The Twelfth International Scientific Readings Mass Media and Communications 2020, organized by the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the National Association of Mass Media Researchers (NAMMI), with the participation of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), was held online in Moscow.
The scientific conference on the De-westernizing Media and Cultural Studies: New Discourse Practices in the Digital World was actively attended by the leading universities of Russia, the USA, Great Britain, France, and China. Among them were Lomonosov Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Volda University College, University of Gothenburg, Nanyang Technological University, Hangzhou Pedagogical University, University of Westminster, Loughborough University, and others, as well as the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences, and Humanities (IMSSH).
During the conference, SUSU IMSSH faculty members presented their discursive media research as a new theoretical paradigm. The participants of the conference were interested in the joint report "Analysis of the communicative efficiency of Internet media in the digital age" by Liudmila Shesterkina, IMSSH Director, Doctor of Sciences (Philology), and Professor Lidiya Lobodenko, Head of the Department of Journalism, Advertising, and Public Relations, Doctor of Sciences (Philology). Their report analysed the effectiveness of communicative activities in the Internet space of the leading TV channels of the Chelyabinsk Region.
Arina Marfitsyna, head of the 360-Degree Multimedia Newsroom laboratory, presented her report entitled “Mediaprojects as an effective instrument of PR promotion in the digital space”, describing the television program “SUSU from the first person. A direct conversation with the rector” as a leading instrument for the university’s digital PR in the early stage of quarantine measures.
In her presentation in English, Anna Krasavina, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Journalism, Advertising, and Public Relations spoke about the destructive impact of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"And these were very relevant topics from our end," said IMSSH Director Lidiya Lobodenko. “Since this year's conference was dedicated to the challenges and trends that media and culture in the East and West are facing in the process of digitalization. Among them are: the growing digital divide; the emergence of new media and communication policies aimed at supporting offline and online activities of cultural, linguistic, and ethnic groups; the impact of social, political, economic, technological, and cultural transformations on intercultural communication and national/group/cultural identities of citizens; the emergence of new journalistic practices in digital aspects and in other aspects. To varying degrees, many of these challenges are being actively explored by the IMSSH scholars in their daily research.”