We are happy to announce that our solution was used in a research on anti-liberal discourses and propaganda messages in Bulgarian media, conducted by the Human and Social Studies Foundation (HSSF) Sofia.
This research is part of a project under the name “Anti-liberal discourses and propaganda messages in Bulgarian media: dissemination and social perception” that was funded by the foundation America for Bulgaria and it is planned to last for more than two years – from 22 April 2016 until 22 September 2018.
Today HSSF has released the first part of their research which examined news websites and print media outlets and covered the period from 01 May 2016 until 31 March 2017.
The scope of the project consisted of:
- 3080 Bulgarian-language websites and blogs in the 2013–2016 period
- 3305 publications in eight mainstream media outlets in the period from November
2015 to November 2016
that were covered thanks to Sensika’s wide coverage. As part of our contribution to this study, Sensika was used for a diachronic analysis of the frequency of use of anti-democratic keywords and phrases within the publications of the above-mentioned 3080 websites and blogs.
The study revealed that since the summer of 2013, there has been systemic anti-democratic propaganda in the Bulgarian media landscape with Eurosceptic, anti-institutional, anti-civic, and pro-Russian focus. A very concerning finding is the fact that in the period 2013-2016, the average number of anti-democratic propaganda publications has increased by more than thirty times.
According to the study, there are 4 main claims of the Bulgarian anti-democratic propaganda:
- “the US and NATO are a global hegemon/puppetmaster that is conducting a war against Europe”
- “the EU is an enemy of Europe. Europe is dying because it is united”
- “Russia is a victim of aggression by the West. Despite this, Russia is rising and the Russian military actions are peacemaking”
- “all (media, politicians, activists, etc.) who are calling for the separation of powers are an indistinguishable whole and all of them are “foreign agents”
If you are curious to learn more, you can have a look at the complete report by HSSF Sofia.
