Abstract
This paper offers a psycho-rhetorical analysis of the online political engagement of Ekaterina Mizulina, a member of the Civic Chamber, the head of the censorship lobbying group Safe Internet League, and a popular social media personality in Russia. Mizulina is also known beyond Russia: the EU sanctioned her for submitting complaints to the Russian law enforcement agencies against internet content creators, influencers, musicians, and celebrities and thus aiding the Kremlin’s censorship regime. Similar to the original propagandists Margarita Simonyan and Vladimir Solovyov, Mizulina promotes an aggressive, or in Kenneth Burke’s terms, tragic image of Russkiy Mir (the Russian World). The propagandists who harness the power of traditional media and social media advocate within the same structure of Jacques Lacan’s discourse of the Hysteric - by declaring their fight with the supposed corruption of the Russian national self by the Western national other. Yet, in this fight Mizulina stands out. Simonyan and Solovyov, whose propaganda often ends up looking like the didactic discourse of the University, lament the widespread political apathy of the Russian population. Mizulina, on the other hand, has been able to attract a significant Gen Z following to support and enact the Kremlin’s agenda. By soliciting complaints from young Russians about their lives, anything ranging from day-to-day school issues to undesirable social media content, Mizulina successfully leads a peculiar grassroot censorship movement. Such a situation signals that young Russians seem unlikely to bring Russia to democracy.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Russia, Censorship, Nationalism, Digital, Culture, Authoritarian, Propaganda, Democratic, Participation
