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SUMMARY:Making News Soviet: Changing Visions of Soviet Information after S
 talin\, 1953-1970 - Dr Simon Huxtable\, Loughborough
DTSTART:20150217T170000Z
DTEND:20150217T183000Z
UID:TALK57252@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:21355
DESCRIPTION:Scholars have not often associated Soviet newspapers with news
 . In a climate where the press was seen as a collective propagandist\, agi
 tator and organiser (Lenin)\, information was strictly controlled from abo
 ve. But after Stalin's death\, journalists began to rethink the fundamenta
 l tenets of the Soviet newspaper. They saw news both as a means for attrac
 ting readers\, but also as a prerequisite for civic engagement. Yet they e
 qually wanted to avoid the 'sensationalism' and 'vulgarity' of western new
 s. This paper investigates journalists' attempts to create a new form of S
 oviet news after Stalin's death. Based on archival documents from a number
  of newspapers\, debates within the Union of Journalists\, as well as the 
 newspapers themselves\, the paper will show that the momentum for change w
 as met with an equally strong belief that news was positive information in
  the service of constructing communism.\n\nAbout the author:  Simon is a R
 esearch Associate at Loughborough University. His research focuses on the 
 development of mass media and communications in post-war Eastern Europe. A
  central goal of his work is to understand how modes of communication – 
 both vertically between Party and public\, and horizontally between member
 s of society – changed with the advent of new technologies and the emerg
 ence of new social norms. His doctoral thesis\, which he is preparing for 
 publication\, investigated the changing professional climate of journalism
  in the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death\, and showed how this impacted
  on the style and content of newspapers. He is currently working on a Leve
 rhulme Trust funded project exploring the culture of television in sociali
 st Eastern Europe\, entitled 'Screening Socialism': http://www.lboro.ac.uk
 /departments/socialsciences/screening-socialism/\n
LOCATION:Latimer Room\, Clare College
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