Relationship between media and society

Building on the traditions of audience research and journalism studies, the research group seeks to

• explore the ways people today use, experience, and make sense of media and journalism;
• examine how media institutions imagine their audiences, engage with them, and build relationships with the public at large, and address the implications these processes have on the self-image of journalists and the ways journalism is made.

This research focus provides new knowledge and better understanding of the shifting relationship between media and society in a time of personalised and fragmented media use, political and ideological polarisation on the part of both media and their audiences, widespread disinformation and other forms of information manipulation, declining media trust, media scepticism and cynicism, information overload, and news fatigue and avoidance.

Group members

PhD Jānis Juzefovičs

Lead Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences

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PhD Mihhail Kremez

Visiting Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Mg. sc. soc. Līga Ozoliņa

Acting Vice-Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences
Head of Curriculum Quality Development, Faculty of Social Sciences
Academic Staff, Faculty of Social Sciences
Researcher, Faculty of Social Sciences

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Projects

Making Sense of Media: A Non-Media-Centric and Open-Ended Approach to the Study of Media-Related Experiences and Perceptions

The Baltic Russophone identity in flux: Political behavior, boundary making, and media practices after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Between Risk and Hope: Demographic Change and (Return)Migration in Latvia Amid Russia’s War in Ukraine

The ARM Project

Publications

• Juzefovičs, J. 2023. Making sense of the COVID-19 crisis: information-seeking practices and attitudes towards information providers among Baltic audiences 
• Vihalemm, T., Juzefovičs, J. 2023. ‘They say we are all zombies’: Rethinking the role of audiences in a mediatized international conflict
• Juzefovičs, J., Vihalemm, T. 2020. Keeping channels open or screening out? The digital practices of Baltic Russian-speakers during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
• Vihalemm, T., Juzefovičs, J. 2020. Navigating Conflicts through the Media: The Sceptical and Self-Responsible Repertoires of Baltic Russian-Speakers
• Vihalemm, T., Juzefovičs, J., Leppik, M. 2019. Identity and Media-use Strategies of the Estonian and Latvian Russian-speaking Populations Amid Political Crisis

Podcast