Crisis of political communication: is there a silencing effect in Russian media?

Abstract

The authors investigate the agenda of the so-called ‘big three’ TV channels and popular online media during the presidential elections 2018 in Russia. In the context of an election campaign, the significance of qualitative public awareness grows exponentially. The given research studies the agenda of those media, the coverage of the election campaign, and also the possible ‘silencing effect’. An unique research design that allowed the content comparison between evening TV news and online media is developed, and also the notion of ‘silencing effect’ is conceptualized. Online media are often considered more qualitative and full-fledged sources of information; nevertheless, the research demonstrates that information concerned the elections was published on the Internet on a smaller scale and irregularly. The study confirmed that television in Russia, first of all, was an assistant to the government, directing its efforts to inform citizens about authorities and their socially significant initiatives. Besides, television covered the presidential elections in a better extent. Online media devoted more attention to scandalous news, attempted to criticize the government; however, they overlooked significant social issues.

Keywords

• television
• online media
• election covering
• russian presidential election
• intermedia agenda