Olga Pasitselska is a PhD candidate at the Department of Communication & Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation project, supervised by Prof. Christian Baden and supported by the Ariane de Rothschild Women Doctoral Program, is focused on social negotiation of mediated propagandistic narratives during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The study aims to understand how socially interactive audiences adopt and reject, interpret, and renegotiate conflicting media narratives in the contaminated information environment. The study contributes to understanding of public opinion formation and audiences’ perceptions of the media, the conflict, and the political processes during the violent political conflict.

 

Olga’s research interests include ideological discourse research, discursive construction of consensus and dissent, reception of dis- and misinformation, media use and media avoidance by the socially interactive and active audiences.

 

Education

March 2018 – present – PhD Candidate, Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

Thesis: Reception of ideological narratives in Russian-Ukrainian conflict: the role of identity
Advisor: Prof. Christian Baden

October 2014 – July 2017 – MSc, Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Specialty: Political Communication. Diploma Magna Cum Laude

Master’s thesis (article): “Ukrainian discourse through the lens of Russian media: Construction of ideological discourse”
Supervisor: Prof. Zohar Kampf

September 2009 – June 2013 – B. A., Oles’ Honchar Dnipro National University

Specialty: Editing and Publishing, Ukrainian and Russian linguistics. Diploma Magna Cum Laude

 

Publications

Pasitselska O. & Baden C. (2020) Who are ‘the people’? Uses of empty signifiers in propagandistic news discourse. Journal of Language and Politics, 19(4): 666-690.

Pasitselska O. (2017). Ukrainian crisis through the lens of Russian media: Construction of ideological discourse. Discourse & Communication, 11(6): 591–609.

 

Peer-reviewed conference presentations

Better ask your neighbor: Audience’s sense-making strategies in a conflicting information environment. Paper to be presented at the 8th European Communication Conference to be held in Braga, October 2021.

Propaganda literacy: How Ukrainian audiences renegotiate propagandistic messages in the times of conflict? Presented at the “Discourse and Communication as Propaganda” conference [online], Brussels, Belgium, September 2020.

People, nation, land: Uses of empty signifiers in propagandistic conflict news narratives. Presented at the 7th European Communication Conference (ECREA), Lugano, Switzerland, November 2018.

 

Presentations & Workshops

Better ask your neighbor: Audience’s sense-making strategies in conflicting information environment. Presented at the Mainz-Jerusalem Mini Conference of the Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, December 2020.

Logics of exclusion: How Ukrainian audiences renegotiate propagandistic messages in times of conflict? Research Workshop, conducted as a part of the Seminar Series Political Communication in Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe. [online] University of Passau, Germany, November 2020.

 

Honors & Awards

March 2019 – 2022 – Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship for outstanding female doctoral students.

October 2019 – October 2020 – Hans Guth Dreyfus Fellowship for research on conflict management and resolution.

January 2019 – The Faculty of Social Sciences travel grant for fieldwork research.

December 2018 – May 2019 – The Department of Communication and Journalism scholarship for research students, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

August 2018 – Erasmus+ grant for participation in Radboud Summer School, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

April 2018 – Wain Doctoral Student Scholarship for Communication, Media and Conflict Research.

March 2018 – August 2018 – The Department of Communication and Journalism scholarship for research students, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

September 2009 – June 2013 – Increased State Scholarship, Oles’ Honchar Dnipro National University.

 

Teaching experience

Spring 2020 – Political communication BA, Teaching Assistant

Autumn 2019 – Statistics for communication students BA, Teaching Assistant

 

Research skills

Qualitative research methods: Serial focus group and interview methodology, Discourse and narrative analysis (Atlas), Content analysis of political and cultural texts (Atlas), Grounded Theory;

Quantitative research methods (using SPSS and LexisNexis): Experimental research design, Quantitative content analysis, Surveys;

Conversational analysis, linguistic analysis;

Literary criticism.

 

Community service & Extracurricular activities

2020 – present – member of the Faculty of Social Sciences Doctoral Student Program Steering Committee

2020 – present – reviewer for International Communication Association Annual Conference, Political Communication Division

2017 – present – participant in the “Discourse Forum” research group leaded by Prof. Zohar Kampf

May 2019 – September 2019 – tutor at “Kehilat lomdim” - the academic guidance program of the Unit for Equal Opportunities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

June 2018 – student assistant at The Board of Governors event, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem