Trust in mainstream media is in steady decline, with growing number of people turning instead to social media for political informatino. While these platforms offer speed and accessibility, they also carry serious risks: weak editorial oversight, limited accountability, and fertile ground for disinformation. How did we get here? Is the erosion of trust inevitable, or can it be reversed? And what must mainstram media do to re-establish credibility in an increasingly fragmented information landscape? These are among the key questions explored at The Henry Jackson Society’s latest panel.

Alec Russell

Alec Russell is Foreign Editor of the Financial Times. Previously he was editor of FTWeekend, News Editor, reponsible for the FT’s news coverage on all platforms, and Opinion Editor. These roles followed a decade and a half as a foreign correspondent. He started his career as a freelance correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in Romania in the aftermath of the Christmas 1989 revolution. He went on to cover the Balkans, Turkey and Iraq, Washington and South Africa, where he has had two postings. He has won a number of awards and written three books. The latest, After Mandela, looks at South Africa’s trajectory after the end of white rule.

Albina Kovalyova

Albina Kovalyova is an award-nominated documentary producer and director specialising in telling compelling human stories from Ukraine, Russia and the former Soviet Union. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion into Ukraine, Albina has been focusing on character-led films about the war. She directed and produced the award nominated film, Occupied for BBC Eye Investigations – a unique first-hand experience of a family facing Russian occupation in Kherson, Ukraine. Kharkiv War Diaries is her latest documentary for BBC Eye.

Dr Helena Ivanov

Dr Helena Ivanov is an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. She recently completed a PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on the relationship between propaganda and violence against civilians. In her thesis, Helena examined the role propaganda played during the Yugoslav Wars and produced a model for studying propaganda which details the key phases, functions, discourses, and techniques of propaganda (the model itself is applicable to other contexts). Additionally, Helena also served as a Manager at the Centre for International Studies at the LSE.

Prior to her PhD, Helena completed an MPhil in Political Theory at the University of Oxford, and holds a BA in Politics from the University of Belgrade.

Please note this event will be online. To register for the event, please, CLICK HERE.