“Misinformation happens. It’s unavoidable. But it’s better than people not being informed at all.”

Alex Kane is a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has a minor in Russian. He recently moved to Germany to attend graduate school, and when Russia’s so-called “special operation” in Ukraine started in early 2022, he was able to see how his friends from Ukraine and Russia were affected by misinformation, while he too tried to say informed about a conflict that could have very serious consequences on both his new home abroad and the friendships he’s developed while learning the Russian language.

Derek Johnson: When you heard that the war in Ukraine had started again, what was that experience like and where did you hear about it?

Alex Kane: When it happened, I was actually in the United States, and I first heard about through some of my Russian speaking friends, some of whom live in Russia. They were telling me “the war in Ukraine is starting again”.

When I first heard it, I was actually in disbelief, just because, at least for me, I’ve heard “the war in Russia is happening again”, so for me it was just unbelievable. So many people would say “Russia is invading Ukraine”, but this time it was actually for real.  

Q: Did you try to verify what your friends were saying?

A: I suppose it was unavoidable in the news sources. Very soon after that, it was up in every news source, and now if you watch cable news, it seems to be 24-hour coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Q: Do you think the media is portraying the war fairly?

A: I’d say it’s pro-Ukraine, but I don’t think it’s particularly biased. At least for me, I think it’s a war of aggression from Russia, so I think a pro-Ukraine bias is fair, but it’s sort of a matter of perspective.

Q: What’s the effect of the media’s coverage of the war been in Germany?

A:  I can say that I’ve participated in one protest that was pretty popular among students at my university where we made a human chain along the Rhine River while singing “Give Peace a Chance”.

So, at least here, being pro-peace and pro-Ukraine are practically synonyms. I don’t think anyone’s pro-Ukraine and pro-War, though, I don’t think anyone’s looking for Ukraine to go fight Russia and for them to win.

Q: Do think the media has had a positive, negative or neutral effect on people’s perceptions of the war?

A: I suppose it’s had the effect that, because people have so much access to everything that’s happening, people sort of see, for example, the massive graves or the apartment buildings that are being blown up. That really hasn’t happened in this way before in a major conflict.

Q: Do you think people are consuming some misinformation along with all that other information?

A: I wouldn’t rule it out, especially when people are consuming things on social media. A lot of things can be faked, and your average American or German doesn’t speak Russian or Ukrainian, so a lot of things that are said in there may need to be clarified by a speaker of the language.

Q: Is that disinformation a problem, or is it an acceptable “casualty of war”?

A: Misinformation happens, it’s unavoidable. But it’s better than people not being informed at all.

Q: Has the war influenced your opinions of the media at all?

A: Given the past year of COVID misinformation and disinformation from the election, I think that was worse than what’s happening now, but it’s hard to say because it’s a warzone. It’s a lot messier than the election, where at least things are somewhat orderly. Given that, my skepticism was already high, and so I don’t think it was particularly changed in this conflict.