TaRC and the Russian Media Lab’s (University of Helsinki) collaborative initiative, Online Talks, is back for its fifth year of fascinating talks!
But before we get to the presentation of the season’s opening speakers, a few notes about practices in the initiative this season.
First, we have changed our name.
We started out as Online Talks on Russian Media, but last year, our talks covered various problems related to media and communication on a vast territory from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.
To better reflect this change, we named the talks Online Talks on (Not Only) Russian Media. Admittedly, this title was somewhat bulky, so we decided it was time to rebrand these events.
From this year, we decided to reflect the spatiality of our talks in the name and call them Online Talks on Eurasian Media. Hopefully this name will be nicely accepted!
Secondly, there will be a separate registration for every talk this year.
We decided to make this change because of security reasons and also to have information about the number of participants in advance. The Zoom link will be sent to you only after each registration.
To stay informed about the upcoming events, please follow TaRC’s home page!
Otherwise, things remain as they were.
We will meet on Zoom on the second Tuesday of each month (until May 2025) to hear interesting presentations from a number of experts in their own fields, and discuss the topic together.
If you want to suggest a topic or speaker for the next talks, please do not hesitate to contact event organizers Olga Dovbysh or Katja Lehtisaari!
All this being said, it is time to announce the first talk of this academic year, to be held on Tuesday 10 September. The focus of the talk is on an increasing phenomenon: journalism in exile.
Over the past six years, the number of countries moving toward authoritarianism has more than doubled compared to those moving toward democracy. This shift has led to an increasing number of exilic journalists and exiled media communities from Hong Kong, Tibet, Iran, Belarus, Russia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and more, forming overlapping networks and establishing shared practices, experiences, grievances, and strategies.
In countries with authoritarian regimes, exiled journalism is often the only source of independent information for societies. In these situations, the work of exiled media organizations is not only necessary but vital for innovation in the sector (exiled or not) and key to freedom of the press.
At the same time, the professional integration of exiled journalists in host countries is obstructed. In the European journalistic community, exiled media are often perceived as “others” compared to established Western newsrooms due to the peculiar nature of their work and other reasons (language barriers, psychological barriers, etc.). Moreover, an unstable financial position and dependency on donor funding, as well as insecure legal status, also contribute to the self-perceived “otherness” in relation to their European peers.
Often, exiled media have to hide their office, do not have an office at all, or have to use fake names/pseudonyms for security reasons. Their cooperation with newsrooms in host countries is often limited to coverage of particular events (e.g., the Russo-Ukrainian war in the case of Russian journalists). Altogether, this contributes to the peripheral or isolated position of exiled media.
The talk Marginals or new professionals? The place of exiled journalism in the European media landscape aims to raise the question of the professionalization and institutionalization of the growing community of exiled media professionals in Europe.
Invited speakers will address issues of possible cooperation between exiled journalists from different countries, tensions, competition for resources, as well as their positioning in the European journalistic community.
Invited speakers:
- Cinthia Membreño, coordinator of NEMO, Network of Exiled Media Outlets
- Matthew Kasper, head of Meydan TV, Azerbaijani media in exile
- Kirill Martynov, cheif editor of Novaya Gazeta Europe, Russian media in exile
- Salla Nazarenko, international affairs expert of the Union of Journalists in Finland
This Online Talk will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 10 September from 14:00 to 15:30 (Helsinki time) (13.00 to 14.30 CET). The discussion will be moderated by Dr Olga Dovbysh (University of Helsinki).
If you wish to participate and receive emails with updates about future Online Talks, please leave your contact information here by midnight on Tuesday 10 September.
Looking forward to seeing you at Online Talks – on Tuesday and beyond!