International Sociology and International Sociology Reviews

‘War and propaganda’ is our Topic of the Month for September 2024. On this topic, enjoy this month Free Access to this article by Anton Oleinik (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada) and Volodymyr Paniotto (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine) published in International Sociology, Propaganda channels and their comparative effectiveness: The case of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Read on to know more about the authors’ trajectory and work.

Anton Oleinik

Volodymyr Paniotto

Why are you working on this topic? Could you share an experience, a fact or a person who made you get engage on that research?

A. Oleinik: Although I am originally from Ukraine, I started to collect and analyze data in this country after 2013. The 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine was a trigger. A monograph summarizes my analysis of this example of mass mobilization. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started shortly after the Revolution, which further fueled my interest in advancing the understanding of this and related processes. Propaganda represents one of three key dimensions of warfare, along with military pressure and economic sanctions. It turned out that studies of propaganda fell out of fashion after WWII. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made them highly relevant again. The scope of war propaganda goes far beyond the belligerent countries (in our study we also cover the United States, the United Kingdom, and France).

V. Paniotto: I am a native of Kyiv, and I have lived in Ukraine for 77 years. My country has been attacked by Russia, which is waging war not only through military means but also through propaganda. Studying this topic is crucial for resisting the enemy.

Do you have any video, recorded conference, or online material that you would like us to share with others?

A. Oleinik: Our study was presented at the XX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Melbourne (June 25 - July 1, 2023).

What would you emphasize about your academic trajectory? Can you highlight which have been your academic positions, universities, awards, departments and research centers please?

A. Oleinik: After receiving a doctorate in sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) in 2000 and Habilitation (doktor nauk) in political economy from the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2012, I have been teaching in Canada (Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s), Kazakhstan (Academy of Public Administration, Astana), Mongolia (National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar) and Russia (Smolny College, St. Petersburg).

V. Paniotto: I am a co-founder and director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (since 1992), as well as a professor in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. I have completed internships in the USA at Columbia University and also worked as a professor at Johns Hopkins University for two semesters (1993 and 1995). I am a member of the Board of the Sociological Association of Ukraine and Vice-President of the Ukrainian Marketing Association. Since 2021, I have been an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Higher Education of Ukraine. I am also a member of the editorial boards of the journals Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing, Marketing in Ukraine and others. My main interests are the methodology of sociological research, computer modeling of social processes, and public opinion. I have authored 12 books, including Statistical Analysis of Sociological Data (Kyiv, 2004, co-author); Survey Methods (Kyiv, 2017, co-author); Sociology in Anecdotes (Kyiv, 2022) and War and the Transformation of Ukrainian Society (2024, forthcoming).