Religious Media Dynamics in Russia after ‘Perestroika’ (1991–2017)

Abstract

: The paper analyzes the religious media subsystem in Russia focusing on main religious media, their place in Russian media system, digital and social networks impact, specific features of the mediatization of religion in the country. These results of the research provide confirmatory evidence of the weakness of religious initiatives on media policy (regulation and co-regulation), the primarily ethnical approach to religious identity (“if you are Russian you should be the Orthodox”), religious media difficulties in handling of new digital communication technologies. Author addresses the problematic areas and challenging issues of Russian religious media (understanding journalism as PR, missing mission and target audience, lack of professionalism).