The 10th International Moscow Readings conference "Mass Media and Communications 2018"

29.10.2018



On October 25–26, 2018 the Faculty of Journalism, MSU held the 10th International Moscow Readings conference «Mass Media and Communications 2018». The overarching theme of the conference this year was ‘Digital Transformations of Mass Media: Regional, National and Global Aspects’. The conference was attended by 200 scholars from 30 countries of the world, who presented a fascinating mosaic of contemporary media studies. Like in the previous years, the conference was organized with support of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.

During opening ceremony, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism Professor Elena Vartanova mentioned that the conference has proved to be an efficient platform for establishing not only academic but also friendly relations between media researchers from all over the world. She also presented an Award of Excellence to Professor Paolo Mancini (University of Perugia, Italy) as a sign of respect for his great academic achievements and as a sign of gratitude for more then 10 years of fruitful cooperation between the Faculty of Journalism, MSU and University of Perugia.

The framework of the conference was outlined by the keynote speakers during two plenary sessions. A constellation of honorable scholars included Professor Elena Vartanova (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia), Professor Paolo Mancini (University of Perugia, Italy), Professor Hannu Nieminen (University of Helsinki, Finland), Professor Philip Seib (University of Southern California, USA), Professor Andreas Hepp (University of Bremen, Germany), Professor Pal Tamas (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) and Dr. Massimo Ragnedda (University of Northumbria, Great Britain). In their keynote addresses, speakers covered crucial issues of modern media world like digital divide, informational rights, ‘echo chambers’ and informational ‘bubbles’ in the Internet, mediatization and robotization of social processes, etc.

These topics as well as many others were further discussed during theme sessions and round table meetings. The conference featured 20 theme sessions and 7 round tables. In 2018, Moscow Readings conference programme included several important events that were not part of the conference programme in the previous years. Those included two round table meetings (the one on Russian media theory reconsideration and the other on the study of the digital youth's media consumption) funded by the Russian Science Foundation, round table on journalism education in CIS countries, round table on digital inequalities organized by the IAMCR Digital Divide Working Group, a special session on TV and radio devoted to the 60th anniversary of the chair of TV and radio at the Faculty of Journalism, MSU and several other events.

During closing ceremony, Professor Elena Vartanova and Professor Paolo Mancini stressed that despite incredible diversity of presented paradigms and approaches, the conference contributed to uniting them within common conceptual framework. It means that we found some common approaches to the study of mass media on regional, national and global levels and that one of the main goals of the Moscow readings conference was achieved.



Photos by: Viktoria Nazarenko, Georgy Nikanorov, Ekaterina Manshina, Elizaveta Prostenko, Ekaterina Korneva, Anastasia Osipova & Elizaveta Prostenko,Georgy Nikanorov, Viktoria Nazarenko, Ekaterina Manshina, Irina Solonukho, Evgenia Danigevich.