Media-Political Process in Russia: Current State and Development Prospects

Abstract

The role of information is considerably increasing in the course of globalization process. The society simultaneously being the subject and the object of politics, exchanges information to coordinate its actions. Concurrence of actions is impossible without involvement into the political process. This article covers the interdependence of mass media and politics on the current stage of public relations development. The authors argue that a unified media political process has already been formed. However, this process cannot be put on the same footing as a political one only, since it uses a nonstandard resource for its development—information. Therefore, a media political process develops under a specific scenario, a nonlinear and often unpredictable one. Today, high quality information in the Russian mass media environment is a valuable resource. This increases the manipulative component of the mass media activity. Multiple tendencies influence on the development of the media political process in Russia: imposition of anti-Russian economic sanctions, wave reaction to them of both individuals, and small, medium, and large-scale businesses; the continuing search by Russian mass media for their own place in the political stage, which started in the 1990s; the influence of globalization in the field of information technology development; and the transformation of public conscience. Each tendency manifests itself in a contradictory and unpredictable manner, triggering reaction of all political actors in the information space. Actors here mean individuals, political parties, and states. The mass media process becomes virtually uncontrollable. The authors have consistently considered each of the stated tendencies and made conclusions on their formation and future development.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s4p272