ABSTRACT
Introduction: new ПJ.еdiа technology and dеПJ.осrасу Six months into his presidency, Dmitry Medvedev launched the presidential video blog, where, over the course of his one term in office, he published 295 posts,
тапу of them produced exclusively for online consumption.1 Нis stated rationale for the launch was "to speak about some pressing problems the world is facing today" ("Medvedev" 2009) and in later posts he elaborated оп the opportunity the intemet provided for enabling direct access to citizens:
It is important that this kind of information comes direcdy from the original source and actually ends ир оп ту desk, or rather in ту computer. 1 сап simply see for myself what citizens who visit the site and react to ту performances in the blog are writing ... It's а kind of direct and very effective channel ofinformation linking the president, оп the one hand, and all those who wish and who have computers оп their desks, оп the other.
