AZERBAIJANI MASS MEDIA: TECHNOLOGIES OF INFORMATION ACTIVITY
Suren Movsisyan
cs&nid=1293
17 July 2008
In the article is spoken about information activity carried out in
the Azerbaijani mass media classified by their main directions and the
names given to them conventionally. It is especially accentuated the
fact that a seriously prepared, far reaching information warfare is
being waged against Armenia not yielding to open military operations
and even posing serious dangers.
1. Â"Factor of priority.Â" The forefather of this principle may be
considered one of the outstanding leaders of Nazi Germany – Doctor
Gebels. Â"A person who will say the world the first word is always
right,Â" he says1. A big number of scientists, including K. Hovland,
N. Janis, L Doube, have also come to such a conclusion. They are sure
that a propagandist is sure to succeed if the public is aware of his
information earlier than the one of his opponent. It is motivated
by the fact that people prefer believing the first information they
get, and it is quite difficult for them to change the already shaped
opinion on something2.
According to Hitler the society is inclined believing even 90%
not proved accusation than its disproof, even if it is 100%
grounded3. Applying this principle, the Azerbaijani press tries to
change public opinion (its own, Armenian and international). It is
noteworthy the an nouncements in the Azerbaijani press about the
cases of violating ceasefire.
Should one follow these reports, an opinion will be created that last
year the Armenian party was almost every day violating cease-fire in
one or two directions. Since the end of the last year frequency of
violations has increased and today the Armenian party already violates
the cease-fire in 4-5 directions every day. The world community
perceives these false reports to be reality: it has come to be proved
by the concerns of the European Council, OCSE, European Union and the
US leaders on the occasion of frequent violations of cease-fire. In
other words, false propaganda is sure to be in favor of the neighbor
country certifying its Â"peaceful essenceÂ" and devotion to observing
cease-fire. Whereas, only once every three months, the Armenian party
reports about ceasefire violations by the Â"neighborsÂ". Only from
time to time responding its neighbors’ false reports on cease-fire
violations, it acquires the status of Â"cease-fire violator,Â" which,
in its turn, has negative impact on international rating of Armenia
and Karabakh issue. If we add to it the activity of the Azerbaijani
party in international organizations which resulted the adoption of
A/62/L.424 resolution by the UN General Assembly, where the states
(37 – for, 7 – against and 150 – abstentions) demonstrated their
attitude to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, it will become clear what
this kind of propaganda will bring to.
2. Â"System of cross and anonymous references.Â" It is accepted
that the reference to any authoritative person concerning to any
information has big influence upon the society. This authoritative
person may be a clergyman, a politician, scientist or a specialist
of any sphere. At the same time to carry more convenience may also be
used commentaries to the documents, estimations of specialists or other
suchlike reports. For example, on March 28, 2008 Day.az informational
agency informed that a group of Armenians, not identified, made
a brigandage assault on the office of the Azerbaijani congress of
Benelux, located in Rotterdam. The police and witnesses confirmed
that the assault was made by the Armenians. The above mentioned
agency took for granted the report of another Azerbaijani agency
(ANS) where the event was represented without any references. What
have the police, witnesses and the group of Armenians to do here? At
the same time the source of information was not revealed, and the
journalists did not account for spreading the false information. It
is worth mentioning that such kind of information has been proved to
be generally false. And the references to not existing authors make
it more grounded and convincing for people. So, on January 28, 2008
Day.az agency announced that the Armenian community of the Ukrainian
city Lvov had suggested renaming it Â"AryucÂ"=2 0in honor of its
Armenian founders5. The agency based on the statement of another
Azerbaijani agency (APA) which did not ground that information at all.
3. Â"MediatorsÂ" or Â"well known specialists.Â" It is known that
effective information influence is possible to exert by means of
authoritative and well known people in the society. Non-official
information (news, estimation of specialists of different spheres,
opinions of spiritual leaders) are more ponderable than official
information of any of the state structures. In that way, any state
position may be brought to the public’s notice with the objective
to reach the desirable goal. Having several suchlike specialists
and leaders, the Azerbaijani press is making use of this factor
successfully. Let’s bring a few examples. The Azerbaijani mass media
and, in particular, the agency Day.az takes interview from the well
known specialists. This principle plays an important role in shaping
public opinion. Thus, on March 14, 2006 a well known Azerbaijani
Â"political scientist,Â" Vugar Seidov, appeared in the press with
his Â"historical and political analyticalÂ" article6. A few months
later the same person was presented as a Â"famous political scientist
from Hungry7.Â" Among the specialists is also famous Vafa Guluzade,
who from time to time appears in the press with some important
commentaries. The list of Â"famousÂ" Azerbaijani specialists may
be continu ed ad infinity, as the above mentioned factor is not of
little importance in waging informational warfare.
4. Â"Distortion and classification of concepts.Â" According to the
psychologist G. Olport, the essence of any language is in classifying
and distributing the endless information flow we come across every
second. While describing any subject we single out its distinctive
peculiarities paying no attention to other factors of not small
importance (the way it is described and classified, how it is
presented) which lead our ideas and perception8.
As a result of such classification the subjects or events presented
are shaped in a way that a person perceives the ideas imposed to him
about them.
Such a classification furnished to provide information includes
specially chosen words and word-combinations aiming at representing
their own, Â"positiveÂ" and constructive positions. They are also
differentiating words to present the enemy in the negative light. Let’s
consider it in the context of the Azerbaijani mass media. The
Azerbaijani agencies Day.az, ANS, Trend and Â"Ð-еÑ~@к ;аÐ"оÂ",
aspiring to raise the spirit of their armed forces, represent Armenia’s
armed forces as Â"Armenian armed forcesÂ" or even Â"Armenian armed
subdivisions,Â" calling their own subdivisions Â"National army of
Azerbaijan9.Â" The incidents happening on the contingency line of
Armenian-Azerbaijani frontier are presented in20 such a way that its
propagandistic character is clear even for a child10.
One more example, illustrating Â"adherenceÂ" of the neighbor country
to peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict: Â"non-constructive
position of Armenia hinders peaceful settlement of the conflict11.Â"
Numerous comparisons are made of Â"unprecedented economic growthÂ" or
other successes (economic, political, sports) with the ones of Armenia,
and here every opportunity is seized to show its Â"privilege.Â"
5. Â"Statement of facts.Â" Most of the people think with
stereotypes. It is the matter of proverbs Â"there is no smoke without
fireÂ" or Â"If it is spoken about, than there is what.Â" As a result,
the persona thinking unlike the others has a false impression that
he is among the minority. Such propaganda is mainly spread under the
umbrella of authoritative people or by means of social researches,
which reduces criticism of perception as people can hardly catch
falsehood in information about the events happening in their country
and out of its boarders. For example, on March 25 2006 Day.az agency
spread information about public opinion pall according to which 72.2%
of electors support the president in power. It is noteworthy that in
the information it is mentioned the name of the social center which
had conducted the research and are brought some figures without any
references or methodological explanations12. On Ju ly 17, 2007 one
could see the research results of another organization. The information
represented in the same style doesn’t differ much from the one of
the previous year. It is noteworthy that within a year no changes
were noticeable even between percentage ratio of the figures and the
whole sense of the represented information is praising and glorify the
president on the eve of presidential elections13. As for anti-Armenian
subject-matter of this factor, than the striking example of it is the
information uploaded in Day.az site on November 3, 2005 about the
social research conducted by so called Â"Organization of liberated
Karabakh14.Â" The orientation of this organization isa obvious. It
is only to be mentioned that this Â"researchÂ" aims at presenting the
society its own desirable format of the Karabakh conflict settlement.
6. Â"Feedback.Â" The peculiarities of measures concerning to this
factor are heart-to-heart talks of high ranking officials in the
streets, visits to districts, direct communication with people
and mass media. Quite often such relations look like beforehand
prepared theatrical actions. For example, it is known that the
French president De Gaulle was never asked questions to which he
wasn’t ready. In general, the machinery of any leader gets him
ready for all the possible questions. And what about the situation
in Azerbaijan? The Azerbaijani press elucidates numerous visits of
its lead er to districts, where the main questions and answers are
concentrated on military successes and Â"liberatingÂ" the territories
by military forces.
The representatives of Parliament adhere to the same style of work
carrying out anti-Armenian campaign abroad. In that way it is raffled
the factor of information warfare, are demonstrated concern of the
president and other high ranking officials to the problems of society
and, in particular, to the inhabitants of remote districts, and their
readiness to win back the territories at any cost. The striking example
of it is the recent visit of the state’s leader to the south-western
districts. According to information provided by ANS agency, the AR
president visited this region to be present at the opening ceremony
of the medical center and thermoelectric power station. However,
the presented material was completely relating to Â"territories
occupied by Armenia,Â" the priority of liberating them as well as
the issue of thousands of refugees as sufferers of the Karabakh
conflict15. The announcements referring to the visits of Azerbaijani
representatives as well as the state officials of other countries in
international organizations and their elucidation don’t differ much
of the work carried out inside the country. Trend News agency took
an interview from the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan E. Mamedyarov
during his visit to Latvia. However, instead of telling the details of
this visit the journalist speaks about the possible meeting with the
Armenian Foreign Minister and his expectation from it. As a result in
the article is as usual spoken about Â"non-constructiveÂ" approaches
of Armenia, the position of international community and intolerance
of Azerbaijan to the Karabakh issue. So, one can come to a conclusion
that the visits of high ranking officials to the neighbor countries
and their feedback are on the whole pursuing one objective – to keep
the society watchful and remind it about military operation by Â"the
Armenian partyÂ" aspiring to ensure the necessary number of votes at
the coming elections for his Â"patriotic work.Â"
7. Â"Transcription of History.Â" This factor is used with the
objective of shaping the future generation and introducing the
desirable ideology.
Artificially modeled historical realities are spread through books
and lectures, on the radio and TV, by means of the mass media,
theatrical plays and feature films. Making use of all these resources
is created a virtual world perceived to be a reality. As a result,
a person may consider his real life as an unpleasant dream, and
everything propagandized – as reality. The English film director
said, Â"It is important for the history to be written by us, as those
writing it are lead by the present16.Â" By distorting history it is
possible to influence on the memory of broad masses. In this sense,
the20Azerbaijani propaganda is succeeding as ever: falsifications of
historical facts is unprecedented and are voiced absurd announcements.
Historical-cultural researches are conducted all over the territory of
the country and the discoveries are ascribed to Azerbaijan’s Â"ancient
history.Â" Encroachments don’t circle not only the reach Armenian
culture and history, but also Persian and Georgian cultures. All this
work is carried out under the umbrella of the state and by direct
participation of Azerbaijani scientists.
Thus, the existence of the above mentioned factors of information
warfare in the Azerbaijani press have come to prove the fact that
a serious wide scale and long lasting war against Armenia is waged
in Azerbaijan. Our country’s mass media pays almost no attention to
this problem – doesn’t suppress it and doesn’t counterattack. From
time to time appear refutation of this or that information in the
Azerbaijani mass media.
At that, taking into consideration the scope and intensity of spreading
information, Armenia is once again defeated. It also influences on
its international rating, which may cause serious after-effects. The
difference between Azerbaijani and Turkish anti-Armenian information
activities is that Azerbaijan’s strategy is directed to the
Azerbaijani community and disposes it to Armenia, and the information
warfare waged by Turkey is addressed to Armenian and Azerbaijani
communities20disposing them to the very Armenia. However, Turkey’s
strategy and the factors used by it is the subject of another research.
9The Armenian armed forces violated cease-fire in Tavuzk, Fizulinsk
and Agdamsk regions Armenia’s armed forces fired over the positions
of Azerbaijan’s national army
–Boundary_(ID_ZPoMflY7V1rHRHRNIC8KnQ)–
http://www.noravank.am/en/?page=analiti