Autocrats rely on propaganda and censorship to manipulate public opinion and maintain control. But citizens have learned to recognize — and distrust — state media, so autocrats have had to change tack. In the April issue of the Journal of Democracy, Bardia Rahmani spotlights how private news outlets run by regime proxies are increasingly shaping the narrative, and why the public struggles to separate proxy propaganda from truly independent news.
The essays below explore how China, Russia, and other autocracies threaten independent media, and why journalists, activists, and the public must work together to counter media manipulation and keep press freedom alive.
How Autocrats Use Proxies to Control the Media
Propaganda is autocrats’ weapon of first resort, allowing them to rely on persuasion rather than violence to achieve their ends. But citizens have grown savvy, so autocrats are taking a new tack: spreading their messages via private news outlets indirectly controlled by regime proxies.
Bardia RahmaniHow Autocrats Undermine Media Freedom
Information is being weaponized against democracy. Democratic societies need new ways to keep media free, accurate, and authentic.
Edward LucasCountering Beijing’s Media Manipulation
China is expanding its global media footprint, aggressively peddling its preferred narratives and stifling criticism of its policies, all the while undermining free expression, public debate, and electoral integrity in more open societies.
Sarah CookThe Kremlin’s Information War
The Kremlin is now bringing to the rest of the world the kind of propaganda and conspiracy theories it has been churning out at home.
Peter PomerantsevDigital Propaganda: The Power of Influencers
Swarms of “nano-influencers,” are rapidly reshaping social-media propaganda campaigns, upending political discourse in democracies around the world.
Samuel C. Woolley
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