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Photo: “Flag In The Wild Russian Federation (164796773)“, by Santiago Quintero licensed under CC BY 3.0. Hue modified from the original

Ryabovolova, Alina, and Julie Hemment. ““Je suis Satisfaction:” Russian politics in the age of hybrid media.” East European Politics 36, no. 1 (2020): 9-26.

Abstract

This article traces a hybrid media event that unfolded in Russia in January 2018. Started on YouTube as a homoerotic music video, the so-called Satisfaction Challenge turned into a meme with hundreds of participants, millions of followers, and national media coverage. Using digital ethnography, we examine the interaction of Russian officials, publics, and media throughout this multi-sited, multi-actor, and multi-voiced event. In so doing, we pose questions about the relationship between hybrid media and political regimes, particularly, the interplay between traditional and digital media as it plays out in the realm of social contention in Russia.

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The Illiberalism Studies Program studies the different faces of illiberal politics and thought in today’s world, taking into account the diversity of their cultural context, their intellectual genealogy, the sociology of their popular support, and their implications on the international scene.

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