University of Kansas Russian Media Struggling Against New Controls Journal

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Paragraph one will summarize the class readings chapter 7

Paragraph two will summarize an article chosen by the student that relates to the topic. Topic: the relationship between Japanese media and Japanese government

Paragraph three will explain in a single sentence the opinion angle taken by the article that was summarized for paragraph two. The web links to the relevant article(s) should be included at the end of each journal, allowing retrieval of the article.

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7 Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Russian Media: Struggling Against New Controls Russian media were perceived as at least partly independent until the middle of 2014, when President Vladimir Putin initiated a crackdown on all critical outlets. In May, after citing the Internet as “a special CIA project,” he signed a new law requiring many online sites to register with the government. In September Russia’s parliament endorsed a law to tighten control over Russian media, including the leading business daily and the Russian edition of Forbes, by limiting foreign ownership to 20 percent. The vote was 434 to 1.1 The media in the country have had many different voices even if the state attempts to dominate them, especially television, where most Russians get their news. Numerous political forces have their media outlets and various populations generate information, produce and receive analysis, and, perhaps most important to the mass audience, get the entertainment they want. The media are also the place where the various forces of Russian society interact or confront each other and supply the instrument for extending their influence. To some extent the state controls the traditional media, but the new media have been taking over the audience and evading state controls. More Than History To paraphrase the famous Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who said that a poet in Russia is more than a poet, the media in Russia have historically always been bigger than simply “the media.” The Western, especially The World News Prism: Digital, Social and Interactive, Ninth Edition. William A. Hachten and James F. Scotton. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 100 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls American, journalistic tradition emphasizes facts and commerce. The US press, for instance, was created for two purposes: to provide commercial information (the first American newspapers printed trade tariffs for maritime shipping) and to be sold – so news had to be in demand, and this demand had to generate money. The first Russian private newspapers and journals were created for cultural and educational purposes. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, outstanding cultural figures, such as Russian poet and playwright Nikolai Novikov; Aleksander Sumarokov, considered “the father of Russian theatre”; writer Denis Fonvizin; famous fable writer Ivan Krylov; and even Russia’s most famous poet Aleksander Pushkin, started journals. Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s most famous novelists, co-edited a journal with his brother. Lenin’s newspaper Iskra played a key role in preparing the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, in line with his perception of the press as “the collective propagandist and agitator.” Also noteworthy is the phenomenon of “thick journals” that emerged at the dawn of journalism in Russia and survived throughout the three socio-political systems that Russia has gone through in the last hundred years. These journals, combining fiction with political essays, served as a platform for sociopolitical discussions and a kind of a proto-parliament, formulating social ideas and shaping the public environment. When I studied journalism at a Soviet university in the 1970s, we were not taught to strictly delineate between genres, to provide dispassionate reporting, or, when reporting a conflict, to seek opinions on various sides of the story. Though there were several layers of “scientific” and literary editing, proofing, and copyediting, we were well aware that the facts could still be either not reported at all, or interfered with for political and ideological reasons. Yet in my academic group we were all obsessed with politics, with doing good, making ourselves valuable, making the country and the world better places. The press in those days enjoyed a huge readership and had a real-life impact. If something was published, there was a reaction. In the summer before the sophomore year, I interned with a local newspaper Slava Sevastopolya in the Crimea, now Ukraine. People brought us letters with their complaints, sacks of them, on a daily basis, expecting in this way to make their situation public and to solve their problems. Years later, after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased controls on the media, Russian journalists were able to practice this freer journalism. When I co-taught a 1993–94 seminar with Professor James Scotton at Marquette University, however, the class concluded that journalists in the post-Soviet era were finally free to live up to their early hopes but also Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 101 doubted that in an impoverished Russia this freedom could continue for long. Granted, the national newspaper Pravda was required reading for 20 million members of the Communist Party. Yet other newspapers and magazines had multi-million circulations as well, due to the high level of education in the country and the lack of other information sources. However, even though most readers trusted every word published or broadcast in the government-controlled media, there were plenty of people who did not. Many journalists used hints and innuendos to try to get their message through, and the educated audience was skilled at reading between the lines, finding bits and pieces of information hidden deep inside the texts, and deciphering the meaning. In the perestroika (reform) and glasnost (openness) period initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, journalists became the heroes of the time. Contrary to the common belief, Gorbachev’s glasnost was not yet freedom of the press. He only opened the door a crack. It was the mass media that rushed in and opened it completely. The press became freer by the day thanks to journalists: first they criticized Stalin, then Lenin, then the state structure, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and even the KGB, the secret police. After that all the skeletons came out of the closet. Crowds gathered at the newsstand in front of the Moscow News office on Pushkin Square eager to read each new edition. People cut out and saved the best articles – the logic being that even if their liberties were taken away, they would at least have reading matter. Historical documents uncovering true stories of the past were seen as topical and timely. Television gathered dozens of millions of viewers for the new live political shows. Of all public professional groups in the early 1990s, journalists enjoyed the greatest trust, more than the military, national politicians, or social activists. Freeing itself from ideology and repressive control, journalism pursued the truth and, as in Russian journalism in earlier times, their own means of self-expression. Mass media may not always have been the most professional, but periodicals competed with one another in the depth and import of their content, elegance of language, grandiosity of phrasing, and strength of headlines. The emotions and opinions of Russian journalism in those days were much like contemporary blogging. Journalism in the 1990s was in a way a continuation of traditions inherited from Russian literature. This journalism was more open and critical than in Western countries, though it continued to function in harsh economic conditions that were more like those in Latin America and Asia, Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. 102 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls where government control of the media was much stricter. The Russian free press of the 1990s was passionate and denunciatory. One study said the Russian media of the period had “unprecedented freedom from censorship.”2 The Good, the Bad, the Ugly . . . and the Legislative Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. The good In the crossfire of criticisms from all sides, liberals and communists, inside and outside the country, east and west, one simple fact is often not recognized: Russian media in the two decades since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 are greatly changed. For one thing, Russian media have moved away from being part of the literary culture toward a more commercial orientation. There are some 78,000 registered media outlets in Russia, with 60,000 actually operating. In the early 2000s, fifteen new magazines would launch every day. Leading journalists, TV and radio hosts became some of the country’s best-known public figures. The sheer numbers and better quality of TV sets (in the Soviet days some early Russian color TVs exploded), computers, and mobile phones have created a completely different media situation. Yet it was not technological progress but political change that was the major factor driving changes in the mass media. After the downfall of communism, the new 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation stipulated that “The freedom of the mass media shall be guaranteed. Censorship shall be prohibited.”3 The 1991 law “On Mass Media,” the first in a post-communist state, remains the main piece of legislation governing the production and dissemination of information in Russia, and outlaws any restrictions on the media, “with the exception of those prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation on mass media.”4 Using a Chinese saying, it is a garden where all flowers bloom – though the conditions for them are far from equal and are getting harsher. Back in the Soviet days, criticisms of the authorities were not possible and only “certain problems” and “certain individuals” could safely be exposed. Some economic information found its way to readers, but political information was totally censored. In the Soviet days, information about the world behind the Iron Curtain was portioned and doctored, but now Russians can compare their own country with other countries while freely traveling abroad, navigating the Internet, or even watching government-sponsored TV. The foreign press was not accessible to Soviet citizens before the Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 103 dramatic political changes in the 1990s. The New York Times or Washington Post could be bought only in luxury hotels that “simple citizens” were not allowed to enter. Libraries kept these newspapers in special storage spetskhran for restricted use only. Well into the 1980s, there were only two TV channels, and even they transmitted only until 10 or 11 p.m., with a long interruption (setka) during the day. Foreign radio transmissions were jammed. Nowadays, several national and dozens of local TV channels and numerous satellite “dishes” transmit an endless number of Western channels, Euronews is broadcast on the national Kultura TV channel and is also part of the basic cable package. The world’s major newspapers are sold in many cities. Russia’s leading national business daily, Vedomosti, is published together with the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. Digital media are opening new frontiers. In the Soviet days, hurricanes and wildfires made their way into the news only if they happened in other countries. Soviet reality would allow none of them. Planes crashed and trains went off track only elsewhere, not in Russia. Currently, newsworthy events happening in Russia and in the wider world are fully covered by local media. Even in extreme cases, such as during the 2008 war in the Republic of Georgia, Russian media gave a more comprehensive report than Western sources. In Soviet times the most strictly controlled outlets were Western newspapers and magazines with caricatures of government and Communist Party chiefs. Humor and sarcasm now abound in the non-government media and there are no sacred cows or untouchable topics any more, at least in the print media and, especially, in the blogosphere. Shenderovich’s “Soft Cheese” on the Echo radio station of Moscow and the new TV project “Television on One’s Knee” may upset some authorities but they are hilariously funny. Comedian Dmitry Medvedev, dancing to the “American Boy” music at the graduation party of St. Petersburg University’s legal department was a big hit on Russian TV and in the blogosphere, while President Putin’s alleged adventures are a source of endless jokes in print and electronic media. Some Western methods found their way into Russian media through expanded contacts, increased exposure, and also through various schools and training sessions organized by Western organizations, especially in the 1990s. Investigative journalism has become widespread. Young people go into the profession, and the best Russian universities offer advanced multi-media training to journalism students. Russian journalists have been awarded many international prizes for reporting. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. 104 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. The not so good The distribution of media around Russia is very uneven. Those living in rural districts have much less access to quality broadcasting and newspapers. In most of Russia’s vast territory only the national TV channels (TV 1, Rossia 1, NTV, and Kultura) and radio Echo of Moscow and Mayak are available. The picture of what is happening in the world is generally conveyed by the national TV channels. Media freedom generally expanded during the 1990s rule of Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first freely elected president. Since Putin succeeded Yeltsin in 1999, direct and indirect control over the Russian media has steadily expanded. In trying to control the mass media so that they could no longer expose and denounce government errors and lies, Putin moved as early as 2000 to limit their freedom, especially national television. Pressure on radio, newspapers, and magazines soon followed. Government control over the media continues to grow. Not a single region in the country has a completely free mass media, and those territories with relative freedom allow no criticism of the local leadership. Economic problems contribute to media instability and also push the press into the hands of local authorities and businesses. For example, in the Altai region, according to Yuri Purgin, president of a publishing house that owns twelve newspapers and magazines, a radio station, and four websites, “80 percent of the regional press in one way or another belongs to the state.”5 Leonid Nikitinsky, in his 2013 book Tomorrow’s Issue, argued that in all of Russia’s regions there are contracts between local media and the regional authorities for “informational services.” This brings income to the media but at the same time blocks material critical of the authorities and can virtually turn the media into the mouthpiece of the state. According to Nikitinsky, younger journalists do not differentiate between public relations and journalism. The income of newspapers and journals in Russia is lower than in Western countries. The distribution chains disintegrated in the 1990s, subscriptions plummeted, and advertising – a relatively novel source of media income in Russia – has not made up for the circulation losses. The state plans to spend 172 billion rubles (about 5 billion US dollars) to support mass media over the next three years, but this may not improve the economic situation for most media. Because of economic problems, the number of serious – and expensive – articles has been steadily declining. According to Nikitinsky, “before, the Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 105 news smelled of sweat and blood,” but now there is a lot of sensationalism, sports, and society news. Journalists, avoiding conflict, turn into columnists, and news reporting has moved toward news entertainment. Journalism and journalists have lost much of the trust and authority they enjoyed in the early 1990s. Putin’s changed policies since his 2012 return to the presidency are reflected in the media as well, with a growing tendency toward antiWestern, and particularly anti-US, posturing. Although the new policies have been criticized by the opposition media, the Russian people overall are being told that the United States wants to dominate, that the West has an inherent prejudice toward Russia, and even that current international conflicts are the result of deliberate schemes instigated by Western politicians. Journalism education also does not seem to hold a solution for current media problems.6 Deputy Minister of Mass Communications Alexey Volin told journalism students and professors at Moscow State University in 2013 that journalists should serve their editors and be prepared to do what they are told without aspiring to a higher mission.7 Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. The ugly Direct government attempts to discredit the media have also been on the rise. In the Duma, Russia’s parliament, Deputy Andrey Isayev, an ally of President Putin, said, “The media is the most corrupt sphere in the life of the country. Journalists, as of today, are unfortunately the most backward class of our society.”8 There have been many cases of persecution of journalists, beatings, and arrests. Photographer Denis Sinyakov was jailed for two months after he was arrested along with the Greenpeace activists who boarded a Russian oil rig in the Arctic Ocean in 2013. Igor Domnikov, correspondent of the Novaya Gazeta, was beaten in 2000 after publishing articles criticizing Lipetskaya Province authorities; he died two months later. In 2008 reporter Mikhail Beketov, who had exposed wrongdoings in the Moscow satellite city of Khimki, was brutally beaten and crippled, as was Oleg Kashin, a journalist and blogger who had published articles on road construction, youth movements, extremists, and opposition demonstrations. After a series of critical articles, Sergey Sokolov, investigative reporter with the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was kidnapped and threatened with death. Russia is fourth in the world in the number of murdered journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Correspondent Anna Politkovskaya and six other Novaya Gazeta reporters were murdered Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. 106 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls while performing their professional duties. Many cases remain unsolved, including the murder of ORT TV’s news anchor, Vladislav Listyev. Journalists and editors risk their jobs by displeasing local authorities, particularly around election time. And there are, of course, many other ways the authorities can block journalists. Natalia Morar, the Moldavian correspondent of the liberal magazine The New Times, was denied entry into Russia after she wrote some critical articles. Manana Aslamazyan, who headed an organization that trained regional television journalists, was forced to leave the country. Newspapers and magazines have also been swamped with court cases for publishing supposedly libelous articles. Aksana Panova, a successful journalist who created the Ural region’s leading news service Ura.ru, was prosecuted on four charges of alleged tax evasion and financial manipulation. Panova initiated an innovative campaign to force municipal authorities to repair the roads. She painted the face of the responsible bureaucrat around each pothole. The authorities have their own public relations staffs writing thousands of posts praising current leaders and criticizing the opposition, liberal leaders, and America.9 Fake issues of opposition publications have even turned up, filled with material expected to alienate their allies. Opposition and independent websites, such as Grani.ru and the website of the radio station Echo of Moscow, have been targeted by numerous computer attacks.10 Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. The legislative Efforts to control the mass media have included repressive legislation and direct government takeovers. In 2012, 79 staffers at Lenta.ru issued a statement of angry protest, reading, “Over the past couple of years, the space of free journalism in Russia has dramatically decreased. Some publications are directly controlled by the Kremlin, others through curators, and others by editors who fear losing their jobs. Some media outlets have been closed and others will be closed in the coming months. The problem is not that we have nowhere to run. The problem is that you have nothing more to read.” Ilya Krasilshchik, an employee of one of Lenta.ru’s sister companies, wrote: “Advice for beginning journalists: pick a new profession.”11 The fear of libel prosecutions under new laws also limits criticism of government officials. Irek Murtazin, editor in chief of the newspaper Kazanskie Vesti, received a prison term for an allegedly libelous article in the social media source Live Journal. Putin again made libel a criminal offense soon after he returned to the presidency in 2012. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 107 The most frequently blocked websites have been those of electronic libraries, blog platforms, and personal blogs, as well as sports portals and even poker games.12 In November 2013 Internet provider Rostele.com blocked some of the resources of Russia’s leading social network VKontakte by order of a Moscow court. Confronted with criticisms, state officials promised to amend the law and called on Internet companies to consider self-regulatory measures. At the meeting of the Council on Human Rights in September 2013, Putin said that he recognized that “intellectual rights should be provided for and one must not overdo [it] in order not to kill the Internet.” Still, the trend toward more regulation of the media is increasing. The Federal Security Bureau wants to require Internet providers to record all communication and allow the FSB direct access to this material. This is in clear violation of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy in postal correspondence, telephone discussions, and other communications. In 2013 the Russian Ministry of Communication proposed to centralize all telephone and electronic communication. Leading Russian Internet companies and providers have publicly opposed the proposal. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. All Those Media: Broadcast, Print, and Digital TV Under Siege Although 2013 registered the first decline in TV viewers, the vast majority of Russians still get their news from the television. Of those polled by the Levada Center, 88 percent said that they preferred TV, a drop from 94 percent in 2009. In a country where the four national channels (TV1, Russia 1, NTV, and Kultura) are available to the overwhelming majority of the population, it is not surprising that the authorities use television as the main instrument to influence the people’s minds and win their hearts.13 Within ten years of Putin succeeding Yeltsin, the government had control over the national television channels. Unlike the situation in the United States, in most of Russia outside Moscow, St. Petersburg, and some other big cities, only the national TV channels are freely and easily accessible. There are various TV satellite and cable packages available for a fee. Some 56 percent of the TV audience receives cable transmission, while 35 percent get satellite transmission, and 9 percent receive TV via the Internet.14 The government is trying to spread cable, perhaps trying to distract the population from the Internet toward media that are easier for the state to control. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 108 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls Broadcast television gets the bulk of advertising money in Russia. Cable and satellite advertising, though growing, only receives around 2 percent (3 billion rubles against 139 billion rubles) and its revenue is only growing slowly. Advertisers use special TV channels only when they believe that they can reach a precisely targeted audience.15 This vast disparity in commercial financing between the national channels and other TV stations results in huge differences in production quality. For this and other reasons, the five national channels lead in the size of their TV audience. The government’s Channel 1 remains the most popular, with 14 percent of the TV audience, closely followed by the state-affiliated Russia 1 channel and privately owned NTV (both around 13 percent). The Kultura channel attracts a smaller but generally better-educated audience. NTV, the first private television station and the flagship of independent journalism, was essentially taken over by the government in a murky sale to a new owner. After the changes, all the channel’s star reporters and news anchors left. Meanwhile, the “new” NTV in 2012 and 2013 showed two documentary films under the overall title “The Anatomy of Protest.” The films generally portrayed protests as being led by unpatriotic groups with funding from Western and anti-Russian sources. The NTV’s directorate for legal programs, which produced the films, is staffed mostly by former security services recruits. The films were sharply criticized by the journalism community. The four dominant national channels are followed by a group composed of TNT, STS, Channel 5, and RenTV, each with about 5 percent of the television audience. Other channels with small audiences include TV Center, TV-3, Domashniy, Perets (Pepper), military-patriotic-oriented Zvezda, Russia 2, U, Pyatnitsa (Friday), Russia-24, Ru.TV, Euronews, and Muz-TV.16 The channel dedicated to news, Russia 24, created several years ago, leads the list of most often quoted TV channels. Also on this list are the liberally orientated channel Dozhd (Rain), government-affiliated Russia Today which transmits both locally and abroad in many languages, the three primary national channels, Channel 1, NTV, and Russia 1, followed by EuroNews, Kultura, and TV Center. There have been recent efforts to overcome government controls and reach Russian TV audiences. A new lowbudget TV project, Televideniye na kolenke (“Television On One’s Knee,” which in Russian implies self-made television) was started in 2013. The project’s slogan is “Better make television on one’s knee, than have television on its knees.” The first three programs, released on YouTube, were enthusiastically received in the blogosphere, but the project has yet to prove its financial viability. Sergey Parfenov, a former megastar of the NTV channel Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 109 before the change in ownership, had a 2012 political program on the liberal Dozhd TV channel financed by crowdfunding over the Internet. LifeNews TV, launched in 2013 with substantial financing and the slogan “To be the first on urgent news,” has said its goal is to become the number one information source in the country. Eighty percent of its news is not scheduled since it tries to be first to cover breaking news events. Viewers using smartphones provide information to supplement the station’s own reporting. By the end of 2013 up to 30 million Russians had access to LifeNews and it hoped to reach 50 percent of the country’s population by the end of 2014 via various cable networks. The state uses television to formulate its agenda, raise the popularity of the country’s leaders, and influence the population. On governmentcontrolled channels such as Channel 1 there is heavy coverage of the trips and meetings of the president and the premier. Government control over the national channels is concentrated primarily on news and political programs, but combined with the dictates of the ratings system, also defines the style and quality of other television broadcasts. Since the beginning of President Putin’s third term in 2012 the tone of the political news programs has become more anti-Western. Top opposition politicians and commentators or experts who are identified with the opposition are generally not shown on government-controlled national TV. Still, the TV audience in Russia does not fully trust what it sees. Although a recent poll found a slight majority of 51 percent that still considered TV the “most trusted” information source, that was a sharp decline from the 79 percent who did in 2009. Content on the main Russian TV channels is similar to that in the United States, although the Kultura channel, with its predominance of educational and cultural programs, is more like the BBC. One difference between US and Russian TV content, however, is the much larger percentage of both political news and entertainment news on the main US channels. On Russian television there are both significantly more soap operas and, at the same time, more cultural programming, in particular programs dealing with history theater, literature, and classical music.17 There are many foreign programs on Russian TV. Films are split almost equally between Russian and international productions along with new and old blockbusters, action films, and world classics. Many of the programs are franchised local variations of Western shows. Let Them Talk remains the most popular show on Russian TV, with up to 30 percent of viewers watching it, and its host Andrei Malakhov is cited in polls as the most trusted TV anchor. Though high in the ratings, the program has been criticized Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 110 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls for its sensationalism. On one show a man and a woman had their DNA tested to see if he was the father of her child. The results were reported live on the program. The second most trusted TV figure is Vladimir Pozner, formerly number one and a giant of Russian journalism. Pozner was explicit in his liberal pro-Western views although he has become more cautious in a period of growing authoritarianism. He made what he claims was a “slip of the tongue” during his show when commenting on a new law prohibiting American adoption of Russian children. He called the State Duma the “State Dura” which in Russian means state fool: the Duma hurried to initiate a bill prohibiting citizens of other countries from working on Russian TV. Pozner, although he had lived in Russia for many years, was born in France, has a French mother and American father, and holds US, French, and Russian citizenship. His Russian citizenship was revoked by the government despite his apology. Standing apart in Russian TV programming is Wait for Me, which looks for people who have either disappeared or lost each other. In Russia there are still millions who were displaced, imprisoned, or who lost relatives and friends during World War II and the Stalin era. Over the year, the program has become a grand opera of people lost and people found. Helping families and friends reunite after years of separation, filming their stories and broadcasting their reunions stirs human emotions and attracts a huge television audience. Russian-made series constitute the favorites of TV’s most ardent watchers: housewives and pensioners. The program list is split into two categories: (1) banal themes, awkward plots, lots of tears, and clichéd dialogue that make the hardiest proponents of democratic freedoms want to ban them; and (2) high-quality productions, with fine actors, unique scripts, and amazing filming, such as the 2005 Bandit Petersburg film or the 2007 film Liquidation. There have also been several screenings of Russian classics on Russia 1. There are also many TV channels that through digital transmission are becoming increasingly available throughout the entire country. The Public Television Channel, started in 2013 with government funding, was meant to sway “opposition” viewers, attract intellectuals, and offer educational, socially oriented broadcasting, with an additional regional focus: “Utopian television, created by Utopia,” as it was characterized by its own director.18 Public Television has so not far lived up to expectations and has run into financial problems. As part of the Kremlin’s effort to build conservative support and counter liberal opponents, in 2005 the Spas TV (Savior TV) satellite channel was launched, featuring religious programs. Official figures Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 111 claim an audience of 10 million, but Spas TV has been criticized for uninteresting content and broadcasting old shows. Only 7 percent of Russians are regular churchgoers. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Radio: “The Rest Is Just Appearance”? Short-wave and medium-wave radio in the Soviet Union were reserved for the military. Every apartment was equipped with a radio receiver (the monthly fee was included in the rent) to be used for announcements in case of war. Many educated Russians turned to the Voice of America, the BBC, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty for information. Although the number of radio listeners has decreased dramatically in recent years (41 percent of the population in 2009, 16 percent in 2013), radio continues to be an essential part of the media landscape, especially in remote areas. In some areas of Kamchatka on the eastern edge of Siberia the only accessible media outlet is a single local radio station. The most popular radio stations combine small talk with local or Western pop music and discussions of all sorts. All stations, unlike in the Soviet days, transmit mostly around the clock. The same “light music” heard in the United States (“elevator music”) is broadcast on many Russian stations. The Echo of Moscow is a major source of independent news in Russia. The radio station is owned the state gas monopoly Gazprom. The station has become the most popular in Moscow and was number 13 nationwide in 2012, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center.19 In 1991 the station reported citizen resistance to the attempted coup by communist hardliners; Moscow television was showing the ballet Swan Lake over and over again while ignoring the dramatic events on its doorstep. Echo of Moscow correspondents were in Kiev in December 2013 to report on clashes there over whether Ukraine would join the European Union or keep its ties with Russia. Although TV has been the main target of state control, radio has also experienced government pressure in recent years. Regions and cities have blocked unfavorable radio stations or specific broadcasts. When radio station Serebryanni Dozhd (Silver Rain) was broadcasting a live interview with Aleksey Dymovski, a police officer who posted an Internet video criticizing abuse rampant in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the transmission was blocked to cities in Moscow Province. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. 112 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls In 2012 the US-funded Radio Free Europe switched to online service only and dozens of journalists in its Moscow bureau lost their jobs. Since the Soviet times Russians have listened to Radio Free Europe to hear independent opinions and unbiased news.20 Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Print Media Keep on Kicking Compared with television, print media have retained a certain measure of freedom, probably because their smaller audience reduces their significance to the authorities. The number of people reading newspapers has gone down to 20 percent of the population, from 37 percent in 2009. Magazines and journals are read by only 4 percent, compared to 8 percent in 2009. As opposed to Western countries, where printed newspapers are increasingly giving way to digital media, the Russian print media have just started feeling competition from the Internet. The problem, however, lies in distribution. Distribution chains were destroyed with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the state-owned postal service is so unreliable that even in Moscow newspapers are often not delivered. Local authorities often try to “cleanse” their cities of kiosks, stands, and pavilions, so the number of places selling newspapers in some cities has fallen dramatically, though their number was already significantly lower per capita than in most European countries. Also, the orientation of newspapers still alienates what could be a mass readership since they pay little attention to people’s everyday problems and the issues that interest them most. In Russia there is also no tradition of adapting the use of language to a less educated audience. The tabloids Moscovsky Komsomolets and Kovsomolskaya Pravda, as well as the newspaper Argumenty i Facty, have a nationwide circulation, and big cities throughout the country have centrally published “serious” dailies. Although the national tabloids have bigger circulations than regional newspapers, some local papers known for their independence are very influential. In some localities there are also free municipal newspapers. Though, compared to the television, the printed press is less controlled by the state, the government uses it for its purposes as well. Rossiyskaya Gazeta is the source of much official information such as new laws. With 200,000 to 400,000 subscribers and many copies going to libraries and government institutions, overall readership is estimated at 1.35 million daily. Unlike the Soviet Union days, however, there is nothing like Pravda, the official Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 113 Communist Party newspaper that circulated millions of copies daily then, but now sells only about 100,000 copies a day. Although the number of objective, high-quality Russian newspapers has declined, you can still get the picture of what is happening in the country and follow domestic and international developments by reading the printed press. The leading Russian socio-political newspaper Kommersant, the business newspaper Vedomosti, and Novaya Gazeta and many local newspapers continue to give an unbiased picture of what is happening. Novaya Gazeta, an outspoken opponent of Putin, has published articles by Putin’s chief opponent, business oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been in prison on fraud charges since 2003.21 Although newspapers all over Russia have cut print-runs, many are reaching new online audiences. Magazines continue to have influence. The Russian version of Forbes has investigated some murky business deals in the country and had a circulation of 2.9 million in 2013. One of its editors, Paul Klesbenikov, a top investigative reporter, was murdered in 2004. Other influential magazines include Russian Pioneer (236,000), Snob (99,000), Itogi (65,000), Expert (62,000), GQ (61,000), The New York Times (53,000), Afisha (50,000), and Russian Reporter (44,000). Snob, a literary magazine started in 2010 by New Jersey Nets basketball team owner Mikhail Prokhorov, was the fastest-growing in 2013.22 But pressure on print media is increasing. Local newspapers have directives dropped on them from above about the publication of particular material, sometimes with special lists of “recommended” keywords for articles. There have been reported instances of direct censorship. Where All the Young People Have Gone: The Internet The Internet and its social networks is the domain where remarkable changes are taking place. Russian has become the second most frequently used language over the Internet. Over half the population of Russia, around 70 million overall, use the Internet, and half of these from a personal or household computer. Over half of Internet users and one-third of those using social networks do so on a daily basis.23 Each Internet user spends about one hour daily online. Though Internet saturation is still lower than in western Europe, Russia is catching up fast. The Internet has introduced an additional layer to society, separating its users from those without access. Moreover, the Internet itself also remains Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 114 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls divisive, with each category of users having the specific sites they visit and their own social networks. So far people active in social networks are no more likely than the general Russian population to support political protests, according to research by Russia’s New Economic School.24 Also noteworthy is that social networks are not much used by Russia’s rising nationalist groups. According to a 2013 poll,25 the number of Russians using the Internet (21 percent) and social networks (14 percent) as a primary news source is growing rapidly. Moreover, twice as many respondents perceived the Internet and social networks as the most trustworthy source of news (14 and 11 percent respectively). In Moscow,26 social networks have overtaken radio as the most popular source of news. In Russia local social networks dominate, with one, Yandex, more widely used than Google. Though TV still gets over half of all advertising, the Internet’s share (15 percent) is rapidly growing and in 2013 surpassed that of print media. Leading online publications include the digital versions of the country’s main dailies Kommersant, Vedomosti, RBC Daily, and Moscow News, as well the solely digital Gazeta.ru. Internet versions of the political journal Expert, business and entertainment journal Slon.ru, and Forbes Russia are popular. The online business resources also include the portal Prime with real-time market quotations, financial indexes, and commercial analysis, the business news portal BFM.ru, business and career publication Delovoy Kvartal, and Ezhednevnik (Daily). The political digital resources are represented by Newsru.com and Lenta.ru, carrying the latest news, and InoSMI and InoPressa with translations of most important materials in other languages, primarily English. In some regions online resources have been capturing audience from the traditional media. The international company Socialbakers is working to attract international advertisers and to detect inflated subscription figures of the so-called bots.27 Some social networks focus on anti-corruption revelations and the political opposition’s activities. The famous site Rospil traces corruption and wrongdoing by state officials during state purchases. Financed entirely by public donations, Rospil publishes articles, investigative materials, and documents, and also collects complaints about corruption. Studies by the Center for New Media and Society show that Rospil’s revelations do indeed have a significant influence on the share prices of exposed companies, showing that investors do use blogs as an information source.28 Groups in social networks were a major resource for Alexey Navalny during his campaign for Moscow’s mayoral elections in 2013, where he ended Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 115 up second with 27 percent of the vote. Navalny also used Russia’s key search engine Yandex to collect money by developing the Kredit Doveriya (The Credit of Trust). An individual who contributed the legal limit of 1 million rubles could be compensated by contributors to an “Internet purse.” A social network monitoring system was also set up to monitor this election with SMS messages with results sent directly from voting stations. Within an hour the voting figures were on the site of Novaya Gazeta newspaper and on the Dozhd television station. Rosuznik is another famous noncommercial site which publishes information on people detained during political protests. It organizes and finances experts, coordinates the work of lawyers, and assists activists in detention. Existing solely on public donations, Rosuznik focuses on political prisoners. The Dissernet site investigates and publicizes cases of dissertation plagiarism, which is especially common among state officials. The government has invested a lot of time and energy in the Internet, but for a long time lagged behind. Electronic Russia was launched in the early 2000s to extend the Internet to the entire country and digitalize government communications and services. Professionals, and in particular young people, have been far ahead of the government in developing social networks and their audiences. Since the start of Putin’s third presidential term in 2012, the government’s Internet initiatives have largely been replaced by increasing attempts to control the Internet. The press reported that the Kremlin strongly recommended that state officials not maintain their own blogs or interact in social networks. Although later the president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied this, it did seem to indicate a growing preference for control over maintaining open communication channels and opportunities for getting feedback and engaging with society. The latest international Internet ranking rates Russia’s Internet as “partially free.” Conclusion Old-time Russian journalism which tended to feature cultural material may be dead in an age of mass audiences, especially on the Internet and television. The regime, though far from that of Soviet totalitarianism, is growing increasingly more authoritarian and is trying to fit the media within its system of vertical power and to use them for its own propaganda purposes. Despite the state’s repressive measures, however, media in the country are burgeoning. As a profession, journalism, despite lingering post-Soviet Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. 116 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls handicaps, has long traditions of endurance and excellence and thrives on the rising public activism and sense of social responsibility within Russian society. Young journalists continue to search new frontiers, raising important themes and using innovative formats to overcome barriers. In a period that Russians would call bezvremeniye, which literally means “between times” and for which there is no English equivalent, it is hard to make predictions. However, some key conclusions on the more practical side would be: r A society cannot function normally without independent and objective r r r Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. r r r mass media. Independent mass media, uncontrolled by the government and perceived as a true fourth estate, are critical for the development of Russia. The press need not necessarily follow in the traditions of the West, but it must be professional, reliably presenting the facts and granting opposing sides an opportunity to express their opinions. Media principles should be developed by journalists themselves based on professional self-regulation and expert opinions. A professional journalism community must also develop house rules that place “political technologies,” falsehoods, manipulation, and “black PR” outside the realm of acceptable practice. It would be beneficial for the state to eliminate the value-added tax for on the press and to subsidize paper, printing, and distribution for the printed press, as well as rent and other costs for radio stations. Such measures would improve the media’s economic situation and help build their editorial independence. All those who use the Internet and other new means of communication must resist government efforts to take it over through close regulation. In line with the Russian tradition of journalism, it is essential to oppose the de-intellectualization of the press. Vaclav Havel, the author and former president of the Czech Republic, told a group of journalists that to keep their freedom “It is important not to get afraid. Be able to confront the opposing force if you are sure that the truth is on your side. Be prepared for sacrifice. Not to lose pride, which has nothing to do with arrogance and haughtiness. And to breed within yourself what I call personal responsibility of everyone for the entire world.” These words seem to be particularly relevant now. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Russia: Struggling Against New Controls 117 Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Notes 1. Neil MacFarqhuar, “Russia Quietly Tightens Reins on Web with ‘Bloggers Law,”’ The New York Times, May 6, 2014; Andrew Roth, Russia Moves to Extend Control of Media, The New York Times, September 23, 2014. 2. Laura Beldin, “The Russian Media in the 1990s,” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 18(1), 1 (2002). 3. Article 29.5 ; http://archive.kremlin.ru/eng/articles/ConstEng2.shtml. 4. http://www.democracy.ru/english/library/laws/eng 1991-1/index.html. 5. Round table, “The Dystrophy of the ‘Organs of Truth’. ” 6. See, for example, S. G. Korkonosenko, The Basics of Journalism: A Textbook for Universities (Moscow: Aspect Press, 2001), 85, 169, 176, 262, 266, 275. 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vunrXEhqAuU. 8. Newsru.com site http://www.newsru.com/. 9. Alexandra Garmazhapova, “Gde zhivut troli” [Where Trolls Live], Novaya Gazeta, September 9, 2013. 10. It is not only the opposition and independent websites, however, that become the target of cyber-attacks. For instance, state-owned RIA Novosti reported such assaults on its accounts throughout 2012 and 2013, the latest of them on August 7, 2013, when hackers published fake information about Gorbachev’s death first on German-language resource RIA Novosti Deutsch and then on the Twitter accounts of RIA Novosti’s International Multimedia. 11. David Remnick, “Putin Moves Against the Press,” The New Yorker, March 12, 2014. 12. Andrei Soldatov, “What’s Russia blocking on the Web?,” Index, June 13, 2013; Matthew Bodner, “Russians’ Internet Increasingly Subject to Control,” The Moscow Times, September 19, 2014. 13. For a detailed account of the situation with Russian television, see “Pro et Contra, Televideniye v poiskakh ideologii” [Television in Search of Ideology], Carnegie Moscow Center, 4, 2006. 14. Mike Butcher, “Russian Online Video Market Booming, Becomes Biggest in Europe,” IKS-Consulting, March 25, 2014. 15. Sofya Inkizhinova, “Taksist Ashot vyhodit na svyaz” [Taxi Driver Ashot Comes Online], Expert, 44, November 4–10, 2013, 29. 16. TNS Russia. 17. Data are based on research by the Carnegie Moscow Center’s interns Attila Juhasz and Sean Kesluk, August–November 2013. 18. Petr Skorobogaty, “Utopian Television, Created by Utopia,” Expert, November 25–December 1, 2013. 19. http://www.wciom.com/. 20. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Archives. Retrieved February 21, 2015. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. 118 Russia: Struggling Against New Controls Copyright © 2015. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved. 21. Free Media Online http://freemediaonline.org. The first of these lectures, “The Modern Social Liberalism in Russia,” was published in Novaya Gazeta, 122, on October 31, 2011; the second, “The Modern Social Liberalism and Economics,” came out on April 16, 2012; and the third, “Between Empire and National State,” on June 15, 2012. 22. Rebecca Mead, “Black Hole: Snob Magazine,” The New Yorker, November 28, 2010; http://snob.ru/ (retrieved February 22, 2015). 23. “The Source of Information for Muscovites, the Ninth Text Press Issue,” Levada Center, July 17, 2013. 24. Sam Greene, “Twitter and Russian Protest: Mems, Networks and Mobilization,” Center for New Media and Society, Moscow, May 22, 2012. 25. “Where Russians Get the News From,” Levada Center, July 8, 2013. 26. “The Source of Information for Muscovites, the Ninth Text Press Issue,” Levada Center, July 17, 2013. 27. Yevgeny Krasnikov, “VKontakte is Awaiting Foreign Advertisers,” RBK daily, October 7, 2013. 28. Reben Enikolopov, Maria Petrova, and Konstantin Sonin, “Do Political Blogs Matter? Corruption in State-Controlled Companies, Blog Postings, and DDoS Attacks,” Center for New Media and Society, September 2012; federation.ens.fr/ydepot/semin/texte1213/MAR2013DOP.pdf. Hachten, William A., and James F. Scotton. The World News Prism : Digital, Social and Interactive, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ku/detail.action?docID=1977591. Created from ku on 2020-03-26 23:02:40. Rubric for Weekly Journal: Section Exemplary Promising Poor or needs work Reading (15 pts.) Content (10 pts.) Identifies accurately what the main idea of the reading is and makes a strong argument and connection to broader issues. (9-10 pts.) Identifies the main idea, Fail to identify the main but may not focus on it idea. (0-5 pts.) and argument is not strong. (6-8 pts.) Writing (5 pts.) Writing is strong and Writing is generally engaging. Contains a good, though it may strong opening (a thesis lack specifics or strong statement), and uses examples. examples from the reading (2 to 3 pts.) to back up its argument; make no grammatical mistake (4-5 pts.) Writing is weak. Beating around the bush. Entry generally summarizes the week's material without tying in broader ideas or connecting ideas, or leaves out important materials. (o to i pts.) Article (5 Content (3 points) pts.) Makes clear connections among the week's materials and to the research topic (3 pts.) Makes some connections although unclear to student's research topic. (2 pts.) Identify the article but make no connection. (0-1 pts.) Writing (2 points) Clear and concise sentences; make no grammatical mistake; provide links. (2 pts.) Paragraph is not well structured. Write unnecessarily lengthy sentences. (1 pt.) Contain grammatical mistakes. Sentences are not well-structured. Provide no link (o pts.)
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The media presence in the Middle East has changed drastically since 1991. The countries
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governments had been very protective of their information and did not allow independent media
coverage. However, 1991 saw the rise of the Big Bang e...


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