| The aim of this thesis is to develop the concept of the global media market as an arena for international relations and specifically great power competition. Since 2000, state-funded media companies such as Russia's RT have entered the media market at an unprecedented scale. Such investments appear to be a strategy to maximize state power in the international system but are puzzling from an IR standpoint, since historically authoritarian states have a poor record of sustaining global competition against liberal democratic alliances. Soft power does give a short-lived advantage, but in the long-term is historically a failing strategy for authoritative states. This thesis asks, what strategies do authoritative states use to gain and maintain long-term soft power advantages in the global media market? Through the case study of RT, the Kremlin's international television broadcasting network, this thesis hypothesizes that the Russian state uses a corporate raiding strategy (reiderstvo) as a way to not only increase its share in the international media market, but to substantially undermine the capacity of the West to frame Russia's behavior in accordance with norms of the international liberal media market. |
