Sergei Pashakhin

// DISSERTATION PROJECT

Digital Influence and Political Transformation: A study of social media companies in autocratizing contexts

My project focuses on the behavior of social media companies operating in autocratizing countries. The project studies the association between actions these companies can take, and the dynamics of regime change directed towards autocracy. My work aims to enhance our understanding of this relationship, and of how social media companies can shape political communication online.

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// ACADEMIC BACKGROUND 

2018-2021
Doctoral School of Sociology – HSE University.

2015-2017
MA in Sociology (Modern Social Analysis) – HSE University.

2008-2013
Specialist degreein Social Work (Information Technologies in Social Work) – TUSUR University.

Awards / Academic Achievements and Scholarships

2022
Research grant  - Otto A. Malm Foundation

Guest scientist - University of Potsdam

Top Paper Award from the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association. Paper title: “What Drives Perceptions of Foreign News Coverage Credibility? A Cross-National Experiment Including Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine”.

2018
Top Paper Award from the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association. Paper title: “Agenda divergence in a developing conflict: Quantitative evidence from Ukrainian and Russian TV newsfeeds”.

2018-2021
Advanced Doctoral Programme Scholarship of the HSE University.

2019-2020
HSE University Scholarship for Young Research Fellows

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// RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Bryanov, K., Kliegl, R., Koltsova, O., Miltsov, A., Pashakhin, S., Porshnev, A., Sinyavskaya, Y., Terpilovskii, M., and Vziatysheva, V. (2023): "What Drives Perceptions of Foreign News Coverage Credibility? A Cross-National Experiment Including Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine". Political Communication, 40(2), 115–146.

Prytkova, A., Pashakhin, S., and Koltcov, S. (2022): "Following the Lead When Nothing is Certain? Exploring the Image of Russia in Kazakhstani and Ukrainian Digital News Media". In D. A. Alexandrov, A. V. Boukhanovsky, A. V. Chugunov, Y. Kabanov, O. Koltsova, I. Musabirov, & S. Pashakhin (Eds.), Digital Transformation and Global Society (Vol. 1503, pp. 375–388). Springer International Publishing.

Pashakhin, S. (2021): "Public agenda fragmentation beyond established democracies: The case of Russian online publics in 2017". Russian Journal of Communication, 13(3), 305–324.

Moroz, A., Pashakhin, S., and Koltsov, S. (2021): "Modeling Cascade Growth: Predicting Content Diffusion on V球探足球比分e". In A. Antonyuk & N. Basov (Eds.), Networks in the Global World V (Vol. 181, pp. 180–195). Springer International Publishing.

Koltsova, O. and Pashakhin, S. (2020): "Agenda divergence in a developing conflict: Quantitative evidence from Ukrainian and Russian TV newsfeeds". Media, War & Conflict, 13(3), 237–257.

Koltsova, O., Alexeeva, S., Pashakhin, S., and Koltsov, S. (2020): "PolSentiLex: Sentiment Detection in Socio-Political Discussions on Russian Social Media". In A. Filchenkov, J. Kauttonen, & L. Pivovarova (Eds.), Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language (Vol. 1292, pp. 1–16). Springer International Publishing.

Koltsov, S., Pashakhin, S., and Dokuka, S. (2018): "A Full-Cycle Methodology for News Topic Modeling and User Feedback Research". In S. Staab, O. Koltsova, & D. I. Ignatov (Eds.), Social Informatics (Vol. 11185, pp. 308–321). Springer International Publishing.

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// CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

International Conference on Social Media & Society. Presentation: “Content Moderation Does not Respond to Autocratization: Quantitative Evidence From Transparency Reports of Twitter, Alphabet and Meta.” London, UK. July 16-18, 2024.

ICA regional conference Computational Communication Research in Central and Eastern Europe. Presentation: “Public agenda fragmentation beyond established democracies: the case of Russian online publics in 2017.” Helsinki, Finland. June 27–29, 2022.

Academy of International Affairs Workshop “Social Media Impact on International Affairs.” Talk: “Authoritarian Publics: Agenda Fragmentation.” Bonn, Germany. May 22–25, 2022.

Digital Transformation & Global Society (DTGS). Presentation: “Following the Lead when Nothing is Certain? Exploring the Image of Russia in Kazakhstani and Ukrainian Digital News Media.” Online. 2021.

Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language (AINL). Presentation: “PolSentiLex: Sentiment Detection in Socio-political Discussions on Russian Social Media.” Online. 2020.

19th Annual Aleksanteri Conference “Technology, Culture, and Society in the Eurasian Space". Presentation: “Media Diets and News Agendas Online: A Case of the 2017 Protests in Russia.” Helsinki, Finland. 2019.

10th International Conference on Social Informatics. Presentation: “A Full-Cycle Methodology for News Topic Modelling and User Feedback Research 10th International Conference on Social Informatics.” Saint Petersburg, Russia. 2018.

68th Annual ICA Conference: Voices. Presentation: “Agenda Divergence in a Developing Conflict: A Quantitative Evidence from a Ukrainian and a Russian TV Newsfeeds.” Prague, Czech Republic. 2018.

5^th International Conference Comparative Media Studies in Today’s World: Media Transformations in Times of Technological Boom and Political Polarization. Presentation: “The Representation of Ukrainian Crisis in News: Frame Analysis with Topic Modelling.” Saint Petersburg, Russia. 2017.

Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language (AINL). Presentation: “Topic Modelling for Frame Analysis of News Media.” Saint Petersburg, Russia. 2016.

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// EXPERIENCE

2022-present
PhD Researcher with the Chair for Political Science, especially Digital Transformation, University of Bamberg.

2018-present
Member of International Communication Association. Divisions: Computational Methods, Political Communication.

2018-2022
Senior Lecturer with Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences, HSE University.

2016-2022
Junior Research Fellow with Social and Cognitive Informatics Laboratory (SCILA), HSE University.

Reviewer:

Journals: PLOS ONE, Media and Communication, Post-Soviet Affairs.

Conferences: ICA, Social Informatics, Internet Science, CMSTW, DTGS, AIST.