The Slavic Literature and Culture Forum welcomes Dr. Vlad Strukov (University of Leeds) to Ohio State to present "Gamification of Russian Media and Politics". Please find an abstract for the talk below.
The relationship between Russian media and politics is often considered, by the west, to be a collusion of opposites. In one regard, the Russian media system is thought of as a hierarchal structure, and its audiences, the passive and obedient recipients of the government message. In another regard, it is a political process, framed by a debate between pro- and anti-government forces that are, at different times, conceptualised as official and unofficial politics, conservative and oppositional parties, and so on. This approach serves a specific ideological purpose in the west, and is rooted in the Cold War paradigm which remains largely unchanged since the dissolution of the USSR.
In this lecture, Vlad Strukov offers a more complex and nuanced interpretation of the iterations between media, governance and politics in contemporary Russia. Gamification is a general term which defines the application of ludic concepts and principles to nongame contexts. This lecture will offer analysis on recent developments in Russian media and politics (since the annexation of Crimea) through the lens of gamification. He will draw on various case studies, including a range of cross-media and multi-platform events, that he conducted as a part of his field work in Russia.
