Media overview – February

In February, the month before Election Day, the Estonian media covered media influencing by writing about manipulation in digital environments.

Postimees published an article by Uko Särekanno, the RIA deputy head director in the area of cyber security, on the change of social media changing from black and white, to a new existing reality that we have to live and come to grips with. He outlined the most remarkable events and developments in election influencing over the last few years and made recommendations on how to avoid them or at least minimize the impact.

In February, Delfi Forte published an article about spam robot’s newest target Reddit. A forum type social media platform that is quite unknown to Estonia, which has gathered increasing Russian activity in recent months. The article’s report outlined the sources from which propaganda activities originate and analyzed the underlying causes of attacks.

In February, Delfi Forte also published an article on the background of fake news by Jaanika Käärst, a MA in communication management. She explained how they are created and how to protect ourselves from them. The article is a good source for the reader who wants to go delve into the topic of fake news on a deeper level. The story provides references to recent studies and analyzes the nature of fake news.

ERR reported in February, alongside other publications, Facebook’s decision to close the RT channel „In the Now“, a daughter project of the propaganda network.

By the end of the election campaign, the ERR portal Novaator published a one minute lecture on populism. Tõnu Viik, a professor at Tartu University gave an overview of the nature and characteristics of populism and explained the populist vision of the world.

Photo: screenshot of the publication’s websites