What is it about?
While there is a common awareness of wartime media censorship in both Ukraine and Russia, there has been less research on Western media coverage and expert analysis of the war in Ukraine. This essay considers the extent to which a skewed and partisan version of the war’s evolution has been presented in UK media. Five stages are identified in the emergence and evolution of a British meta-narrative on the war in Ukraine, replete with ‘cheering’ and ‘jeering’, that works against a realistic understanding of the war’s nature and reasonable consideration of possible future scenarios. It is argued this coverage has sidestepped critical questions of the war’s stage-by-stage escalation and has essentially avoided serious debate of the risks, costs and benefits of such a course.
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Why is it important?
Arriving at a more accurate and balanced understanding of the war's causes, development and escalation will surely assist in forming solutions to the end of the conflict.
Perspectives
I hope this article stimulates some thinking about what has driven Western media coverage and why expert analysis and public opinion has fallen so quickly into agreement when so many of the facts are in dispute.
Dr. Matthew Blackburn
Uppsala Universitet
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Cheering and Jeering on the Escalator to Hell: One Year of UK Media Coverage on the War in Ukraine, Russian Politics, June 2023, Brill Deutschland GmbH,
DOI: 10.30965/24518921-00802006.
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