Skip to main content
Journal cover image

The election news story on Russian television: A world apart from viewers

Publication ,  Journal Article
Mickiewicz, E
Published in: Slavic Review
March 1, 2006

Winning elections is so vital for Russian leaders that competing viewpoints on national television news channels have been scotched, together with the channels that broadcast them. This study examines the other side of the screen: how participants in focus groups in four Russian cities process national channels' treatments of an important regional electoral campaign. The study was conducted during the last period in which viewpoint diversity was still available via TV-6. Unlike findings about other news stories, election stories appear to have little connection to viewers' experiences and values and deprive them of using familiar heuristics to make sense of the stories. For the public, the election story is a genre apart, framed by the same confusing template no matter what the office or region. Even TV-6, soon to be shuttered, broadcast its combative message using that template, thus extinguishing any opportunity for identifying genuine diversity and leaving the audience unable to distinguish between state and private channels, something they easily did for other types of stories. Election stories only cue other election stories. It is mainly younger, "post-Soviet" participants who bring an alternative frame to watching: norms, acquired through their education, by which election stories in a democracy ought to be constructed.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Slavic Review

DOI

ISSN

0037-6779

Publication Date

March 1, 2006

Volume

65

Issue

1

Start / End Page

1 / 23

Related Subject Headings

  • Cultural Studies
  • 4303 Historical studies
  • 2103 Historical Studies
  • 2005 Literary Studies
  • 2004 Linguistics
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Mickiewicz, E. (2006). The election news story on Russian television: A world apart from viewers. Slavic Review, 65(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/4148520
Mickiewicz, E. “The election news story on Russian television: A world apart from viewers.” Slavic Review 65, no. 1 (March 1, 2006): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/4148520.
Mickiewicz E. The election news story on Russian television: A world apart from viewers. Slavic Review. 2006 Mar 1;65(1):1–23.
Mickiewicz, E. “The election news story on Russian television: A world apart from viewers.” Slavic Review, vol. 65, no. 1, Mar. 2006, pp. 1–23. Scopus, doi:10.2307/4148520.
Mickiewicz E. The election news story on Russian television: A world apart from viewers. Slavic Review. 2006 Mar 1;65(1):1–23.
Journal cover image

Published In

Slavic Review

DOI

ISSN

0037-6779

Publication Date

March 1, 2006

Volume

65

Issue

1

Start / End Page

1 / 23

Related Subject Headings

  • Cultural Studies
  • 4303 Historical studies
  • 2103 Historical Studies
  • 2005 Literary Studies
  • 2004 Linguistics