How is it to be a war-influencer? What responsibilities and challenges do they face? In this episode, we talk with Valeria Shashenock, a Ukrainian influencer who fled her hometown Chernihiv because of the full-scale invasion. Valeriia gives us insights into her daily life and her story of becoming one of the most-followed Ukrainian influencers on Tiktok and Instagram, at the same time navigating her life between a public persona and a young woman, worried for her homeland and family while the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still at full-scale capacity.

What are the primary weapons in today's cyberwar? How has the cyberconflict between Russia and Ukraine evolved since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022? How do cyber-attacks impact citizens, and what can ordinary users do to protect themselves? In this episode, we discuss these questions with Helene Pleil, a research associate at the Digital Society Institute at ESMT Berlin. Helen specializes in cybersecurity and cyber policy, approaching these topics from a peace and conflict studies perspective.

Mariia Dumanska and Catalina Hernández talk with Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of The Kyiv Independent. In little over a year of being founded, this Ukrainian English-language online newspaper has become one of the main sources of information about Ukraine for the world, playing a crucial role in reporting on the war since the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022. How did she and her team get there, how does she assess the development of Ukrainian journalism in the recent years, and how do journalists cope with challenges of covering the ongoing war in their country?

How do Russian independent media operate after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine? Should journalism try to remain neutral in the face of the war? Alexander Polivanov, a chief editor of Helpdesk Media, talks about the challenges Russian independent media has been faced since February 24 2022 - and the solutions Helpdesk Media has developed for working in exile.

Arianna Elsasser and Christelle Lelo discuss communication and journalism studies in Romania with professor Raluca Radu, director of the Journalism department at the University of Bucharest. She is also coordinator of the Romanian branch of the European Journalism Observatory and editor of the Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication. Raluca Radu has witnessed firsthand and participated actively in changing the way journalism operates in Romania. How has Romanian society and journalism progressed since 1989? What else needs to be done? What are the interrelationships between Romanian politics and journalism? In today's episode, we discuss one of Central Europe's most interesting digital media and journalism cases.

In this episode, Alicja Ptak of Notes from Poland and Reuters talks about her experience as a journalist at different news agencies in times of crisis. 2022 saw not only the continued crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, but also Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the various consequences it carried. In this context we talk about the limits and liberties of small and large media, mental health in crisis journalism, and journalists’ role in activism.

Sophie and Luisa talk with Peter Bajomi-Lazaar, professor of Mass Communication at the Budapest Business School University of Applied Sciences, on current challenges and developments of the Hungarian media system. The talk focusses on the societal polarization and divides within the media system, Orbán’s media policy, as well as on the influence of the Russia's war in Ukraine on the Hungarian media discourse. 

In this episode, we talk with data scientist Ksenia Iliuk about Russia’s disinformation campaigns during the war in Ukraine, as well as about ways to combat digital propaganda on national and individual level. Ksenia Iliuk works for the NGO LetsData and specializes in leveraging the power of artificial

How can Belarusians access independent media under the rule of the Lukashenka's regime and how can they differentiate between real and fake information? How do Belarusians feel about the war in Ukraine and how do they organise resistance? How can Western countries support Belarus and are they doing enough?

Zmicier Mickiewicz, journalist at Belsat TV and research fellow at Belarus Security Blog, specialises in information warfare, propaganda, and international relations. In this episode, he talks about the challenges Belarusians are currently facing in times of war and uncertainty.

How important are different types of media for political communication in Poland? Is the word "propaganda" approriate to describe the content of pro-goverment public media in the country? In this  episode, Wiktoria Kocent and Konrad Kuleta talk to Prof. Dr. Michał Głowacki, media scientist from the University of Warsaw, about different aspects of political communication in today's Poland.

Prof. Dr. Michał Głowacki is editor-in-chief of the Central European Journal of Communication and a board member of the Polish Society for Social Communication. His academic work focusses on media policy, public media, media accountability and the culture of innovation.