Ruslanas Ir啪ikevi膷ius is a busy man. The Founder, Editor-in-Chief of the Lithuania Tribune news portal and founder and Editor-in-Chief of EN.15min news portal also publishes LT Daily and LT Weekly newsletters. He is an associate of Visegrad Insight think tank in Poland and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Centrum Balticum in Finland. It's this level of engagement and this expertise in publishing news during a fraught time with former global superpower and nearby neighbor Russia that has brought Mr. Ir啪ikevi膷ius, one of this year鈥檚 Humphrey Fellows, to Northeast Ohio.
Named for the 38th Vice President of the United States, the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program "provides a year of professional enrichment in the United States for experienced professionals from designated countries undergoing development or political transition." Chosen for their demonstrated commitment to public service in their home countries and their potential to provide critical leadership in a range of fields, Humphrey Fellows are hosted by American universities noted for their excellence in their fields of study. Mr. Ir啪ikevi膷ius visited 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 School of Media and Journalism, September 18-24, 2021, as part of his Humphrey Fellowship.
Growing up in a country annexed by the Soviet Union, Ir啪ikevi膷ius listened clandestinely to the BBC Russian Service and Voice of America broadcasts. This early experience, 鈥渓iving in the empire of lies鈥 as he puts it, shaped him with a well-developed sense for recognizing propaganda and disinformation.
And a mission to combat the dangers he sees.
"The Russian disinformation operation, it is so so good...like a gas," Ir啪ikevi膷ius says. "You know that it's there. You know that it's damaging your brain, your well-being. You know that it's destroying parts of your body as a state, but you don't feel it, you don't see it."
Ir啪ikevi膷ius noticed around 2009 that there weren鈥檛 any firsthand sources of news about Lithuania for English speakers, and he began blogging about it. Around that same time, he also first recognized the growing threat of disinformation seeping into the Lithuanian media.
鈥淭hey might get to know [Lithuania] from the BBC or from some Russian sources, but nothing coming from us,鈥 Ir啪ikevi膷ius says.
Arriving at 麻豆影院 State on September 18, Ir啪ikevi膷ius spent the next week visiting with the directors and faculty of the five schools that make up the College of Communication and Information (CCI) as well as other university partners. With them he discussed free speech, the First Amendment and how one counters disinformation without limiting citizens' freedoms; communication and terrorism; innovation in media business models; political polarization, propaganda and social media; ethics and issues in mass communication; as well as the history of Lithuania. Through these conversations, Ir啪ikevi膷ius hoped to 鈥渂uild networks and build relationships as a person and a professional鈥nd share what [I] know and 鈥 learn what the host country knows.鈥
In between all of that, Ir啪ikevi膷ius also was interviewed by Dean Amy Reynolds for the Elevations program on WKSU, was featured on MDJ's newly launched podcast, , was interviewed by a student reporter for Jargon magazine's relaunched online newsletter, had a pizza party with student media and took in an Akron Rubber Ducks game with MDJ faculty.