https://www.rt.com/op-ed/430120-uk-russia-world-cup/

English football fans discover real Russia is different to Oxbridge-dominated media portrayal

As thousands of English football supporters attend the FIFA World Cup, the overwhelming feedback is that Russia is far better than they expected. The British media needs to analyze its own role in this paradox.

Says Bryan MacDonald: "This begs the question of why Russia is the opposite of what English fans were expecting? Could it be because British media coverage of Russia is not presenting an accurate picture of the country?"

Indeed, this is something I realized within a few weeks of arriving here, almost a decade ago now. After years of viewing the country through the prism of the UK and US press, my feelings were overwhelmingly negative. And, but for a random sequence of events which compelled me to visit, I doubt I’d ever have travelled to Russia, meaning I’d still hold those views today.

People who have never visited a particular country largely form their view of it from how it's presented in media they consume. This is why Hollywood has been such a powerful tool for the US, for instance. And it explains the British desire to continue pumping hundreds of millions of pounds into the BBC’s international wing, despite painful austerity at home.

Of course, it’s also why RT exists: this very network was established because Russians felt, with considerable justification, that western coverage of their country was unbalanced and unfair.