ABSTRACT
More than ten years have passed between this publication and that of my first academic essay on what was then the Soviet media (McNair 1989). They have been years of transition and turmoil, punctuated at frequent intervals by a succession of economic and political crises, up to and including the Russian stock market crash of August 1998. Through it all, those who work in the Russian media have struggled for survival in an environment characterized by chronic resource shortages, political instability, and the ever-present threat of criminal interference. There have been sackings, bankruptcies, hostile takeovers, and assassinations along the way. And yet, media professionals in Russia will tell you with some pride, they and their organizations have survived. The establishment of a free media—free, at least, from the close administrative control by party or state which was the hallmark of the Soviet era—has been one of the main achievements of the post-1991 period; their continuing existence an indicator that no matter how bad things may at times appear to be, all is not lost in the struggle for political and economic reform.
