Abstract
In this article the concept of information culture—understood as the dominant handling of information, shared by a dominant proportion of journalists, the public, authorities and other actors within a societal environment at a given time and place—is explored in the context of Communist and early post-Communist Russia (1917−1999). Three value pairs underlying the attitude towards information are explored: individualism and collectivism (the relation of man to the state), universalism and particularism (the relation of man to man), and pluralism versus dominance (the nature of knowledge and truth). Continuities are found between the Communist Soviet Union and post-Communist Russia in their instrumental use of media and information (collectivism), the view on information as a particular privilege rather than a universal right and the monopoly of truth. Post-Communism, therefore, appears not only as an indication of time (i.e. the period after Communism) but also as an indicator of the continuation of basic value orientations over these time periods.
Highlights
International comparative research on media and journalism shifted attention, though not strictly consecutively in time, from normative press theories (e.g. Siebert, Peterson, & Schramm, 1956) over media structures (e.g. Hallin & Mancini, 2004) to journalism culture (e.g. Hanitzsch, 2011)
The aim of this article is to look into the basic values underlying the attitude towards information in Russia during the transition from Communism to post-Communism, or from the Soviet Union (1917−1991) into the Russian Federation (1991−1999)
When the relation of man to the state is expressed by the value pair individualism and collectivism, the relation of man to man can be described by the values of universalism versus particularism
Summary
International comparative research on media and journalism shifted attention, though not strictly consecutively in time, from normative press theories (e.g. Siebert, Peterson, & Schramm, 1956) over media structures (e.g. Hallin & Mancini, 2004) to journalism culture (e.g. Hanitzsch, 2011). Media systems are not isolated systems: they differ according to the societies they are embedded in As easy as labelling the Communist Soviet Union, as puzzling seems labelling post-Communist Russia Both the media and the political (and societal) system are often described in terms of paradoxes (see for example Pasti & Nordenstreng, 2013; de Smaele, 2006) and contrasts between theory and practice, between law and its implementation, between hearts and minds. The aim of this article is to look into the basic values underlying the attitude towards information in Russia during the transition from Communism to post-Communism, or from the Soviet Union (1917−1991) into the Russian Federation (1991−1999). The article can be considered a meta-analysis of divergent studies on Russian mass media scrutinized from the new angle of how information is produced and perceived within the society
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