Ole Magnus Gaalaas-Hansen has won the 2026 Gløbius Award for his Master’s thesis in Political Science, Foreign Experts in Autocratic Media: A Study of Modern Russian Propaganda Strategies. Through an ambitious computational analysis of Russian media content spanning more than two decades, Gaalaas-Hansen sheds new light on how foreign experts are used to reinforce authoritarian narratives and strengthen regime legitimacy.
The Gløbius Award is funded by the Gløbius Fund, established through Nils Petter Gleditsch's 2009 Research Council of Norway prize, the Möbius prize. Awarded annually for the best Master's thesis in peace and conflict studies employing quantitative methods, the award is open to students from all Norwegian higher education institutions. This year's jury consisted of Nils Petter Gleditsch together with PRIO Research Directors Halvard Buhaug and Siri Aas Rustad.
Gaalaas-Hansen's thesis examines how Russian state-aligned media use foreign experts to support authoritarian narratives. Drawing on a computational analysis of 1.38 million articles published by Lenta.ru between 1999 and 2024, he identifies around 77,000 experts and analyzes their role in news coverage. The study finds that foreign experts are frequently used in reporting on international politics, military affairs, energy, and sanctions, often providing negative assessments of the West and Ukraine. It also shows that the use of foreign experts increased significantly after the Russian government gained control of Lenta.ru.
The award committee praised the thesis for its strong theoretical foundation, ambitious research design, and innovative use of large language models to analyze exstensive data. The jury highlighted its convincing new insights into the role of foreign experts in authoritarian media and concluded that the work exceeds expectations for a Master's thesis, with clear potential for academic publication.
An honorable mention goes to runner-up Kristine Helskog for her thesis, When Schools Become Targets: Why Some Armed Groups Attack Education, also submitted to the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo in Spring 2026. The committee was highly impressed by the quality of the work and similarly noted its strong publication potential.
PRIO congratulates both recipients and looks forward to following their future research.
