ABSTRACT
“Environmental journalism is a relatively new field in the post-Soviet media landscape in Russia,” writes the author of this chapter, who is widely recognized as one of the finest environmental reporters in Russia. “It has been rapidly expanding over the last few years in the country in its many forms: from mainstream media enlarging its coverage of environmental topics, up till the appearance of specialized media or new formats, like eco-bloggers and the specialized ‘green’ channels on ‘Telegram,’ the online messaging app.” The growth in environmental reporting is part of a decade-long trend of growing environmental awareness, which culminated with the declaration of 2017 as a Year of Ecology in Russia. The “new media coverage of environmental issues, including that to be found in social media networks (Facebook, its Russian equivalent Vk.ru, Twitter, etc.) and blogs on various blog platforms … often perform a function of Civic Journalism, bringing a particular problem or violation to the limelight, so that it can be later picked up for research or investigation by the general media.”
