1. The impact of the new media on
transformation of the public sphere
in Russia

2. Four-year student: Yudanov I.V.
Scientific supervisor: Kashirskikh O.N.

3. Topicality
• The impact of political communication
framework on overall institutional environment
in Russia
• Changing configuration of the public space in
Russia
• The new political reality in Russia

4. Public sphere
• Used by Jurgen Habermas in his work
“Structural Transformation of the Public
Sphere” (1962)
• Public sphere as a social institution, within
which independent and critically-reviewed
opinion is formed
• The formation of rational consensus is a
precondition for the emergence of pluralism

5. Public sphere and the new media
• The growing political activism in Russia is
closely linked with the development of the new
media
• The formation of new media spaces in recent
years increased the degree of discussions and
critical perception of political events within
Russian society
• Do the new media shape a new public sphere,
or whether they only simulate its formation?

6. Discussions within expert
community
• J.Fernback and B.Thomson: virtual world is
rather an imitation of the public sphere
• R.Barbrook: the new media’s development is a
triumph of the "digerati“
• L.Friedland: new communication technologies
expand democratic practices

7. It is generally accepted that…
• Russian blogosphere is a space free from the
state control.
• There is a "discussion core" that contains
discussions on social and political issues
• Russian Internet-users consume information
that differs from that covered on federal TV
channels

8. However…
• E.Gorny: Russian blogosphere is only a
substitution for the public sphere, as well as
literature and criticism in the XIX century and
the independent media in the 1990s were
• Golynko-Volfson: in the years of Putin's stability
the phenomenon of active interaction in the
public sphere was “frozen” and actually was
equated with forms of leisure entertainment

9. Novelty of the research
• Even such a "frozen" public sphere is gradually
beginning to “thaw”
• December protests put the sceptical estimates
into question
• The middle class, using new electronic media,
trendy Internet TV channels and receiving news
from social networking, is now a major actor in
civil society
• Media content which is consumed by the
middle class largely determines the
transformation of the public sphere in Russia

10. The object of this research is…
• …the public sphere in Habermasian
interpretation

11. The subject matter of our
research is ...
• …the impact of the new media on
transformation of the public sphere in Russia

12. The main goal of this research is..
• …to analyze the impact of new media on
transformation of the public sphere in Russia,
based on the new political reality

13. To do this we need to accomplish
several tasks…
• To analyze the phenomenon of the public
sphere as a space of communication
• To analyze the role of the new media in public
space in general and in Russia, in particular
• To interpret the processes of transformation of
the public sphere in Russia and the factors
influencing this process
• To analyze the impact of the new media on
transformation of the public sphere in Russia
(with case studies), especially given the new
political reality

14. The structure of the research
• Introduction
• Three chapters
• Conclusion

15. In the first chapter…
• The terms "the public sphere" and "the new
media" are defined
• Theoretical aspects of the concept of the public
sphere, its interpretation and criticism, are
considered

16. In the second chapter…
• We will inspect the impact of the new media on
political processes
• We’ll examine the process of how traditional
media are replaced with new digital forms
• We’ll take a closer look at the examples of the
above mentioned processes in Russia

17. In the third chapter…
• Russian public sphere itself will be the object of
our attention
• We’ll examine the transformation of the public
sphere during 1990’s, 2000’s and early 2010’s
• The role of new media in this transformation, as
well as their impact on recent political events
are to be analyzed

18. In the conclusion…
• …the main findings of the research will be
formulated and forecast for the further
transformation of public sphere is to be
drawn

19. Thank you!