Dates: 24-25 October 2024
Organizer: Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Format: hybrid event (offline and online)
In partnership with: National Association of Mass Media Researchers, Union of Journalism Education of Chinese and Russian Universities, Association of Journalists of Russia and Africa
Local organizing and program committees are headed by Professor Elena Vartanova, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, President of the National Association of Mass Media Researchers
Today’s comparative media studies are a diverse research field which, however, tends to see media systems as constellations of media segments and historical, political, commercial, legal, state-related, and cultural conditions for their performance. This logic of description of media systems emerged before the Hallin and Mancini’s book (2004) and has persisted till today. Due to a variety of reasons though we have been recently seeing a tendency for media systems to acquire similar features. This happens as a result of digitalization, globalization, the change in national media cultures, growing commercialization of media industry, changing government regulations, and other factors. Previously clearly defined and attributed to specific models, media systems of different countries and regions of the world have been changing, developing, and in many ways shifting closer to each other.
Although national media systems still retain their specifics determined by the unique social, historical, cultural and political landscapes of countries, we cannot but notice that this specifics is oftentimes replaced by the tendencies of the global character, which have significant influence on media systems of these countries. These tendencies include but are not limited to the growth of digital journalism; an attempt of media outlets to reach out to a broader audience instead of focusing on particular political or social groupings; the spread of user generated content and the subsequent re-consideration of professional journalists’ roles and mission; a shift to common business models and common media platforms, and much more.
In this vein, scholars have been discussing a ‘systemic turn’ in media systems studies, with various branches of systems theory being applied to media studies in a sound way. As a result of ‘homogenization’ of media systems, there emerged a discussion about new criteria for cross-country comparisons, more relevant for today’s social, economic and cultural contexts. Revisiting Comparing Media Systems. Three Models of Media and Politics, Mancini (2024) noted that digitalization has deeply changed the nature of the existing media systems. Following up on this, digital journalism(s) have been approached as a major new comparative criterion, rethinking and in some way challenging nation-state as the level of analysis. Post-COVID realities and new geopolitical challenges have been clearly influencing media systems as well. In this new context, there is a growing need to discuss what media systems today are, how they can be analyzed, interpreted and compared.
At the Moscow Readings 2024 conference, we welcome a discussion about systemic stability of journalism as a whole and in regard to cross-country comparisons. We encourage scholars to suggest new criteria for media system analysis, drawing attention, among other things, towards changing journalistic roles across nations and media segments, and the impact of digital journalism(s) upon media performance.
Submission guidelines
Abstracts (between 300 and 500 words) in .doc or .docx in English or Russian, including author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s) should be sent to moscow.readings@mail.ru before 01 September 2024
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 indexed journals Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 10. Zhurnalistika (Scopus, Web of Science) and World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies (Scopus).
The 16th Moscow Readings conference will be organized as a hybrid conference. We are looking forward to meeting you in October 2024 in Moscow in person or online, from wherever you are.
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