Abstract
The book by Dr Slavtcheva-Petkova is a welcome addition to Russian media studies that addresses the role and fate of some of Russia’s prominent liberal media outlets: Novaya Gazeta, Radio Ekho Moskvy, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The book describes itself as ‘a semi-ethnographic in-depth qualitative study, and it also provides a historical overview of the development of liberal media in the country’ (p. 2). The monograph starts with an introduction, a brief theoretical chapter conceptualizing Russian media and journalism, and then moves on to the empirical material which first documents the history of the liberal outlet in question, and then describes the challenges, practices, and role perceptions of each of the three. The scope of fieldwork and the amount of ethnographic observations, as well as personal communications with the author are impressive and detailed. Several personal communications with leading Russian journalists also show that some of the paragons of liberal journalism in Russia are conflicted, both impugning the Putin regime while also treating their public as children who need to be educated (p. 112).
At the same time, the historical material and some of the tensions that exist in Russian media environment have already been pointed out and reflected upon by other researchers, some of whom the author cites, such as Olessia Koltsova, Sarah Oates, Elena Vartanova, Natalia Rostova, Stephen Hutchings, Natalia Rulyova, and Vera Tolz. At the beginning of the theory chapter, the author offers insights into ‘(1) Media Systems and Terms of Reference; (2) Journalism: Culture(s), Role Conceptions, and Relationship with Power, Culture and Society; and (3) Mediatization of Conflict and National Identities; Conflict Reporting and Nation-Building’ (p. 36). The empirical part of the book delivers on these promises, both from a historical and contemporary perspective.
The analysis of these areas does not help to re-conceptualize the Russian media system, even though the book sets out to do this in the beginning. John Dunn’s (2014) suggestion of a two-tier ‘Lottizzazione’ media system where some outlets, notably national television, are very tightly controlled, while others, including the Internet, are allowed a substantial degree of freedom, could have been one way to solve some of the author’s theoretical issues. Moreover, I would like to have seen a more in-depth discussion of the relationship between media and democracy, especially in the light of the author’s argument on media’s role in nation building borrowed largely from scholars of nationalism.
There are also some notable omissions from both theoretical and empirical chapters that somewhat break the link between theory and empirics. The theoretical chapter is unusually short and does not offer a conceptualization of media system in Russia, apart from criticizing previous scholars for using Western-centric concepts (pp. 36–37). While the author claims to be discussing mediatization, she fails to mention several key authors such as Strömbäck, Hjavard, Young, Kalinina, and Menke. These oversights lead to the fact that the book restates some of the claims that have been previously made by other scholars.
From the empirical standpoint, the case selection for the book is rather short and the reason why Dozhd was not included in the sample is not sufficiently justified. By including Dozhd, the author would have been able to discuss the (Internet) audience of liberal outlets and the more complicated transmedia relationships that exist in the Russian media universe. This would have also enriched the book’s theoretical contribution. Without this, however, the study cannot examine the social media aspect of liberal dissent in Russia and the transmedia nature of different pathways between old and new media already conceptualized by Julie Fedor, Ellen Rutten, Vlad Strukov, Vera Zvereva, and other scholars.
The empirical chapters however offer fascinating insights into the daily struggles of Russian liberal journalists made particularly interesting due to the coincidence of the author’s fieldwork with the Ukraine crisis. For instance, the author discusses different types of harassment that Russian liberal journalists suffer ranging from threatening letters and phone calls, glued toilet brushes on cars to physical assault, and murder. In conclusion, the author documents three types of pressures that Russian journalists face based on her communication with them: business and financial, safety, as well as legal and administrative, showing that liberal media are stuck between a rock (some of their ‘patriotically’ minded audience) and a hard place (the Russian government).
The book’s empirical material is indeed very rich and does offer singular insights into the types of ‘handcuffs’ that Russian liberal media face. The book is very clearly written and is easy to follow; its contents are particularly helpful for media scholars and media historians. The author is reflective on the strengths and limitations of her methodology and empirical chapters are undeniably unique in that they provide a window into the mind-set of liberal Russian journalists and the work conditions into which they have been forced. This book definitely shows that unlike ‘The Newsroom’ or ‘Spotlight’ journalists, their Russian colleagues have much more at stake than shareholders’ profits.