Talk on April 22: Russian Independent Media in a Time of War

Picture of Elena Rodina
Picture: Elena Rodina.

On April 22, we will hear about the situation of independent media outlets in Russia during the war in Ukraine.

TaRC’s guest lectures about the media in Russia continue on April 22, and the upcoming lecture is in some ways a follow-up to Elisabeth Schimpfössl’s recent talk.

This time, we will hear Dr Elena Rodina’s presentation on independent Russian media following Russia’s attack on Ukraine in late February.

Dr Rodina will discuss how Russian independent media survive after the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine and the severe crackdown from the state that followed.

She will speak of media in exile and journalists who remain in Russia and continue reporting from the inside, practices journalists rely on to overcome censorship, new evolving formats that allow journalists to continue their work, and challenges that they are facing.

Dr Rodina is a media and communications scholar whose research examines the changes that mass media are undergoing in the context of global digital transformation with a focus on the intersection of journalism and activism, and, in particular, on journalistic resistance to state pressure in post-Soviet states.

She obtained her PhD in 2018 in Media and Communication at Northwestern University (Chicago), where she has lectured on media censorship and conducted research on journalistic resistance practices in the North Caucasus of Russia.

She has been a subject matter expert affiliated with the MS program at Northwestern, and she currently works as a Eurasia department consultant at Civil Rights Defenders, an international human rights organization. She has also covered post-Soviet states as a Research Associate for the Committee to Protect Journalists. For her analyses for the CPJ, click here.

Before entering academia, she worked as a full-time, Moscow-based socio-political correspondent for weekly magazines Ogoniok and Esquire Russia.

Dr Rodina’s talk will be held on Friday 22 April, and it is hosted in co-operation with TaRC member Saara Ratilainen’s Academy of Finland funded FEMCORUS project.

The talk takes place from 14:00 to 16:00 local time (GMT+3) at Tampere University, Pinni B1029-30 (“Olohuone”, visiting address: Kanslerinrinne 1). There will also be ample time for discussion and questions after Dr Rodina’s presentation.

Note due to space constraints: if you are interested in participating, please sign up by emailing Dr Saara Ratilainen (saara.ratilainen@tuni.fi) no later than Wednesday 20 April.