War propaganda effectiveness: a comparative content-analysis of media coverage of the two first months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

The article discusses the coverage of the two first months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine by mass media in four countries, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In total, publications in seven mass media (online news portals and print newspapers) were content analyzed, along with war-related speeches of political leaders in those countries. An original method for assessing war propaganda effectiveness was used. It implies tracking the propagation of a political leader's message through the mass media. The fewer distortions in the process, the more effective propaganda is. With the help of this method, it was determined that despite the severe restrictions imposed by the government, war propaganda in Russia appeared to be relatively ineffective. President Putin's messages tended to be 'lost in transmission.'