RIA Novosti launches history of post-soviet media project
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 17, 2013) Earlier this Tuesday, the RIA Novosti Agency launched a project called A Quarter Century of Independent Media in Russia, a focus on the history of post-Soviet media from 1989 to this day.
The core of the project is based on events related to the founding or closing of high-profile mass media outlets, the publication of key social texts, the restructuring of the press, changes in personnel, the emergence of new media formats and ownership changes in short all important aspects of life for the media as a whole.
“It would be odd to speculate about the future of the media without studying its past in detail. The latest history of the Russian media is comparatively brief, but it is dramatic and eventful. The perception of numerous events, actions, figures and brands generated by the media world over the course of 25 years may be distorted, sometimes by personal estimates, and sometimes by a lack of knowledge about the facts and the details. This project should fill the holes in the multimedia history of the post-Soviet media, ranging from sheer facts to eyewitness reports. In a way, it is an open project. We ask owners of personal archives, photographs, documents, or memoirs to join the project and share whatever they have,” RIA Novosti Editor-in-Chief Svetlana Mironyuk said. Information and comments can be sent to press_service@rian.ru.
“The historical role of the media in shaping post-Soviet reality is immense. The media reform actually ushered in a period of reforms in the USSR and a transition to a post-Soviet society. Media life is a unique ‘mirror’ reflecting the details of our socio-cultural evolution. This life also has historical coordinates of its own: next year, we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the revived independent Russian press,” Gleb Morev, journalist and the author of the project, said.
According to Morev, the history of post-Soviet media from TV to print and Internet editions has become quite a popular subject in the last few years. If we look at the history of the Russian media as a continuous line something that the project tries to do we see it has been covered quite unevenly. Some sections have been given prominence in recent publications, while others of no less importance remain obscure.
“This project aims to fill in the gaps and address the shortcomings in historical surveys of the post-Soviet media. We intend to present a non-contradictory picture of the developments based on all information and evidence available. The RIA Novosti website will actually become an encyclopedic resource and database for any in-depth review of the Russian media in the modern age,” Morev explained.
The project includes interviews granted by the key media figures of the last two decades and analytical pieces by leading experts. In addition, archive photographs, videos, audio and documents on the history of Russian media will be posted on the RIA Novosti website.