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| Semester | spring semester 2024 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Roman Horbyk (roman.horbyk@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The course gives an overview of post-Soviet media landscapes from a comparative perspective and through the lens of recent media theories. Focusing on a variety of cases from the region, the students will be able to develop both theoretical knowledge in communication studies and a contextual understanding of Eastern Europe and, partly, other post-Soviet regions. A special focus will be placed on Ukraine in order to challenge the entrenched Russo-centrism, contribute to decolonising East European studies, and highlight the country’s dynamic mediascape as one of the freest and most innovative. The course is organised in thematic sections, focusing on the relevant concepts and aspects of media systems, including structures of ownership, professional cultures, strategic communication, propaganda and fake news, political communication in the context of elections, the role of new and social media, media surveillance, mediatisation and datafication. Concepts and theories are explored through the analysis of individual and empirical cases during lectures and seminars. The core of the course challenges the implicit assumption in media research about the common elements of a post-Communist model present in different contexts from Slovenia to Estonia and from the Czech Republic to Turkmenistan. Instead, it accentuates the heterogeneity of communication and media practices in these highly diverse spaces and foregrounds the way in which East European experiences anticipate and influence media and communication in the rest of the world, from troll farms and the weaponisation of smartphones to the very pervasiveness of Russia-connoted “post-truth” in the Global North as well as the Global South. |
| Bibliography | Bolin, G., & Ståhlberg, P. (2023). Managing Meaning in Ukraine: Information, Communication, and Narration Since the Euromaidan Revolution. MIT Press. (Introduction) Dutsyk, D., & Dyczok, M. (2021). Ukraine’s media: A field where power is contested. In: Minakov, M., Kasianov, G., & Rojansky, M. (eds). From “the Ukraine” to Ukraine: A Contemporary History, 1991-2021. Stuttgart: ibidem, 169-206. Horbyk, R. & Boyko, K. (2024). The Swarm Doctrine: How to Win an Information War. Lanham: Lexington Books (Introduction) Horbyk, R., Prymachenko, Y., & Orlova, D. The transformation of propaganda: The continuities and discontinuities of information operations, from Soviet to Russian active measures. Nordic Journal of Media Studies 5(1), 68-94. Horbyk, R. (2022). “The war phone”: Mobile communication on the frontline in Eastern Ukraine. Digital War 3(1-3), 9-24. Mihelj, S. (2023). Platform nations. Nations and Nationalism 29(1), 10-24. Onuch, O., Sasse, G. & Michiels, S. (2023). Flowers, Tractors & Telegram: Who are the protesters in Belarus? Nationalities Papers 4(51), 744-769. Orlova, D. (2016). Ukrainian media after the EuroMaidan: In search of independence and professional identity. Publizistik 61, 441-461. Oates, S. (2016). Russian media in the digital age: Propaganda rewired. Russian Politics 1(4), 398-417. Tolz, V., & Hutchings, S. (2023). Truth with a Z: Disinformation, war in Ukraine, and Russia’s contradictory discourse of imperial identity. Post-Soviet Affairs 5(39), 347-365. |
| Admission requirements | History students at all study levels as well as students of other subjects in whose modules the exercise is linked. If the course is oversubscribed, preference will be given to History students. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Wednesday | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 28.02.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 06.03.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 13.03.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 20.03.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 27.03.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 03.04.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 10.04.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 17.04.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 24.04.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 01.05.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Tag der Arbeit |
| Wednesday 08.05.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 15.05.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 22.05.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 29.05.2024 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Modules |
Doktorat Russistik: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Russian Studies) Doktorat Slavistik: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Slavic Studies) Electives Bachelor History: Recommendations (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Archive / Medien / Theorien (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Areas: Osteuropa (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Basis Geschichte: Russland / Sowjetunion (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Modul: Forschung und Praxis (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Geschichte Ostmitteleuropas (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Geschichte Russlands und der Sowjetunion (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Gesellschaft in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree subject: Eastern European Cultures) Modul: Gesellschaft in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Materialitäten (Master's degree program: Cultural Techniques) Modul: Slavische Kulturwissenschaft (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Spezialisierung «Geschichte und Polititsche Bildung» (Master's Studies: Subject-Specific Teaching and Learning) Wahlbereich Master Geschichte: Empfehlungen (Master's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |