St. Petersburg School of Communication Studies: Toward Digital Transformations

Abstract

The paper analyses the contemporary development of communication studies in St Petersburg, the second largest education and scientific center in Russia. Here, as well as all around Russia, communication studies traditionally co-exist with journalism education. The study focuses on the modern stage of the communication studies in St Petersburg. After the collapse of the USSR the new forms of education and research in communication were introduced. The new approaches came from political science, economics, psychology, and sociology. Reflecting these changes, in 2011 the Department of Journalism at St Petersburg State University has been transformed into the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Simultaneously, communication studies are developing in other educational institutions of St Petersburg such as Polytechnic University, LETI University, University of Economics, etc. In order to examine the state and scope of communication studies in St Petersburg the authors use in-depth interviews with leading scholars in the field of communication studies. Special attention was paid to the impact of digitization on research and teaching. The study claims that St Petersburg school of communication studies stays on the early stages of development due to the theoretical incoherence and weak international representation.