An analysis of Russian made cartoon Masha and the Bear in the frame of using cartoons as a soft power tool

Persuasion one of the fundamental concept of Public Relation. Today, while the world became a global village, inter countries relations also has reached a multidimensional level. At this point, states are developing strategies that will pursue their interests both in their communication with their people, in their communication with other countries and their communication with the people of other countries. Under this circumstance, soft power' procure a key role. So that countries create soft power strategies in order to reach their aims and implement these strategies by many different channels, especially the media. In this study, the concept of power scope with different kinds of aspects such as hard power, soft power and smart power, also cartoons are analyzed by soft power dimension. The study, which describes the soft power sources and strategies of Russia, firstly examined the development of the cartoon in the country. In this context, many points have been taken into consideration, such as the development of the Russian cartoon, changes in the political atmosphere, and the issues covered by the cartoons. In the continuation of the study, the soft power dimension of Masha and the Bear was focused. In this framework, firstly, information about the processing of the cartoon in Russian folk and literature and cinema has been given. Then, Masha and the Bear cartoon were watched by the content analysis method and an assessment was made for the attention-grabbing details in the cartoon. This study is an effort to understand and research how Russian cartoon Masha and the Bear are used as the soft power tool in the frame of using cartoons as a soft power tool