When the party line changes: state media, immigration, and public opinion in Russia

John Overstreet, Olivia Jin, William Pyle and Kristina Sargent

Post-Soviet Affairs, 2025, vol. 41, issue 6, 521-543

Abstract: We document and assess the effect of a short-lived campaign on Russian state television to re-orient coverage of immigrants. Building on prior research – including a historical narrative and evidence from a controlled experiment – we offer support from a real-world setting that authoritarian regimes can leverage media control to re-align public opinion on an important policy matter, even if the new frame is in conflict with the old. Drawing on repeated cross-sectional survey data collected before, during, and after the re-orientation in coverage, we demonstrate that public attitudes on immigration policy shifted in a manner consistent with the campaign having had a short-run effect. Compared to the periods before and after, more intense TV news viewers were more likely to express opposition to liberal immigration policies during the campaign. In line with its apparent intent, the attitudinal change was particularly pronounced among ethnic Russians contemplating non – co-ethnics and immigrants from poor, non-European countries.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1060586X.2025.2553070 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rpsaxx:v:41:y:2025:i:6:p:521-543

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rpsa20

DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2025.2553070

Access Statistics for this article

Post-Soviet Affairs is currently edited by Timothy Frye

More articles in Post-Soviet Affairs from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().