FOBOFOOBIA: KÜBEROHTUDE JA INFOSÕJA DISKURSUS SUURÕPPUSE ZAPAD 2017 MEEDIAKAJASTUSES

Phobophobia: The Discourse of Cyber Threats and Information Warfare in the Media Coverage of Zapad 2017

Abstract

This article analyses various cyber threats that were discussed in media texts that focused on Russia’s military exercise Zapad 2017. The discourse of cyber threats is full of loaded and controversial meanings because, on the one hand, the domains of electronic and information warfare remain intangible for average readers who do not have expert knowledge in ICTs. On the other hand, these issues presume deliberate deception and clandestine activities executed by the Kremlin. The wider aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the topic of Russia’s electronic and informational warfare capabilities can be covered by the media without fuelling unsubstantiated anxiety and unwarranted threat scenarios or supporting Russia’s strategic narratives about the growth of its high-tech military might. The theoretical basis combines the frameworks of the Copenhagen School of security studies and notions of cultural semiotics. We explain the logic of phobophobia (i.e. the abstract concern about the devastating impacts of the collective feeling of fear and vulnerability that is often related with biased usages of new ICTs) that is characterized by a significant reliance on analogies, drawing vague demarcation of reference objects and the dominance of negative emotional tonality. The resulting analysis demonstrates that during the Zapad 2017 exercise the media discourse depicted Russia as an advanced military power that has gained a lot of practical skills and experience in previous incidents of electronic and informational warfare. At the same time, the West was portrayed as a rather passive victim that was often anxious and unnerved by unanticipated attacks coming from Russia. The main sources of threat were associated with: 1) Russia´s electronic and informational warfare capabilities; 2) the low capability of NATO´s experts to foresee electronic and informational attacks, 3) the vulnerability of everyday technology, particularly smartphones.