Semiotic analysis of the photography used in political propaganda during the Russian-Ukrainian war 2022

This study aimed to identify the political propaganda methods and strategies included in the images published on the Russia Today website related to the Russian-Ukrainian war 2022 through the semiotic analysis of those images to reveal the structure of the visual language present in them, and to identify the meanings of things, colors, symbols, body language, and the size of the images. The angles of photography, the type of shots, the analysis of the implicit meanings, and the underlying implications behind their employment in propaganda. The study relied on the qualitative approach, and was conducted using the semiological analytical tool according to the Roland approach. The study reached several results, the most important of which are:
The diversity appeared in the Russian propaganda methods included in the study sample pictures, as it included a group of influential methods including: the method of threat and intimidation and the threat of revenge, the method of psychological warfare and intimidation of the Ukrainian army, the method of supporting the Russian army and raising the morale of the soldiers. The use of colors in the images and their employment in a planned manner to serve the propaganda goals and make them guaranteed to have an impact.  The diversity of photography angles helped to form a clear semantic semiotics for these images by highlighting the hidden propaganda methods they contained.