Information warfare in South Osetia. Russian and Western mass media confrontation

The comparative analysis of publications covering the South Ossetia conflict in August 2008 is given in the present paper. The estimate of the authors' positions of articles generally recognized editorial policy of the media and its relations to the countries - participants of confrontation is also considered. The author attempts to characterize the information policy of the parties and find the defeat causes of the information policy of Russia at the initial stage of the conflict.

information warfare, manipulation of consciousness, editorial policy, the image of Russia, the Western mass media, South Ossetia conflict