@florian-toepfl.bsky.social
Professor of Political Communication with a Focus on Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet Region, PI of ERC consolidator project RUSINFORM on Russia's informational influence abroad. All opinions private.
Publication alert: We have a new publication on "Disrupting or invigorating an anti-democratic counterpublic? How highly active commenters engage on RT German’s Facebook page" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
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journals.sagepub.com
Publication alert: We have a new publication on "Disrupting or invigorating an anti-democratic counterpublic? How highly active commenters engage on RT German’s Facebook page" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
Co-authored with @florian-toepfl.bsky.social, our new Europe-Asia Studies article is out in open access. Using 350 self-published CVs (2013-2021) from Prigozhin’s IRA “troll farm”, we map staffing, task divisions, a five-level hierarchy, 2014 recruitment surge. doi.org/10.1080/0966...
doi.org
Ready or not, "Europe should embrace the idea of going it alone." www.ft.com/content/1da0...
Europe should embrace the idea of going it alone
The more the EU has to pay for ingratiation with Trump, the less convincing its strategic rationale for doing so
ft.com
My Op-ed @theguardian.com on #Ukraine, the Paris declaration & unrealistic hopes for a ceasefire⬇️
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 7mo agoEnding the war in Ukraine has more support than ever. So why is peace still not in sight? | Gwendolyn Sasse
My university, Kyiv School of Economics, is hiring postdocs & professors of all levels! Join the best economics department in Ukraine, with excellent colleagues, modern campus and make an impact teaching the new generation of Ukrainians! Link: www.aeaweb.org/joe/listing.... #EconSky #econjobmarket
American Economic Association: JOE Listings - August 1, 2025 - January 31, 2026
aeaweb.org
Als Tipp, weil ich das Paper gerade im Examensseminar bespreche: Ein exzellentes Paper und must-read für alle, die Kriegsberichterstattung inhaltsanalysieren. Uns fehlen aktuell vergleichbare normative Reflektionen zum Umgang mit rechtsextremen Akteuren: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine in den deutschen Medien: Kritik des Maßstabs „ausgewogene Bewertung“ in Inhaltsanalysen - Publizistik
Content analyses of the presentation of conflicts in the media are often conducted to empirically examine the accusation of one-sidedness. This raises the question of how the demand for a balanced ass...
link.springer.com
Als Tipp, weil ich das Paper gerade im Examensseminar bespreche: Ein exzellentes Paper und must-read für alle, die Kriegsberichterstattung inhaltsanalysieren. Uns fehlen aktuell vergleichbare normative Reflektionen zum Umgang mit rechtsextremen Akteuren: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine in den deutschen Medien: Kritik des Maßstabs „ausgewogene Bewertung“ in Inhaltsanalysen - Publizistik
Content analyses of the presentation of conflicts in the media are often conducted to empirically examine the accusation of one-sidedness. This raises the question of how the demand for a balanced ass...
link.springer.com
📰 Dr. Teresa Völker zeigt, wie politische Debatten zur Normalisierung der AfD beitragen. Wenn demokratische Parteien rechte Narrative übernehmen, verschiebt sich der Rahmen unserer Demokratie. Deswegen der Appel: wachsam bleiben und Haltung zeigen. 👉 www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft...
Diskursive Normalisierung der AfD: „Demokratische Parteien haben den Prozess beschleunigt“
Rechtsextremes Gedankengut ist in Deutschland sagbarer geworden. Hier erklärt eine Forscherin, ob sich dieser Trend jetzt noch umkehren lässt.
tagesspiegel.de
Time to ask: In whose interests is American foreign policy being conducted?
Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 8mo ago"By dangling multibillion-dollar rare-earth and energy deals, Moscow could reshape the economic map of Europe—while driving a wedge between America and its traditional allies" Read this excellent @wsj.com account of the business deals behind the "peace"negotiations www.wsj.com/world/russia...
Extraordinary WSJ reporting today that unveils the extent to which Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and US business executives are salivating over business deals with Russia while Putin’s forces kidnap Ukranian children and bomb civilians in their apartments. 🎁 www.wsj.com/world/russia...
A schoolbook example of a propaganda campaign. Banal and and very likely effective at the same time. meduza.io/en/feature/2...
‘Life matters more than your wallet’: Meduza takes a look at the Kremlin’s new media guidelines for spinning Russia’s tax hikes — Meduza
Russia’s new budget includes tax hikes that the Kremlin knows will anger the public. So the Putin administration has issued detailed instructions to state-run and pro-government media on how to frame ...
meduza.io
There's always a Russian connection ... "Jeffrey Epstein claims he gave Russians insight into Trump. Newly released emails show the late convicted sex offender’s extensive network of foreign contacts, whom he corresponded with about Trump’s policy decisions." www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Jeffrey Epstein claims he gave Russians insight into Trump
Newly released emails show the late convicted sex offender’s extensive network of foreign contacts, whom he corresponded with about Trump’s policy decisions.
politico.com
New from me: “working the refs” has come for Wikipedia. The same type of attacks alleging anti-conservative bias that right wing politicians have make about social media are coming for the encyclopedia — because of its critical role in shaping AI answer engines. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Right-Wing Attack on Wikipedia
The free internet encyclopedia is widely used to train AI. That’s why conservatives are trying to dethrone it.
theatlantic.com
For the government to remain on X is now unconscionable.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 9mo agoElon Musk: "It is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all die" 29th October 2025. 2 million views in its first hour.
Out now: key data from the third wave of the Worlds of Journalism Study. 75 countries, >32,350 journalists, >300 researchers, seven years of successful collaboration. Many thanks to all who contributed to this project! www.worldsofjournalism.org/reports-wjs3/
Worlds of Journalism@worldsofjournalism.bsky.social · 9mo agoDrawing on responses from over 32,000 journalists in 75 countries, this report examines how journalists across the globe navigate risk, uncertainty, and transformation in today’s rapidly changing media landscape. 🔗 Read the full report: www.worldsofjournalism.org/reports-wjs3/
That there will likely be no Trump-Putin meeting in the near future does not change the fact that Putin’s psychological operation to disrupt the Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine has been, so far, a success. That disruption was the only thing that actually mattered.
Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years." www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
thecrimson.com
1/Die Berlinskaja Prawda bietet heute ihren Leser*innen eine besondere Überraschung an: eine Kurzreise "Auf den Spuren Wilhelm Piecks". Ich vermute, nur wenige werden sich daran stören - wer war Pieck schon. Ein alter Mann mit immer guter Laune, den alle mochten... Kann man doch
Trump will den Krieg seit Amtsantritt einfrieren. Die Ukraine ist seit Monaten dazu bereit. Doch Russland verhindert Frieden. Putin will mehr ukrainisches Staatsgebiet, als er erobern konnte. Ohne echten Druck der USA wird er weiter mit Gewalt versuchen, sein Ziel zu erreichen.
Excellent read with many leading academics cited. On how Trump provokes violence to gain control. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...
Opinion | Trump Is Not Afraid of Civil War. Neither Is Stephen Miller.
nytimes.com
Excellent read with many leading academics cited. On how Trump provokes violence to gain control. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...
Opinion | Trump Is Not Afraid of Civil War. Neither Is Stephen Miller.
nytimes.com
"We've been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies." - Macron defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...
"Europeans, let's wake up!" — Defend Democracy
“We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.” President Macron on the occasion of German Unity Day, 3 October 2025.
defenddemocracy.eu
It seems likely that Russia will use the nuclear power plant in the next days and weeks to put pressure on Ukraine, in a very risky game. kyivindependent.com/its-a-risky-...
'A risky situation' — The critical state of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, explained
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) remains disconnected from the Ukrainian electricity grid and without external power for the 10th consecutive day, creating an increasingly "risky" situation...
kyivindependent.com
Sitzen zwei Dikatoren in Europa beisammen und jammern, wie schlecht es ihnen geht: "Gestern saß ich den ganzen Tag mit Putin zusammen und wir haben darüber nachgedacht, wie wir diese schwierigen Zeiten überstehen können.”
Natalka@natalkakyiv.bsky.social · 10mo ago‼️This 🔽 “Yesterday we sat with Putin almost all day and thought about how we could survive during this difficult time. Russia is a huge rich empire. It has immeasurable wealth but today we are thinking about how to survive together.” - Lukashenko
Over the last century, many democracies have started down the road to autocracy. Some managed to turn around. What did these 'U-turns' have in common? Political economist @marinanord.bsky.social & colleagues' conclusions are clear and succinct. Full research summary: www.v-dem.net/media/public...
