Professional identity and survival strategies of exiled journalists from Syria and Russia: Online talk in September

In recent years, the oppressive political and legal climate in many countries has forced independent journalists and media actors into exile. Syria, Belarus, Afghanistan, Russia are recent examples of a long list of countries, from were journalists are expelled en masse. Being displaced, many of them strive to continue their operations in exile in other countries and have to adapt to a completely foreign regulatory environment and an unstable political context. Exilic journalists face professional and personal crisis and have to reconsider own professional identity crisis, adapt to precarious nature of the labour, and survive within financial insustainability. Online talk in September combines three research projects on exiled journalism from Syria and Russia to discuss challenges and resilience of the displaced media and find approaches to scholarship on exiled journalism as worldwide phenomenon.

Yazan Badran from Vrije Universiteit Brussel will present his research “Precarious newsroom: Dynamics of precarity and agency in Syrian exiled media in Turkey” where he addresses precarisation of journalistic work of media practitioners, whose professional and personal lifeworlds are underpinned by multiple layers of precarity. Jenny Wiik and Elena Johansson from Gothenburg University will talk on “Russian journalists in exile: rethinking of professional identity” where they ask how exile affects the professional identity of Russian journalists, and how they navigate the challenges associated with upholding their journalistic values and credibility. Finally, Katja Lehtisaari from Tampere University will share the tentative results of her interviews with donor organisations to explore “Resilient model(s) for independent media in exile” in order to understand the impact of financing model on journalistic autonomy and the agenda-setting of the exilic media outlets.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom September, 12 from 12:00 to 13:30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until September, 11 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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Online talks on (not only) Russian media: new academic year!

We are happy to announce that Russian Media Lab Network in collaboration with Tampere Research Center for Russian and Chinese Media continue their joint initiative of Online talks on Russian Media for the forth academic season. This year we aim to extend the borders and invite more research studying a vast region of Eurasia, therefore the talks will often be on not only Russian media.

Read more about the Talks here. As usual, we meet every second Tuesday of a month in Zoom between 12:00 and 13:30 (Helsinki time).

Schedule: 

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RJEX project update: Researchers took part in the workshop on incarceration and immobility in the Nordic countries

Helsinborg, Sweden. Photo by E.Rodina

On 30-31 May, 2023, Elena Rodina and Olga Dovbysh took part in the workshop “Reimagining Incarceration and Immobility in the Nordic Countries” in Helsingborg, Sweden (the workshop was funded by the ReNEW research hub, NordForsk). Dr Rodina presented a paper «Russian exiled journalists in Nordic countries: modes of isolation and immobility», that focused on the interdisciplinarity of theoretical approach to examining today’s exiled journalistic communities. Dr Dovbysh presented the «Russian independent journalism in exile: in search of relevance and resilience» and discussed the project’s current outline, hypothesis, and plans for the upcoming research period. Other participants included Anastasia Burakova, founder of the «Ark» project, Dr Daria Krivonos (Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives, University of Helsinki), Dr Sherzod Eraliev (Sociology of Law Department, Lund University) and others. The organisation and facilitation of the workshop were led by Dr Larisa Kangaspuro from the Center for Nordic Studies at the University of Helsinki. The discussion that ensued uncovered the interesting overlap between migration, migrant labor and precarity, and journalism studies when it comes to research on contemporary media in exile.

Staging War: Information warfare on Telegram and TikTok during the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

In June, RMLN hosts Ramón Reichert from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, who will give a lecture “Staging War: Information warfare on Telegram and TikTok during the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Lecture will be held in hybrid format June, 8 from 13.00 to 14.30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate online, please leave your contact information here until June, 7 noon: registration form. If you want to participate offline, join us in Helsinki at the Aleksanteri Institute (Unioninkatu 40C).

About the lecture: Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 we have been seeing the struggle of two opposing forms of strategic communication. On the one hand, the centrally controlled propaganda regime in Moscow. On the other hand, a grassroots movement in political communication: a variety of content (visual storytelling through photography, video, graphics, diagrams, and maps) from actors of different size that work together through a common goal and a common narrative. This research examines the different media strategies that are used in the context of visual, narrative, and technical-infrastructural (hashtags, trending topics, memes, and bots) ‘control’ of public opinion and collective memory. The lecture focuses on information warfare in Telegram and TikTok that take place during the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. Today a constant war feed on social media and online-platforms has emerged. Civilians, combatants, and soldiers use cell phones to record war victims, torture and cruelty, troop movements, destroyed military equipment and bomb attacks and disseminate them on Telegram and TikTok channels.

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Information foraging in online media environments: Online talk in May

In May, Daria Gritsenko from the University of Helsinki will present her research “Heuristics of doubt: Information foraging in online media environments”. Drawing on survey research in the UK and Poland, Daria explores what makes people doubt the credibility of information in Western and Eastern Europe and shows that while heuristics of doubt may be idiosyncratic, they are also influenced by policy and politics.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom May, 9 from 12:00 to 13:30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until May, 8 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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Deplatformisation of RT and Sputnik since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine: Online talk in April

In April, Sofya Glazunova from Queensland University of Technology will present a collaborative study “Auditing Policy Implementation by Digital Platforms: A Systematic Review of Actions against RT and Sputnik since Russia’s 2022 Invasion of Ukraine”. In this talk Glazunova covers how major digital platforms (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram) have implemented their content moderation policies towards RT and Sputnik accounts across ten countries. Dr Glazunova presents a new method, a platform policy implementation audit, to analyse various content moderation measures, and demonstrate its implementation by six coders after two months of the full-scale invasion. The audit shows largely inconsistent trends in platform policy implementation towards RT and Sputnik, as well as a wide catalogue of measures taken by tech giants. The talk is concluded with a discussion of the further implications and effectiveness of such content moderation measures for global digital audiences.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom April, 11 from 14:00 to 15:30 (Helsinki time). NB: Time has changed! If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until April, 10 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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Digital authoritarianism and IT business in Russia: Online talk on Russian media in March

In March, Olga Solovyeva from the Open University Business School  in the UK will present her research “Digital authoritarianism and IT business in Russia: the case of Yandex”.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom March, 14 from 12:00 to 13:30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until March, 13 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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Pumpkin latte scandal or social media controversy among Russian-language immigrants in Israel: Online talk in February

In February Varvara Preter from Ben Gurion University of the Negev will present her on-going research on recent immigrants from Russia in Israel.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom February, 14 from 12:00 to 13:30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until February, 13 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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Mediating climate change and energy business in Yandex Novosti and Russian-language Google News: Online talk in December

In December, Mika Perkiömäki from the University of Helsinki will present his ongoing research “Mediating climate change and energy business in Yandex Novosti and Russian-language Google News before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. He compares the top 5 and top 6 news stories recommended by these two news aggregators in MarchNovember 2021 to those of MarchNovember 2022 and aims to find out if, and how, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected the way climate change, energy transition and the energy business in general are present in the newsfeeds.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom December, 13 from 12:00 to 13:30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until December, 12 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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Hybridization of civilian and military uses of mobile communication in the Russo-Ukrainian war: Online talk in November

In November, Roman Horbyk from Örebro University in Sweden will present his research “Towards the Mobile Phone Doctrine(s): Hybridization of Civilian and Military Uses of Mobile Communication in the Russo-Ukrainian War”. In this talk Horbyk will present the final results of a two-year research project on the major trends highlighting how a mobile phone—an ordinary civilian device—has become weaponized and turned into a hybrid tool that integrates a number of peaceful and combat functions.

Online talk will be organized in Zoom November, 8 from 12:00 to 13:30 (Helsinki time). If you want to participate and get emails about the next online talks, please leave your contact information here until November, 7 noon: registration form. If you registered for Online talks or RMLN email list before, no need to register again, you will get the information.

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