Same Old Russian Enemy? a Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Russians in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Same old Russian Enemy? A Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Russians in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Danny Ivan Lazarov

Peace and Conflict Studies Bachelor Thesis FK103L, 15 credits Spring Semester 2020 Supervisor: Katrine Gotfredsen

Abstract

Stereotypes and threatening images are present in much of our modern entertainment media often going unnoticed for the effects they may have on society. One media which is relatively new and unexplored when it comes to these stereotypes and images of threat is the video game media. This thesis explores how stereotypes are created and maintained within video games and how securitization efforts affect entertainment media, in order to pursue these aims the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) is analysed with a content analysis built on the theories of othering and securitization, in order to see how the Russians are portrayed within the game. The analysis shows that the image attached to Russians is overly negative compared to other people in the game, and the common threats which they pose is going to war with the West. Based on these findings, the thesis concludes that video games do reproduce securitization discourses and create stereotypes.

Key Words: Media Portrayal, Stereotyping, Othering, Video Games, Russian Stereotypes, Call of Duty Word Count: 13599

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ...... 1

1.1. Research Aim ...... 2 1.2. Research Categories ...... 2 1.3. Delimitations ...... 3 1.4. Peace and Conflict Studies Relevance ...... 3 1.5. Thesis Outline ...... 4 2. Background and Plot Synopsis ...... 5

2.1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Plotline ...... 5 3. Previous Research ...... 9

3.1. Mass Media and Stereotypes/Prejudice ...... 9 3.2. Portrayals of Out-groups in Media ...... 10 3.3. Media Portrayals’ Influence on Society ...... 10 3.4. Possible Solutions to Problematic Portrayals Within Media ...... 11 3.5. Stereotypes of Russians in America ...... 12 4. Theoretical Overview ...... 14

4.1. Othering/stereotyping ...... 14 4.2. Securitization ...... 15 5. Methodology and Research Design ...... 16

5.1. Method ...... 16 5.2. Material ...... 17 5.3. Codes ...... 18 5.3.1. Characterization ...... 18 5.3.2. Threat ...... 19 6. Analysis ...... 21

6.1. Characterization ...... 21 6.1.1. Aggression ...... 21 6.1.2. Superiority and Sexism ...... 22 6.1.3. Cruelty ...... 23 6.1.4. Cowardly ...... 24 6.1.5. Cold Blooded ...... 25

6.1.6. Positive Traits ...... 25 6.1.7. Alcoholism ...... 26 6.2. Threat ...... 26 6.2.1. Death ...... 27 6.2.2. War and Proxy War ...... 27 6.2.3. Occupation and War Crimes ...... 28 6.2.4. Military Strength ...... 29 6.2.5. Weapons of Mass Destruction ...... 29 6.3. Discussion...... 30 7. Conclusion ...... 32

8. Reference List ...... 35

8.1. Literature Sources ...... 35 8.2. Digital Sources...... 37 8.3. Material sources ...... 37 9. Appendix ...... 38

1. Introduction

Entertainment media has become one of the main sources of leisure for many people in today’s world, coming in many different forms such as television which is broadly consumed and the increasingly popular video games, which have become a trend in recent years. Video games have become one of the biggest forms of entertainment for the younger generations being enjoyed and consumed en masse. While there have been large debates and some research around video games and their effect on society, these discussions have mostly been focused on the violence aspect of games and their link to aggression in youths. This correlation has, however, not been proven. Research within this field is a hotly debated topic with no clear consensus on the issue (Van Looy et al. 2015). Some researchers indicate that there is some correlation (e.g. Anderson et al., 2010), while others maintain that the topic and research published about the debate is often of very poor quality and very politicized (e.g. Ferguson, 2013). This has meant that the field of video game research has been limited to the individual psychological effects on players, and topics such as the effects which games can have in enforcing or creating stereotypes within society have mostly been overlooked. While overall field of media studies is large and many studies have been made on its possible effect on society, video games have largely not been scrutinized for their possible damaging effect which they could have in creating stereotypes and enemy images which are consumed by people. This study will focus on one stereotype within the video game media: stereotypes applied to Russians. The reason why studying the portrayal of the Russians within media is important, I argue, is because the cold war that lasted from 1945 to 1990 left a stereotypical view of the Russians as villains or the so called “bad guys”. This stereotype can often be seen in western politics when parties justify an increase in military spending. This stereotype is often reinforced and created by mass media from news sites discussing the threat which Russia possesses to the Western world though their meddling in the US election of 2016 to portrayals of them as villains in films such as Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Rambo, Rocky IV. This study will focus on one specific game which has chosen the Russians as one of their antagonists. The game is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) a new first-person shooter which has been met with much praise for being a return to the roots of the series. This thesis will seek to explore

how the Russians are represented within the game by answering two main questions: What are some common characteristics that the Russian characters have in the game? And the second question being: what type of threat that the Russians in the game exhibit?

1.1. Research Aim This thesis seeks to fulfil two aims. The first and the most important will be to explore and understand how video games can act as transmitters of stereotypes within our society. This is done to see primarily how stereotypes are created and maintained within video game media and to study what forms they take and what messages they convey to the audience. By achieving this aim this thesis seeks to gain an understanding of what kinds of messages exist within video games surrounding their portrayal of minorities within society and in turn seeks to contribute to the research around video game media and stereotypes. The second aim of this study will seek to understand how a securitization effort might affect media, with the purpose to gain insight of the relationship between media and politics. This will be achieved by looking for threat within the storyline of the video game and by exploring their meaning and grander implications. As stated before to operationalize this aim this thesis will seek to answer two main questions; How Russians are portrayed within Call of Duty: Modern Warfare? and what type of threat the Russian government and people pose on the story of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?

1.2. Research Categories To achieve the aim that was stated in the previous section, the analytical framework of this essay will be a content analysis which will be performed on the material. The analytical framework will be broken up into two categories which are Characterization and Threat. These categories were chosen from the theoretical framework which is based on othering/stereotyping and securitization. The theoretical framework of the thesis will be further discussed in chapter four and the analytical framework will be presented in further in detail in chapter five.

1.3. Delimitations To limit the scope of this study it will focus only on the newest Call of Duty in the series. This is to ensure that this thesis will have a clearer structure and be able to provide a more detailed picture of how Russians are portrayed in the newest game of the series and make it manageable to complete a full analysis in the timeframe given. Another limitation which this study faces is that it will not be able to show what impact that the shown stereotypes have on the audience. It will only explore these stereotypes in the frame of the game and not outside it. This is both a limit because of method chosen for the study because it would be hard to identify if a certain stereotype is picked up from the game or some other source. While these are limits, they do not undermine the goal of understanding how the Russians are portrayed. However as will be further discussed in chapter three, some research points towards a possible effect that these stereotypes could have on people and society.

1.4. Peace and Conflict Studies Relevance While the cold war might be a distant memory to many people in the world, today its effect on society is still being felt. Russians are still villainized in Western and particularly US media- from movies to local news. From popular news station Fox News constantly presenting news stories from Syria about the Russian troops bombing and attacking Syrian rebel strongholds focusing more on the Russian government involvement within the conflict and less the Syrian government which it supports (McKay, 2019), to constant reporting on Russian meddling in in the US elections of 2016 (Pappas, 2018) showing them as masterminds manipulating elections and governments around the world. This idea of stereotypes and norms which persists after war or in this case the cold war, can be attributed to what Johan Galtung Calls negative peace the idea that violence does not end when the peace is signed between nations but instead lives on in the form of cultural violence (Galtung, 2013, pp 173). Cultural violence is according to Galtung the aspects of culture who promotes or make direct and structural violence acceptable. This culture comes in many forms such as media in general (Galtung, 2013, pp 41). In a sense this means that media can be used to create an environment where violence is justified and feels right to the perpetrator. With this idea of negative peace it could be argued that while at the moment the stereotypes and ideas which are spread by the media might seem to be passive and neutral, used for entertainment and not for war, they can easily be turned into something negative creating an enemy image

which is one of the requirements for armed conflict to be justified according to Louis Oppenheimer (2003, pp 2). While this study does not deal with this problem directly, by highlighting these forms of cultural violence it brings awareness of their existence making it possible for them to be further debated and researched in future papers. This thesis is also highlighting the relationship which at times is forgotten between media, public culture, and politics and that everything can be political. This theme is explored in the book War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film by Marc Di Paolo (2011). Di Paolo explores how different political discourses and ideas show up in comics and films. From stories such as Batman fighting against Osama Bin Ladin to Superman fighting the KKK (2011, pp 49, 138). His book shows us that entertainment media can be influenced by politics both reflecting important political discourse’s but also important political events such as the Punisher being influence by Middle Eastern conflicts and the Vietnam war (Di Paolo, 2011, pp 115). This means that all entertainment media can be influenced in the same way, from films to video games making the studying of entertainment media important as to understand how and what political discourses are spread by video games.

1.5. Thesis Outline This thesis will be broken up into six major chapters. After this introduction chapter follows a background chapter in which the Call of Duty series is discussed and explored and a short story synopsis is given in order to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the material used for the analysis. The third chapter will discuss previous research on different topics around media and public culture, which is explored to give the reader an understanding of the debates and research that exists in the field around this topic. The fourth chapter will deal with the theories which will build the foundation of the analysis conducted in this thesis. The fifth chapter will explain the method used to conduct the analysis of the video game. It will also present the codes and categories which will become the base and structure of the analysis. The sixth chapter will contain the analysis which will be split into two main sub-chapters, the first dealing with how Russians are characterized and the second dealing with what threat they pose within the game. The seventh and final chapter will conclude this thesis and answer the research questions.

2. Background and Plot Synopsis

The Call of Duty series was created by Infinity Ward Studios an American game design company. They created the first Call of Duty in 2003 which was set during the second world war and offered a campaign which played out both on the western and eastern fronts showing both the American side of the war as well as the Russian. The game was a major success and spawned two more games set during the second world war. In 2007 the company decided to change the series with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Modern Warfare is set in an unmentioned Middle Eastern country and deals with fighting terrorists in the desert, but also a reawakened Russian militarist state controlled by ultranationalists who are striving for world domination. The selling point of this new game was a new setting and modern weaponry from the Colt AR 15A3 assault rifle to drone airstrikes controlled by the player. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare spawned 2 sequels following the story started in Call of Duty 4 each being more successful than the previous. After the Modern Warfare “high” the company suffered some mediocre reception of their following titles none seeming to match the popularity of the Modern Warfare series. This prompted them to return to the series and in 2019 they released the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare a remake of the series with a similar setting to the originals but a new story to drive the game.

2.1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Plotline The plot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare starts in 2019 and is mostly set in the fictional country of Urzikstan a country which in 1999 was invaded and occupied by Russian forces. One can make many comparisons between the fictional country of Urzikstan and the real world country of Syria, it has elements of the Syrian civil war where there are western sponsored rebels fighting an independent anti-western fundamentalist terrorist group both of which are fighting for the control of their country and against the Russian occupation of their country. This three sided fight does invoke imagery from Syria and also in general the war of terror from the fact that the fundamentalist group is named Al-Qatala a nod towards the real terrorist group Al-Qaeda and that the Urzikstan is positioned in a desert region with people who speak Arabic which invokes the idea of Iraq and the wars that where fought there. All of this means

that while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare might be considered fiction it is clearly drawn from real world events and locations much in the same way as comic stories take inspiration from real life events (Di Paolo, 2011).

The main story starts with a US operation in Russia lead by special agent Alex he is tasked with stealing Russian gas weapons preventing them from reaching Urzikstan. While the mission seems to be a success during the extraction the US forces are attacked by an unknown third party losing the gas weapons to an unnamed Urzik force. 24 hours later Al-Qatala a Urzik fundamentalist militant group which shares some similarities to real life groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda sends suicide bombers into Piccadilly Circus in London leading British Sergeant Kyle Garrick and SAS captain John Price to fight against the terrorists in the streets. Captain Price is recruited by the American secret service to deal with the threat of the gas weapons in Urzikstan and retrieve the weapons before an international crisis is started between Russia and the West. In Urzikstan agent Alex is sent to meet with John Price’s contact Farah Karim. Farah is the leader of the Urzikstan Liberation Force (ULF) a western sponsored rebel group fighting against the Russian occupation of their country. She agrees to help them recover the weapons if they give her aid in fighting against the Russian occupation. What follows is a joint operation where Urzik forces with the aid of US air support take out the main Russian airbase in Urzikstan. With the Russians main airbase destroyed in the region, the USA and ULF launch a joint attack on an Al-Qatala stronghold capturing their leader “the Wolf” in the process. “The Wolf” however escapes after an assault by Al-Qatala on the American embassy. To recapture “the Wolf” Farah, suggest an ambush along the highway of death a place in which the Russians bombed and killed Urzik people while they were fleeing during the war in 1999. The ambush is a success but while the ULF forces are fighting Al-Qatala forces, Russians come and ambush both groups with armoured personal carriers killing most of the Al-Qatala forces and closing in on the ULF forces. While fighting against the overpowering Russian forces Farah’s brother is revealed to have stolen the gas weapons, and in desperation he releases some of the gas killing all the Russian troops in the area and knocking out both Alex and Farah before escaping.

After the mission it is revealed through a flashback the reason for Farah and her brother’s hatred towards the Russians. During their invasion in 1999 the Russians committed many cruel acts against her people because they wanted revenge for a terrorist attack committed in their territory, the Russians used gas weapons in the city and while trying to escape the city Farah’s father is killed by a Russian soldier, afterwards while trying to sneak out of the combat zone Farah and her brother are captured by General Barkov who imprisons them. Farah is later freed

during an escape attempt several years later where she meets the then young SAS Lieutenant John Price. With weapons from the prison she starts a resistance against the Russian forces forming the ULF from which The Wolf will later split off from forming his own resistance group Al-Qatala believing that all foreign influence in Urzikstan must be removed.

Back in the present we find out that after escaping with the rest of the gas weapons Farah’s brother has joined up with the remaining Al-Qatala forces and has gone into Russia planning to use the gas there. In response the USA designate the ULF as terrorists not wanting Russia to trace a terrorist attack to a US sponsored militia. Agent Alex decides to abandon the US secret service instead choosing to continue the fight in Urzikstan against the Russian occupation together with Farah and her forces. In order to fix the situation Captain John Price suggests sending himself and a few chosen men to hunt down Farah’s brother in Russia to stop him from releasing the gas.

After two missions involving sneaking around in Russia and kidnapping an Al-Qatala enforcer John Price finally catches Farah’s brother who justifies his actions with the fact that his target all along was the Russian facility producing the gas which is used to kill his people. While the main characters agree with Farah’s brother, the means which he uses to try and achieve the goal was to extreme. After capturing him and delivering him to the US military they send him to the Russian government to await his punishment. But not wanting the injustice to continue John Price goes to Farah and Alex telling them about the brother’s fate and his plans to attack the facility manufacturing the gas. While Farah does not like the idea of attacking Russia, wanting only to be seen as the defender Price convinces her that the best defence is a swift offence leading to the group attacking the Russian facility. During the attack Alex sacrifices himself to blow up the facility wanting to die for a true cause and while trying to escape General Barkov is finally killed by Farah Karim ending his reign of terror in Urzikstan. In the end credits we find out that after his death the Russian government disowned Barkov’s actions pulling out of Urzikstan freeing the nation but it is also revealed that Al- Qatala has a new found backer a Russian ultranationalist named Victor Zakhaev leading to an escalation in the civil war for Urzikstan.

The important aspects to take from the plot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is that it is centred around the Russian occupied country of Urzikstan, the main plot element is the gas weapon stolen in the beginning of the story acting as a constant threat which the main characters must find and neutralize. Many elements of the plot – from the Arabic speaking Urzikstan to

the three-way civil war that plagues the country, are taken from real life events such as the Syrian civil war. While the plot might be fictional, the game still tries to provide a realistic modern warfare plot to the player.

3. Previous Research

3.1. Mass Media and Stereotypes/Prejudice When it comes to the field of media and its influence on societal norms and in general stereotypes and prejudice there has been a wide array of different research on the topic and themes revolving around the relationship between mass media and stereotypes (e.g. Pickering, 1995,Ottosen, 1995, Sierra, 2019). Research around this topic often revolve around the study of their creation within the media, how they exist within media and their enforcement through media into society. In his book the nature of prejudice Gordon Allport writes “stereotypes are socially supported, continually revived and hammered in, by our media of mass communication by novels, short stories, newspaper items, movies, stage, radio and television” (1954, pp. 200). His idea was that mass media is a tool in which stereotypes and prejudice are recreated and spread throughout society in a sense it becomes the thing that keeps stereotypes and prejudice alive in society. This idea of media’s situation in society as a spreader of stereotypes and prejudice can also be found in the ideas of cultural violence by Johan Galtung (2013). Within his theories on the three forms of violence, namely direct, systemic, and cultural violence. Cultural violence is that violence which is the hardest to remove from society as it is often unnoticed by the public. Cultural violence justifies the other two forms of violence. It is constantly reinforced by society through our education centres and our media sources such as entertainment media or news media. This cultural violence which exists in our society can often create situations where direct violence can be justified against an outgroup and even made to seem right or acceptable to the common person (Galtung, 2013, pp 41). In this way we can see stereotypes which are spread through media as a sort of element of cultural violence as they might be passive at the moment but they ingrain an idea of what characterizes an outgroup, giving us an idea of both the positive and the negative traits which they possess which can later be used to justify actions against said outgroup such as prosecution, war and murder. This shows us the importance of studying stereotypes within all media in order to uncover these stereotypes before they can be ingrained in society and later used for justification.

3.2. Portrayals of Out-groups in Media Many studies have emerged over the years covering how certain groups are portrayed within media (e.g. Adams-Bass et al. 2014, Mortensen, et al. 2019). The research on this theme often focuses on a certain data set in the form of a media which is then analysed by the researchers to gain a understanding of the message and image which is crated within the media about a certain outgroup. One such study was made by Cherry A. Banks which conducted a content analysis of the portrayal of Black Americans in six different television shows three with all black casts and three with mixed casts of actors. Her results showed that the shows with all black casts would often recreate negative stereotypes of black people which existed within American society such as they are criminally inclined and poor, while racially mixed shows would have a more positive portrayal of Black Americans (Banks, 1975). Race is not the only thing which is often studied regarding stereotyping within media, sex is also something which is studied in medias portrayal of gender. A study by Sarah Brabant found that in six different Sunday newspaper comics even though women might have different personalities in the comics they still exhibit the same stereotypes across the different comics all of them being the main providers of food and working from home (1997). Much in the same way as these other studies this thesis will also seek to explore stereotypes with media adding onto the fast amounts of data and research on this topic.

3.3. Media Portrayals’ Influence on Society While Gordon Allport (1954) did not provide much evidence of his claim about media’s role in spreading and enforcing stereotypes in society. Many researchers have continued on this idea and contributed to this field of research with experiments and thesis of their own. One such researcher is Tomas Ford (1997) who conducted an experiment on white Americans. In the experiment he showed a few clips from comedy shows to two groups of white Americans. The first group was showed a show which derived its humour by using typical black stereotypes such as black minorities being poor, criminal, and violent. While the other group got shown a comedy featuring black people, but its humour did not derive from popular stereotypes. Then the two groups where made to judge two criminal cases one where the perpetrator’s name was Tom – a typically white name and one which employed the more commonly associated black name of Tyrone. While there was little change in how many people found Tom guilty between the two groups, the experiment reached the conclusion that the group that was exposed to the

humour shows which derived its humour from typical stereotypes were more likely to find the more commonly black named criminal guilty, while the group which was shown the neutral comedy shows were less likely to think the same (Ford, 1997). The idea of stereotypes spreading through media can also be found in a study by Amee Shah where she found that people would often associate characteristics such as kindness, deceitfulness and even someone’s supposed occupation to people from just hearing their specific accent when spoken and that these assumptions could be certainly a form of stereotype. According to Shah many of the assumptions were often acquired from the subject’s media consumption such as films where they would hear characters speak with that accent. This would cause them to associate that accent with a stereotype created form the character. For example, they would often be attributing negative traits to German accents calling them “harsh”, “feared” and “unfriendly” while deeming other accents such as Scottish to be “friendly”, “open”, and “trustworthy” (Shah, 2019). While further research exists around the subject of media’s influence on society one theme that is often highlighted/discussed is the difficulty to prove a direct correlation between media and stereotypes. The only thing that can be drawn from most research around this topic is the likelihood a change might occur in a person’s cognition. This is because of the lack of a controlled environment in many of the experiments around this topic and the general difficulty in pinpointing a stereotypes origin within society. But research on this topic does also show us that media does play a part in how stereotypes are created within society meaning that its important that we identify them within our media in order to open them up for scrutiny and further research before they damage the public’s perception of an out-group.

3.4. Possible Solutions to Problematic Portrayals Within Media There is however also some research around the theme of media being used to influencing people for the better working to remove their prejudice against an outgroup and reworking their stereotypical knowledge of a group through positive portrayals within media. One such research project by Edward Schippa et al. (2008) found that by exposing people to the show Will and Grace which featured two none stereotypical positive homosexual characters within it a positive change would occur. People who would watch the show regularly would start to rethink their stereotypical and prejudiced position on homosexual men. Their results also found that many of the participants who viewed the show would also form an understanding of gay people based on the two characters from the show viewing them as accurate representations of

gay people and they would in turn think of them better in general. The study also found that many of the participants who were prejudiced towards gay men before the study did also have little to no contacts who were gay, and that watching the show had a larger impact on their levels of prejudice then the people who had some friends (Schippa, Gregg, Hewes, 2008). From their research we can get an understanding that by realizing and changing how groups are portrayed within media and giving people positive representations of outgroups, general prejudice against said outgroup might change and typical stereotypes of outgroups might be subverted. These types of research show us that there is a possibility to subvert negative stereotypes within our society through media by giving people who have no contact with an out-group a substitute. This means that research around this topic is important as it could be one of many possible ways of starting to subvert cultural violence within society.

3.5. Stereotypes of Russians in America Going from the broader research around stereotypes and media portrayals, there exists some literature revolving around the existence of the stereotype of the Russians within the United States of America (eg. Silverstein, 1989, Kriesberg, 1946, Gerbner, 1989). One such study by Walter G, Stephen (1994) was set out to test ways to measure stereotypes within Russia and the USA. The study found that Americans often viewed the Russians as disciplined, hardworking, orderly, conservative, obedient, serious, aggressive, strong, competitive, proud, and patriotic. Many of these attributes where also within the Russian stereotype of the American people seeing them as proud, patriotic, materialistic, independent, aggressive, self- confident, and competitive. But one thing the study did find however was that while the Russian view of the American people where similar between the different test groups, the American view of the Russians changed between test groups (Stephen, 1994). According to Stephen this might be because of the lack of information American students have about the Russian people or Russia in general. This he compared to the Russian students who had more of a general understanding about America and its people allowing them to form a uniform opinion and stereotype of them. This means that the findings surrounding the American view of the Russians is not as uniform as the one Russia had over the Americans in the study (Stephen, 1994). Another study by Elza Ibroscheva (2002) continued the topic of Russians portrayal within America. Her study focused on the American view of the Russian people and how it has changed since the end of the cold war. Another aspect which is covered in her research is also how mass media affects the perception of the Russian people (Ibroscheva.

2002). The method used in the study was surveys which were distributed to a range of different participants. The study found that the most common attributes Russian people were given included: disciplined, efficient, tough, hardworking, secretive, obedient, criminal, hard drinking, cunning, machinelike, insecure, vicious, aggressive, cold-blooded, belligerent, and hostile (Ibroscheva, 2002). The study also found that since the end of the cold war more positive stereotypes have become leading in the portrayal however the negative stereotypes do still exist within the minds of the people. Furthermore, Ibroscheva also found a correlation between people who consumed media and had a negative understanding of the attributes which the Russian people had. This however seems to be a weaker correlation as its hard to prove what kind of relationship is between media and negative stereotypes and what other factors might influence a person to gain that negative stereotype against Russian people so further studies would have to be made around that subject according to Ibroscheva (2002). These studies however do give us a general idea of what the Stereotype of the Russians is in the USA. This information will be used as a base for the child codes which will be used in the content analysis on the stereotype of the Russians in Call of Duty and will be covered in detail in chapter five.

4. Theoretical Overview

The purpose of this section is to inform the reader of the theoretical framework which will be the basis of the content analysis and to justify why these theories where chosen. This analytical framework will be built on theories and ideas which were presented in the previous research section. The two theories are othering, a theory which focuses on the creation of an out-group which in turn defines your own in-group and securitization, a theory focusing on threat analysis and how something becomes designated as a threat. Out of the theory of othering the concept of stereotyping is the central focus which will be taken from the theory. Stereotyping is a concept focused on the creation of common understanding of how a person or group is usually viewed by the society which can be both negative and positive. This stereotype can later be spread through the media as was mentioned in the previous research section on subheading 3.3 “media portrayals influence on society”. The second theory which will build the analytical framework of this essay is Securitization – a theory which focuses on the efforts of states and other actors to make something or someone into a threat to security in the eyes of the public. Out of these two theories the codes which will be used to analyze Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be extracted.

4.1. Othering/stereotyping Othering is the theory which will be used to address the first aim of this thesis that of finding and analyzing stereotypes with video games. It is defined as the process of identifying a group or individual who do not follow the norms of the in-group or deviates from the in-group. Othering is used to form an “us”, as well as to create inclusion, exclusion, and division in groups (Oppenheimer, 2006). Othering can take many forms such as prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination (Dovidio et al. 2003, pp 5-7). This study will focus on the stereotyping aspect of othering since the other two, prejudice and discrimination are more focused on studying inter-group relations and not the groups understanding of each other. Stereotyping is a concept where an image is created of what is believed to be common characteristics of a group of people. These characteristics can be things such as behavioral traits to more personal traits such as occupation or appearance (Dovidio et al. 2003, pp 7). These traits do not need to

be negative but they do generalize groups of people to make it easier for us to process the information we get with the downside being that it can easily lead to the other two concepts of prejudice and discrimination as stereotypical characteristics become the basis of the mistreatment (Dovidio et al. 2003, pp 8). Stereotypes can be as mentioned in the previous chapter spread through media sources which is the core reason of why it was chosen as one of the main theories that the coding of the game will be based on. It will be used in the analysis of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as it is a form of entertainment media. Another interesting use of othering is that of the creation of an in-group which is different from the out-group. This means that characteristics which are often exhibited by an out-group will be opposite to the ones shown by the in-group so by understanding how the Russians are portrayed within the game we can get an understanding of how the western world views itself. The reason for which othering is chosen as one of the main theories is due to its central location when it comes to the field of portrayal often forming the basis on which most research in this field is conducted.

4.2. Securitization Securitization is a term coined by Danish professor Olea Weaver. Securitization is a theory developed in Copenhagen and focuses on how a political entity designates something or someone as an active threat to the security of the nation justifying actions that need to be taken against that threat (McDonald, 2008, pp 565). The theory covers many different aspects from what audience the message is trying to reach to the tools used to make something into a threat. These aspects are not relevant to this thesis as the audience of the video game is anyone who buys it meaning that it is not targeting a specific audience. Also, since it is not produced by a group with a clear political agenda the tools which are used by said groups are not relevant to the understanding what threat is produced by the Russians. The aspect of this theory which will be used however is the understanding of how something, or someone is designated as a threat within media (McDonald, 2008, pp 566). While Call of Duty is not created by a politically inclined party there is an argument which can be made that its apart of a wider securitization effort against Russia so it can still be considered political in nature furthering an agenda outside of its own intent. The game then becomes a piece of a larger puzzle and can serve as a portrayal of how securitization efforts against Russia is affecting society. That is why by using the theory of securitization in the content analysis of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare we can search for this portrayal of the Russians as threatening and specifically look for themes of threat within the game.

5. Methodology and Research Design

This section will guide the reader through the content analysis method which will be used to answer the research question, first a section where the reasoning behind choosing content analysis will be presented then a presentation of the material that this study will mainly be using and lastly the codes which were briefly presented in the last section will be explained and justified

5.1. Method To answer the research questions this essay will make use of a qualitative case study of the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). To process the material this study will employ the content analysis method to extract the data which will form the basis of the analysis. To accomplish this, we will be making use of a descriptive content analysis which according to Kimberly A. Neuendorf, focuses on describing and finding specific messages and themes which can be extracted from a specific text or data set (2002, pp,53). This specific form of content analysis was chosen to explore the stereotypes which appear within the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare meaning that we want to discover what messages in the form of stereotype the game produces. This is done by braking down the data found within the game into codes which will later be analyzed, these codes are broken into three distinct sizes the first is the category which informs larger meta theoretical aspects of what is being search for in the data. The second tier is the mother code which starts to narrow the search from the theoretical side to a more physical code which can be searched for. Finally, the third tier is the baby codes which are specific variables related to the mother codes which are searched for in the data. While a content analysis is most often attributed to and used in quantitative research this essay will be making use of it as a qualitative tool for text analysis. Russel Bernard writes abouts qualitative text analysis within his book Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (2006). While most steps for conducting the content, analysis stay the same between the qualitative and quantitative versions of a content analysis they deal with different problems and things which they need to keep in mind while doing their research. There are two main challenges that face a qualitative content analysis the first is the

issue of coder reliability and the second is the tendency to generalize the results of the analysis. The first issue of intercoder reliability is the issue of having multiple researchers who are codding the same text and who might have different opinions and ideas of what each code means and where they fit in (Bernard, 2006, pp, 512). While this is a serious issue for thesis’s which have multiple researchers conducting the coding, since this thesis only has one researcher intercoder reliability is not an issue. But this thesis will still seek to make the coding scheme clear to the reader by going into detail about why and how each unit of measurement was chosen, this will be covered in section 5.3. The second challenge that often faces a qualitative content analysis is that of sample size and the problem of how much the sample represents the thing you are researching (Bernard, 2006, pp 509). This is not something which is a problem for this essay as the research question is centered on the chosen sample as this thesis is only seeking to understand the sample and how it represents Russian people and not how video games in general do so. Generalization is a common trait of a content analysis especially quantitative ones, this is something which this essay will not seek to do, since while it can analyze what’s within the game it cannot generalize all works of fiction and their portrayal of Russian only how specifically Call of Duty: Modern Warfare portrays the Russian people. The reason a qualitative content analysis was chosen as the method for this essay instead of other methods is because of its strengths. One of which is its ability to be used in order to test theories and hypothesis on a specific data set (Bernard, 2006, pp 510) in this case we shall be using it in order to test the theories of othering and securitization on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It is also a tried and tested method often being used by many researchers who seek to uncover and understand the messages and stereotypes which exists within a media (e.g. Banks, 1975).

5.2. Material The data for the analysis will be taken from the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare the focus will be on both the named characters and the unnamed characters that appear throughout the games story. The focus will be on the dialogue in the video game between the different characters but on other aspects of the game such as visual or actions taken by the characters in the game will also be codded. The process of codding the video game will be conducted on video clips which were recorded by the researcher while playing the game this is done so that

rewinding and re-watching a section is made easier. This is done in an effort to make sure no codes are missed or misinterpreted by the researcher during the coding process.

5.3. Codes The codes of the content analysis will become the basis of which the analysis will be structured from and conducted. The codes will be both inductive and deductive meaning that the categories and mother codes which are the themes and more general variables which we are searching for will be taken from the theories presented in chapter four while the baby codes which are the more specific variables that are being searched for in the game will be created from previous research on the stereotype of the Russians explored in subsection 3.5. The codes1 which will be taken from the theories are the categories: threat and characterization while the mother codes will be subtle threat, active threat, positive traits, and negative traits. The baby codes which are the smaller more detailed codes will be taken from the game itself and from the previous research around the subject of the stereotype of the Russian people within America.

5.3.1. Characterization One important aspect of a stereotype is that of character traits which make up the stereotype, stereotypes are in their core just a set of data which we tap into to get a quick understanding of a person we see based on prior information about people from that group. These character traits can take many forms from personality traits to common occupations attributed to the stereotype. To this effect the codes which will be used to note down these characterizations will focus on two main mother codes these being positive traits and negative traits. Positive traits will be positive characterizations which were found in previous studies on the stereotype of the Russian in America these traits are: discipline which will be counted every time a Russian character is shown to be orderly and loyal to their commander, efficiency which will cover whenever the Russians are shown to be very good at something, bravery which will cover whenever Russians show signs of bravery and courage, intelligence will account for their portrayal as smart, just will be focused on their moral compass doing actions because of justice and right, honesty which will cover

1 See Chapter 9 Appendix for full list of codes

whenever a Russian character is described as being trust worthy or when they speak the truth, strong which will be counted whenever Russians are shown to be strong in a positive light. Negative traits will also be taken from the previous research these are: aggression which will be counted whenever a Russian is shown to be violent within the game, cold-blooded which will be counted whenever Russians show a lack of emotion to acts which invoke emotion from others, cruel which will be counted whenever Russians are either described as cruel by others or are shown to commit cruel acts against others, hard drinking which will cover whenever a Russian character is described or shown to be a heavy drinker of alcohol. By looking at what characteristics the Russians have in the game we can get an understanding of what are some of the common stereotypical traits which western societies have of the Russian people shown in the game.

5.3.2. Threat While it is quite obvious that the antagonists of a war centric video game will exhibit some sort of threat what this category will seek to understand is what kind of threat the character poses within the game, threat of death or more subtle ones like planned invasions. This will allow us to explore what are the most common threat assumptions made within the game. The codes which will be derived from the theory of securitization will be focused on threats which will be the main theme. This theme will be split into two mother codes: active threat and subtle threat. An active threat will be defined as actions which exhibit a clear sign of threat to the main characters. These kinds of threat are: the threat of death which will be counted whenever a Russian character threatens a person with killing them, the threat of occupation which will be counted whenever the game discusses or shows the horror of a Russian occupation, the threat of war which is focused on whenever a possible war with Russia is discussed by the characters in the game and finally the threat of war crimes which will be counted every time Russia or Russians are shown to commit war crimes within the game in the form of targeting civilians, executing people without trial or using illegal weapons. Subtle threats will be considered as actions which propose a future threat which are not active but give the idea of a possible future actions these codes are weapons of mass destruction which will count whenever a Russian weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is discussed within the game, military power which will be counted whenever Russian military power is either shown or discussed by the characters in the context of how great it is or how threatening it is and proxy wars which will be counted whenever proxy wars between Russia and another western nation are mentioned within the

plot. By counting these different variables, we can get an understanding of what types of threats are the most common within the game and what threats are less common.

6. Analysis

This section will deal with the analysis of the codes and data which was extracted with the content analysis. It will be broken down into two main sections each dealing with a specific theme from the content analysis, the first section will deal with the characterization of the Russian characters within the video game, and the second section will deal with the threats that Russia and Russians exhibit in the plot of the story.

6.1. Characterization

Characterization is an important part of any storytelling; it is what creates a character and effects how they are remembered and what impact they leave on the audience. Within Call of Duty: Modern Warfare many different traits are used to characterize the Russians within the game’s story.

6.1.1. Aggression One such attribute often shown by the Russians is aggression. The Russians exhibit aggressive behavior or commit violent acts a total of 13 times within the game. Russian characters would often be depicted to engage in unprovoked attacks and demonstrate brutality towards both civilians and the main characters. This is exemplified during the ninth mission “hometown” where we see how an unnamed Russian soldier who has his face covered with a gas mask bursts into Farah’s home while her family is trying to escape a Russian attack on her city. The soldier says nothing during the exchange, but he threatens the family with his gun ready to shoot at any moment. Farah’s father tries to stop him by pushing him away to save his children by giving them time to hide, the Russian soldier then brutally kills Farah’s father by shooting him multiple times in the chest leaving him to slowly bleed to death. The soldier then precedes to hunt for Farah and her brother with the clear intent of killing the two children only being stopped by his superior ordering him to capture them instead. During his search Farah stabs him multiple times in the legs with knifes she finds around the house. Each time she does, the

soldier attempts to harm her by trying to strangle her or hit her with a full force punch. After a few rounds of this, the soldier catches Farah and starts to strangle her to death but is stopped by her brother leading to a moment when Farah takes the Russian’s gun and shoots him. In this scene the Russian character remains faceless with his face covered by a gas mask his body is well built and giant, looking at it from the perspective of a child which Farah is in this moment he looks more like a monster then man. This is just one of many different examples of Russian characters who exhibit aggressive behavior. Aggression is seen throughout the Russian focused missions in the game where Russian characters often hit civilians or in general threaten them with violence. This constant aggression paints a picture of the Russian soldiers as men who often solve all their problems through violence, during the game Russians would often threaten a person or outright attack them before ever considering negotiating with them. This makes it seem that while the Russians are aggressive, they are also impossible to reason with. If we compare that to the Arabic terrorists of Al-Qatala who are the game’s secondary enemies they are shown to have their aggressive moments but, they are also shown to have a more methodological and planned approach to violence, they are also not as explicitly show as violent compared to the Russian moments often appearing more methodological and planned and less animalistically brutal like the Russians.

6.1.2. Superiority and Sexism Another prevalent characteristic is that Russians within the game often view themselves as superior to everyone else, especially the Urzik people who they are occupying. They are also shown to be sexist believing that women cannot be fighters. Within the story there is a total of 8 times when Russian characters explicitly call others either a savage or question their position because of their gender. Russian characters often treat the Urzik people like savages and call them animals in one line when discussing the reason, they keep some of them alive instead of just killing them all. The soldiers say “free labor, the women serve, and the men work till they die, He [General Barkov] told us, learn to use every part of the animal.” Another soldier says in the same conversation that he refuses to get killed by women, and after learning that the rebels are led by a female general, he calls them animals. This dialogue exemplifies many different conversations within the game whenever the Russians are talking about the Urzik people, they often compare them to savages or to animals justifying their actions against them in this way.

The gendered narrative created in the game is that they believe that women do not have the means or right to kill and defend themselves. And that being killed by a woman is a form of dishonor. Throughout the story Russians often claim that they are civilized or that they are bringing civilization to Urzikstan and that the Urzik militants are savages. This message is clearly using discourses found within former colonial nations during the colonial period where the European colonizers would often call or treat the natives as savages that needed to be civilized. This is wildly different from how the western characters are portrayed, American and British characters are shown to respect the Urzik people even going so far as leaving the American military just to fight on the same side as the Urzik liberation front. These statements of superiority that are made throughout the game by Russian characters show us the audience that the Russians are a self-centered people. They view themselves as superior to everyone viewing all others who they conquer as animals’ savages. Within the game this creates a narrative where you are fighting against people who abuse and enslave people of another nation because they are superior to them both culturally but also civilization-wise. This brings in associations to ideas of fighting against Nazism and oppression during the second world war.

6.1.3. Cruelty The most prevalent characteristic shown by the Russians is their cruelty. Often within the game they are shown to commit cruel acts against people for no reason but to be cruel, they do things such as enslave local people of Urzikstan to work for them, or they shoot masses of citizens because they want revenge for an action done against them. Within the game the Russians exhibit cruel behavior a total of 15 times. Comparing that to the Al-Qatala terrorists we see a difference where their missions are often more focused on fighting against them, they are only shown to commit cruel acts a couple of times in the story and that is mostly centered around two missions their terrorist attack in London and their attack to free their leader in the American embassy. This is different from the Russians who are often in the missions set in Urzikstan shown to be cruel towards the native civilians from the mission where you explore an occupied city, to the two flash backs you get from Farah’s time as a child fleeing a Russian attack on her city and in a Russian prison. One example of this discourse can be taken from mission four “embedded” here we follow CIA Agent Alex as he helps Farah destroy two Russian helicopters in a Urzik city in order to lure away Russian forces protecting an airbase in the area, during the mission you are led through the occupied city watching and hearing of Russian atrocities committed during their

occupation. One such moment is when halfway through the mission you see the Russians using a crane to hang three Urzik men. During the hanging Urzik people are made to watch the execution. Among the crowd there is a family watching the event the wife turns away not wanting to look at the execution being performed. Seeing her turn away a Russian soldier walks up to her. The wife’s husband explains that she is scared and that is why she does not want to watch. The soldier says he understands then forcibly pulls her away from her husband making her watch the execution explaining to her that they hang because they killed their soldiers, insinuating that any form of armed resistance will be punished by hanging and its justified. Another scene in which Russian cruelty is discussed is during the mission eight briefing “the highway of death”, in the briefing it is explained that the highway was the place of a bombing conducted by the Russians on people trying to escape the city during their occupation of it. These two scenes are only two of many different cruel acts which the Russians commit or have committed within the game story. One such act is torturing one of the main characters Farah by water bordering her and killing one of her people in front of her not to gain any information as they already knew what they were asking her but just to prove their dominance over her and her people. This constant reinforcement throughout the game creates an understanding for the audience that the Russian soldiers are cruel and not because they need to be, but because they want to be cruel.

6.1.4. Cowardly Another negative characteristic which the Russians show within the game is their cowardly nature. From main characters noting how the Russian general never goes to where his troops are, always hiding away in Russia to moments like in mission Eleven “Captive” where you see a flashback to Farah’s time as a captive of the Russians. During the mission, a massive escape attempt is made within the prison leading to general Barkov fleeing the facility with a helicopter the rebels calling him a coward and a spineless dog. Russians are shown to be cowardly a total of 5 times in the story, this is mostly coming from the Russian general Barkov and his acts of running away at different times in the story. Which could point towards this being a personal trait and not a group trait as no other Russian is shown to be fearful and running away. Russian civilians are also shown to be fearful during the events of mission 12 and 13 where terrorists enter the city but that is also the same for the civilians shown during mission 2 Piccadilly set in London. While this cowardly characteristic is quite minor in the grand scheme of the game

its still present within the game yet another negative characteristic which is put on a Russian character.

6.1.5. Cold Blooded One message that is prevalent throughout the story is also the cold-blooded nature of the Russian people. Often within the game you will see Russians not reacting to the horror that is committed around them, from soldiers walking through mass graves, to Russians shooting people without blinking. An example of this cold-blooded behavior takes place during mission twelve “old comrades” there we are introduced to Nikolai an old Russian contact of British SAS Captain Price. Nikolai is one of the only friendly Russian characters within the story acting as an old friend to Price helping him take down the Russian general Barkov in a later mission. During the mission “old comrades” a terrorist enforcer named “the butcher” is captured by the main characters to find out the location of the stolen Russian gas. To gain this information, the main characters kidnap “the butcher’s” wife and child in order to threaten him with their deaths. In the game the reveal is treated as a crucial moment where the morality of the main characters is put to question Kyle, who you get to control in this moment gets to choose whether he participates in this act of using a man’s family to threaten him or if he stays out of it. However where the American and British characters treat the moment as a big deal the Russian Nikolai just says “Bargaining chips….. for negotiation” he even smiles at the end of his sentence once again showing the cold-blooded nature of the Russian people in that even these moments that the game treats as morally gray the Russians treat as if nothing is wrong. These characteristics shown by both the “good” Russians and the “bad” Russians show us, the audience that all Russians are to a certain extent cold-blooded. This coupled with their cruel characteristic shows people who are needlessly cruel towards people and that the cruelty does not affect them since they are almost machine-like. While the Russians do show emotions such as fear and anger, they are cold to other forms of emotion within the game neither showing joy, love, or compassion.

6.1.6. Positive Traits Within the game there are some instances of positive characterization but not many, these happen primarily in two places in the story the first is during the mission embedded where general Barkov over a speaker will say how just and honest the Russian people are, while this

might seem like a positive characterization its quite clear within the game that its more of propaganda spread by a known liar and enemy. This leaves us with only one true instance of positive Russian characterization that being the previously mentioned character Nikolai. Even though he is shown to be cold-blooded he also exhibits some positive traits during his small screen time those being specifically his strength, his just personality, and his efficiency. These characteristics are shown by his fast ability to procure weapons during the “old comrades” mission and by the fact that he often says that the reason he is helping the main characters take down general Barkov is because he sees him as a corrupt individual tainting the Russian nation and abusing his power as a General to make himself more rich and powerful. Other positive characteristics which were searched for like bravery, intelligence, honesty, often attributed to other actors such as Captain Pierce, Officer Kyle and Farah where clearly missing from the portrayal of the Russians not appearing once during the coding process.

6.1.7. Alcoholism Another missed code which was taken from the previous research on the stereotype of the Russian people is the negative code for Russians being heavy drinkers, this did not show up within the game, the Russians where not shown to be heavy drinkers within the game plot neither drinking or talking about alcohol making it the only negative trait which was searched for not present within the game. This however makes a little impact on the general portrayal of the Russians within the game if we take all the characteristics, we find that Russians are portrayed to be aggressive, cruel, feel like they are superior and cold-blooded. This portrayal gives the audience the idea that Russians are horrible people and almost monster- like enemies. While there is one good Russian he is treated as more of an exception then the rule to follow when it comes to the Russian people.

6.2. Threat Throughout the video game there are many different forms of threat which the Russians pose both to the main characters and to the story in general. They are often used as the primary antagonists moving forward the story in order to deal with the threat posed by Russia in different ways.

6.2.1. Death The most common active threat which the Russians pose to the main characters is the threat of death at the hands of Russia. This threat comes in many different examples throughout the game from the act of Russian general Barkov threatening Farah with killing her, to mission nine when Farah as a child is constantly threatened by different Russian solider wanting to kill her. This form of threat is understandable as it is a video game revolving around conflict and violence making the threat of death a natural part of that story. In total the Russians threaten death upon people 20 times throughout the story in different forms from trying to actively kill the main characters to implying their death at the hands of their soldiers. This is also seen by the Al-Qatala characters who would also threaten the lives of the main characters but where the Russians are focused on killing anyone who is not with them there are instances where some Al-Qatala characters make it clear that their fight is not with the western main characters but with the Russians.

6.2.2. War and Proxy War Another threat posed by Russia itself is the threat of war with the west, specifically the USA which becomes one of the main driving forces within the game. This threat is shown in some of the briefing sequences of the missions and cutscenes at the start and end of them to set the stakes of each mission before its commenced. This is best exemplified in the ending of the first mission where we see a scene between the CIA operations manager and a representative of the US government stating that the failed mission has led to Russia moving troops into the Black sea and in general broken off all communication between the two nations. Within the game this threat is mentioned a total of 11 times. This threat of war is one of the main threats shown within the game being treated as the main problem which needs to be solved by the main characters. One discourse shown is that Russia is often quite willing to solve their problems with war or violence using it as their main problem-solving tool. This is shown by the fact that when something goes wrong, they will often attack and take vengeance on the offending party from the 1999 invasion of Urzikstan which was started as a response to a terrorist attack on Russian soil to the constant threat of global war because of the fact that a Russian gas weapon has been stolen by US sponsored militants. There is also a subtle discourse within the game shown by Russian characters during the story the idea of the West versus the East. In mission three “embedded” the Russian general Barkov states on the intercoms while talking to the Urzik people working in his forced labor camps, that they had the common enemy of the West and

that by combining their Eastern forces they could defeat the Western enemy which is clearly within the game shown to be the USA and its British ally. This discourse is linked to the subtle threat of proxy wars the idea that the USA is constantly fighting in proxy wars against Russia on multiple fronts. Proxy wars are mentioned a total of 3 times. In the game story the Urzik conflict in general is treated as a major proxy war between the USA and Russia. The Urzik are side characters to the main conflict which is happening between the West and Russia. Often the main characters talk about the conflict in Urzikstan as if it is a proxy war between the US and Russia where the stakes are more focused on the conflict growing from being just a local conflict to a global one. Mirroring many of the same fears found during the cold wars many proxy wars between the USA and the USSR.

6.2.3. Occupation and War Crimes The two last active threats which are often talked about and shown within the game are the threat of occupation and war crimes. Seeing as the game is set in the Russian occupied country of Urzikstan many of the threats shown by the Russians are connected to their harsh occupation policies and their cruelty within war. In total the game mentions or talks about the Russian occupation a total of 9 times during the game’s story talking about how the Russians are occupying and abusing Urzikstan and its people. This is exemplified in many ways during the third mission “embedded,” where we get to explore a Russian occupied city. We see how the Russians are forcing the men to work manual labor carrying brinks and stones for construction we also hear often during the mission how Russia is going to extract all Urzik resources in order to use them for the greater good of Russia. This threat of occupation is used as a main driving point for the Urzik characters in the game both the Urzik Liberation Force (ULF) lead by Farah and Al-Qatala were created in order to fight against Russian occupation of their country its treated as a noble cause to end the horror of Russian occupation. This threat works well with the second threat mentioned that of war as it shows that if Russia where to win a war, they would mistreat their conquered victims forcing them to work.

This leads us to the threat of war crimes committed by Russia. Within the game Russia is shown to commit many forms of war crimes braking international laws in order to win, these war crimes take many forms throughout the game from the Russians enslaving Urzik people to work for them shown in mission four. Russians also mass execute Urzik people without trial and hide their bodies in mass graves. In total Russian war crimes are mentioned or shown a

total of 10 times in the game they take many forms from Russians bombing fleeing Urzik people on the highway of death (An event which is very similar to another one which occurred in Iraq during the Gulf war with the same name). To more clear examples like during mission nine where we see a flashback of the Russian invasion of Urzikstan in 1999 where we clearly see Russians firing gas weapons into a crowd of civilians killing them all. In the same mission we see how they are ordered to kidnap all the women and children in the area to be used as human shields in the Russians fight against the terrorists in the area. This threat fits with the cruel characterization mentioned before. Here the threat is the Russians inhumanity their willingness to disregard international law and fight dirty something which the Western characters don’t do showing a divide between the Russians and the West.

6.2.4. Military Strength A minor threat which is only mentioned a total of 5 times during the story is the military strength of the Russian government often within the game there are instances where General Barkov will mention the Russian government unlimited military strength that any resistance against Russia is meaningless since while your countries have limited manpower the Russians have unlimited manpower, other instances within the game showing their military power come in the form of new weapons and tanks which are show to be used by Russia showing armored personal carriers which cannot be destroyed by the main characters this all builds the threat image of the Russians showing them as an unstoppable force.

6.2.5. Weapons of Mass Destruction The last threat which will be presented is the threat of weapons of mass destruction. While the talk of nuclear weapons is absent from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare they are replaced by other weapons of mass destruction specifically chemical weapons in the form of poison gas. The poison gas weapon takes center stage being the main driving force of the game from being stolen in the beginning of the game and being destroyed at the end of it, they are the central threat mechanic in the game while they might not be used by the Russians in all instances being employed by the Urzik terrorists and Farah’s brother its made clear that they are Russian in origins. This threat can be related to two different real life discourses that of the Russian nuclear weapons which are an important focus point in documents such as the Wolfowitz doctrine, but also in other areas such as gas weapons used in Syria by the Syrian government. This discourse

gives the audience the idea that one of the main threats posed by the Russian government is its weapons of mass destruction which they are ready to use for purposes of revenge against a action taken against them but also as a tool of oppression against people who stand up against their tyranny much in the same way gas weapons in Syria where used.

6.3. Discussion Using the theories that where presented in chapter 4 we can start making some assumptions and conclusions about the data starting with theory of othering. With the game being developed by an American studio within California we can assume that the in-group is the Western world specifically the USA and the outgroups portrayed within the game are the Russians and the Arabic natives of Urzikstan. Within the game we see many different characteristics which are attributed to the Russians some more common then others. Many of these characteristics are shared by multiple Russian characters building the idea that many Russians share the same characteristics which are; aggression shown through their tendency to solve their problems through violence and not through diplomacy, they are cold-blooded lacking emotion like machines, they are cruel often doing things to hurt others both mentally and physically and finally, they often think of themselves as superior to others looking down upon them dehumanizing them as animals. This characterization is devoid of any positive traits and it creates an overly negative stereotype of the Russians. Comparing that to the Western characters in the game its quite different where the Russians are cowardly the British and Americans are brave often fighting against impossible odds. Where the Russians are cruel, the Americans show compassion towards the Urzik’s fight for freedom. While there is one Russian character that does show some positive traits in the story he is quite a minor character getting very little screen time and even he suffers from some of the negative traits such as his cold-blooded personality. This split representation where the Russians are often shown as bad and the Western Characters as good is seen throughout the game and it creates an us versus them discourse where the Russians have different goals, different morals and different ways from the West that are so foreign that they cannot be understood. This representation is quite dangerous as it creates the idea that the Russians are different from the audience, that they are the foreign, the savage, the cruel outsiders. This stereotype has the potential to be dangerous as it could easily form the basis of future political discourses centered around anti-Russian policies and ideas justified through the cruelty and inhumanity which characterizes the stereotype of the Russians within the game.

Looking at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as a piece of a larger securitization effort against Russia we find that the conflict represented within the game between Russia and Urzikstan is very similar to the Syrian civil war, in the game the conflict is represented as a three way conflict between the American sponsored ULF, the independent terrorist group Al-Qatala and the Russian occupation forces. This means that it is a familiar situation which audiences can relate to and understand. Within the game there are a multiple kind of threats which are attributed to the Russian government which can be used to justify the stance which the US takes against them in the game. They are often threatening war against other nations and if they are slighted by another country, they are not afraid to invade which could easily be used to justify preemptive actions against them stopping the threat before it becomes serious. This threat is even made more serious by the fact that in game the Russians are often shown to mistreat the civilian population of their enemies, they are not afraid to brake international laws by killing and massacring civilian populations with chemical weapons to get revenge over any resistance shown by the enemy populations. This shows the threat of a Russian controlled world where they mistreat and abuse everyone beneath them, this threat combined with their superiority complex and their cruelty makes them resemble the Nazi regime in Germany during the Second World War. Russia is also shown to be a dominant military power often boasting about its limitless manpower and its unstoppable tanks and armored transports again building up the threat image. While nuclear weapons are not disused or shown within the game there is another form of WMD that takes center stage in the game and that is Russian chemical weapons in the form of a poison gas, we are shown in the game both the fact that Russia is producing this chemical gas and that they are not afraid of using it. This could be said to replace the common threat discourse of nuclear weapons making the threat something which the audience can grasp and understand because while nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945 in an active conflict, gas weapons have been used and seen in modern conflicts such as the Syrian civil war. This makes the Russian gas weapons shown in the game a real understandable threat both in the game and real life, which makes their possible threat to the characters in the game and the audience playing feel more real and relatable.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion we can see that the characteristics which are commonly attributed to the Russians in the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare are: aggression, superiority, cruelty and cold- bloodedness. These traits are the most common for the Russians within the game appearing in multiple Russian characters both the named ones and the unnamed ones indicating clearly that they are common traits for many Russians. While the game does have one positive Russian character, he plays quite a minor role within the story, and even he suffers from the negative traits. This shows us that there can be nice Russians, but they are still as bad as the rest of them. While previous research by Ibroscheva in 2002 suggested that the American stereotype of the Russians was becoming more positive than negative, that is not the case with this game. The stereotype created within the game is overly negative to such an extent that Russians appear to be more monsters than men. This difference may be due to the fact that the study was done in 2002 in a time when America was more focused on terrorism as the main enemy which is quite different from the political landscape of 2019 where Russia challenges US hegemony in the Middle East and their interests in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. This has caused Russia to be viewed ones again as a possible enemy and threat to the United States of America.

When looking at the threat which the Russians pose within the game, we see that the main fear within the game is Russia going to war with the West. This threat is made even greater by showing the audience what horror awaits anyone who the Russians conquer - from massacres to resource exploitation. Another threat is the Russian gas weapon shown in the game, this could be a replacement for the common threat of nuclear weapons often seen in American policy documents going as far back as the Wolfowitz document, which had one of the main goals be preventing other nations from acquiring nuclear capabilities. While it is unclear why it has been replaced there could be some ideas such as nuclear weapons might not seem like a real threat since the end of the cold war to the fact that gas weapons are more commonly used and as such could be a more believable threat to the audience.

While this study was focused on Russia and its people, during the analysis many interesting observations were made of the Urzik natives. One such observation is that they are treated as side characters to the grand war between the USA and Russia suggesting a reawakening of cold

war tensions and further research on their role and portrayal within the story might be an interesting topic. While this thesis was focused on the newest Call of Duty it might be interesting to look back on the series as a whole to see how the portrayal of the Russians changed over the years since the first modern warfare’s release in 2007. This could work to further explore the relationship between real-life stereotypes, threats and entertainment media by analyzing how these stereotypes and threats change over the years as different discourse and ideas in real life become more prevalent.

Coming back to the original aim of this thesis, namely that of understanding how stereotypes are created within video games and how securitization efforts might affect media. It is quite clear that video games suffer as much as any kind of media when it comes to creating and spreading stereotypes. While it is hard to say if this stereotype is made on purpose or if it is a product of the environment where the video game was made (that being the United States of America) it is clear that the stereotype is quite negative and could lead to a building up of conflict between Russia and the West. Furthermore, it could even create a sense of a fundamental difference between the West and Russia creating a true us and them mentality. Further research will have to be made, however, as to what extent this stereotype gets absorbed by the audience. When it comes to the second question of how securitization efforts might affect entertainment media such as video games, we can see that many of the fictional aspects of the game are inspired by real life events. This is specifically the cases of the Middle Eastern conflicts such as the Iraq war and the Syrian civil war. Many of the discourses found in Syria can be found in the game from the gassing of civilians, to the three-sided conflict of a US sponsored side, a Russian sponsored side, and a terrorist side. This means that while the game might be based in a fictional country and depict a fictional conflict, we, the audience, start to identify the setting and story as realistic. Actions such as Russia gassing Arab civilians seem believable since we know that the Syrian government did the same thing to their own citizens, Russia occupying a region without international intervention also seems believable since its similar to other events in Ukraine and the Caucasus. In this sense we can see that while the game might not be doing it intentionally, it is repurposing events and threats, which were shown in Syria and other places in the world. This makes the game give them new life and meaning and in such a way reinforcing the threat which Russia posses to the USA and western Europe. This is done for example by showing the audience that threat through actively depicting a proxy war between the West and Russia. While further research will have to be made on how this image might impact the audience if fictional threats can substitute real threats its quite clear in

the game who is the “main bad guy” that we should all be afraid of, and this is not the terrorist handling the gas weapon but the Russian that is producing it.

8. Reference List

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9. Appendix

Codes Characterization Number of appearances within the game Positive Traits Disciplined 1 Efficient 1 Brave 0 Intelligent 0 Just 1 Honest 0 Strong 2 Negative Traits Aggressive 13 Cold-Blooded 12 Cruel 15 Hard Drinking 0 Superiority Complex 7 Sexist 1 Cowardly 5

Codes Threat Number of Appearances Active Threats War/Attack 11

Death 13

Invasion/ Occupation 9 War Crimes 13

Subtle Threats

Weapons of Mass Destruction 9 Military Power 5 Proxy Wars 3