ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

USI Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland)

The Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) at Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland) invites applications for a 75% per annum pro rata research and teaching PostDoc position (available for two years, subject to a positive evaluation at the end of year one).

The PostDoc Position

The PostDoc candidate will work under the scientific supervision of Prof. Gabriele Balbi (http://usi.to/cyi). The successful candidate will have shared responsibilities in the design and implementation of research projects in the fields of media and journalism studies. The Institute plans to submit research projects to funding institutions in one or more of the following areas: media history, digital journalism, digital cultures and climate change communications. Therefore, expertise in one or more of these fields is important as well as qualitative and/or quantitative methods experience.

The successful candidate will prepare and teach courses at both the Bachelor and Master level, including supervising dissertation students. Specifically, the candidate will teach a Bachelor-level course of 6 ECTS (56 hours of lectures) in the field of Sociology of Communications (in Italian) from Spring 2023.

The successful PostDoc candidate is expected to present papers at scientific conferences and produce publications in high-impact journals.

Candidates’ profile

Ideal candidates should satisfy the following requirements:

• A PhD in media or communication studies, or related disciplines.
• High personal interest in collaborative work in both teaching and research.
• Expertise in the field of media and journalism studies. The Institute particularly welcomes candidates in one or more of the following areas: media history, digital journalism, digital cultures and climate change communications.
• Skills in qualitative and/or quantitative methods are desirable.
• Excellent command of English and Italian, both written and spoken.
• A strong desire for research and publishing at high-level conferences.
• Ability to work independently and to plan and direct one’s own work.
• Ability to work in a team and autonomy in scheduling research steps. Interest for teaching and tutoring students and availability to collaborate with colleagues (engage in scientific dialogue, listen and think critically) are required.

The Application

Applications should contain: (1) a letter in which the applicants describe their research interests and the motivation to apply, (2) a complete CV, (3) copies of relevant diplomas, certificates as well as the full transcript of records, (4) a complete list of publications with details on the candidate’s contributions, (5) two reference letters, (6) the candidate’s three strongest publications, (7) a short description of no more than 300 words for a course entitled “Sociology of Communication” to be taught in Italian from Spring 2023.

Please send your application in electronic form or requests for further information to Gabriele Balbi (gabriele.balbi@usi.ch)

Applications received before 25 April 2022, will be given priority. However, applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

The starting date for this position is from the 1 September 2022. The position will be kept open until a suitable candidate has been found.

For more information, please check the call here.

Comunicazioni Sociali - Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies

Deadline: May 15, 2022

Special issue of Comunicazioni Sociali - Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies (Scopus indexed; A-class rated ANVUR) edited by Rosa Barotsi, Gloria Dagnino and Carla Mereu Keating

In the last twenty years, increasing scholarly attention has been devoted to the screen industries as a workplace and as a site of institutional and individual cultural and creative practice (e.g., Deuze 2007; Mayer, Banks and Caldwell 2009; Hesmondhalgh and Baker 2010). Studies in this field have often centred on film, television and audiovisual media production (e.g., Caldwell 2008; Barra, Bonini and Splendore 2016; Comand and Venturini 2021), although forms of labour in circulation, promotion and reception of media texts have also attracted interest (e.g. Loist 2011; Grainge and Johnson 2015; Fanchi and Garofalo 2018; Treveri Gennari et al. 2020). Within these studies, a number of scholars have interrogated and utilised gender as an analytic category in order to expose and criticise unequal and divisive labour dynamics (e.g., Foster 1997; Gaines, Vatsal and Dall’Asta 2013-; Bell 2021). The gendered division of labour and the systematic exclusion of female-identifying professionals in the screen industries persistently emerge as global, transnational issues (e.g., Gledhill and Knight 2015; Hole, Jelača, Kaplan and Petro 2016; Liddy 2020). In Italy, pioneering studies on women’s labour in the audiovisual sector can be traced back to the 1970s (Bellumori 1972; Carrano 1977), but it is only in recent years that a gender perspective has been taken on more systematically, focusing on directors (e.g., Scarparo and Luciano 2010, 2013, 2020; Cantini 2013) as well as other above- and below-the-line professions (e.g., Dall’Asta 2008; Cardone and Fanchi 2011; Cardone, Jandelli and Tognolotti 2015; Buffoni 2018; Missero 2022).

This concerted academic attention continues to raise a number of critical, theoretical and methodological, questions: how instrumental is the category of gender in exposing power dynamics and labour relations in the Italian past and present screen industries? How can we uphold intersectional feminist, queer and decolonial perspectives of gender and labour in meaningful ways? How do we redress long-established heteronormative and binary approaches? Finally, how do we tackle historical bias in archival practice and engage with the promises and limitations of digital technologies?

This special journal issue aims to foreground a range of research approaches and methods to document the intersection between gender and labour from a diachronic or synchronic perspective. It welcomes a variety of theoretical frameworks and applied case studies that identify and engage (self-)critically with past and present understandings of gendered specialisation and discrimination in the Italian screen industries, also from comparative and/or transnational perspectives. This issue concurrently serves as a platform for screen industry scholars and practitioners to reflect critically on historical relations of gender bias and power in the research process, calling them to examine consciously and explicitly the assumptions that underpin their approaches and methods and the nature and availability of their archives and data resources. We are also interested in contributions from educators and practitioners whose work integrates ethical principles in the formulation of innovative research-led teaching and creative practice.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas of investigation:

*Methodological challenges in gender-based studies of Italian screen industries.

*Gendered labour and working conditions in the Italian screen industries.

*Screen labour historiography and historical revisionism.

*Screen labour and intersectional, transfeminist, decolonial and disability studies.

*Critical inclusion studies and Italian screen industries.

*Questioning normative frameworks of employment in the Italian screen industries (political, economic, legal, policy-based).

*Histories of hidden, forgotten and/or marginalised figures in Italian screen labour.

*Gendered labour in Italian promotional screen industries.

*Ethics and aesthetics of representation, casting and performance.

*Archival research methods, experiences, challenges (politics of archiving).

*Datafication of screen research (materiality, typology, bias, interpretation and politics of data).

*Digital Humanities and research on screen labour (mapping, immersive, digitisation, online sources).

Submission details:

Please send your abstract and a 150 words biographical note by May 15, 2022 to:

• redazione.cs@unicatt.it
• roza.barotsi@unicatt.it
• gloria.dagnino@usi.ch
• c.mereukeating@bristol.ac.uk

Abstracts should be between 300 to 400 words of length (in English). All submissions should include: 5 keywords, name of author(s), institutional affiliation, contact details and a short bio for each author. Authors will be notified of proposal acceptance by May 30, 2022.

If the proposal is accepted, the author(s) will be asked to submit the full article, in English, by September 18, 2022.

Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it is unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Articles must not exceed 5’000/6’000-words (including references)

For more information: http://comunicazionisociali.vitaepensiero.com/news-call-for-papers-cfp-gender-and-labour-in-the-italian-screen-industries-critical-research-approaches-and-methods-5801.html

Contributions will be submitted to a double-blind peer review process.

The issue number 1.2023 of Comunicazioni Sociali will be published in April, 2023.

“Comunicazioni Sociali” is indexed in Scopus and it is an A-class rated journal by ANVUR in: Cinema, photography and television (L-ART/06), Performing arts (L-ART/05), and Sociology of culture and communication (SPS/08).

Universidade Lusófona

Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias announces a call for the award of 5 (five) research grants, hereinafter referred to as Doctoral Research Grant, in the area of Media Arts and Communication Sciences under the European Universities Alliance for Film and Media Arts (FilmEU.

The PhD Research Grant is intended for candidates already enrolled or candidates who meet the necessary conditions to enroll in one of the following PhD Programs in Media Art and Communication (https://www.ulusofona.pt/en/phd/media-art-and-communication) and PhD in Communication Sciences (https://www.ulusofona.pt/phd/communication-sciences) who intend to develop research activities, leading to the award of a PhD academic degree, in the scope with the scientific work developed at CICANT (https://cicant.ulusofona.pt/) and FilmEU Alliance.(https://www.filmeu.eu/)

For more information: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/funding/research-fellowship-phd-cofaculhtfilmeu-fct2022

Editors: Kirill Postoutenko, Alexey Tikhomirov, Dmitri Zakharine

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88367-6

Introduction

This book provides a systematic account of media and communication development in Soviet society from the October Revolution to the death of Stalin. Summarizing earlier research and drawing upon previously unpublished archival materials, it covers the main aspects of public and private interaction in the Soviet Union, from public broadcast to kitchen gossip.

The first part of the volume covers visual, auditory and tactile channels, such as posters, maps and monuments. The second deals with media, featuring public gatherings, personal letters, telegraph, telephone, film and radio. The concluding part surveys major boundaries and flows structuring the Soviet communicate environment. The broad scope of contributions to this volume will be of great interest to students and researchers working on the Soviet Union, and twentieth-century media and communication more broadly.

Reviews

‘Rich in empirical material and diverse in methodological approaches, this volume shows how the formative decades of the Soviet society were shaped by various forms and modes of expression, including its suppression. The coverage is very broad – from interpersonal interactions (such as kitchen gossip) to public events (such as religious rituals) to mass communication (such as radio broadcasts). Whether the contributors analyze conversational turn-taking or messaging devices, whatever media becomes an object of their analysis – auditory, visual, tactile, or electronic, the volume is always focused on the Soviet society as a system, viewed in terms of integration and control, power and resistance, authority and freedom. The reader of this volume will have a deeper understanding of how social bonds and boundaries were created during those early decades, and also how their intended and unintended consequences impact today’s social dynamics in Russia. The volume will appeal to anyone interested in Soviet and Russian society, as well as theory, history, and ecology of communication.’

—Igor Kluykanov, Professor of Communication, Eastern Washington University.

‘This is an all-inclusive tome; an invaluable resource for anyone interested in visual and material sources as well as corporeal forms of communication in a totalitarian society. It highlights the reliance on various means of communication in order to maintain control while embracing the sensory and bodily challenges to power. This is an incredibly innovative analysis of communication and media in an extraordinary time and the book will become an instant classic for both scholars and students of Soviet history.’

—Rósa Magnúsdóttir, Professor of History, University of Iceland.

Table of Contents

1 Soviet Communication and Soviet Society (1917–1953): Alignments and Tensions

Kirill Postoutenko

Part I Channels

2 Visual Channels (1): Posters and Fine Art

Judith Devlin

3 Visual Channels (2): Cityscapes

Graeme Gill

4 Visual Channels (3): Cartography

Nick Baron

5 Auditory Channels: Crowing Roosters and Wailing Sirens

Dmitri Zakharine

6 Tactile Channels: Brotherly Kisses, Handshakes, and

Flogging in a Bathhouse

Dmitri Zakharine

Part II Media

7 Public Body (1): Popular Assemblies

Lorenz Erren

8 Public Body (2): Mass Festivals

Malte Rolf

9 Public Body (3): State Celebrations and Street Festivities

Sergei Kruk

10 Private Body: Kitchen Gossip and Bedroom Whispers

Anastasiia Zaplatina

11 Public Print (1): Books and Periodicals

Christopher Stolarski

12 Public Print (2): Coins and Bank Notes

Kirill Postoutenko

13 Private Handwriting (1): Diaries

Alexey Tikhomirov

14 Private Handwriting (2): Personal Letters

Alexey Tikhomirov

15 Private Handwriting (3): Denunciations 269

François-Xavier Nérard

16 Private/Public Handwriting: Self-reports

Berthold Unfried

17 Electrical Signalling (1): Telegraph

Larissa Zakharova

18 Electrical Signalling (2): Telephone

Larissa Zakharova

19 Electrical Signalling (3): Film

Kristina Tanis

20 Electrical Signalling (4): Radio

Dmitri Zakharine

Part III Boundaries and Flows

21 Boundaries (1): “Nomenklatura” Versus the Rest

Graeme Gill

22 Boundaries (2): “Comrades” vs. Deviants

Lorenz Er

The Communication and Media Division, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University

(1) a Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies who will contribute to our excellent research culture and teach on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. We approach communication and media as a broad field and encourage applications from any specialism, but we will particularly welcome candidates demonstrating specific expertise relevant to ‘media, memory and history’ and/or ‘media, ethnicity and race.’

(2) a Lecturer in Language and Social Interaction who will contribute to our excellent research culture and teach on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. We will particularly welcome applications that link language and social interaction to human-computer interaction and AI, digital and social media, and/or health communication.

Please access details of the posts and the application point here: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/join-us/outstanding/social-sciences-humanities/

The closing date for applications is 3 April.

Deadline: May 1, 2022

Edited by Piotr Siuda, Jakub Majewski & Krzysztof Chmielewski

The editors of this CfP are already in discussion with the MIT PressGAME HISTORIES SERIES editors who enthusiastically voiced support for the collection.

The website of the series: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/game-histories

The Covid-19 pandemic is a historical moment with social, cultural, and economic repercussions and unprecedented government responses. The pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of our lives regardless of where we live. This volume seeks to examine the impact of this epochal and significant period and resulting government policies, especially the lockdowns, on one particular cultural sphere: games.

In the initial months, many industry reports noted the unexpected positive impact on online digital game sales. Games weren’t just lockdown-proof, but boosted by lockdowns: stay-athome orders triggered a rush toward games as an alternative form of entertainment, and the ubiquity of mobile phones allowed wider than ever participation. This was seen in esports as it was a successful “extension” of traditional sports, and it forced immediate brand innovation and far-reaching changes in marketing strategies. On the other hand, the growth in esports online viewership came with a price, as many local arena events had to be canceled.

However, sales growth and marketing aside, the impact on the game industry overall was more complex and often pernicious. Game developers experienced a rapid and often challenging shift to remote work. This shift towards virtual communication also affected universities, where students could no longer be hosted in campus laboratories, requiring new forms of student engagement. Some digital games encountered unexpected challenges: how indeed to adapt a location-based augmented reality game to a locked-down world?

Equally complex was the impact on non-digital games. Typically designed for direct face-toface contact, board games, pen & paper role-playing games, and even live-action role-playing games and their players were forced to move online, or to employ complex safety protocols to minimize transmission risk and conform to legal requirements. With the manufacturing and shipping chain of board game components being drastically distorted, the market for board games has undergone a dramatic change. Also, the virtual market management concept overtook a fair share of the market, with the leading role of crowdfunding specialists. Largescale events were canceled, postponed, downsized, or virtualized. The same, indeed, was the case not only for game-playing events but also for industry and academic conferences.

The pandemic also affected game players, game developers, game journalists, and game scholars alike in many other ways, starting with the most direct – illness, and sometimes death. New cultural rifts also opened up due to political tensions. Some effects are temporary: others are here to stay. All deserve to be studied.

In this volume, we invite authors to reflect on the various impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on gaming, gamers, as well as those who make and study games. The volume encourages, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Digital and non-digital games in the pandemic
• Visions of Covid-19 and other pandemics in games
• Pandemic impact on the game industry and game-related events
• Will the pandemic accelerate the evolution of the game industry (games as a social platform, expansion of the free-to-play model, mobile leading the industry, etc.)

• The pandemic and esports (e.g. growth and virtualization of esports, ongoing relations between traditional sports and esports)

• Pandemic impact on game culture and gamer communities
• Teaching and developing games in the pandemic
• AR and VR Games and VR in the service of education online
• Games and players’ well-being (games as tools for therapy and the improvement of anxiety vs. excessive use, abuse, and possible addiction)

• Ludology in the time of the pandemic
• Serious games developed for and around the pandemic
• Digitalization of board games and LARPs

TIMELINE

Deadline for Initial Proposals (Extended Abstracts): May 1, 2022

Notification of Acceptance: June 1, 2022

First Drafts Due: October 1, 2022

Editor Comments: November 1, 2022

Final Drafts Due: January 1, 2023

Please note that the dates of “Notification of Acceptance”; “First Drafts Due”; “Editor Comments”; “Final Drafts Due” may change due to the publishing process – the authors will be informed in case of any changes happening.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Prospective authors should submit a short chapter proposal as a Word document to games.covid.book@gmail.com. The proposal should contain:

• The name and contact information of the author(s), along with a brief bio
• The title of the proposed chapter
• Extended abstract of approximately 1000-1200 words excluding references. The abstract should indicate the consistency, rigor, and relevance of the work.

Paper submissions should articulate the issue or research question to be discussed, the methodological or critical framework used, and indicate the findings or conclusions and/or the relevance to general volume. Papers can present any kind of research, analysis, or theoretical framing, but should be written so that the importance of the work can be indicated. Please note that empirical chapters should include the research question and data to be analyzed.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please use the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. The editors strongly recommend that authors follow the Chicago Manual.

Please note that chapters not adhering to the guidelines will be returned to the author(s) for revision.

EDITORS

Piotr Siuda (Primary Contact)

Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz

piotr.siuda@ukw.edu.pl

Jakub Majewski

Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz

jakubm@ukw.edu.pl

Krzysztof Chmielewski

Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz

k.shaman@ukw.edu.pl

Piotr Siuda (PhD) is a media studies scholar, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Communication and Media at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Member of The Association of Internet Researchers and the Polish Society for Social Communication. http://piotrsiuda.com

Jakub Majewski (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. His research interests include role-playing games and cultural heritage, game storytelling techniques, game industry history, among others. He is also a game developer with two decades' worth of experience and a portfolio of about forty diverse games.

Krzysztof Chmielewski (MA) is a Senior Lecturer of Game Design at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. LARP researcher and game designer and producer of games for different platforms (PC/mobile/AR, board/card, live games, gamebooks). R&D specialist in experiential learning and gaming solutions.

Adrian Hillman

https://www.routledge.com/The-Construction-of-News-in-a-Polarised-State-Maltese-Advocacy-Journalism/Hillman/p/book/9781032219943

Taking a qualitative approach based on original case studies, this book offers a detailed overview of the contemporary media system in Malta.

Three Maltese news organisations are examined to understand the editorial routines, ownership and management structures, and social and cultural factors that affect the day-to-day business of creating news. In-depth interviews with key stakeholders of each organisation are conducted alongside qualitative textual analysis of the content they publish. Contrary to previous research, the work finds that advocacy continues to dominate Maltese journalism, indicating that the country has retained similarities to other media systems within its geographic region. While recognising that the gold standard in journalism is judged to be objectivity and balance, a case is made for a responsible, measured form of advocacy journalism to extend media diversity and contribute to a high level of national political engagement.

Presenting an informed case for the need to pay closer attention to small states, especially at a time when many countries are seen to be becoming increasingly socially and politically divided, The Construction of News in a Polarised State is an insightful text for scholars and academics in the fields of Media and Communication Studies, Political Science, and Sociology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 Introduction

1. Introduction

2. Structure and layout

Chapter 2 Determining what is news

2.1 Introduction

2.2 News and the construction of reality

2.3 Identifying the media system

2.4 The issue of size

2.5 Conclusions

Chapter 3 The roots of a polarised media system

3.1 Introduction

3.2 The political context

3.3 Historical roots of Maltese media

3.4 Contextualising journalism in present-day Malta

3.5 Media in present-day Malta

3.6 Comparative media usage

3.7 Electoral campaigning

3.8 Conclusions

Chapter 4 Being an outsider: Malta Today

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Ownership of Malta Today

4.3 Organisational structure and routines

4.4 The Culture of Malta Today

4.5 External pressures

4.6 Malta Today coverage of the 2017 electoral campaign

4.7 Conclusions

Chapter 5 TVM, the public’s news service

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Ownership and historical positioning

5.3 Organisation structure and routines

5.4 Culture and boundaries

5.5 External pressures (commercial and political)

5.6 TVM coverage of the 2017 electoral campaign

5.7 Conclusions

Chapter 6 Times of Malta

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Ownership and historical positioning

6.3 Organisation structure and routines

6.4 Culture

6.5 Times of Malta Coverage of the 2017 Electoral Campaign

6.6 Conclusions

Chapter 7 Conclusion: The construction of news in a polarised state

7.1 Polarisation and advocacy

7.2 A different perspective of pluralism

7.3 Proximity and scale

7.4 Journalist agency

7.5 Conclusions: and weaknesses of the Maltese media system

Appendices

Appendix 1 Disclosure of the position of the researcher

Author(s) Biography

Adrian Hillman has extensive experience of leading media operations having previously worked as Executive Director of Allied Newspapers and Managing Director of Allied Group of Companies. He worked as a consultant to the Maltese Government leading up to the EU pre-accession referendum and has assisted governments, companies and organisations around the world as an Associate Partner of a geopolitical consultancy firm. He completed his PhD in news construction and political communication at Goldsmiths College University of London, UK in 2021.

With the next call for proposals, ECREA introduces a new procedure for its book series. In a first step, a call goes out to solicit proposals for cutting-edge topics for edited volumes. The ECREA Book Series Committee (Göran Bolin, John Downey, Christina Holtz-Bacha and Simone Tosoni) will review these proposals and make a selection of one or two proposals for the second step.

In the second step, the prospective editors launch a call for contributions (abstracts). The Book Series Committee reviews the complete proposals and selects one for open access publication by Routledge.

The call for theme proposals will be launched in early May.

ECREA is planning to start its monthly podcast series and is launching a call for the position of the host of the podcast series.

The ECREA podcast series would explore current scholarship, emerging new topics and developments in the realm of media studies, journalism and communication science. There will be 1-2 episodes per month.

In each episode the host of the series engages in inspiring discussions with leading scholars on the field. The sub-committee consisting of different ECREA Executive Board members will help the podcast host in planning each episode e.g. choosing the topics for discussion, finding guests for each episode, etc.

ECREA is opening a call to invite interested scholars to apply for a position to become a host for the ECREA podcast series. This is a paid position.

We encourage scholars with previous podcast hosting experience, and relevant technical skills to apply for the position. We also envision the host to have access to a studio as well as all the necessary technical resources needed for running a good-quality podcast.

We ask the interested parties to send a motivation letter consisting of 1) a description of their previous experiences and background and 2) their general vision about the ECREA podcast series; together with a draft financial plan (salary, studio rent, etc.) by 8 April 2022. The proposals must be sent by e-mail (attachment in MS Word or .pdf format) to ECREA's General Secretary Andra Siibak (andra.siibak@ut.ee).

The timeline for the selection process:

8 April 2022: the call is closed. ECREA Bureau in collaboration with the sub-committee members from the Executive Board considers applications and selects candidates to be interviewed. Interviews with the best candidates will be organized to clarify all the details.

6 May 2022: The host for the ECREA podcast series will be announced in Digest. The host will then start working together with the ECREA sub-committee to plan the first episodes for the podcast.

End of May 2022: the first episode of the podcast will be made available. 

Dear John,

Many thanks for your message of support! And my apologies for the late response. It is only for several days that I'm in a relatively safe place and can respond thoughtfully.

Right now I'm with my family in Khmelnytsky, a town in the western part of Ukraine. It is quite calm here, especially compared to where we had been during the first ten days of Russia's invasion. When the first shelling happened on Feb. 24 me and my husband took our son who was suffering from fever that night, grabbed an emergency bag, which we had prepared beforehand in the light of all warnings in the media, and headed to our relatives outside Kyiv. Our plan was to pick up my Mom who lives in Bucha, a small town near Kyiv, and go to Severynivka village. We thought that Severynivka would be the safest option for us to stay while deciding what to do next. It turned out differently. Fighting near Severynivka followed quite soon. The village is close to the highway which connects Kyiv with Zhytomyr. The Russian military has been trying to get control of the highway and attack Kyiv from the west. The house we stayed in is located almost in the forest, which separates Severynivka from the highway. Hence, we didn't see much but we heard a lot. Sounds of explosions were so powerful that our walls and windows were shaking. We realized we couldn't stay in the house when the fighting intensified - it seemed too dangerous. Instead, we decided to hide in the basement. It's not a proper bomb shelter. Nor is it a comfortable basement, which I saw in many houses abroad. Basically it's a place to store food/vegetables/homemade jam and pickles etc. with a cool temperature inside. We had just 7 degrees Celsius in our earth cellar. Some days we spent 15 hours there. There were nine of us (6 adults and 3 kids) plus a dog that was too scared of strikes/explosion sounds to stay outside. We slept on wooden benches or sitting in chairs. There were breaks in the fighting - we used them to get some rest in the house, eat, get warm and take shower. Electricity was cut when the military plane crashed nearby and damaged electricity lines, but we were lucky to have a generator. After spending 5 days or so in such a mode we realized we should try to move out somehow. Staying was dangerous, but escape was risky too. We knew that Russian tanks/machines were somewhere close to us. We knew that Russians had already been seen in the very village. We heard the sounds of gunfire nearby. We were terrified. At one point we realized that "it's now or never". We rushed to our cars and started the spine-chilling journey. When we passed the village road and reached the highway - we saw how disastrous it looked. It was completely empty, there were sounds of distant strikes, remnants of Russian military machines, several corpses on the road and about a dozen of destroyed civilian cars at the roadside. Those 15 km of terrifying wasteland seemed to last forever. Until we reached the first checkpoint. We didn't know whether it was controlled by Ukrainian army or Russians, but the military guy greeted us in Ukrainian "Armed Forces of Ukraine", he said adding "Don't worry, the road is ours up there". He checked our documents, looked into the car and noticed our son. "Oh, you've got a boy here. Wait a minute", he turned from us and then got back with a small gift, a toy, for our son. We all bursted in tears. Those tears were full of gratitude, relief, pride, sorrow and love.

I wish I could say I feel much better now when we are in a safer place. There's much more comfort here, of course. There's less fear. No fighting - no trembling. But... my heart is full of pain for people dying in so many places in Ukraine right now. For Ukrainian soldiers defending us by sacrificing their lives, for civilians trapped in their shelters, for women giving birth to babies under shelling, for children witnessing this incomprehensible horror. For many more.

We grieve. But we also fight. And we also dream. There's one shared dream all Ukrainians cherish in their hearts - victory and peace. We hold on to this dream. We also indulge in fantasy about small things that bring happiness.

My 9 y.o. son has been compiling the list of things we need to do when "the invasion is over" as he puts it. He said we should promise him we'll go to the cinema to watch the new "Batman" movie. And me... I dream of seeing the three hundred tulips I planted last autumn in our garden in the Poltava region. I dream of immersing myself in the beauty of spring blossoms in a free and peaceful Ukraine.

Oh, my story turned out to be quite long. You can cut it if needed.

Thank you for reaching out to me, for your interest in my story and your support.

I hope we'll have occasions for professional conversation too. There's incredible material to study in Ukraine right now and share with other colleagues from across the world and Europe in particular.

Warm regards from Ukraine,

Dariya

Dariya Orlova, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer

Mohyla School of Journalism

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy