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journalism in Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia A project by the JMC 201 class at the University of Kansas

What this site is:

Students in JMC 201: Current Issues in Journalism spent the fall 2022 semester learning about media in former Soviet and Iron Curtain countries. This site combines their final projects in one place.

Most students in the class didn't know much about the region coming in, but made great strides in learning and understanding the media climate, history, geography and cultures of the region. The intended audience is other students – students like they were in August.

From left: Moldova, Uzbekistan, Georgia

The projects

Students were divided into groups, and each group had a country or region to report on. One group did an overview of the larger concepts. Each group's page is linked below:

main concepts

This section gives an overview of media under communism, samizdat, what "media climate" means and how press freedoms are measured, and mis- and disinformation in the region.

The regions

Ten groups each were assigned a post-Soviet country or region of post-Soviet countries and researched the history, media climate, current news and media issues, prominent news outlets and journalists, and issues around verification and disinformation. Read about each area:

Thanks for reading!

Credits:

Created with images by Vitalii - "Sunflowers in rows with burning sun glow on the background" • pe3check - "Parliament building and the statue of Lenin. Tiraspol is the capital of Transnistria, a self governing territory not recognised by United Nations" • Curioso.Photography - "Fragment of Registan Square Mosque and Madrasah complex in Samarkand, Uzbekistan" • Horváth Botond - "Sunset view of Sarajevo, Bosnia" • fgnopporn - "Hand touch screen smart phone. Application icons interface on sc" • Mikolaj Niemczewski - "Panorama of Red Square in Moscow, Russia" • teksomolika - "Maidan Nezalezhnosti is the central square of the capital city of Ukraine" • Rui Vale de Sousa - "Landscape in the city of Minsk" • cristianbalate - "Closeup view of the historic Liberty bridge infrastructure across Danube river in Budapest, Hungary" • Leonid Andronov - "Colorful Houses on the Market square in Wroclaw, Poland" • mrallen - "Flags of the Baltic States" • Alberto Giron - "Barsana Monastery, Maramures, Romania, Europe" • Leonid Andronov - "Aerial view of Saranda, Albania" • Tiko - "Tatev Monastery in Armenia" • Sasint - "Astana, Kazakhstan, night view of the city illuminated as capital of Kazakhstan"