UNESCO Сhair
in Journalism and Mass Communication
in Journalism and Mass Communication
at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University
About us
The UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Mass Communication was established at the Faculty of Journalism (Lomonosov Moscow State University) in 1993. Professor Yassen Zassoursky is its founder, Professor Elena Vartanova took part in its creation as co-chair. From the very beginning the Chair has been a research hub for media and communication studies. Initially the activities of the Chair were connected with media system studies, as well as research in the field of freedom of speech.
Currently the Chair focuses on two main subject areas: digital divide and media literacy.
Currently the Chair focuses on two main subject areas: digital divide and media literacy.
"Media today constitute a social institute, an environment for communication and a field where commercial content is disseminated."
Professor Elena Vartanova
UNESCO Chair
Main fields of research
digital divide
media literacy
about the chair
The Chair holds conferences and seminars devoted to media literacy, digital divide and gender studies. In addition, members of the Chair participate as lecturers in professional training programs for journalists, media managers and PR specialists. It also invites professors, scholars in humanities, politicians, diplomats, public figures for guest lectures.
In 2017 the Chair hosted a round table discussion devoted to women in the media, and during The Moscow Readings conference a special UNESCO session was held. In 2018 a seminar "Digital divide in Russia: challenges and ways to overcome it" was held with the participation of a representative of the Russian UNESCO bureau in Moscow.
In 2017 the Chair hosted a round table discussion devoted to women in the media, and during The Moscow Readings conference a special UNESCO session was held. In 2018 a seminar "Digital divide in Russia: challenges and ways to overcome it" was held with the participation of a representative of the Russian UNESCO bureau in Moscow.
Chair Leadership
- Professor Elena VartanovaHead of Chair
UNESCO Chair coordinator
- Olga VikhrovaAssociate Professor, PhD
Chair members
Professor Galina Voronenkova
Professor Natalia Urina
Associate Professor Maria Anikina
Associate Professor Oleg Bakulin
Leading researcher Anna Gladkova
Associate Professor Maria Lukina
Associate Professor Mikhail Makeenko
Associate Professor Andrei Raskin
Associate Professor Vladimir Slavkin
Associate Professor Sergey Smirnov
Associate Professor Olga Smirnova
Associate Professor Andrei Vyrkovsky
Associate Professor Evgeny Zaytsev
Associate Professor Milana Zakharova
Associate Professor Tamara Yakova
Associate Professor Marina Yangliaeva
Senior Lecturer Darya Vyugina
Associate Professor Olga Vikhrova
Professor Galina Voronenkova
Professor Natalia Urina
Associate Professor Maria Anikina
Associate Professor Oleg Bakulin
Leading researcher Anna Gladkova
Associate Professor Maria Lukina
Associate Professor Mikhail Makeenko
Associate Professor Andrei Raskin
Associate Professor Vladimir Slavkin
Associate Professor Sergey Smirnov
Associate Professor Olga Smirnova
Associate Professor Andrei Vyrkovsky
Associate Professor Evgeny Zaytsev
Associate Professor Milana Zakharova
Associate Professor Tamara Yakova
Associate Professor Marina Yangliaeva
Senior Lecturer Darya Vyugina
Associate Professor Olga Vikhrova
scholarly research
The Chair focuses on two main research fields: media literacy and digital divide. On the one hand it is dedicated to conducting research in these subject areas. On the other hand it engages scholars and media professionals in discussions connected with these issues. The Faculty of Journalism together with the Chair in Journalism and Mass Communication at Moscow State University annually hold research conferences, round table discussions and seminars, which touch upon serious challenges contemporary communicators face in a multicultural digital environment. The Moscow Readings is the main international conference held annually by the Chair in Journalism and Mass Communication together with the Faculty of Journalism. This is a scholarly event, which unites researchers from all over the world. Moreover, in recent years the Chair has been involved in a number of public events aimed at promoting media literacy among different segments of the general public.
Events
International Moscow Readings Conference 2021
Dates: 18-19 November 2021
Organizer: Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Co-sponsor: International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)
In partnership with:
Today, historical transformations affecting media industries and production such as digitalization, consolidation, deregulation and related trends identified by scholars long ago (Hamelink, 1998) amplify and accelerate due to new disruptive processes influencing media work on a global scale. This includes the rapid growth of platform power and platform convergence, the emergence of telecommunications giants as competitors in the content market, and growing concerns about sustainability of the news industry and journalism as a profession in this context (Deuze, & Prenger, 2019; Meese, 2021). It is not just media practitioners who are facing a rapidly and profoundly changing context: people's lives around the world have become agitated by the compounding effects of digital shifts and social upheaval, especially considering deepening digital inequalities and algorithmic divides (Ragnedda, 2020). An increasing dependence on Internet and computing technologies became evident during the global coronavirus crisis and triggered a discussion about the stability – or liquidity – of the world around us.
A crucial change of institutions we observe today is clear: media and policies are changing, legacy linear media are giving floor to non-linear new media, user engagement and participation through social media platforms, including what is perceived today as dark participation (Quandt, 2018) are growing. Everything becomes in a way blurry, liquid and uncertain: professional routines, practices, roles, perceptions, possibly even norms and values. As a result, we find ourselves living in a liquid society where uncertainty, flux, change, conflict, and revolution become permanent conditions of everyday life (Bauman, 2000; Deuze, 2004). This feeling of uncertainty has been intensified in recent pandemic times, when people, companies and institutions had to quickly migrate to online, re-structure their professional and personal routines, and learn to live in the new pandemic/post-pandemic world.
At this year's conference we welcome discussions about uncertainty as a new challenge for journalism and the society, and the new opportunities uncertain/liquid modernity can offer to people, media, institutions, and industries. We will discuss the impact Covid-19 pandemic had upon all spheres of our life – social, economic, cultural, political, academic and others, looking at how journalism in different countries reacted and adapted to these new challenges and risks. We will also discuss new digital gaps and inequalities that arose in the pandemic and post-pandemic world in terms of journalism education, unequal access to information, digital/social inclusion, information security, among other things. Theoretical and empirical papers are both welcome, with preference during selection process being given to papers with solid methodological base and original approach.
Questions for discussion
Submissions to the special sections should be sent as regular submissions. Please add a note in your abstract saying that this submission should be considered by a particular special section (title).
Registration fee
Moscow Readings conference does not have conference registration fee, although all costs will have to covered either by the home institution or by the presenters themselves.
Publishing opportunities
Best papers will be considered for publication in peer-reviewed Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika (Scopus, Web of Science) and World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies (Scopus). The 13th Moscow Readings conference will be organized as a live virtual conference. We are looking forward to meeting you at the virtual platform in November 2021.
Contact details
Contact email: moscow.readings@mail.ru
Phone number : +7 (495) 629 52 76
Contact person: Anna Gladkova, secretary of the Moscow Readings conference organizing committee
Dates: 18-19 November 2021
Organizer: Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Co-sponsor: International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)
In partnership with:
- IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group
- IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group
- IAMCR Journalism Research and Education Section
- UNESCO chair in communication
- European Journalism Training Association
- The Global Risk Journalism Hub
- National Association of Mass Media Researchers
Today, historical transformations affecting media industries and production such as digitalization, consolidation, deregulation and related trends identified by scholars long ago (Hamelink, 1998) amplify and accelerate due to new disruptive processes influencing media work on a global scale. This includes the rapid growth of platform power and platform convergence, the emergence of telecommunications giants as competitors in the content market, and growing concerns about sustainability of the news industry and journalism as a profession in this context (Deuze, & Prenger, 2019; Meese, 2021). It is not just media practitioners who are facing a rapidly and profoundly changing context: people's lives around the world have become agitated by the compounding effects of digital shifts and social upheaval, especially considering deepening digital inequalities and algorithmic divides (Ragnedda, 2020). An increasing dependence on Internet and computing technologies became evident during the global coronavirus crisis and triggered a discussion about the stability – or liquidity – of the world around us.
A crucial change of institutions we observe today is clear: media and policies are changing, legacy linear media are giving floor to non-linear new media, user engagement and participation through social media platforms, including what is perceived today as dark participation (Quandt, 2018) are growing. Everything becomes in a way blurry, liquid and uncertain: professional routines, practices, roles, perceptions, possibly even norms and values. As a result, we find ourselves living in a liquid society where uncertainty, flux, change, conflict, and revolution become permanent conditions of everyday life (Bauman, 2000; Deuze, 2004). This feeling of uncertainty has been intensified in recent pandemic times, when people, companies and institutions had to quickly migrate to online, re-structure their professional and personal routines, and learn to live in the new pandemic/post-pandemic world.
At this year's conference we welcome discussions about uncertainty as a new challenge for journalism and the society, and the new opportunities uncertain/liquid modernity can offer to people, media, institutions, and industries. We will discuss the impact Covid-19 pandemic had upon all spheres of our life – social, economic, cultural, political, academic and others, looking at how journalism in different countries reacted and adapted to these new challenges and risks. We will also discuss new digital gaps and inequalities that arose in the pandemic and post-pandemic world in terms of journalism education, unequal access to information, digital/social inclusion, information security, among other things. Theoretical and empirical papers are both welcome, with preference during selection process being given to papers with solid methodological base and original approach.
Questions for discussion
- Communication in the times of uncertainty: practices and tendencies
- Journalism and the Covid-19 pandemic: new challenges and risks
- Digital individuals, groups and organizations
- The rise of new digital cultures
- New players and actors in digital communication
- New journalistic roles in the times of uncertainty and change
- Media and communication policies in the digital age
- Liquid journalism and liquid modernity
- Risk journalism in the times of the global crises
- Digital inclusion / social inclusion: correlations and interdependencies
- Digital journalism: new practices, forms, methods, audiences
- Information security in the digital age
- Mediating conflicts: the role of mass media
- IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group
- IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group
- IAMCR Journalism Research and Education Section
- UNESCO chair in communication
- European Journalism Training Association
- The Global Risk Journalism Hub
- National Association of Mass Media Researchers
Submissions to the special sections should be sent as regular submissions. Please add a note in your abstract saying that this submission should be considered by a particular special section (title).
Registration fee
Moscow Readings conference does not have conference registration fee, although all costs will have to covered either by the home institution or by the presenters themselves.
Publishing opportunities
Best papers will be considered for publication in peer-reviewed Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika (Scopus, Web of Science) and World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies (Scopus). The 13th Moscow Readings conference will be organized as a live virtual conference. We are looking forward to meeting you at the virtual platform in November 2021.
Contact details
Contact email: moscow.readings@mail.ru
Phone number : +7 (495) 629 52 76
Contact person: Anna Gladkova, secretary of the Moscow Readings conference organizing committee
The Faculty of Journalism, MSU held the 12th International Media Readings 'Mass Media and Communications 2020' in Moscow
The topic of this year's conference was 'De-Westernizing Media and Cultural Studies: New Discourse Practices in the Digital World'. The event was supported by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. The partners of the conference were the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group, IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group, UNESCO chair for communication, National Association of Mass Media Researchers (NAMMI). Due to the current situation in the world, the event was organized in online format.
On the first day of the conference, the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education Professor Elena Vartanova and President of IAMCR Professor Nico Carpentier greeted the participants, drawing the audience's attention to the importance of maintaining international scholar relations despite the limitations of the pandemic. Under such conditions, the role of media is particularly important, and thus the importance and responsibility of media researchers are also growing.
The first plenary session was opened with a presentation by Oscar Westlund, Professor of Oslo Metropolitan University, Volda University College and University of Gothenburg. Professor Weslund, as Editor-in-Chief of the 'Digital Journalism' journal spoke about the publication principles of the journal and invited Russian colleagues to submit their articles to 'Digital Journalism'.
The session continued with a presentation by Professor of Hong Kong Baptist University Daya K. Thussu. The speaker talked about the polycentric nature of the modern world and its effects on the global media space and journalistic practices around the world.
The plenary session of the first day was concluded by a presentation give by Shi-xu, Professor of Hangzhou Normal University, author of the concept of cultural and discourse studies and Editor-in-Chief of 'Journal of Multicultural Discourses'.
The plenary session on November 20 also included speeches by leading media researchers. Professor Elena Vartanova shared the results of her work devoted to youth media consumption of content in social networks and the development of a new digital culture. Professor of the Westminster University Andrea Medrado presented the project of the intersection of art and science, dedicated to the problems of the Global South. The report of Professor of Nanyang Technological University Gerard Goggin described the specifics of digital platforms in the Asian region. Finally, Professor of Loughborough University Sabina Mihelj demonstrated an extensive empirical study on communication strategies of the Global South media during the pandemic.
In addition to plenary sessions, the conference featured 22 thematic sessions, including special panel sessions:
Digital, social, and cultural divides: interrelations and interdependencies (moderated by Professor Elena Vartanova and Dr. Anna Gladkova),
Digital safety of journalists in the Global South (moderated by Dr. Sadia Jamil),
Ethnic Journalism in the Global South (moderated by Dr. Anna Gladkova and Dr. Sadia Jamil),
Media and communication in post- and neo-authoritarian societies: global trends, local formats (moderated by Dr. Anastasia Grusha and Dr. Katja Lehtisaari),
Media communication between the state and youth in Russia (moderated by Dr. Anna Gureeva),
Digital Culture of Media Consumption: Theoretical Approaches and Practices of Young Russians (moderated by Dr. Denis Dunas).
More than 150 speakers took part in plenary and thematic sessions, and a total of more than two hundred people from 25 countries attended the online conference.
The topic of this year's conference was 'De-Westernizing Media and Cultural Studies: New Discourse Practices in the Digital World'. The event was supported by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. The partners of the conference were the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group, IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group, UNESCO chair for communication, National Association of Mass Media Researchers (NAMMI). Due to the current situation in the world, the event was organized in online format.
On the first day of the conference, the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education Professor Elena Vartanova and President of IAMCR Professor Nico Carpentier greeted the participants, drawing the audience's attention to the importance of maintaining international scholar relations despite the limitations of the pandemic. Under such conditions, the role of media is particularly important, and thus the importance and responsibility of media researchers are also growing.
The first plenary session was opened with a presentation by Oscar Westlund, Professor of Oslo Metropolitan University, Volda University College and University of Gothenburg. Professor Weslund, as Editor-in-Chief of the 'Digital Journalism' journal spoke about the publication principles of the journal and invited Russian colleagues to submit their articles to 'Digital Journalism'.
The session continued with a presentation by Professor of Hong Kong Baptist University Daya K. Thussu. The speaker talked about the polycentric nature of the modern world and its effects on the global media space and journalistic practices around the world.
The plenary session of the first day was concluded by a presentation give by Shi-xu, Professor of Hangzhou Normal University, author of the concept of cultural and discourse studies and Editor-in-Chief of 'Journal of Multicultural Discourses'.
The plenary session on November 20 also included speeches by leading media researchers. Professor Elena Vartanova shared the results of her work devoted to youth media consumption of content in social networks and the development of a new digital culture. Professor of the Westminster University Andrea Medrado presented the project of the intersection of art and science, dedicated to the problems of the Global South. The report of Professor of Nanyang Technological University Gerard Goggin described the specifics of digital platforms in the Asian region. Finally, Professor of Loughborough University Sabina Mihelj demonstrated an extensive empirical study on communication strategies of the Global South media during the pandemic.
In addition to plenary sessions, the conference featured 22 thematic sessions, including special panel sessions:
Digital, social, and cultural divides: interrelations and interdependencies (moderated by Professor Elena Vartanova and Dr. Anna Gladkova),
Digital safety of journalists in the Global South (moderated by Dr. Sadia Jamil),
Ethnic Journalism in the Global South (moderated by Dr. Anna Gladkova and Dr. Sadia Jamil),
Media and communication in post- and neo-authoritarian societies: global trends, local formats (moderated by Dr. Anastasia Grusha and Dr. Katja Lehtisaari),
Media communication between the state and youth in Russia (moderated by Dr. Anna Gureeva),
Digital Culture of Media Consumption: Theoretical Approaches and Practices of Young Russians (moderated by Dr. Denis Dunas).
More than 150 speakers took part in plenary and thematic sessions, and a total of more than two hundred people from 25 countries attended the online conference.
Contacts
The Faculty of Journalism (Lomonosov Moscow State University) is located at
Mokhovaya Street, building 9, 109955, Moscow, Russia
UNESCO Chair web-page on the UNESCO-Orbicom site:
https://orbicom.ca/russia-moscow/
To get in touch with UNESCO Chair please write an email to the following address:
Email: unesco.chair.journ@gmail.com
Vikhrova.unesco@gmail.com
Contact person: Olga Vikhrova
Mokhovaya Street, building 9, 109955, Moscow, Russia
UNESCO Chair web-page on the UNESCO-Orbicom site:
https://orbicom.ca/russia-moscow/
To get in touch with UNESCO Chair please write an email to the following address:
Email: unesco.chair.journ@gmail.com
Vikhrova.unesco@gmail.com
Contact person: Olga Vikhrova
