online media in 2017, in the absence of an overarching narrative about the event imposed by the state. The authors reveal a multiplicity of digital memories about the revolution and discuss their implications for the regime’s stability. It is argued that the flexibl…
Transferring control from the backend to the frontend: A comparison of the discourse architectures of comment sections on news websites across the post-Soviet world
This study compares how comment sections (CSs) were implemented, as of summer 2016, on the 179 leading national news websites across the 15 post-Soviet countries. In order to pursue this aim, a novel coding scheme is developed that facilitates assessment of the degree to which the discourse architectures of CSs transfer control over the content published from the backend to the frontend of a website. Accordingly, each CS is assigned a value on a …
New globalization’ and media studies: Notes on the second international conference ‘Comparative media studies in today's world’, 25 April 2014, St. Petersburg, Russia
Daya Thussu (University of Westminster, UK) as a keynote speakerThe second international conference ‘Comparative media studies in today's world: journalism cultures in various socio-political conte
Please Follow Us: Media roles in Twitter discussions in the United States, Germany, France, and Russia
The media are normatively expected to play significant roles in conflictual discussions within national and international communities. As previous research shows, digital platforms make scholars rethink these roles based on media behavior in online communicative environments as well as on the structural limitations of the platforms. At the same time, traditional dichotomies between information dissemination and opinion formation roles, although s…
Transferring control from the backend to the frontend: A comparison of the discourse architectures of comment sections on news websites across the post-Soviet world
This study compares how comment sections (CSs) were implemented, as of summer 2016, on the 179 leading national news websites across the 15 post-Soviet countries. In order to pursue this aim, a novel coding scheme is developed that facilitates assessment of the degree to which the discourse architectures of CSs transfer control over the content published from the backend to the frontend of a website. Accordingly, each CS is assigned a value on a …
Beyond Left and Right: Real-World Political Polarization in Twitter Discussions on Inter-Ethnic Conflicts
Studies of political polarization in social media demonstrate mixed evidence for whether discussions necessarily evolve into left and right ideological echo chambers. Recent research shows that, for political and issue-based discussions, patterns of user clusterization may differ significantly, but that cross-cultural evidence of the polarization of users on certain issues is close to non-existent. Furthermore, most of the studies developed netwo…
Memories on Demand: Narratives about 1917 in Russia’s Online Publics
This article analyses the digital remembrance of the Russian Revolution in the year of its centenary. It examines what memory narratives about 1917 were constructed by leading Russian online media in 2017, in the absence of an overarching narrative about the event imposed by the state. The authors reveal a multiplicity of digital memories about the revolution and discuss their implications for the regime’s stability. It is argued that the flexibl…
Who is the censor? Self-censorship of Russian journalists in professional routines and social networking
Today’s communicative environment, including the rise of social media, makes journalists perform publicly as both professionals and private citizens. In these circumstances, practices of self-limitation and self-censorship may extend to online behaviour. In this article, we analyse what makes journalists in public affairs media limit themselves in expression, both in editorial production and in online posting. We ask whether their self-censoring …
The (Non-)Adoption of Participatory Newsroom Innovations under Authoritarian Rule: How Comment Sections Diffused in Belarus and Azerbaijan (1998–2017)
Extant research on how innovations diffuse among news organizations over time has largely focussed on democratic contexts. By contrast, this is the first longitudinal study to investigate the spread of a participatory newsroom innovation under authoritarian rule. Adopting a multiple case study design, the article reconstructs the histories of comment sections on the opinion-leading online media in two authoritarian contexts, which varied maximall…
Re-Defining Borders Online: Russia’s Strategic Narrative on Internet Sovereignty
Over the past decades, internet governance has developed in a tug-of-war between the democratic, transnational nature of the web, and attempts by national governments to put cyberspace under control. Recently, the idea of digital sovereignty has started to increasingly gain more supporters among nation states. This article is a case study on the Russian concept of a “sovereign internet.” In 2019, the so-called law on sustainable internet marked a…
Constructive Aggression? Multiple Roles of Aggressive Content in Political Discourse on Russian YouTube
Today, aggressive verbal behavior is generally perceived as a threat to integrity and democratic quality of public discussions, including those online. However, we argue that, in more restrictive political regimes, communicative aggression may play constructive roles in both discussion dynamics and empowerment of political groups. This might be especially true for restrictive political and legal environments like Russia, where obscene speech is p…
Critically Commenting Publics as Authoritarian Input Institutions: How Citizens Comment Beneath their News in Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkmenistan
Little is known presently about how, why, and with what consequences audiences comment on their news in contemporary authoritarian regimes. In order to address this gap, this study leverages recent theorizing about the multiple public sphere under non-democratic rule. Accordingly, critically commenting publics are theorized as “input institutions” that not only create risks but also offer important benefits for autocrats. Grounded in this approac…
YouTube as Alternative Television in Russia: Political Videos During the Presidential Election Campaign 2018
Previous studies on 'youtubification' of political communication (May, 2010) have largely focused on democratic contexts. This study aims at exploring the role of the global video-sharing platform in non-democratic political communication, using the example of the Russian presidential election of 2018. It draws on the qualitative content analysis of 169 political videos collected from the 'Popular' section of Russian YouTube during the last 2 mon…
Migrants as “Objects of Care”: Immigration Coverage in Russian Media During the Covid-19 Pandemic
For over 20 years, Russia has been within the top five most attractive countries for immigrants. Before the pandemic, the federal policies that stimulated the immigration of cheap workforce contradicted the public perception and the media coverage of immigrants as problematic communities. Unlike labor immigrants, the EU refugees from the Middle East were depicted as a challenge for the disunited and unhospitable EU, and re-settlers from Donbass w…
Politicization of Science Journalism: How Russian Journalists Covered the Covid-19 Pandemic
Trust in Anonymous News? How Users Navigate Political News Channels on Russian Telegram
The paper explores the phenomenon of anonymous news channels on Russian Telegram, which have become increasingly popular in recent years. Drawing on 25 self-confrontation interviews, we answer the following questions: Do users trust anonymous news? If not, why do they keep using this information source? How does a restrictive socio-political context influence users’ trust in alternative news sources? Our results show that, in Russia, the concept …
Studying Propaganda as a Social Process
In recent scholarship on propaganda, no aspect has attracted more attention than the digitally mediated propagation of disinformation. In this intervention, we argue that focusing narrowly on disinformation risks missing the forest for all the trees: Only by considering disinformation’s embedding within broader propaganda strategies and processes, we can understand falsehoods’ distinctive rhetorical functions alongside other forms of (normative, …
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (11 works) · Social Media and Politics (10 works) · Media Studies and Communication (9 works) · Media studies (8 works) · Democracy (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Authoritarianism (5 works)