Ilya Yablokov

The spheres of Ilya’s research interests is the state disinformation strategies in Central and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on the Russian government, as well as the sociology of news production in Russia. As Lecturer in Digital Journalism and Disinformation and founder of the University of Sheffield’s disinformation cluster Ilya studies how the Kremlin uses mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories to shape social cohesion and influence public opinion across Russia and beyond. After the war in Ukraine started, Ilya spent months exploring the ways of support that are required by Russian media professionals. Currently, Ilya works on the book 'Russian Media Mavericks: Feeding the Fire of Authoritarianism’ (with Elisabeth Schimpfossl) about the history of Russian media from 1987 up until Putin’s war in Ukraine. Together, Ilya is working on the monograph ' that will be published by Hurst publishers.

Ilya’s most recent monograph Russia Today and Conspiracy Theories: People, Power, Politics on RT (with Precious Chatterje-Doody) explores how Russian international broadcaster uses traditional and new media environments to spread disinformation on subnational, national and international levels. This work was spawned by Ilya’s previous research into conspiracy theories in Russia. His monograph Fortress Russia: conspiracy theories in the post-Soviet world (Polity 2018) studied how political elites in post-Soviet Russia use conspiracy theories for political purposes and to boost social cohesion under Vladimir Putin. Its Russian version had three editions and was included in a longlist of best non-fiction books of 2020.

As a principal investigator of the British Academy research grant entitled 'Self-censorship in post-Socialist countries' (2017-2019, with Elisabeth Schimpfossl) Ilya studied practices of self-censorship in the Russian media and explored the political, economic and cultural factors influencing the specifics of self-censorship in the post-socialist states of Russia, Hungary and Latvia. In collaboration with colleagues from UK, Denmark, Hungary and Latvia the project looked at informal practices that define the work of newsrooms across the post-socialist world. 

Ilya has published research in leading academic journals in the field of media and Russian studies, including Journalism, European Journal of Communication, Russian Review, Politics, Participations and Democratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization.

Ilya’s media appearances include CNN, BBC World Service, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Politico, Eurozine, Al-Jazeera, Meduza, Open Democracy Russia, The Moscow Times and The Conversation.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/journalism 

Perso : https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/journalism/people/academic/ilya-yablokov 

Conferences

Friday 26 april, 10h30 - 12h30 (online)

"Putin's Fortress Russia, v.2.0: from performative politics to the armed conflict in Ukraine"

in Seminar "Authoritarianism, war and mobilisation in post-soviet societies"

Presentation of the seminar (in French) :

https://enseignements.ehess.fr/2023-2024/ue/453

EHESS / Campus Condorcet (metro Front populaire)

- Tuesday 14 may, 16h30 - 18h30

"The limits of Kremlin’s propaganda (on the use of Telegram channels for research)"

in Seminar "Impossible fieldworks. Which methods ? Which challenges ?"

https://enseignements.ehess.fr/2023-2024/ue/743

EHESS / Campus Condorcet (metro Front populaire)

- Friday 17 may, 14h30 - 16h30

"The keys to success: how to run the media business in the authoritarian state"

in Seminar "Sociology of digital leisure in extreme times"

https://enseignements.ehess.fr/2023-2024/ue/510

EHESS / Campus Condorcet (metro Front populaire)

- Thursday 30 may

in Working day " Investigating Chinese and Russian societies: In search of common grounds for reflection"

For a panel session in dialogue with Kristin Shi-Kupfer (https://www.merics.org/en/team/kristin-shi-kupfer)

EHESS / Campus Condorcet (metro Front populaire)

- Friday 31 may, 9h00 - 12h00 + lunch

Round table with Russian journalists in Paris

Sciences Po / Metro Rue du Bac