Outer Space in the Media Space

Outer Space in the Media Space: How Russian and Chinese News Media Present the Commercialization and Militarization of the Space Domain

Speaker: Cooley, S. (Oklahoma State University)

Date: 9 May 2018

Speaker Session Preview

SMA hosted a speaker session presented by Dr. Skye Cooley (Oklahoma State University) as a part of its SMA Space Speaker Series. Dr. Cooley briefly discussed the importance of narratives and explained that humans understand the world through stories; we form identity, agreement, and truth through storytelling. He proceeded to review the methodology his team used to analyze Russian and Chinese news media over the period of September 2017 to April 2018. Dr. Cooley then summarized Russia’s and China’s strategic narratives and space stories, highlighting what these stories reveal about these nations’ views towards space. To conclude the session, Dr. Cooley spoke about the important insights into these narrative frameworks that this work uncovered.

Speaker Session Audio File

Download Dr. Cooley’s biography (along with report co-authors Dr. Randy Kluver’s (Oklahoma State University) and Dr. Ethan Stokes’s (University of Alabama) biographies), slides, and SMA space report