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

May 2018 No Comments

SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Skye Cooley (Oklahoma State University) as part of its SMA Contested Space Operations: Space Defense, Deterrence, and Warfighting (Space) Speaker Series.

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.

This speaker session supported SMA’s Contested Space Operations: Space Defense, Deterrence, and Warfighting (Space) project. For additional speaker sessions and project publications, please visit the Space project page.

Speaker Session Recording

Briefing Materials

Biographies

Dr. Randy Kluver (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is the Dean of the School of Global Studies and Partnerships at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Kluver conducts theoretically driven research on political communication (including rhetorical and new media approaches), and global and new media. His work explores the role of political culture on political communication, and the ways in which cultural expectations, values, and habits condition political messaging practices and reception in a variety of contexts.

Dr. Skye Cooley (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in the School of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University. His research interests are in Russian political communication, global media and digital democracy, as well as civic deliberation online. Dr. Cooley holds certifications of accreditation in public relations (APR) and civilian service peace keeping operations (POTI). He has traveled actively through Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa; publishing and presenting research on international political communication.

Dr. Ethan Stokes (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an assistant professor of in advertising and public relations in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. Dr. Stokes’ research interests are in political communication, digital media, and open-source intelligence systems. His work examines how narratives move and alter across global media.