ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the politicisation process in the Russian mass media. The role played by the mass media in the Soviet era is well documented. Mass media were at the forefront of the drive to reform, acting in the dual capacity of selling the proposed reforms to the public and ridding Gorbachev of political opposition. Although the mass media were for the most part, free from censorship and control via state or business ownership, they found the hectic transition from the Soviet system to a free market economy to be very difficult. The mass media industry heads thought that it would be able to gain financial support from the oligarchs, but still retain editorial control over their individual outlets. The current Russian environment has left the mass media and journalists much dependent upon political goodwill for their survival and existence. Information is the means to achieve these goals, and the mass media are the delivery system of the means.
