Authors

Anna Litvinenko¹; Kamilla Nigmatullina²;  ¹ Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany;  ² St. Petersburg University, Russian Federation

Discussion

This study explores the local media landscapes of present-day Russia by comparing 33 regions, carefully selected according to the level of their socioeconomic development. It adopts the theoretical approach to analyzing publics under authoritarianism suggested by Toepfl (2020) and analyzes the leading mediated publics in these regions along three dimensions: (1) environments; (2) participants; and (3) discursive practices (with a focus on the level of political criticism tolerated by the publics). The study draws on document analysis and surveys of local media professionals. We also conducted eight in-depth interviews with experts on Russian media (both scholars and media professionals) that helped us to interpret the data. We have observed differences in media landscapes between regional centers and regional peripheries, not only in terms of the variety of media environments, but also the level of their political freedom. In big cities, leadership-critical publics are visible in online news media, while the media of small towns experience tighter state control. VK news groups and Instagram accounts play a significant role in the media landscapes of all the regions studied. Overall, our findings show that research on local media landscapes in restrictive contexts offers a new perspective on political communication in authoritarian settings.