ABSTRACT
Understanding changes in Russian media would be incomplete without reflection on changes in the theoretical frameworks in which contemporary Russian media studies exists. And vice versa, without identifying the dominant or at least the most widespread theoretical concepts, analysis of the Russian media would be incomplete. This chapter attempts to identify the main stages of change in Russian media studies, to describe the principles of media/journalism studies in the Soviet Union, their transformation in post-Soviet Russia and the impact on present research, to assess the role played by foreign concepts on media research in Russia, and to summarize the main trends of change in Russian academic thinking.
