Office of International Affairs, Faculty of Journalism, MSU

A quick reminder that we now have a Telegram channel of the Office of International Affairs, Faculty of Journalism.

Join to learn about latest research works by our scholars, great talks by our international guest speakers, current events and the inner workings of our Faculty! The link is in the comment section.

The Faculty of Journalism is moving to Telegram!

Office of International Affairs, Faculty of Journalism MSU
https://t.me/interdepmsu

In our new Telegram channel, we will share news about the life of the faculty, latest projects and events. You are welcome to subscribe to the channel and stay connected with the Faculty of Journalism. Looking forward to seeing you there!

https://t.me/interdepmsu

Professor Mark Deuze gave a wonderful talk as a guest lecturer in the Current Issues of Mass Media master's course! The scholar focused on mental well-being of media professionals, outlining the issue as a full-fledged research topic.

Professor Mark Deuze is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA), Faculty of Humanities, and Visiting Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (Australia) and Northumbria University (UK). The scholar also holds the title of Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Journalism, awarded for active cooperation with our Faculty. As a researcher, Professor Deuze is particularly focused on social, economic and technological convergence of media culture and creative industries. Professor Deuze is author of more than 100 articles in top-rated academic journals and 11 books, as well as founder of Deuzevlog, a series of inspiring conversations with prominent media scholars and professionals.

On February 21, Professor Deuze talked about the pressures media professionals deal with on a daily basis, the concept and importance of mental well-being in media industry, and the means to alleviate the struggles of media workers.

The scholar presented the ultimate paradox – the peculiarities of work in media that make the work process exciting and appealing are the same peculiarities that turn it into a rather problematic experience. These are informal and unregulated working conditions, the dominant role of technologies, high level of precarity, as well as intense and rapid pace of work resulting from the constant pressure of production.

Professor Deuze went on to talk about how media industry contributes to the deteriorating mental well-being of its workers, regarding it as a broad contextual and systemic problem. The researcher provided a substantial corpus of examples, which testify to the fact that in all kinds of media industries and in all phases of media process, employees report similar mental health issues, such as work-induced depression and anxiety. The long list of factors that contribute to profound well-being issues includes poor life-work balance, high level of precarity, feelings of disposability and self-invalidation, toxic and non-inclusive work culture, bullying, financial instability, poor organization of team work, the need to keep up with the technological pace, and many others, including distinctive features of specific sectors – such as the need to cover bad news for press workers. As a result, all sectors of media industry – advertising, film and television, gaming industry, press – report extremely high percentage of cases of clinical depression and other mental health conditions among workers.

The scholar stated that many of these negative factors stem from some positively perceived aspects of media work, which contribute to the complex and paradoxical nature of the problem. For instance, the level of emotional labour is extremely high in particular due to the informality of the working conditions: the informal work communication can lead to toxic working conditions, where at the same time no one is able to defend their rights for fear that it might ruin the project.

According to Professor Deuze, there are means to positively influence the situation from all kinds of levels. These include deliberate articulation of the concept of mental health literacy, participation in new forms of collective organization, initiatives introducing professional counselling and mental health training, as well as individual change of mindset from traditional appreciation of mainstream media and rigid rules to the adaptation to fluid working conditions and appreciation of alternative work organization.

English-language Current Issues of Mass Media master's course started with an amazing talk by Dr. Robert (Ted) Gutsche!

Dr. Gutsche is a leading scholar in the field of Journalism Studies. As a researcher, he applies critical cultural theory to investigate issues of power in journalism. Dr. Gutsche is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Digital Media Practice at Lancaster University in the UK and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Informatics at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. He is an award-winning educator and journalist with a vast practical expertise. Dr. Gutsche is also Associate Editor at Journalism Practice, and founder of ‘The J Word: A Podcast by Journalism Practice’ podcast, which features discussions with academics and professionals who've published recently in Journalism Practice. The podcast focuses on meanings of advancing digital technologies in journalism, social issues and conditions that journalists (need to) cover, and the future of the field.

On February 14, Dr. Gutsche gave a talk on geographies of digital news places. He themed his presentation around media geographics and digital spaces, with emphasis on platforms, their social actors and products.

The scholar looked into how our routines and practices are driven by digital technologies, focusing on the expansion of our spatial awareness. In this regard, Dr. Gutsche spoke about the interaction of two important concepts: ‘space’ as a demarcated physical location with certain social norms and ‘place’ as a space with assigned cultural meaning. Thus, the researcher introduced a concept of placeification, which in this context describes the process of transforming digital news spaces into the places of meaning and significance.

Dr. Gutsche outlined six dimensions of placeification. The first dimension is spatial and emotional immersion, achieved via various technological means (VR, ASMR, links) and aimed at establishing deeper physical and emotional connection with the story. The second dimension is temporal fluctuation, which allows users to move temporally past and forward and thus establish or reinforce a connection to place through its history. The third dimension is materiality, which calls for an appreciation of “hard things,” such as news buildings and mobile devices, “soft things,” such as interviews and data, and “the products of news,” the content. The fourth dimension is brand territorialities, which signifies clear delineation of digital news territories and reveals how digital spaces become places surrounding notions of power. The fifth dimension is power dynamics, which has to do with the adoption of roles, norms, values, and interactions of digital places and their underlying mechanisms. The last dimension is personalization and community building, which focuses on establishing a connection to both the individual and their sense of community and belonging.

Dr. Gutsche concluded his insightful talk by saying that placeification allows for layered understanding of processes of place-making in digital space, questions the emotive, temporal, mobile, and power dynamics of how digital journalism seeks legitimacy and authority, and provides inter-disciplinary approach to socio-cultural understandings of the digital news environment.

February 20 - Virtual Open Day for international students!

Everyone interested in education prospects at Lomonosov Moscow State University will be able to learn all the essential information about the Faculties, degree programs and specific features of admission in 2022.

The event will start at 12:00 (MSK) with a welcoming lecture by the Rector of Moscow State University, Academician Victor Antonovich Sadovnichiy. It will be followed by an info session on the current admission procedure.

Info sessions at the Faculties will start at 1 pm (MSK). The listeners will learn about degree programs, academic and career prospects for students and graduates, and specifics of entrance exams.

Throughout the event, the listeners will be able to receive answers to their questions in real time via the live chat with the Faculty scholars.

Students are welcome register for the Open Day at https://openday.msu.ru/en

Happy Russian Science Day!

Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Academician Victor Sadovnichiy congratulated the Russian scholars on their professional holiday. He noted that science is a key priority for both professors of Lomonsov Moscow State University, who are top-level and highly-recognized in the academic community scholars, and students, who are involved in research activities from the first years of education.

This holiday marks the foundation of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the first higher academic institution of the Russian Empire, which was established on February 8, 1724.

For a long time, Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences and Lomonosov Moscow State University were two major sources of education and promoters of science in Russia, which were formed in an independent and self-sufficient way, but still managed to communicate and enrich one another.

Today science is not only the foundation of the quality education but also a source of technological development. In particular, among the key lines of development is the Scientific and Technological Valley of Moscow State University, with 5 out of 9 clusters being actively constructed and 350 scientific-technological projects being developed.

2022 was declared an International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development by UN. Thus, new achievements and great discoveries lie ahead!

Holiday greetings by Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Academician Victor Sadovnichiy (Russian language): https://youtu.be/rbAyKvzm4RU

The Faculty of Journalism is starting spring semester! The students will continue their studies after two weeks of well-deserved rest. Due to the pandemic situation, the classes will be conducted online till February 22.

Among other courses, the students will be able to listen to an English-language Current Issues of Mass Media master's course. Organized since 2011, the course features guest lectures by world-class international media experts, who are invited to speak on current trends in media and communication research worldwide.

The last day of ‘Journalism in 2021: Creativity, Profession, Industry’ conference is in full swing!

As usual, the day started with a plenary session, where young scientists presented the latest results of their researches. The scholars focused on various topics, such as Russian academic discourse, TV channels strategies on TikTok, digital strategies of Russian broadcasters, and metaphorical framing.

Their presentations were followed by an in-depth discussion, during which new exciting prospects for further research were outlined.

The conference will be completed with the last several rounds of thematic sessions and round table meetings.

We thank all the participants for their contributions, which make this productive discussion possible!

‘Globalizing Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University: Historical Path and Current Trends’ special panel featured talks by the international partners of the Faculty, who shared their most pleasant memories about the Faculty and its scholars.

Professor Vartanova greeted the participants and delved into the historical development of our Faculty. She talked about the history of our much-loved Faculty building, and the achievements of the previous Dean of the Faculty of Journalism – Professor Yassen Zassursky. The scholar also outlined the current paths of development and stressed that international cooperation remains the key priority.

The next to take the floor was Professor Hannu Nieminen (University of Helsinki), who has been a partner of the Faculty of Journalism for over 50 years. He recalled symposiums, seminars and lectures that were frequently organized thanks to the joint efforts of the University of Helsinki and Lomonosov Moscow State University. Professor Nieminen stressed that the pandemic and global political tensions have complicated the situation in the world, and it is the duty of academics to promote non-military confrontation solutions. In this regard, Professor Niemen suggested a joint research project into the modern political processes, which would contribute to the conflict resolution and strengthen academic ties between states.

Professor Paolo Mancini (University of Perugia), who is also a long-standing partner of the Faculty of Journalism, shared his memories about Professor Yassen Zassoursky, a good friend and colleague of his. He also reflected on the presentation delivered by Professor Vartanova, and expressed interest in the transformation of journalism education at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Professor Mancini noted that the 50s was a rather early time for journalism education to be founded, and suggested doing a comparative analysis of how journalism was taught in the Soviet Union compared to now. He finished his talk by outlining another striking feature of the Faculty of Journalism – which is the level of internationalization and the number of academic connections with both Western and Asian countries, not to mention the post-Soviet states.

Professor Mark Deuze shared most pleasant memories about his first visit to Russia, and the Faculty of Journalism in particular. He noted that the academic life on the Faculty of Journalism combines two levels - local and global - in a most interesting and efficient way, which reflects the modern realities and lends a particular depth to research. The scholar also recalled his work with Professor Denis McQuail, who had a long history of affiliation to the Faculty of Journalism, so in some sense Professor Deuze sees himself as a successor of his tradition. The media expert also expressed gratitude for numerous academic initiatives launched by the Faculty, since they are aimed at establishing open and inclusive academic environment.

Dr. Massimo Ragnedda (Northumbria University) joined the previous speakers by extending words of gratitude to the members of the international community, established in particular due to the efforts of the Faculty of Journalism. He stressed that works by these scholars and numerous international collaborations contributed largely to his professional formation.

Professor Elena Vartanova and Dr. Anna Gladkova thanked the speakers for sharing their wonderful memories and most exciting ideas and suggestions. The Faculty of Journalism is looking forward to further fruitful collaborations with its partners and hopes to see you here, on Mokhovaya 9 as soon as possible!

The second day of the conference started with a plenary session organized in tribute to the long-standing and beloved Dean of the Faculty of Journalism Yassen Zassoursky, who passed away last year. The meeting was opened and moderated by the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Elena Vartanova.

She noted that the conference serves as a platform, which brings together different researches based on a variety of approaches, and lays emphasis on three key aspects of journalism: creativity, profession, and industry. Professor Vartanova also expressed hope that next year we will be able to invite our speakers to the Faculty of Journalism!

The scholar stressed that this conference opens a series of celebratory events, which will mark the anniversary of the Faculty of Journalism and journalism education at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. This is an excellent occasion to summarize the past 75 years and reflect on the future of journalism.

Professor Yassen Zassoursky was a leading figure in media studies and a founder of so many projects, including this conference. The speakers, who delivered their speeches during this plenary session were people from different fields, however, all of them studied and collaborated with Professor Zassoursky, which again testifies to the versatility of his research interests.

The speakers included Professor Yuri Baturin and Professor Mikhail Fedotov, the authors of the Law on the Media, which celebrates its 30th anniversary; Darya Zaretskaya, deputy editor-in-chief of Rambler/News, a leading online media outlet in Russia; Yadviga Yuferova, deputy editor-in-chief of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, official government gazette of the Russian Federation; Sergey Shargunov, Head of the Association of Writers and Publishers Unions of Russia.

The speakers talked about their projects and the role of Professor Zassoursky in their professional formation. Each presentation also raised certain trending topics, which triggered a lively discussion with the audience.

The first round of sessions will start in less than an hour, at 1 pm (MSK). These include the English-language special panel headlined ‘Globalizing Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University: Historical Path and Current Trends’, which will feature talks by our overseas colleagues.

The start of the spring semester was also marked by a new topical seminar! It was held on February 1 and featured talks by Professor Hannu Nieminen (University of Helsinki) and Dr. Oleg Bukoulin (Lomonosov Moscow State University).

In the beginning of his talk on the freedom of speech, Professor Hannu Nieminen noted that freedom of speech is a cornerstone of Western democracy and outlined the legal base for ensuring that these rights are upheld. He then shifted his focus to the modern day, and reflected on the state of the freedom of speech in the times of globalisation, highlighting certain challenges, such as the problem of jurisdiction. Member states are supposed to adjust to the norms of their unions; however, all countries have different laws and interpretations of the freedom of speech.

The spread of the internet further complicated the problem of monitoring the implementation of freedoms, and created additional problems and dilemmas, such as hate speech on social media. Professor Hannu Niemen noted that a crucial obstacle in fighting hate speech is the absence of global regulatory control over its use, which would determine a general hate speech policy, applicable on the transnational level.

Interestingly, the professor also drew a line of distinction between the freedom of speech and the press freedom. While the first notion indicates the universal human right, the second concept denotes the right that belongs to the owner of media and gives them the power to control other people’s freedom of speech through selecting and framing information.

Professor Hannu Niemen concluded his talk by outlining a core problem arising from the spread of hate speech on social media – two sets of rights should be balanced: the freedom of speech as a sine qua non condition for open public debate, and the minority rights protecting vulnerable social groups. This calls for substantial changes at the legislative level, such as development of transnational legislation, which would monitor digital platforms and provide effective sanction mechanism.

Dr. Oleg Bukoulin talked about photojournalism as an instrument for social transformations in the analogue and digital epoch. He started by giving a historical account of photojournalism, which from the very birth of this form of journalism was used primarily to draw people’s attention and influence their worldview on the emotional level. For instance, thanks to the photography, people witnessed the horrors of the Vietnam war and early 1980s Hunger; photojournalism influenced the governments’ actions in the Gulf war.

For the first time, photojournalism sparked public outcry in the second half of the 19th century, when an American photographer Mathew Brady exhibited a series of photographs of the Battle of Antienam. The exhibition featured photos of a battlefield before the dead had been removed, which had a major impact on public opinion and deromanticized the war.

Other pioneers of the 19th century documentary photography were Oscar Rejlander, John Thomson, and naturally Jacob Riis, who exposed living conditions of the poor, thus attempting to induce social transformations. Lewis Hine dedicated his work to exposing child labour exploitation, and was the first photographer to influence the government’s actions.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the spread of tabloids, and a full-fledged birth of photojournalism, associated with the name of Erich Salomon. He made numerous pictures of politicians and political events, facilitating the transparency of political processes and greater authorities’ accountability to society.

Closer to the second half of the 20th century, American photojournalist Eugene Smith created the genre of photo essay. In particular, his essay ‘Nurse Midwife’ featured African American woman as a main character, thus giving rise to important topics.

Photojournalism is a unique genre, which goes beyond traditional journalistic norms, since it is frequently subjective and appeals directly to people’s emotions. It forms the audience’s vision and offers interpretation of social reality. Today digital journalism creates unprecedented technical opportunities for this genre. New prospects are also determined by the fact that TV is gradually losing its audience, which may signify the rebirth of photography.

Dr. Bukoulin concluded his talk by outlining certain challenges for the genre: frequent absence of original ideas, time- and resource-intensiveness of creating a high-quality photo project, as well as difficulties in cooperating with media outlets. Among the means to support and develop this genre, Dr. Bukoulin mentioned development of high-quality multimedia technologies, and grant support for photojournalists.

Today was the first day of ‘Journalism in 2021: Creativity, Profession, Industry’ conference! The event was opened with a meeting of the journalism educational board.

The Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Elena Vartanova delivered a welcome speech and gave the floor to the Vice Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Head of the Office of Educational-Methodical Activities and Supplementary Education Stanislav Bushev, who also extended words of greetings. The experts discussed the changing educational structure and current methodological agenda.

Professor Vartanova proceeded to speak on the experience of the Faculty of Journalism in providing retraining for the practice-oriented educators, which is aimed at keeping journalism trainers in touch with an ever-changing media and cultural landscape. Professor Vartanova gave an overview of the training programs conducted by the Faculty of Journalism in the past several years, including both comprehensive programs and courses focused on different aspects and developed to address burning topics, such as modern political communication, communicative English, statistics skills, digital technologies in education, basics of infographics, and others.

The topics she raised in her presentation were taken up by the colleagues from other cities of the Russian Federation – Professor Vladimir Tulupov (Voronezh University), Professor Oleg Samartsev (Ulyanovsk University), and Professor Lyudmila Shesterkina (South Ural State University). The scholars shared their experience and reflected on the problems of journalism training, such as building individual trajectories for students, balancing the standards of academia and requirements of employers, and new challenges for journalism education in the digital age. The meeting was moderated by Dr. Maria Lukina.

Tomorrow the participants will have a chance to attend the plenary session at 10 am (MSK), which will be in tribute to the memory of Professor Yassen Zassoursky. It will be followed by numerous sections and round table meetings, including English-language panel session organized to celebrate the anniversary of the Faculty of Journalism. Tune in for this session at 1 pm (MSK).