Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Chmielewska-Szlajfer, Helena, (Not) Kidding: Politics in Online Tabloids. (Studies in Critical Social Sciences 283) 261 pp. 2024:5 (Brill, NE) <718-565>
ISBN 978-90-04-69263-3 hard ¥32,181.- (税込) EUR 138.00

Often reduced to the role of sensationalist gossipmongers, online tabloids are a vital source of political news for the public. This book offers a deep dive into Pudelek, Mail Online, and Gawker 2015-2016 political campaign coverage in Poland, the UK, and the US to expose the key "(not) kidding" frame: ambiguous, reactive to readers, and shielding online tabloids from accusations of deteriorating democracy.

ロシアのプロパガンダとアメリカのニュース
Oates, Sarah / Ramsay, Gordon Neil, Seeing Red: Russian Propaganda and American News. 232 pp. 2024:6 (Oxford U. Pr., US) <718-566>
ISBN 978-0-19-769642-2 hard ¥20,582.- (税込) US$ 99.00
ISBN 978-0-19-769643-9 paper ¥5,810.- (税込) US$ 27.95 *

The U.S. media has been tainted with Russian disinformation, but the more significant threat is how the Right has embraced the Russian model of the news media as a vehicle for propaganda. This could not have happened without Donald Trump, who has been aided and abetted by politicians and news outlets that favor persuasion over information. From his inauguration onwards, Trump has shown allegiance to the Kremlin propaganda playbook-he consistently denies reality, amplifies lies, vilifies the free media, and broadcasts disinformation. Seeing Red breaks new ground in investigating the scope of Russian disinformation, arguing that key politicians and media outlets in the United States have facilitated the dissemination of Russian propaganda. From the 2020 elections to the Capitol Insurrection to the war in Ukraine, Sarah Oates and Gordon Neil Ramsay examine the penetration of key Kremlin strategic narratives that attempt to project Russian power, blame NATO for Russian aggression, and attack democracy via the U.S. news. Despite knowledge of the risk and resourceful work on tracking down Russian propaganda in the United States, the problem of foreign disinformation continues to this day. As Oates and Ramsay argue, this is in part due to exploitation of the American tradition of free speech and the open nature of the U.S. media system. Yet, the much more dangerous menace lies not in how foreign governments attempt to manipulate the media, but in how our media system has been compromised by domestic actors who follow an authoritarian playbook and promote anti-democratic narratives. When it is hard to tell the difference between what the Russians are saying about the Democrats and how Fox News is covering Joe Biden, it is time to realize that some American outlets have crossed the line from news to propaganda.

Shestopalova, Alona, From Screens to Battlefields: Tracing the Construction of Enemies on Russian Television. (Ukrainian Voices) 270 pp. 2024:6 (Ibidem Pr., GW) <718-567>
ISBN 978-3-8382-1884-7 paper ¥7,276.- (税込) US$ 35.00 *

This book provides a systematic overview of hostile rhetoric on state-controlled Russian TV and shows how it laid the foundation for the Russian public's widespread acceptance of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. It reveals the strategies behind the Kremlin-directed television coverage of the Euromaidan, Russia's occupation of Crimea, and the first five months of the war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and demonstrates that, already in 2013-14, the hostile portrayal, dehumanization, and demonization of Ukraine was omnipresent on Russian TV. After a nuanced discussion of the concept of the enemy, the author compares the construction of enemies by the Russian state's major international and internal broadcasters - RT (Russia Today) and Channel One. The findings show that both channels purposefully elicited fear and hatred towards Ukraine and Western countries in their audiences. Notably, Channel One-lesser known within the Western pundits community-was more extreme and radical in its coverage than the globally known RT channel. To provide a broader context, Shestopalova also draws parallels between Russian state-controlled communication on Ukraine and Russia's wars of the two previous decades, namely those in Chechnya and Georgia.

トランプとVOA
Wright, Kate / Scott, Martin / Bunce, Mel, Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America. (Journalism and Political Communication Unbound) 272 pp. 2024:6 (Oxford U. Pr., US) <718-568>
ISBN 978-0-19-776848-8 hard ¥22,869.- (税込) US$ 110.00
ISBN 978-0-19-776849-5 paper ¥6,226.- (税込) US$ 29.95 *

The Voice of America (VOA) is the oldest and largest US government-funded international media organization. In 2020, Donald Trump nominated Michael Pack, a right-wing documentarian and close friend of Steve Bannon, to lead the US Agency for Global Media - the independent federal agency overseeing US-funded international media. During Pack's seven-month tenure, more than 30 whistleblowers filed complaints against him, and a judge ruled that he had infringed journalists' constitutional right to freedom of speech. How did such a major international public service media network become intensely politicized by government allies in such a short time, despite having its editorial independence protected by law? Capturing News, Capturing Democracy puts these events in historical and international context-and develops a new analytical framework for understanding government capture and its connection to broader processes of democratic backsliding. Drawing from in-depth interviews with network managers and journalists, and analysis of private correspondence and internal documents, Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce analyze how political appointees, White House officials, and right-wing media influenced VOA- changing its reporting of the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 presidential election. The authors stress that leaving the VOA unprotected leaves it and other public media open to targeting by authoritarian leadership and poses serious risks to US democracy. Further, they offer practical recommendations for how to protect the network and other international public service media better in the future.