Russian Media System Research Articles

ФОРМАТ ТОК-ШОУ ЛАРРИ КИНГА НА РОССИЙСКОМ ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИИ: ПРЕЕМСТВЕННОСТЬ И ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ

The article deals with the talk show format transformation of American TV host Larry King on Russian television. The object of the study was the program collection «Larry King Live», «Television Encounter» by U. Ott, «Rush Hour» by V. Listyev and «Pozner» by V. Pozner. The following parameters for comparing the programs were chosen: the style of the presenter, the choice of the subject of communication and its strategy and tactics, the time of broadcasting, duration, periodicity of the programs, and the degree of audience participation in them. The level of programs personalization, studio design and the use of additional locations, camerawork, entertainment techniques, etc. were also taken into account. According to the authors, over the period since the late 1980s dialog talk shows have been significantly modified under the influence of the specifics of the Russian media system, the changing demands of the target audience, and the country’s ethnic and cultural peculiarities. The authors see the transformation of the dialogical talk show genre in the Russian mediaspace as follows: the expansion of the thematic palette and its linkage to the current socio-political agenda, the complication of the compositional structure of the programs and the discussion drama, the expansion of the range of strategies and tactics of communication between the host and the guest, the techniques of entertainment and emotionality, the strengthening of psychologism and the enrichment of camerawork techniques. The role of the talk show host is also changing – he is becoming an increasingly important participant in the discussion, actively intervening in the course of the conversation and expressing his personal opinion. At the same time, there is a tendency to reduce the role of the audience in the program.

On the issue of the Russian media system transformation

On the issue of the Russian media system transformation

Russian media during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic

The article examines changes in the Russian media system during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: the dynamics of the coronavirus agenda, traffic, monetization features. The analysis of media content allowed us to determine the leading topics in the disclosure of the coronavirus agenda within three periods corresponding to the key moments in the development of the situation with COVID-19 in the world and in Russia during the first wave of the virus: the first mentions of the new virus, news from China, Italy and other countries where the sick appeared; a sharp increase in the number of news items directly related to coronavirus infection; along with medical topics, the problems of getting out of self-isolation. The article also describes the changes that have occurred in the editorial policy of the media: technologies for preparing journalistic texts, linguistic marketing.

МЕДИА И МОДЕЛИ СОЦИАЛЬНОГО ПОВЕДЕНИЯ

The purpose of the study is the dentification of the relationship between media and models of social behavior. Methodological basis of the research is a comparative analysis of sociological research data. Research results. The contradiction between the data of sociological science and communication strategies of the Russian media system is revealed. Prospects for the study: correction of retraining programs for advanced training in the media industry.  

War or Peace Journalism? Study of Media Coverage by Russian Media Outlets of the Trade War Between China and the USA

In recent years, the trade war between China and USA became one of the most important crises not only in global economic relations, but also in the international political agenda. The trade war between the world’s major powers also involved the core countries from differing regions, due to the significance of the trading streams between China and the USA. Therefore, Russia as one of the core countries was also affected by this trade war and attempted to develop own policy and economic relations towards the two sides. The current research is devoted to analysing the Russian media coverage of the trade war between China and USA based on content analysis and the implication of structural differences existing in the current Russian media system into war and peace journalism paradigms.

Content-Analytical Study of the Evolution of the Publication «Kultura» (1929-2019)

The study conducted a content analysis of the publication "Kultura" over its ninety year history from 1929 to 2019. For the first time, the study of the evolution of "Kultura" over a period of 90 years was conducted using content analysis and it was carried out at the Department of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The study found that the main functions of "Kultura" have always been informational and educational. The publication moved from the topic of culture and art to broader social problems including science issues, education, technology, and social topics. The publication covered theater, museums, cultural centers (clubs), educational institutions, and concert halls events. The newspaper primarily writes about the culture of Russia but in recent years other parts of the world have become the focus of the newspaper coverage. The newspaper has adequately reflected the cultural life of the country and has always been a vital part of Russian media system. Today, the publication "Kultura" has expanded to other media platforms while maintaining high professional standards.

Стратегический подход к анализу медиасистемы России: к определению миссии, ценностей и приоритетов

Modern media has transformed into a full-fledged industry, embedded in the national economy and inextricably linked with other industries. The strong dependence between the main economic indicators of the media industry and macroeconomic indicators determines the importance of a long-term media strategy. A successful strategy of media system development may improve the national economy and ensure social prosperity in the sense of Aristotelian eudaimonia. The research objective was to develop a new methodology for media strategizing with its mission, values, objectives, and strategic priorities. The study was based on strategy theory, media theory, mathematical economics, econometric methods of strategic media monitoring, and a new method of game-theoretic models of the three-sided market. The object of strategizing was a complex multi-level environment formed by media institutions in their interaction with each other and society, media market, infrastructure, manufacturers, developers, and distributors. The Russian media system was subjected to a primary OTSW analysis, which revealed five priorities. The author developed a quantitative assessment methodology for each priority. The research is a foundation for a separate interdisciplinary discipline “Theory of Media Strategy”.

The new reality: Crimean and Sevastopol television after 2014

ABSTRACT Almost six years ago the Crimean Peninsula became part of Russia. The article examines television as part of the information field of Crimea and Sevastopol and compares its power during three periods – Soviet, Ukrainian and Russian. Our main attention is given to the current state of television and its transformations within the Russian media system. We argue that the changes that Crimean and Sevastopol TV has undergone since 2014 are mostly beneficial for several reasons: (1) with three multiplexes in place Crimea is becoming one of the most technologically developed regions in terms of TV. (2) Crimean TV today is represented by channels airing 24/7. (3) One hundred percent of content is fully produced in Crimea. We also offer perspective on some current issues the TV market is facing (audience measuring, self-censorship, lack of qualified professionals, licensing problems). We use expert interviews as the main research method and the frontier concept as our theoretical frame.

Challenges to the mediatization of religion in Russia: towards a normative model

Examining the development of religious media in Russia for last decades, author states low academic interest to this field of study and finds two main challenges to religious media. The first is deeply rooted in the post-communist religiosity - mostly nominal than practicing, the second challenge is caused by low impact of religious values on Russian media system in general and Russian TV in particular. Values dialogue faces three general problems: a) lack of values consensus, b) lack of religious selfarticulation and c) low level of social dialogue in the public sphere. Supporting British scholar N. Couldry’s call to the models of normative debate, author proposes a normative model of religious institutions and media professionals dialogue optimization, based on “pluralism - dialogue - consensus” concept of J. Habermas. The proposed model is focused on the basic principles of transparency and availability of the well-articulated religious values in a public sphere and presumes certain expectations from the religious institutions and media professionals. If “operationalized” from theoretical level to practical empirical indicators, the model could serve as a tool, matrix, check-list for the evaluation of the present condition for dialogue between religion and media in particular society.

Media Literacy of Schoolchildren in a Post-Transitive Society: Study Results

Topicality. The current study is based on the research «Media Consumption among schoolchildren: Information Age and Socialization of Children in a Post-Transition Society» (Faculty of Journalism, 2013-2016). The research shows how parents and teachers understand the effects media have on their children. The study describes how Russian children of school age use different sources of information nowadays and why they use them. It also analyzes the role and place of traditional mass media in children’s life, looks into the level of their immersion into the information environment. The authors discuss if the society needs accurate and relevant information in order to improve the approach to these processes, and to develop media content strategies that meet the needs of children’s socialization. Objective. The study determines the degree, to which different groups of school children are immersed in various information environments, types of social media they use and the role of older generations in children’s media consumption. Design. In this work, in-depth interviews with respondents are used as the main method of study. The interviews include questions regarding the following issues: family traditions of media consumption, children and mass media, new media and traditional media. Interviews with teachers included a block of questions dedicated to media education problems. These interviews were conducted in five Russian cities: Uglich, Yakutsk, Perm, Kaliningrad and Moscow. The respondents included 104 parents and 78 teachers. Results. The current research doesn’t underestimate the use of the mass media for children of school age. Still, there is no universal strategy of mass media's integration into the educational process. Conclusion. The results are quite contradictory. Parents argue that their children need mass media to analyze the reality and to get new knowledge, but their practical use of the media is focused primarily on entertainment. Talking about the control, parents often mention restraining measures. This points to a problem of digital divide between generations, as well as highlights the instability of the Russian media system, which produces content of quite poor quality.

Public Discussion in Russian Social Media: An Introduction

Russian media have recently (re-)gained attention of the scholarly community, mostly due to the rise of cyber-attacking techniques and computational propaganda efforts. A revived conceptualization of the Russian media as a uniform system driven by a well-coordinated propagandistic state effort, though having evidence thereunder, does not allow seeing the public discussion inside Russia as a more diverse and multifaceted process. This is especially true for the Russian-language mediated discussions online, which, in the recent years, have proven to be efficient enough in raising both social issues and waves of political protest, including on-street spillovers. While, in the recent years, several attempts have been made to demonstrate the complexity of the Russian media system at large, the content and structures of the Russian-language online discussions remain seriously understudied. The thematic issue draws attention to various aspects of online public discussions in Runet; it creates a perspective in studying Russian mediated communication at the level of Internet users. The articles are selected in the way that they not only contribute to the systemic knowledge on the Russian media but also add to the respective subdomains of media research, including the studies on social problem construction, news values, political polarization, and affect in communication.

New and old institutions within the Russian media system

ABSTRACTIn 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.

Introduction: the Russian media system at a crossroads

ABSTRACTThis special issue provides a timely reflection on the Russian media system, which is currently at a crossroads. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of previous theorisations of the post-Soviet Russian media and suggest that they seemingly go in waves. The first wave, to our mind, is linked to the analysis of the perestroika’s ‘Glasnost’ and the dramatic shifts following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This wave is followed by an attempt to reflect on the nationwide processes of media around the mid-2000s. The third wave coincides with the regulatory changes in 2010s and is informed by the pronounced technological changes affecting media industries and growing Internet penetration in the country. This special issue potentially feeds into a new wave of conceptualisation, as it revisits previous assertions of the inherent duality of the Russian media system. The five articles contributing to this special issue in one way or another argue that this dualism constitute the characteristic enduring nature of the Russia media. The authors reflect on the applicability of existing media theories to Russian context as well as offer an up-to-date account of diverse journalist practices, regional differences and converging media sub-systems in Russia.

Commercial or public service actors? Controversies in the nature of Russia's regional mass media

ABSTRACTTraditionally, regional mass media has been the least-studied component of the Russian media system; however, beginning from the 2000s, transformations in the nation's political and economic spheres have influenced the position of local media. This paper provides a deeper investigation of the processes and patterns underlying the development of regional mass media in modern Russia. The research is grounded on an analytical review of secondary sources, which is supported by 14 in-depth interviews with media professionals from 5 regions in Russia. The results reveal that Russia's regional media outlets operate both as commercial actors and public service actors. This duality is rooted in several multidirectional and controversial changes in the nation's economic and political systems, as well as in a journalist culture which causes media outlets to have a vague understanding of their places and functions in society.

When Media Worlds Collide: Using Media Model Theory to Understand How Russia Spreads Disinformation in the United States

Ever since the 2016 U.S. elections, disquiet about the role of Russian propaganda in the U.S. media system has grown into outrage and fear. How has one authoritarian state been able to wreck so much havoc in the U.S. media system? The answer lies in a relatively small area of political communication scholarship: the study of national media models. Scholars ranging from Fred Siebert to Paulo Mancini have eloquently articulated how closely media systems reflect their national political systems and cultures. While this debate has remained mostly academic, it now holds the key to understanding (and trying to control) the vulnerabilities to disinformation in the U.S. media ecosystem. This paper pushes back against the idea that media literacy of the audience is the critical problem in combatting ‘fake news’ created as disinformation by other countries. The U.S. media audience has not fundamentally changed in the past two decades. What has changed in the way in which media is supplied to the American public, notably the decline of traditional news, the fragmentation of the information space online, the rise of news distributed within trusted circles via social media platforms, and the flooding of the U.S. news supply with both foreign and domestic disinformation. In thinking about the role of Russian propaganda as one central challenge to the U.S. media system, it is clear the affordances of the Russian media system strongly favor the ability of Russia to exploit the U.S. media sphere. Under the Russian media system, journalists are considered mouthpieces for political interests and mold information to support those in power, unfettered by the U.S. ideal of media in service to the public or a greater truth. The U.S. media cannot completely ignore these messages, but must expend precious resources refuting or attempting to find some sort of impossible ‘balance’ between disinformation and actual news. Nor can the mainstream U.S. media counter with its own disinformation, as this violates American media ethics. This paper will discuss evidence from the 2016 U.S. elections to showcase the role Russian disinformation has played in undermining the U.S. media system and how it has dovetailed with other challenges to the supply of information to U.S. citizens. The paper also will suggest possible solutions to the issue of Russian disinformation, with an emphasis on how social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter should acknowledge their essential role in preserving the free media system and significantly increase their efforts to help the American audience to identify disinformation.

Broadcasting agitainment: a new media strategy of Putin’s third presidency

ABSTRACTThis article argues that accounts of the Russian media system that tend to view the time from Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000 as a single homogenous period do not capture major qualitative shifts in state-controlled media coverage. By analyzing the output of Russia’s two main television channels during Putin’s third presidential term, we identify a range of distinctly new features that amount to a new media strategy. This involves a significant increase in the coverage of political issues through the replacement of infotainment with what we term agitainment—an ideologically inflected content that, through adapting global media formats to local needs, attempts to appeal to less engaged and even sceptical viewers. Despite the tightening of political control over the media following the annexation of Crimea, the new strategy paradoxically has strengthened the constitutive role played by the state-controlled broadcasters in the articulation of official discourse.

Проблематика классификации медийной собственности

The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that over the past 20 years there have been constant transformations of organizational, economic, content nature, which is undoubtedly an occasion for scientific understanding and analysis not only of journalists but also of economists and political scientists on the domestic media market. And at the moment we should talk about the concentration of mass media as a characteristic and often - determining trend of the modern Russian media system both on the national information market and on the regional one.

Historical memory and political propaganda in the Russian Federation

This paper explores the hegemonic discourse on historical memory in contemporary Russia, in addition to its political implications. Furthermore, the role played by the Russian media system in the dissemination of the memory discourse endorsed by the Kremlin, and its impact, are also described. The analysis is carried out in a theoretical framework that advocates for the need for delving deeper into the intersections between communication and memory studies.

Медиасистема России: методологические аспекты оптимизации

Медиасистема России: методологические аспекты оптимизации

The History of Popularization of Science in France

The article discusses the process of popularization of science in France in terms of bilateral cooperation between scientists and the media. Mediator in the relationship of the two parties is a science journalist. The long history of interaction between researchers and journalists in France can serve as a theoretical model applicable to the Russian media system. Science journalist, acting primarily as a popularizer of science, is intended to bring to the uninitiated reader scientific facts in an accessible form. In this connection, still the question remains about the specialized education of science journalists: whether he should specialize in a particular field or possess the basics of writing and be able to transpose the complex scientific language. French popular science magazines are not only popular among scientists themselves who are willing to cooperate with publishers and participate in the preparation of the editions, but also among readers. Relations between science journalists and scientists should be considered at the theoretical and practical levels. The paper analyzes in detail the first level, which includes the history of the emergence of scientific journalism in France since the first edition of the scientificjournal in Europe, as well as peculiarities of the educational system in this field. A special role in shaping ideas about the role of science journalists belongs to the Association of Science Journalists of informational press, organization, which is actively involved in the development of trust between scientists and journalists.