Online Talks on Eurasian Media, the collaborative initiative between TaRC and the Russian Media Lab (University of Helsinki), rolls on!
Our next session on Tuesday 10 March sees Liudmila Voronova (Södertörn University, Stockholm) discuss how visual professionals in Sweden, Finland, and Russian esile media, such as photographers, photo editors, and art directors, classify, produce, and present photographs as visual truths in journalism.
The findings are based on a project that Liudmila has had together with Patrik Åker and Jenni Mäenpää. They have explored how visual journalism is evolving amid shrinking photo departments, de-professionalization, and broader societal struggles over knowledge and truth.
Despite differences in size, format, and distribution strategies, all outlets in the 10 organization sample of the study shared a commitment to public-oriented journalism and visual credibility.
The study identified common trends: platformisation, an increasing reliance on video, and the influence of new technologies, as well as contextual differences. Finnish outlets rely more heavily on audience data and algorithms; Russian exile media depend strongly on social media platforms; and Swedish professionals emphasize editorial control and visual integrity.
The study also highlighted themes such as the rhythm and temporality of truth claims in visual journalism, and the role of visual professionals’ emotions in shaping journalistic visual truth.
Speaker bio:
Dr Liudmila Voronova defended her doctoral dissertation, Gendering in Political Journalism: A Comparative Study of Russia and Sweden, in 2014. Her research focuses on comparative journalism cultures, visual journalism, gender and intersectionality, and journalism and migration.
She currently leads the comparative project The Future of Visual Journalism in Finland, Russia, and Sweden: Working with Photographs as Visual Truths (2023–2025), funded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies and conducted with Patrik Åker and Jenni Mäenpää. Previously, she contributed to the project Photographic Realism in the Digital Media Age: Photojournalism and Visual Literacy in Russia and Sweden (2018–2020) led by Patrik Åker.
Event info:
This Online Talk will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 10 March, 12.00–13.30 Finnish time (GMT+2). The discussion will be moderated by Dr Katja Lehtisaari (Tampere University).
Participation in the event requires registration. Please register via this link before Sunday 8 March, 23.59 Finnish time.