Russia

poli.sci.media@gmail.com

Project Goal: To work with community newspaper journalists in Moscow and St. Petersburg to improve reporting on critical community issues, ultimately to help citizens hold local officials accountable ahead of and after the presidential elections in March.

Biography: Eric Schwartz's involvement with Russian newspapers predates the collapse of the Soviet Union. As an undergraduate majoring in Russian and journalism at Michigan State University, Schwartz translated Pravda news columns for the student newspaper. After more than a decade of reporting and editing for local, regional and national newspapers in the United States, he moved to Russia, where he worked as a business reporter for the English-language St. Petersburg Times. Schwartz returned to the United States and earned a master's degree in international relations at Syracuse University. The focus of his thesis: the Russian currency crisis of 1998. In 2003, Schwartz moved to the Russian Far East, where he worked as a communications trainer with grassroots community groups. In 2004, he began doctoral studies in political science at Binghamton University, where he has been an instructor in U.S. and world politics, and has created a new course on media and democratic politics. Schwartz is writing his dissertation on media ownership and politics. He is the author of six books on history and social studies for young adults.