Russian Media

Abstract

Russian media are often accused of succumbing to state pressure, being an instrument of such pressure, and being excessively dependent on state funding. To this day, however, there has been precious little systematic analysis of how the Russian state, in its post-Soviet incarnation, incorporates the media into the national system of public institutions, and indeed how the state develops and implements public policy in respect of Russian media. Such analysis is, of course, complicated by the dual nature of media in Russia and in many other countries—on the one hand, as a branch of the economy and a market player among many, and on the other as a purveyor of information, interpreter of cultural codes and provider of public goods.