{"title":"New and old institutions within the Russian media system","authors":"I. Kiriya","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2019.1569551","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2019.1569551","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to analysing the current duality of the Russian media system, which for a long time was regarded as transitional. We propose to interpret the current Russian media system in terms of institutional conflict between norms, which were artificially implemented and the grounded informal rules embodied in everyday practices both from market agents and audiences. Mainly implemented after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the norms were based on a neo-liberal representation of the media system, involving financial independence of the media from the state, a ‘news culture’ instead of a ‘propaganda culture’ and so on. At the same time, the informal rules were based on the paternalistic role of the state, the accessibility tradition and the fragmentation of the public sphere. The interaction of such elements forms the dualist or ‘uncertain’ character of the media system.","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"150 1","pages":"21 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79233760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Vyrkovsky, M. Galkina, Alexander V. Kolesnichenko, A. Obraztsova, S. A. Vartanov
{"title":"Russian newsrooms in digital era: challenges and prospects","authors":"A. Vyrkovsky, M. Galkina, Alexander V. Kolesnichenko, A. Obraztsova, S. A. Vartanov","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2019.1580607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2019.1580607","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The ongoing digitalisation of mass media changes the environment within the newsroom and the media product through the implementation of new work routines driven by technologies and multimedia elements in the final media texts. This article is based on the results of a survey of newsroom correspondents and editors’ working for the Russian news media, both in print and online. The survey results indicate that journalists have adapted to working faster with technology and social media, but the newsroom work has pivoted away from the production of audio and visual content and shifted focus more towards the creation and packaging of content for varying platforms. The research confirms that multimedia elements are included in the majority of media reports, though the overall level of ‘multimediatisation’ is low.","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"124 1 1","pages":"37 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91046310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Losing Pravda: ethics and the press in post-truth Russia","authors":"Joanna Szostek","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1564356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1564356","url":null,"abstract":"In Losing Pravda, Natalia Roudakova tells a story of change in Russian journalism and political culture which spans more than three decades; a story that runs from tensions in the late Soviet perio...","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"4 1","pages":"88 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83616583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Gladkova, I. Aslanov, A. Danilov, A. Danilov, V. Garifullin, Rashida Magadeeva
{"title":"Ethnic media in Russia: between state model and alternative voices","authors":"Anna Gladkova, I. Aslanov, A. Danilov, A. Danilov, V. Garifullin, Rashida Magadeeva","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1564355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1564355","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The paper analyzes the current state of ethnic media outlets (print, broadcasting and online) in Russia, i.e. media produced and disseminated in the three national republics of Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and Chuvashia) and in languages of the biggest ethnic groups living in those areas (the Tatar, the Bashkir and the Chuvash), and discusses their possible trends of development. Using open data analysis, we look into funding options (the proportion of media with state budget only and those with state budget and alternative sources of financing, such as advertising revenues, subscription, donations, sponsorship, etc.) and ownership (the proportion of state institutions and private companies, organizations, individuals, etc. as media owners). At the end, we consider whether ethnic media in Russia today follow the traditional state model (i.e. are primarily state-owned and state-funded) or are gradually shifting towards an ‘alternative’ (i.e. non-state) one in terms of financing, ownership, management and other factors.","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"125 1","pages":"53 - 70"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86271938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Russian media: a call for theorising the economic change","authors":"E. Vartanova","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2019.1572531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2019.1572531","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article attempts to analyse and discuss the nature of economic change in Russian media. For this purpose, the author uses the influential conceptual approaches to the Russian media industry, elaborated on by the Russian and foreign media scholars, considering both media economic tradition and a transitional media approach, focusing on the classical concept of cultural industries and the latest econometric data analysis as well. Beyond this theoretical overview, the Russian media industry is explored in the last decades, with a view to the major market indicators. The present state of the Russian media industry is discussed by focusing on the current trends and processes, such as commercialisation, digitalisation, and de-regulation, taking into account its national specificities. The author argues that the media’s economic change in post-Soviet Russia produces an interesting research case of the media industry characterised both by universal market-driven and nationally determined features.","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"62 1","pages":"22 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89357385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Russian intelligentsia in the age of counterperestroika*","authors":"D. Shalin","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1518153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1518153","url":null,"abstract":"In 57 B.C.E., Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman consul and leading public intellectual, ran into heavy political headwinds. After turning down Caesar’s invitation to join the antirepublican forces, he was driven into exile where he brooded about the duty he owed to himself, his family and his country. In a letter to his friend Atticus, Cicero outlined the stark moral choices committed citizens face when the fate of the republic hangs in the balance. The question is","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"2 1","pages":"212 - 224"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78424623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The post-intelligentsia and the Russian catastrophe of the twenty-first century","authors":"A. Piontkovsky","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1533421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1533421","url":null,"abstract":"I’ve already had an occasion to note how authoritarian regimes in Russia replace each other (Piontkovsky, 2009). It isn’t some eternal blow or a daring foray by the opponents that brings down the government. Instead, the regime collapses suddenly from a strange malaise, existential disgust with itself (Sartre’s la nausée), the kind that currently plagues Putin’s regime. Clearly, his system is ailing, even though it has successfully paved over the entire political landscape in Russia. If the post-Communist decades have yielded such paultry results, it is in large measure because of the intelligentsia, or as its representatives prefer to call themselves these days – ‘intellectuals.’ The latter have betrayed the ideals of Andrei Sakharov. In the 1990s, the selfproclaimed reformers showed more reverence to Augusto Pinochet than to the principle Sakharov valued the most –morality in politics. Russia’s ‘systemic liberals’ bear the responsibility for bringing Putin and his KGB thugs to power and fostering the ‘bandit capitalism’ that is now pushing the country down the path of demodernization. For Sakharov, democracy was an honest electoral contest between competing political forces. For Russian ‘systemic liberals,’ it is a system that allows ‘democrats’ to preserve power and wealth by any means possible. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov would have bristled at the idea that the people were ignorant sheep waiting to be led to a better life by self-proclaimed ‘progressive thinkers.’ The Russian political class is convinced that barely 10–15% of the Russian population is ready for modernization, and that without the ‘enlightened’ leadership the country would be lost. The Russian post-intelligentsia turned away from Sakharov’s legacy when its members assumed power or were hired by the authorities. In the process, they committed moral and ideological suicide. It would be a mistake to view the intelligentsia’s recitations about the backwardness of the Russian people unprepared for democracy as just Kremlin talking points. Rather, we should see in this mantra a desperate attempt to salvage self-respect and rationalize the betrayal of their countrymen by the intelligenty. Untranslatable into other languages, the word ‘intelligentsia’ signifies a peculiarly Russian phenomenon, an amorphous social mini-group that sprang to life as a by-","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"34 1","pages":"199 - 211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88096718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The illusion of freedom: propaganda and the informational swamp","authors":"Alexander Genis","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1533423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1533423","url":null,"abstract":"Having found myself in Tallin as a school boy, I eagerly awaited a chance to watch TV. For those of us residing in Riga, Estonia was a place where you could catch a glimpse of the TV programing from Finland. Or so the rumor had it. My persistence paid off eventually, and when I had my wish granted I was treated to an excruciatingly boring concert of Finnish folk singing. Not a bit discouraged, I assumed that this first encounter with Europe was a programing fluke and that my curiosity would be rewarded next time. Never did I stop envying those lucky enough to watch broadcasts from the West. The luckiest folks naturally lived in East Berlin. Unable to cope with the competition, the communist authorities built the tallest transmitting tower in Germany that still disfigures Berlin. This trick failed to block the competitor, however. Once that became clear, the Eastern rulers settled on point-by-point rebutting the news reaching its citizens from the West, offering instead a steady diet of Marxist propaganda. The whole operation was as futile as it was expensive – only the news coming from the West was deemed to be trustworthy. It is easy to infer from this that inhabitants of the East German capital were best informed about the Western world. After all, TV is the face of a nation, its national character and ideals splashed all over the TV screen. Sitcoms and advertisements do much better job than sermons and constitutions in getting across a nation’s ethos and etiquette, its unwritten yet pervasive laws. I learned that much when I made my way to the United States where I encountered a language of mass culture unfamiliar to me. Such language is essential when it comes to reading subtle cues and hidden citations, understanding jokes and punch lines, and what is equally important – distinguishing kindred people from those of a different kind. Surely, those watching a TV show like ‘Rosanne’ will vote for different candidates than those favoring ‘Seinfeld’ or M*A*S*H. This has nothing to do with a political message that the show producers might want to impart – viewers are the ones who attribute meaning to what they observe on the screen. Producers merely tap into their audience’s fickle moods. As any market phenomenon, mass culture is a risky investment. Even when pitched to a target audience, its product’s impact is hard to calculate. Ever so tentatively, mass culture","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"42 1","pages":"290 - 295"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86064077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intelligentsia, intellectuals, and the social functions of intelligence","authors":"M. Epstein","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1533418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1533418","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"31 1","pages":"165 - 181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79147351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The intelligentsia and emigration: strategic prospects, unrealized possibilities, and personal risks","authors":"Serge Iourienen","doi":"10.1080/19409419.2018.1533422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19409419.2018.1533422","url":null,"abstract":"As if in a bad movie, I had а recurring dream while working on this essay. In the dream, they’re getting ready to kick me out again. This time, for a different reason. Not because I’m a ‘relic of the Cold War,’ and therefore a stone in the government’s shoe. Now I’m going to be expelled for corrupting my audience with my liberal/democratic ideas. A man from Washington is expected to give a speech about it. There are rumors that this envoy of a new policy will demand that members of the ‘fake mass media,’ financed by the U.S. Congress, strive to instill the feeling of patriotism in their audience, along with moral values and spiritual moorings. I’m 70 now, not 57 as I was the last time, and the prospect of experiencing it again fills me with dread as I envision my rising from the ashes to which I am about to be reduced and beginning to push the stone up the hill all over again. My colleagues are outraged in private, but when I ask if they will stay silent like the last time, the instinct for self-preservation kicks in, as they hold up their hands in desperation: ‘You know how it is, what’s the point of peeing against the wind... ’ Perhaps the most depressing thing this time around was witnessing the intelligentsia abandoning its historical mission, morphing into the post-intelligentsia or specialists engaged in intellectual work. The so-called ‘professionals.’","PeriodicalId":53456,"journal":{"name":"Russian Journal of Communication","volume":"18 1","pages":"273 - 289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74613470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}