Television, Power, and the Public in Russia

by Ellen Mickiewicz

Overview

The Russian media are widely seen to be increasingly controlled by the government. Leaders buy up opposing television channels and pour money in as fast as it hemorrhages out. As a result, TV news has become narrower in scope and in the range of viewpoints which it reflects: leaders demand assimilation and shut down dissenting stations. Using original and extensive focus group research and new developments in cognitive theory, Ellen Mickiewicz unveils a profound mismatch between the complacent assumption of Russian leaders that the country will absorb their messages, and the viewers on the other side of the screen. This is the first book to reveal what the Russian audience really thinks of its news and the mental strategies they use to process it. The focus on ordinary people, rather than elites, makes a strong contribution to the study of post-communist societies and the individual’s relationship to the media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521888561
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/20/2008
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Ellen Mickiewicz is James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy Studies in the Sanford Institute for Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. She is a leading authority on Russian news media, and her previous publications include Changing Channels: Television and the Struggle for Power in Russia (1997) and Split Signals: Television and Politics in the Soviet Union (1988).

Table of Contents

1. The missing term in the equation; 2. Detecting channels; 3. Election news and angry viewers; 4. Excavating concealed tradeoffs; 5. Soviet television – Russian memories; 6. Endings; 7. The other side of the screen.

Editorial Reviews

No one has studied longer or in a more sophisticated fashion Soviet and now Russian television than Mickiewicz…By digging below the surface, Mickiewicz learns that contrary to the findings of generalized surveys suggesting that Russians react indifferently to the repression of independent media, in fact Russians recognize the importance of diverse views in the media and resent the curtailment of those views.”
Foreign Affairs

"Television, Power, and the Public in Russia by Ellen Mickiewicz, a highly respected authority on the political role of television in Russia, provides surprising and significant insights into the gap separating the current Russian leadership from the Russian people."
-Zbigniew Brzezinski, Counselor and Trustee, Center for Strategic and International Studies

"This focus group based study of Russian television audiences presents a superb analysis of the many ways in which diverse life circumstances alter television’s impact on viewers. It also provides fascinating insights into ordinary citizens’ perceptions of life, politics, and the mass media in contemporary Russia, using U.S. news media and politics as a foil for comparison. This is essential reading for comparativists, political psychologists, and mass media scholars."
-Doris Graber, Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Ellen Mickiewicz [...] yesterday was one of the most highly regarded American Sovietologists; now [she is] the greatest authority in the field of the study and analysis of Russian mass media. [...] Liberty, even when it is limited always has a revolutionary potential. More so if the power ignores the impact as emerges from the fine research of [this] American political scientist."
-Piero Ostellino, Editor-in-Chief, Corriere della Sera

"A fascinating approach to current issues in post-Soviet television. Mickiewicz has an unparalleled range and depth of knowledge and is not afraid to use this to create a more personal approach. This is an important book that makes a significant contribution toward understanding the particular pathologies of the broadcast sphere in Russia through the study of the audience."
-Sarah Oates, Department of Politics, University of Glasgow

From the Publisher